Don’t Just Hire Freelancers – Outsource Your Management

Navigating the gig economy as a small business owner can feel overwhelming. Freelance and contract workers are more available than ever before, and can prove highly effective in maximizing both your budget and your company’s output – but hiring contracted help introduces a difficult maze of understanding, communication, and management that may be more draining for you than it’s worth. Fortunately, at Sales Renewal, we’ve become the experts in building and managing outsourced marketing teams designed to meet your business’ specific needs and goals!
When you attempt to hire freelancers yourself, you’ll likely encounter a very common barrier almost immediately: understanding the scope of their work to a level that allows you to make informed decisions. You may not have an extensive knowledge of marketing strategy, tasks, and tools to know if you are hiring the right people for your needs. Working with an outsourced management company puts years of experience and expertise at your fingertips, ensuring you’ll have the right team with the right skills to advance your goals effectively and cost-efficiently.
A single point of contact simplifies development and coordination of your marketing strategy, and increases accountability through organization. Having an expert manager at your disposal also means your needs and asks can be clearly communicated to the right personnel at the right time, streamlining strategy processes and producing higher quality results more quickly. When your strategy needs to pivot to a new tactic, your marketing manager can shift your outsourced team around the new goals without forcing you to start over with new hires and new relationships.
So when is the right time to reach out to an outsourced marketing manager? Generally, when you are facing a short term project or a very limited number of tactics to handle, traditional freelance roles may be sufficient. Once you’re looking for a longer term strategy incorporating numerous complementary tactics, though, juggling numerous freelancers becomes more difficult. This is the perfect time to bring in an experienced outsourced marketing agencythat can take your goals and run with them. Start-up businesses, for example, often hit a point in their development where adding an official marketing department is a stretch, but a freelancer or two can no longer keep up with the business needs. Building a relationship with a marketing management team can grow with the company and remain consistent throughout the lifetime of the business.
Outsourced management is also ideal at the end of a company’s lifetime, when you’re beginning your exit planning. As you prepare to sell your business, running marketing investment analyses can help you determine whether you’ll achieve the financial balance you’ll need to retire comfortably. You can ramp up your marketing to hit those numbers without adding or maintaining a marketing staff, which makes your business more appealing to potential buyers that won’t have to consider layoffs or employee integrations after acquiring your company. You’ll also offer your buyer the benefit of consistency and knowledge transfers, as your management team bridges the gap as you transition out of the company.
Freelancers can enhance your business in many ways, but to truly make the most of contracted marketing help, consider working with an experienced, outsourced marketing agency; especially one that shares the risk & reward! Learn more about the unique JointSourcing Solution to see how our team can build your business in a smooth, effective, and results-driven way!

The Case for Marketing Investment – Especially During Tough Times

We’ll admit: this is an uncomfortable subject to raise. Many of the people reading this will fall into one of two groups: (A) marketers who are struggling, in many cases because marketing budgets have been slashed, and (B) business operators who are up against the wall, many of whom see “severing a finger to save the hand” as the best available option.
Source: theclikk.com
For businesses that have experienced the need to cut nonessential spending due to the losses caused by the pandemic, marketing is usually one of the first areas to go. However, taking a deeper look sheds light on why investing in marketing is a good idea, if possible,  during tough times.
The Harvard Business Review found that companies that cut marketing costs faster and deeper than their rivals later have the lowest probability (21%) of pulling ahead of the competition once times improve.
If your business slashed its marketing budget, take time to look at the sources and reasoning in this article to think about bringing it back. Keep in mind that anything that is put off now, will need to be rebuilt later. Being able to adapt your marketing to the post-COVID will benefit in the long run, since your new strategy will already be built out.

How to Make the Case for Content Marketing in Uncertain Times

People have reached out asking for advice on protecting their content marketing budgets in these uncertain times. Here’s how to make the case.

Source: contently.com
Three reasons to increase your content marketing budget in the Covid era:
1) Content Marketing delivers compound returns that grow over time.
2) Content is the most cost-effective place to reallocate part of your paused event marketing and paid media budgets.
3) With in-person events suddenly canceled, virtual events are becoming critical. When the focus turns to the screen, strong content becomes more important than ever. Mediocre presentations can’t be propped up by great food, booze, and networking opportunities.

Tips for Getting Better Business Images on a DIY Budget

Let’s call this the “fake-it-til-you-make-it” photo tip sheet.

To be clear: We are proponents of professional photography for your website, and all of your marketing material. High-quality images attract attention, communicate clearly, and sell.

Simply put, professional photography makes you look better. The better you look, the more people will look. The more people look, the more leads you’ll see.

But professional photographers aren’t always available when photo ops present themselves. And, a professional photographer doesn’t fit in every small-business budget. Still, every business needs quality images.

Here, we offer general guidelines and specific tips to help you get better quality photos of your business, your people, and your products – on a “DIY” budget.

See more tips for photographing employees on the job.

