In the midst of hiring freezes and downsizing, you may find yourself in a catch-22.  

On the one hand, you cannot afford to halt your marketing efforts, as much as some may pressure you to do so, because as marketers we know this can not only hurt short-term results but sacrifice long-term market share, and perhaps more importantly, miss a great opportunity to gain marketshare on the upswing.  

This point was made in a recent analysis of the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategies, which showed that while companies who cut marketing budgets during a recession saw short term finanical benefit, they suffered during the period of recovery.  Conversely, companies that increased their marketing investment achieved a significantly higher return during the recovery period and gained an additional 1.3% of market share on average.

However…

On the other hand, your tightened budget may restrict you from hiring or retaining the talent necessary to architect effective marketing strategies.  A growing trend is to bridge the gap by outsourcing through a service such as a Virtual Marketing Director (VMD).  

The Sales and Marketing Times blog by 3Forward recently reported that “sales and marketing outsourcing is fast gaining momentum…because business, competitive and specialization trends continue forcing companies to find ever more efficient, scalable and effective solutions to generating revenue.” 

The VMD is a senior-level marketing professional who is retained part-time by your company, and provides marketing leadership without hiring full-time, permanent staff. Their job is to learn your vision and business goals, and translate these into a strategic marketing plan and campaigns.  The VMD can also bring expertise to identify cost effective marketing activities that you are not presently maximizing, such as social media, segmented e-marketing, and SEO, as well as streamline your existing activities by applying industry best practices.

VMDs often bring a network of marketing specialists to tap into which in turn increases the effectiveness of your marketing activities while lowering the cost of having such speciality positions in salaried roles or trying to seek them out and qualify them yourself.

Take time to asses how outsourced marketing professionals, such as VMDs, can help your business work more efficiently and gain market share, harnessing opportunities brought about by these unprecedented economic times.