Going Solo or Bringing in the Pros? Deciding Your Digital Marketing Path with Sonja Crystal Williams
October 30, 2024 • 14 mins
Are you fully equipped to handle your digital marketing all by yourself, or is it time to build a team?
Join Sonja Crystal Williams as she unpacks this crucial decision in the latest episode of 10 Minute Marketing. Business owners will discover how to evaluate if you're ready to grow your marketing support, explore the pros and cons of solo versus team-based strategies, and gain insight into setting realistic goals and timelines for learning and training.
Drawing from past 10 Minute Marketing expert interviews, Sonja offers a simple framework to help you make an informed choice that aligns with your business goals. Whether you're keen to enhance your marketing prowess or ready to leverage professional expertise, this episode provides the tools you need to effectively navigate the complexities of business decisions around online marketing.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:06):
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10Minute Marketing.
I'm Sonya Crystal Williams,your host, so this season we've
been having a lot ofconversations with experts in
and around digital marketing andtalking a lot about different
ways that you can approach yourbusiness, ranging from how you
go about designing your Googlead campaigns and what you need
(00:29):
to be thinking about toinfluence your marketing tips to
building brand authority as anauthor, using quizzes and
funnels for your product andoffer launches.
Lots of great information.
If you haven't been listeningto these this episode seasons,
definitely listen back Now.
I want to spend the next fewepisodes this, my website.
These are the things I need todo to make sure I have funnels
(01:06):
in place.
The question is-- and I askedthis question to several of the
people I interviewed, who do itfor clients as a living-- but
the question really is for you: are you going to do it solo? (01:14):
undefined
So today, in today's episode, Iwant to really explore that
topic with you more deeply and Iwant you to think of this again
as a lesson in reallydetermining, "m I equipped to
execute my own digital marketingand online marketing tactics or
(01:35):
should I be pulling in support?
And I think it's a goodconversation because there's a
lot of pros and cons to decidingwhich route you're going to
take and cons to deciding whichroute you're going to take, and
the truth of the matter is youcan start in one direction and
then decide you're going topivot and go in a totally
separate direction.
So I really want you to thinkabout what that looks like for
(01:56):
you.
So let's start with a couple ofthings.
Okay, first, I want to addresswhat I think are pros to running
things on your own.
Okay, you take some of thelessons learned that we've been
talking about in some of ourprevious podcast episodes and
I'll use a really simple example.
(02:16):
Let's just say, because I loverunning paid ads for clients,
let's just use the paid adcampaigns example.
Going back to the Google adsinterview I did with Ankit Patel
, so let's just say you decideyes, I like what he was saying
in that episode.
I could see us launching ourown search campaign.
In fact, it's critical that wedo it for our business.
(02:37):
So now, if I'm going to do thissolo, or even let's just say
we're going to keep it in- houseand run it ourselves, okay,
what are the fundamental thingsthat you would need to have in
place and for anything that youare assessing taking on when it
comes to your online marketingor your social media, you need
to really make an assessment.
Number one (02:58):
do I have the right skill set and knowledge to
implement this on my own, orwill there be a learning curve?
And there's no right or wronganswer here.
That's just your starting point.
If you have a background inmarketing, let's just say, and
now you've started your owncoaching business and you're
(03:18):
going to coach people onsomething totally unrelated, but
you have years of experiencewhere maybe you did paid media
in the past or you ran socialmedia for some other
organization and you have aknowledge in running ad
campaigns or you've seen ithappen, even if you didn't do it
yourself.
That could be an option whereit's a pro for you to initiate
the campaigns on your own.
(03:39):
On the flip side, if it'stotally new to you and you're
like well, I have the aptitudeto learn how to do this and I
want to learn how to do this,then maybe you need training and
at that point, you need toreally be thinking timeline wise
.
If I'm going to spend time intraining, how long will it take
before I can truly execute myfirst Google search ad campaigns
(04:02):
because I need to go through alearning process.
If I'm going through a learningprocess, what's the best route
to get me to a quick andprofitable ad campaign?