What You Need to Know about Small Business Photography

Equipment Matters. Photographers like to say the best camera you have is the one at hand – and that’s true, so plan ahead and use a real camera – or the best one you can get your hands on. If you must use your cell phone, follow this advice from TechRepublic. And no matter what kind of camera you use, use a tripod. (More on that later.)

Photography is the art of capturing light. So learn to use the aperture and white balance settings on the (best) camera you have. Also pay attention to color cast, and learn what temperature settings work best for your site. (Industrial lighting can be tricky, often turning images yellow or blue.) When framing your shots, notice shadows – and try to eliminate them. Generally speaking, shadows detract from your product images.

Closer is always better. The subject of the image should be obvious. You want to direct prospects’ attention so they look at and consider specific features of specific products. Nothing in the photo should distract from what you’re trying to sell.

Background Noise Detracts from your photos. Some tips to tune it out:

• First, look critically at the background when you frame a shot. If you can tell that a picture was taken in your break room, so can everyone else.
• Second, learn to use aperture settings to minimize depth of field. (Learn from the Fstoppers or see Nikon’s more artistic explanation.
• Challenging background? Some professionals recommend using a fog machine to blur the background, for example, when you need an image of a large machine in a shop setting and cannot isolate the machine or eliminate a distracting background. If that sounds too complicated, try creative lighting or professional post-processing. The point is to make it easy and pleasing for your viewers (prospects) to focus on what you’re trying to show (sell) them.

Remember, post-production is your friend. Many a photo has been saved by a little TLC on the back end. While very robust post-production software can run into the thousands of dollars, quite a few free, easy-to-use packages offer enough functionality to make your images look really good. (LunaPic and iPiccy are two nice, free options.) Standard post-production features to improve the quality of almost every image:

• Straighten the image. Unless your restaurant is the Leaning Tower of Pizza, your image should probably portray the subject straight, not at an angle.
• Remove or reduce shadows.
• Frame and format. Having each image the correct size (both file size and height/width ratio) makes a world of difference in the way your images, website, and handouts look.
• Crop. Crop. Crop. Less is more, and close-ups are generally better. Aim for less in the frame. Are you getting the picture? We hope so.?

5 Fast, Practical Tips For Improving Your Business Images

1. Place a white sheet of paper under a product to get an instantly clean and bright background. Or use a piece of Plexiglas to create a nice reflection. Shopify offers more ideas to improve your business photography here.
2. To improve lighting and reduce shadows, position two or three light sources on different sides of the product you’re shooting.
3. Use compressed air to blow away dust particles, stray hairs, and anything that takes the focus (pun intended) off your product.
4. Take pictures straight on – and if the resulting images are crooked anyway, use a photo editor to straighten it. The exception: when you’re taking pictures of people. In that case, some angles are good. Passports and mug shots are taken straight on – why draw comparisons?
5. Use a Tripod. Sure, you’re steady Eddy. Use a tripod anyway.

Follow these tips and picture yourself increasing sales!

We’re marketing professionals, not professional photographers. If you need a business or corporate photographer, we are happy to recommend the business and corporate those that we work with. How can we help you improve your marketing programs and grow your sales? Let’s find out!

Better Images of Your Employees at Work, Better Marketing Material

Even among professional photographers, industrial portraiture is a niche specialty. But every business needs a few high-quality, up-to-date images of what goes on inside the company. Below are some general tips and tricks for photographing people who work in your business. Follow these and get the images you need for your marketing communications!

Tips for Photographing People at Work

Selfie sticks had a good run. And look around – people don’t seem shy about having their pictures taken – at work, at play, all day, every day. But something happens when you need images of your employees at work…and, it’s complicated. Here, a few simple tips to get the images you need for your website, social media channels, email newsletters, and other marketing communications:

• Proper dress is required. Ensure that safety gear is worn and/or used correctly in all photos taken at your business.
• Don’t say cheese. When it comes to images of your people at work, they don’t have to smile. They don’t even need to be recognizable. When the image is intended to focus on equipment or process, we like over-the-shoulder shots showing employees at work, and other angles that don’t focus on facial features. Speaking of which…
• Ask permission before photographing employees at work. Just because your company handbook says you have the right to take photos of your employees at work doesn’t mean you can be insensitive. If you’re planning a photo shoot, give your employees a day or two’s notice, and if possible, give them nice new company shirts to wear – and the option to opt-out of the shoot.
• Taking pictures of work social events? A little goes a long way. One or two images of the company picnic or office party will convey the idea that yours is a fun place to work. We highly recommend getting the subject of each photo to OK its use (even if you’re ‘just’ posting to the company intranet) and giving your HR department a chance to review anything that you’re considering using, whether it’s for the employee newsletter, your website or social media channels.
• Make sure it’s OK to share images from clients, vendors and partners. Is it OK to take pictures at a client worksite? Usually. Should you ask for a release before you share it? Absolutely! (We have a boilerplate release that’s yours for the asking.)

Need better business images, but a corporate photography session isn’t in your budget?
See our tips on the DIY approach to getting better business images.

We’re not professional photographers, but we know a few we’re happy to recommend. Need marketing help to increase sales? That’s our specialty!