If you have thousands of pounds in your budget for business development this year, you need marketing ROI. You’re faced with a choice – outsource that work to an online marketing agency, or hire a full-time specialised employee who can become an important part of your team and office? When having this discussion it’s important to make a distinction between firing and replacing online marketing staff, or making the decision to hire a new specialised online marketing employee to handle your web presence. If you value growth and marketing ROI, go with the online marketing agency. There isn’t a decision to make at all. Good high level marketing managers/officers are still very much needed to coordinate all marketing efforts, and unless you’re entirely focusing on online marketing, a staff employee will be able to better align offline and online efforts with the sales team.

Marketing agency advantages

Hiring an online marketing agency is also a big advantage if your marketing needs are not particularly extensive. If you are a small company or start-up, then you might not need someone dedicating 40 hours a week to your marketing. Instead, you can engage an agency’s services as and when you need them, allowing you to save money compared with paying a full-time marketing manager.

Consider the following:

• Only one full time online marketing employee annual wage is more than a 12 month SEO contract, including reports and training.
• Instead of one person, you’re getting a dedicated team. A team that not only takes a personal interest in learning your unique business and challenges in and out, but one that values continuous personal development to meet a fast evolving online marketing landscape.
• An online marketing agency can specialise, assembly line style. Do you want one person juggling web development, content creation, SEO, graphic design, social media, customer interaction and online marketing strategy, or do you want a network of uniquely equipped professionals?
  • Online marketing agencies don’t take sick days.
  • Or vacations.
  • Or lose motivation.
  • Or take the last of the coffee without filling it (Is it too much to show some basic human decency?)

If you are looking for a marketing agency who can fulfil all of those needs and requirements then look no further, our expert and knowledgeable team at Brighter Directions can help with social media, PR, content, full marketing strategies and more, contact us today at hello@brighterdirections.co.uk

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Materialistic benefits such as expensive gym memberships, gift vouchers, all paid for dinners and drinks etc, these benefits are seen to be less important in regard to company culture. These benefits may seem beneficial, good, and exciting in the short term; however, they are less important when it comes to really thinking about your company’s culture.

Employee experience

Employee experience can really be broken down into three main factors; physical, technology and culture. When looking at these three components to you as an employee its important to think about if the company’s culture aligns with your own, do you have the appropriate space to work in the office or remotely? Do you have all the tools in order to do your job efficiently?

When employee experience aligns with the company’s culture and vice versa it makes for the best possible relationship between the two.

Our culture

When looking at our company as a whole (Brighter Directions), we make sure our company aligns with our intended culture. We make sure we keep what we stand for as a business at the forefront of our company’s culture, celebrating diversity and female led roles within our company. Physically we make sure our employees each have the appropriate space when working and ensure that each employee is given the necessary technology when working remotely. Employee experience is necessary when wanting to create a good work atmosphere, ensuring that your organisation reflects the cultures of that of its employees while supporting them.

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Due to the last few years, certain principles have come to the forefront of what is necessary for employees to embrace and adapt to, and organisations to consider for future hires. The following are some of the relevant principles of the future employee:

Flexible working

Having the freedom of flexible working has become a high priority since the pandemic forced this way of work on us.  Employees have become used to the freedom of home working and aimed with the knowledge that the company needs can be met in this way, going back to full time office based jobs will not be an option for many.

Building your own career path

The traditional career path is no longer expected of the future employee. They will now be encouraged to look at their own way of progressing.  Building their own networks, sharing valuable ideas and utilising feedback will be encouraged and contributions will be recognised.  Showing leadership in this way can put employees on the path to becoming a future leader.

Information sharing

In the past employees have kept information to themselves in the hopes of getting ahead, now they freely share information with colleagues and collaborate on ideas together.  More organisations are moving to a structureless establishment to remove the hierarchy amongst peers, therefore encouraging employees to share ideas and information to work together for the benefit of each other and the business.

New ways to communicate and collaborate

Once relying only on emails and phone calls, future employees are embracing new technology and new ways to connect.  Zoom calls, Team meets and new apps for fast efficient communication are becoming the new normal.

Continuous learning

Future employees can no longer rely on just what they already know, to succeed employees will need to commit to lifelong learning.  Having the skills, ability and willingness to learn new things, how to access this information and how to apply it to their continuing work role is possibly one of the most valuable principles.  This links in to sharing information as companies don’t always have formal training programmes to adhere to.  Accessing online learning sessions, internal teaching and face to face interactions employees can share this information with others to teach and also learn from each other.

At Brighter Directions we pride ourselves on already having these principles as part of our company’s culture, if you would like to work as part of a supportive, friendly and empowered team then please contact us to discuss what vacancies we have available.

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Communication

One of the most vital aspects of leadership is communication. The great business leaders ensure effective and coherent communication with their team. Fluid communications not only demonstrate a strong role model for your team members but allow for better collaboration and a safe environment.

As the leader within a company, you are in the spotlight for your team – a positive and inclusive attitude speaks volumes and is one of the best qualities you can hone regardless of your role. This not only accounts for what you say, but also involves your body language, tone of voice, and acting vigilantly and calm in the current climate. This reassures others that the company is in good hands and is going in the right direction, and, this type of good, confident environment is transferable to productivity and employee engagement across the company.

Resilience

The pandemic has meant that companies have had to adapt to unprecedented changes and do so quickly. By challenging your mindset to be more forward-thinking and resilient in light of new stresses can be very constructive. Some main areas you can ask yourself around this are what does the future look like’, how will it affect me and my team, and what do I need to do to be prepared for that and create a positive outcome. Furthermore, by being resilient, you need to be able to accept there will be setbacks, and be able to move forward despite them.

Remaining focused on the core area of your business is also important, despite there being other potential areas of revenue and growth from other opportunities that have arisen, it’s important to continue to offer the same level of service to your existing market that is expected and valued. This is because although something is successful short-term does not mean it will prove sustainable as the main area of your business long-term and again, being ethical around your delivery is vital to sustainability.

Mentor staff

Giving staff the liberty to make their own decisions and more autonomy in day-to-day tasks is another option to explore, opting to mentor staff rather than directing them can be advantageous and creates an environment of inclusivity and ownership which will only ever aid in business productivity and growth.

Instead of your staff asking what they should do, you can give them the control to choose themselves over how they perform day-to-day tasks – we have used this methodology over the years and personally find it not only enables staff to take accountability but works towards their own CPD and gives them the passion and dedication to explore their own ways of working ore efficiently, which creates a stronger value and outcome for our clients.

The last year has been challenging no doubt for a range of businesses, but as we pass the first quarter of 2021, we’ve noticed a recent change of attitude in businesses looking to grow and move forward. Over the past few months we’ve had an influx of new enquiries of businesses looking to push through challenges and grow their businesses despite the uncertainty of the future with COVID.

If you are looking for a marketing agency that values your business, provides great insight and leadership internally and to our clients with an ethical reputation for quality – and need support across areas such as Content Marketing, PR & Media Relations, Social Media – give us a call and see if our ethos and customer-centric approach aligns with yours, and how we can help you save money and become more efficient across your marketing!

T: 01246 586330
E: marketing@brighterdirections.co.uk

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