Because when you're goingthrough that learning curve,
right, there's a differencebetween if you decide you're
going to hire a team to do itand that team has years worth of
experience they can bring tothe table right away, but
(04:24):
there's a cost associated withit, okay.
So you need to decide where youare.
What side of the coin are you on?
Do I have the aptitude to learnand I'm willing to invest the
time in learning, knowing that'sgoing to delay sometimes, the
results that I'm going to get tosome degree it doesn't mean it
has to be long, but it mightdelay those results.
Or do I know what I'm doing andI'm ready to build a campaign
(04:45):
today and I've got enoughexperience to do it on my own?
So if you're thinking solo,then that's one option.
Just know that.
What comes with it?
Okay, which is some of thethings that I just mentioned.
And then, on the flip side,there are the cons to that.
Ok, there are the cons to Idecided to take everything
in-house.
One, I'd probably say with,particularly with small business
(05:06):
.
But honestly, even when I workwith larger teams and
organizations, budget is alwaysof concern because things have
to go through approval processesand there's only so much that's
going to get spent in any givenfiscal year.
So the question which you wantto ask is, you know, am I
prepared to pay for either A" ifI'm doing it solo again the
(05:28):
cost of time or B am I preparedto set the budget aside to hire
a team?
And here's what I'm going tosay to you all, particularly
because you have a place in myheart, because I'm a small
business owner and I'm going tosay this directly to small
business owners andentrepreneurs Don't allow
whether or not you have themoney to be the only deciding
(05:50):
factor and whether or not youkeep something in-house or you
hire a team or person to come inand support you.
Don't look at it and say youknow what?
I just I don't really have themoney in place and I can't hire,
and you're just "I can't, Ican't, I can't.
Okay, don't put yourself intothat corner, because what you
(06:13):
may find is it's going to bereally hard, as you press
forward, to get the results thatyou want.
Speaking from experience here,by the way, either have seen it
or have done it okay.
It's gonna be really hard toget the results you want when
you're hitting your head againstthe wall trying to figure out
how to set up that ad campaignon your own, when you really
could shorten that and increaseyour profitability by
(06:35):
immediately hiring the supportyou need and just finding that
support, maybe within the rightbudget, or finding the right
workable solution, that's gonnaget you the results that you
need.
Now, if you decide to hirein-house, there are pros and
cons to that too.
I can't tell you how many timesI've come across a team that
(06:57):
has had a previous relationshipwith a digital marketing agency.
Or I can't tell you how manytimes I've come across a
business owner or entrepreneurin the same predicament and that
agency hasn't delivered theresults they promised or the
results that that business owneror team was hoping for, and
(07:18):
that could be for a number ofreasons.
Sometimes it's, you know,miscommunication or lack of
communication.
Sometimes running ads is notgoing to fix a product that
wasn't converting to begin with,so sometimes it's that, you
know.
So, whatever that looks like,sometimes that can be the
downside to hiring.
(07:39):
If you are trying to make thedecision when it comes to
running ads or any of thesethings that we've been talking
about, whatever that one thingis for you, all my encouragement
to you is on the pro side.
Again, it's the time, okay.
So remember there's anopportunity cost associated with
(08:01):
everything that you're doing onyour team or within your
business, and when you find theright support-- assuming you
found the right support--they're going to get you up and
running and get you thoseresults much faster.
And ideally, I hope that you'rein a situation when you do hire
that support, where you don'thave to think about it.
You're going to get the reportsfrom them.
(08:22):
They're going to give you apulse on what's going on, but
there should be no invasion inyour brain of how are we going
to do this?
How are we going to do that?
What is the ad going to looklike?
What is the ad going to say?
What date is it going to launch?
What is my budget?
How much did I spend last week?
Like a really good team inplace should be managing those
pieces for you.
Ok, and our next podcast episodeor lesson.
(08:45):
You know I'm going to walk youthrough all the different roles
you also need to be thinking ofwhen you hire in-house.
So we're not going to go intothat in this episode right now.
We're just exploring "Should Ikeep it for myself or should I
hire a team.
But I'm going to be walking youthrough that.
If you do hire a team, or ifyou're managing in-house, what
are different roles that peopleneed to be in, because that's an
(09:06):
important thing to think aboutas well.
