Can't afford a full-time marketing head? Outsource one.

Here’s something that happens to a lot of midsized technology companies. The personal contacts of the founders and the sales team are no longer enough to grow the business. To scale up, the company needs a structured marketing program to build a brand and generate inquiries on an ongoing basis. 

There are two immediate problems. The first one is that most midsized technology companies have no idea of what such a marketing program costs. Even a basic program involving a minimum advertising, sponsorship, influencer marketing initiatives and trade shows and events quickly ratchets up the marketing spend and can cost upwards of $250,000. 

For a company that had till then relied on the reach of the CEO and the heroics of individual salespeople to generate business, this figure comes as a rude shock and the initial reaction is one of disbelief.

The second problem is that it needs an experienced professional to manage such a program. You need insight into buyer, media, analyst, employee and investor behavior, experience in managing agency relationships, an understanding of the product and the market, and the ability to manage in-house staff and work across organizational silos. Such an experienced professional is expensive to hire and difficult to retain -- most marketing pros like to work with big brands and big budgets.

Consider outsourcing

Most companies already outsource some of their marketing -- advertising, PR, content  creation, website maintenance, and event management are all activities that are commonly outsourced either wholly or partly. This is outsourcing to fill a skill set gap. But for midsized companies, outsourcing can also solve their second major problem -- that of not being able to attract and retain the right senior talent.

A full time senior marketing hire in India costs upwards of $100,000. Outsourcing the CMO can slash this cost without affecting the quality of the work.

That’s because marketing in midsized companies proceeds in spurts. There are periods of intense activity followed by lulls. An experienced professional is needed to set up a team, define goals, allocate budgets, standardize branding, set up a collateral creation program, firm up advertising and sponsorships, initiate engagements with media, analyst and deal consultants, streamline investor and employee communication, manage events participation and support a lead generation program. 

It takes about a year or more to get such a program up and running. But it takes a whole lot longer for the rest of the company to scale up its sales and delivery capabilities to match up to the enhanced brand promise. During this period, marketing slows down to a holding pattern and the senior marketing hire either gets bored and leaves or becomes an overhead. 

Having an outsourced CMO enables the company to hire the right expertise for the job at lower than full time cost. 

And to pay for it only till needed.