Your Firm Everywhere Now: How to position your professional services firm as an authority in your marketplace, increase your online presence and generate more business. by Alf Michael

Author:Alf, Michael [Alf, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: totalu Pty Ltd.
Published: 2014-12-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Automate Where Possible and Personalise Where Necessary

Given the variety of marketing activities and the increasing complexity of the whole subject, combined with the continuous need in organisations to do more with less - or at minimum do more with the same amount of investment - two main questions come up. How can we reduce the cost of operating digital marketing, and how can we reduce the level of manual involvement?

Outsourcing

The first question reminds me of my time at Capgemini, which is a major global consulting, IT, and outsourcing operator with centres in various counties like India, China or Vietnam. When we discussed outsourcing with clients, it was both about cost and the quality of service. Many clients had initial reservations towards centres in countries like India or China. But, regularly, things changed once clients experienced the quality of people and the processes supporting the delivery. I remember one client in particular, a CIO, who travelled to India to visit our centres. We were already doing work for his organisation on a particular project. He asked the team some questions about the project and the business purpose of the project. The answers surprised the CIO in such a way that he was saying this team knew more about the organisation’s goals than most of the local staff.

At the end of the journey, this client was convinced not only about the business understanding of the team, but much more about the quality of services by these remote teams.

At the same time, I have a number of stories and experiences where remote management and delivery was quite challenging.

This situation is comparable with the digital marketing field. Certain services like graphic design, research, or technical development can be delivered at a very competitive rate from various countries. Key success criteria is the management of the delivery process.

The area which is typically sensitive is everything related to direct client contact. Based on all of my experiences throughout the years, this needs to be well thought-through. An attempt to save cost there can sometimes backlash when not done properly. Outsourcing of call centres, for example, is a very tricky exercise and requires a lot of experience and balance.

But, for many other areas, outsourcing becomes a standard today due to the significant cost reductions.

So, when you consider outsourcing for some of your execution activities - not the marketing strategy - compare various providers and try to get an understanding of their processes, their reporting, and their management.

Automation

Another major trend in today’s business world is automation. If you are interested in learning more about automation in general, about the history and current trends, I recommend the book, Automate This, by Christopher Steiner - fascinating but also scary.

Back to marketing automation. I would say, based on my experience, this is for most businesses - especially brick & mortar businesses - still at the very beginning.

In the online marketing or internet marketing field, the level of automation is usually a lot higher. I know of a number of businesses that are running more or less on “auto-pilot” with reduced or even minimal manual intervention.

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