Ok, so the other thing is alsorecognizing when you reach a
pivot point in your business.
Every business is going toreach a pivot point if you are
making sales, determining if youshould continue managing your
own funnels, email campaigns,creating your own graphics, are
(09:33):
you doing all this stuffin-house or is it time to turn
it over to someone else?
And that also comes down toagain answering the question I
just brought up a couple minutesago, which is do you have a
really good offer in place andis your offer already making
sales?
And it doesn't matter whetherthat's a service you're
(09:55):
providing or a physical productthat you're selling.
The question is (09:59):
is that product or service already
selling?
Okay, and now you need to askyourself: do I want it to keep
consistently selling and keep myenergy and efforts focused on
really growing and being good atwhat we deliver, whether that's
a product or service, and ifyour answer to that is yes then
(10:21):
it probably is time.
You're at that pivot point whereyou really do need to have that
additional support, and thatadditional support looks
different depending on what kindof organization you're in.
If you are a small businessowner and you've been doing it
all on your own, you're theperson who sells the t-shirts
and you're at home packing thet-shirts and creating the pretty
(10:42):
labels and then taking picturesand putting those pictures up
on Instagram.
If you genuinely enjoy thatprocess, that's awesome.
At some point, though, if youwant to keep growing your
business, you're going to haveto step away from that role of
being the everything person andpull someone else in to do some
of that job for you, whetheryou're hiring someone as a
contractor, a full-time employee, part-time employee or an
(11:06):
agency or fulfillment company,even in that case, to hire, to
bring in and take on some ofthat role.
Okay, so you've got to thinkabout that pivot point.
And if your answer is yes, Ireally want to grow this
business, you've got to get outof the marketing and you got to
get into your business.
Where your input will always beneeded, though, is continuously
(11:29):
bringing clarity to any oneperson or entity that you hire.
You should always be makingsure they truly understand who
your audience is and what kindof communication works for that
audience.
If you have a pulse on that andyou understand that really well
, that's always going to besomething you bring to the table
(11:49):
to anyone that you're hiring asa part of your team.
The last thing I also want youto think about is there are a
lot of different roles that canbe taken on when you decide that
you are going to bring someoneinto your business and kind of
abandon the idea of, hey, I'moperating solo, or we've been
operating solo as a small team,and now we need to bring in
(12:11):
additional support, and so thinkof it this way: Some people
that you bring on could bevirtual right, so that's like
hey, I'm bringing on a virtualassistant or someone who's going
to freelance for me, and theydon't physically need to be in
my space.
We can communicate Zoom, youknow Microsoft, you know all
(12:32):
those ways, Slack, and so youneed to assess that.
You also need to assess shouldI bring someone in in-house.
And again, in-house could bepart-time, in-house could be
full-time.
So what does that look like?
Or again, are they gonna be anemployee or are they gonna be a
freelancer?
Okay, am I going to give them aset amount of hours and an
(12:55):
actual salary, or am I hiringthem and letting them pick their
hours, but kind of giving them,hey, here's the landscape of
what needs to get done.
So you're gonna need to thinkabout all of those things and,
within that, assess your ownstrengths.
Are you a big picture personwho's very visionary?
Are you someone that likesbeing in the details?
And give yourself an honestanswer to that, because that's
(13:20):
going to have an impact on whatkind of working relationship you
have with any support that youhire.
Okay, so you can kind of seewhere I'm leaning once you hit
that pivot point.
Do you wanna keep being solo?
You can, but if you see whereI'm leaning, it's like if we're
gonna increase revenue, if we'regoing to increase profitability
for our business, we probablydo need to bring in support, and
(13:42):
it's a matter of finding andgetting the right support.
All right, so that's my quickbreakdown in today's episode.
Next week, when we release theepisode, remember that we're
going to be doing lessons overour next few episodes and the
lesson next week is going to bearound the different roles
breakdown.
So definitely grab a pen andpaper, be ready to take notes,
(14:04):
because we're going to walkthrough the different roles you
need to truly have when you'rerunning a successful digital
marketing campaign for yourproduct or service.
Who are the people, who are thekey people?
