Freelancers may be the most misunderstood concept in business today. The headlines surrounding the “Gig Economy” probably don’t help.
Historically, outside of a select number of industries like journalism or photography, freelancers are considered by some to be part-timers looking for a side hustle or an aging professional looking to limit workweeks.
If this is your perception of freelancers in marketing, you’ll want to read on. The use of marketing freelancers may be the hottest business trend for the coming year. Don’t think of them as freelancers. Since the average company uses more than 90 on-demand marketing services, the new way to think of these professionals is on-demand marketing resources you can tap as needed. Marketing as a Service.
Here are the top 10 things you probably don’t know about on-demand marketing professionals.
They have the experience you need. The most significant value an on-demand marketing professional brings is experience. Not just with one or a handful of companies, but potentially with dozens or even hundreds. With each engagement, their knowledge and skills substantially improve compared to marketers repeating the same tasks year after year at the same company.
You only pay for results. With traditional employees, you pay a salary regardless of output. You also pay for vacation time and benefits. On-demand marketing professionals get paid to deliver results.
They deliver consistent results. When you get paid to deliver results, you only focus on results. If an on-demand marketing professional has been providing services for more than two years, you know they are results-oriented. Otherwise, they wouldn’t survive. This timeline also indicates that on-demand marketing is a chosen career path and not just something to do in between traditional jobs.
You only pay when you need them. Dial-up. Dial down. On your terms. The most successful on-demand marketing engagements are project-based. Unlike a full-time employee, you can hire an on-demand marketing professional to help scale teams as needed for large projects and scale back down with the project is over.
They enjoy getting up and going to work, every day. On-demand marketing professionals gravitate to projects they enjoy and in which they will excel. Traditional marketing employees don’t always have this luxury, and that’s one of the main reasons great on-demand marketing professionals don’t have traditional jobs. They want to carve their own path of enjoyable projects.
No, on-demand marketing professionals don’t always get to work when they want. This is perhaps the biggest knock on freelancers. They work when they want. On-demand marketing professionals work when you need them. A clearly defined scope of work and timeline is critical to a project’s success with on-demand marketing professionals.
Those 90+ apps. On-demand marketing professionals know how to use them. Because on-demand marketing professionals work with many different clients, the odds are in your favor that you’ll find one intimately familiar with the tools you already use. Odds are even greater they can help you optimize them. Most on-demand marketing professionals obtain certifications in the most commonly used marketing SaaS offerings and tools.
They seamlessly integrate with your existing team. Very rarely do on-demand marketing professionals work in a vacuum. In the most successful engagements, they seamlessly integrate into existing teams and provide a shot in the arm in helping that team meet its goal.
They provide a bridge for new staff. Many companies hire on-demand marketing professionals to meet a specific need while finding a full-time person to fill a permanent position. Great on-demand marketing professionals take it a step further by training the new employee once she is hired.
It’s never goodbye. It’s see you later! At the conclusion of a successful project, while the on-demand marketing professional may temporarily go away for a bit, they are never gone forever. The project may have lasted weeks or months, but relationships with on-demand marketers can last years. When you have a need, they will be there to fill it!
The use of on-demand marketing professionals is growing exponentially. New platforms make it easier for you to find the right one and establish the right relationship. There’s little risk to trying to use an on-demand marketing professional to see if it’s right for your organization.