The sweet aroma of freshly ground coffee beans or the bitter taste of marketing paralysis? Working out how to run your marketing engine can be complex for founder CEOs.
I’m a coffee snob, and I make a decent brew at home. I buy good beans and obsess over the process to make the best drink possible. I’d rather not have a coffee than have a crap one, so I don’t drink instant. Ever.
When I go to a café, it can feel like I am rolling the dice. Sure, a good barista and a classic Gaggia should make a better one than I can make myself, but that is not always the case. That’s why I’m selective about where I get my coffee. And so it is with deciding whether to outsource or keep your marketing in-house.
In-house, you know what you are getting. If you don’t have any expertise, you can do it yourself, just like anyone can make a cup of instant coffee. That might be fine for starters, but soon enough this won’t be good enough if you want marketing-led growth.
Perhaps you can take your capability up a level by investing in your knowledge and some tools. Buy a machine, a coffee grinder, and a milk frother. It should be a good deal better than your initial efforts.
If you are that way inclined, you can perfect your in-house capabilities. That takes time and money. Buy top-of-the-range kit and ingredients and you’ll never want for amazing coffee again. But it is worth the investment in money and more to the point, your time?
Some people like to outsource - they buy their daily flat white. They pay for the expertise and the convenience, and they don’t have the hassle of doing it themselves.
The trouble is that most marketing agencies are like coffee shops; tattooed hipsters who talk a slightly weird language, give you specialist offerings that you don’t quite understand and charge you for the privilege; big companies where you are looked after by a minion who gives you passable if uninspiring service, and old fashioned operators who’ll give you something that used to be fit for purpose, it’s cheap and cheerful, but is it what you need in today's world?
So how do you choose what is best? Firstly make a conscious decision about what outcomes you need. That’s like choosing how you want to feel after you’ve had your coffee. Then you choose the method or methods that are going to deliver the best.
Whilst it’s a higher stakes game than working out where to get your daily caffeine fix, the process is the same. If you are outsourcing some of all of your marketing activity, you’ll need to select the people who can give you exactly what you want. Don’t expect a cup of instant from your local artisan barista or a Peruvian single-estate espresso from a greasy spoon.
Get this approach right and you'll never want for the right coffee, or the right marketing approach again.
If this issue resonates and you want some help, drop us a line and we'll take you through some solutions.