And it partly depends on whatyou are choosing to do.
I'm going to go over thegeneral roles and details and
hiring practices for how you getthe right people in place.
How you get the right people inplace.
Today we walk through should Istay solo or hire a team?
(14:27):
Go through pros and cons,recognize your pivot point and
then assess if I am gonna hire,what kind of role am I hiring
into?
All right, thanks for listeningtoday.
Everybody, have a good one.
Hi everyone, welcome to today's
episode of 10Minute Marketing.
I'm Sonya Crystal Williams,your host, so this season we've
been having a lot ofconversations with experts in
and around digital marketing andtalking a lot about different
ways that you can approach yourbusiness, ranging from how you
go about designing your Googlead campaigns and what you need
(00:29):
to be thinking about toinfluence your marketing tips to
building brand authority as anauthor, using quizzes and
funnels for your product andoffer launches.
Lots of great information.
If you haven't been listeningto these this episode seasons,
definitely listen back Now.
I want to spend the next fewepisodes this, my website.
These are the things I need todo to make sure I have funnels
(01:06):
in place.
The question is-- and I askedthis question to several of the
people I interviewed, who do itfor clients as a living-- but
the question really is for you: are you going to do it solo? (01:14):
undefined
So today, in today's episode, Iwant to really explore that
topic with you more deeply and Iwant you to think of this again
as a lesson in reallydetermining, "m I equipped to
execute my own digital marketingand online marketing tactics or
(01:35):
should I be pulling in support?
And I think it's a goodconversation because there's a
lot of pros and cons to decidingwhich route you're going to
take and cons to deciding whichroute you're going to take, and
the truth of the matter is youcan start in one direction and
then decide you're going topivot and go in a totally
separate direction.
So I really want you to thinkabout what that looks like for
(01:56):
you.
So let's start with a couple ofthings.
Okay, first, I want to addresswhat I think are pros to running
things on your own.
Okay, you take some of thelessons learned that we've been
talking about in some of ourprevious podcast episodes and
I'll use a really simple example.
(02:16):
Let's just say, because I loverunning paid ads for clients,
let's just use the paid adcampaigns example.
Going back to the Google adsinterview I did with Ankit Patel
, so let's just say you decideyes, I like what he was saying
in that episode.
I could see us launching ourown search campaign.
In fact, it's critical that wedo it for our business.
(02:37):
So now, if I'm going to do thissolo, or even let's just say
we're going to keep it in- houseand run it ourselves, okay,
what are the fundamental thingsthat you would need to have in
place and for anything that youare assessing taking on when it
comes to your online marketingor your social media, you need
to really make an assessment.
Number one (02:58):
do I have the right skill set and knowledge to
implement this on my own, orwill there be a learning curve?
And there's no right or wronganswer here.
That's just your starting point.
If you have a background inmarketing, let's just say, and
now you've started your owncoaching business and you're
(03:18):
going to coach people onsomething totally unrelated, but
you have years of experiencewhere maybe you did paid media
in the past or you ran socialmedia for some other
organization and you have aknowledge in running ad
campaigns or you've seen ithappen, even if you didn't do it
yourself.
That could be an option whereit's a pro for you to initiate
the campaigns on your own.
(03:39):
On the flip side, if it'stotally new to you and you're
like well, I have the aptitudeto learn how to do this and I
want to learn how to do this,then maybe you need training and
at that point, you need toreally be thinking timeline wise
.
If I'm going to spend time intraining, how long will it take
before I can truly execute myfirst Google search ad campaigns
(04:02):
because I need to go through alearning process.
If I'm going through a learningprocess, what's the best route
to get me to a quick andprofitable ad campaign?
Because when you're goingthrough that learning curve,
right, there's a differencebetween if you decide you're
going to hire a team to do itand that team has years worth of
experience they can bring tothe table right away, but
(04:24):
there's a cost associated withit, okay.
So you need to decide where youare.
What side of the coin are you on?
Do I have the aptitude to learnand I'm willing to invest the
time in learning, knowing that'sgoing to delay sometimes, the
results that I'm going to get tosome degree it doesn't mean it
has to be long, but it mightdelay those results.
Or do I know what I'm doing andI'm ready to build a campaign
(04:45):
today and I've got enoughexperience to do it on my own?
So if you're thinking solo,then that's one option.
Just know that.
What comes with it?
Okay, which is some of thethings that I just mentioned.
And then, on the flip side,there are the cons to that.
Ok, there are the cons to Idecided to take everything
in-house.
One, I'd probably say with,particularly with small business
(05:06):
.
But honestly, even when I workwith larger teams and
organizations, budget is alwaysof concern because things have
to go through approval processesand there's only so much that's
going to get spent in any givenfiscal year.
So the question which you wantto ask is, you know, am I
prepared to pay for either A" ifI'm doing it solo again the
(05:28):
cost of time or B am I preparedto set the budget aside to hire
a team?
And here's what I'm going tosay to you all, particularly
because you have a place in myheart, because I'm a small
business owner and I'm going tosay this directly to small
business owners andentrepreneurs Don't allow
whether or not you have themoney to be the only deciding
(05:50):
factor and whether or not youkeep something in-house or you
hire a team or person to come inand support you.
Don't look at it and say youknow what?
I just I don't really have themoney in place and I can't hire,
and you're just "I can't, Ican't, I can't.
Okay, don't put yourself intothat corner, because what you
(06:13):
may find is it's going to bereally hard, as you press
forward, to get the results thatyou want.
Speaking from experience here,by the way, either have seen it
or have done it okay.
It's gonna be really hard toget the results you want when
you're hitting your head againstthe wall trying to figure out
how to set up that ad campaignon your own, when you really
could shorten that and increaseyour profitability by
(06:35):
immediately hiring the supportyou need and just finding that
support, maybe within the rightbudget, or finding the right
workable solution, that's gonnaget you the results that you
need.
Now, if you decide to hirein-house, there are pros and
cons to that too.
I can't tell you how many timesI've come across a team that
(06:57):
has had a previous relationshipwith a digital marketing agency.
Or I can't tell you how manytimes I've come across a
business owner or entrepreneurin the same predicament and that
agency hasn't delivered theresults they promised or the
results that that business owneror team was hoping for, and
(07:18):
that could be for a number ofreasons.
Sometimes it's, you know,miscommunication or lack of
communication.
Sometimes running ads is notgoing to fix a product that
wasn't converting to begin with,so sometimes it's that, you
know.
So, whatever that looks like,sometimes that can be the
downside to hiring.
(07:39):
If you are trying to make thedecision when it comes to
running ads or any of thesethings that we've been talking
about, whatever that one thingis for you, all my encouragement
to you is on the pro side.
Again, it's the time, okay.
So remember there's anopportunity cost associated with
(08:01):
everything that you're doing onyour team or within your
business, and when you find theright support-- assuming you
found the right support--they're going to get you up and
running and get you thoseresults much faster.
And ideally, I hope that you'rein a situation when you do hire
that support, where you don'thave to think about it.
You're going to get the reportsfrom them.
(08:22):
They're going to give you apulse on what's going on, but
there should be no invasion inyour brain of how are we going
to do this?
How are we going to do that?
What is the ad going to looklike?
What is the ad going to say?
What date is it going to launch?
What is my budget?
How much did I spend last week?
Like a really good team inplace should be managing those
pieces for you.
Ok, and our next podcast episodeor lesson.
(08:45):
You know I'm going to walk youthrough all the different roles
you also need to be thinking ofwhen you hire in-house.
So we're not going to go intothat in this episode right now.
We're just exploring "Should Ikeep it for myself or should I
hire a team.
But I'm going to be walking youthrough that.
If you do hire a team, or ifyou're managing in-house, what
are different roles that peopleneed to be in, because that's an
(09:06):
important thing to think aboutas well.
Ok, so the other thing is alsorecognizing when you reach a
pivot point in your business.
Every business is going toreach a pivot point if you are
making sales, determining if youshould continue managing your
own funnels, email campaigns,creating your own graphics, are
(09:33):
you doing all this stuffin-house or is it time to turn
it over to someone else?
And that also comes down toagain answering the question I
just brought up a couple minutesago, which is do you have a
really good offer in place andis your offer already making
sales?
And it doesn't matter whetherthat's a service you're
(09:55):
providing or a physical productthat you're selling.
The question is (09:59):
is that product or service already
selling?
Okay, and now you need to askyourself: do I want it to keep
consistently selling and keep myenergy and efforts focused on
really growing and being good atwhat we deliver, whether that's
a product or service, and ifyour answer to that is yes then
(10:21):
it probably is time.
You're at that pivot point whereyou really do need to have that
additional support, and thatadditional support looks
different depending on what kindof organization you're in.
If you are a small businessowner and you've been doing it
all on your own, you're theperson who sells the t-shirts
and you're at home packing thet-shirts and creating the pretty
(10:42):
labels and then taking picturesand putting those pictures up
on Instagram.
If you genuinely enjoy thatprocess, that's awesome.
At some point, though, if youwant to keep growing your
business, you're going to haveto step away from that role of
being the everything person andpull someone else in to do some
of that job for you, whetheryou're hiring someone as a
contractor, a full-time employee, part-time employee or an
(11:06):
agency or fulfillment company,even in that case, to hire, to
bring in and take on some ofthat role.
Okay, so you've got to thinkabout that pivot point.
And if your answer is yes, Ireally want to grow this
business, you've got to get outof the marketing and you got to
get into your business.
Where your input will always beneeded, though, is continuously
(11:29):
bringing clarity to any oneperson or entity that you hire.
You should always be makingsure they truly understand who
your audience is and what kindof communication works for that
audience.
If you have a pulse on that andyou understand that really well
, that's always going to besomething you bring to the table
(11:49):
to anyone that you're hiring asa part of your team.
The last thing I also want youto think about is there are a
lot of different roles that canbe taken on when you decide that
you are going to bring someoneinto your business and kind of
abandon the idea of, hey, I'moperating solo, or we've been
operating solo as a small team,and now we need to bring in
(12:11):
additional support, and so thinkof it this way: Some people
that you bring on could bevirtual right, so that's like
hey, I'm bringing on a virtualassistant or someone who's going
to freelance for me, and theydon't physically need to be in
my space.
We can communicate Zoom, youknow Microsoft, you know all
(12:32):
those ways, Slack, and so youneed to assess that.
You also need to assess shouldI bring someone in in-house.
And again, in-house could bepart-time, in-house could be
full-time.
So what does that look like?
Or again, are they gonna be anemployee or are they gonna be a
freelancer?
Okay, am I going to give them aset amount of hours and an
(12:55):
actual salary, or am I hiringthem and letting them pick their
hours, but kind of giving them,hey, here's the landscape of
what needs to get done.
So you're gonna need to thinkabout all of those things and,
within that, assess your ownstrengths.
Are you a big picture personwho's very visionary?
Are you someone that likesbeing in the details?
And give yourself an honestanswer to that, because that's
(13:20):
going to have an impact on whatkind of working relationship you
have with any support that youhire.
Okay, so you can kind of seewhere I'm leaning once you hit
that pivot point.
Do you wanna keep being solo?
You can, but if you see whereI'm leaning, it's like if we're
gonna increase revenue, if we'regoing to increase profitability
for our business, we probablydo need to bring in support, and
(13:42):
it's a matter of finding andgetting the right support.
All right, so that's my quickbreakdown in today's episode.
Next week, when we release theepisode, remember that we're
going to be doing lessons overour next few episodes and the
lesson next week is going to bearound the different roles
breakdown.
So definitely grab a pen andpaper, be ready to take notes,
(14:04):
because we're going to walkthrough the different roles you
need to truly have when you'rerunning a successful digital
marketing campaign for yourproduct or service.
Who are the people, who are thekey people?
And it partly depends on whatyou are choosing to do.
I'm going to go over thegeneral roles and details and
hiring practices for how you getthe right people in place.
How you get the right people inplace.
Today we walk through should Istay solo or hire a team?
(14:27):
Go through pros and cons,recognize your pivot point and
then assess if I am gonna hire,what kind of role am I hiring
into?
All right, thanks for listeningtoday.
Everybody, have a good one.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.