Digital Process Outsourcing

Top 7 Digital Outsourcing Service Myths and Misconceptions, Debunked

A majority of businesses are no stranger to outsourcing. In fact, third parties are commonly contracted to augment a company’s digital marketing services or provide an innovative online solution an in-house team can’t handle or aren’t equipped to resolve on their own. The ready influx of skills and resources have proven time and again that, when done properly, outsourcing can be a valuable asset to any organisation’s growth strategy.

For too long, however, outsourcing has been considered the embarrassing secret of company operations. The stigma of using a third party to handle a business’ digital marketing campaigns needs to end if we want to properly utilise it as the growth opportunity it actually is.

Read about how we debunk 7 digital outsourcing myths and misconceptions here:

Myth 1: Outsourcing is the same as offshoring

Fact: They sound similar, and the terms might come up in the same conversation. However, they allude to two different things, depending on the status of the service provider.

The simplest way to break down the two terms is that:

• Outsourcing refers to an agreement between a client and a third-party provider to deliver a service or product over a period of time. This may occur due to a need to efficiently scale up operations or to fill in a gap in the client-organisation’s talent pool.
• Offshoring is a business practice where an organisation moves the work process to a different country, perhaps to save on costs and pay lower taxes, but it doesn’t involve a third-party to produce the product or service; all the workers are still employees of the company or employed by a subsidiary.

It should be noted that the term “offshore outsourcing” exists, and it is the only time the two words do share characteristics. Offshore outsourcing is exactly what it says: the term combines the two business strategies related to the individual terms so the client-partner can gain both their benefits.

Myth 2: Outsourcing means giving up control of your projects

Fact: Your digital marketing solutions handled from halfway around the world will be as effective as one that was run in the next room, except there’s less on your plate when you outsource.

This worst-case-scenario will only happen if you outsource to an unscrupulous agency. So, when you look for a digital marketing provider to trust your outsourced work to, do your due diligence and only team up with a company that puts particular emphasis on transparency.

A great outsourcing partner will always keep you in the loop, prepare reports and update you regularly on the campaign’s progress, as well as utilise various communication and collaboration tools that improve all parties’ ability to interact in real-time with each other. With open communication channels, you’ll never feel like your projects are getting away from you.

Myth 3: Outsourcing providers turn in low-quality products and services

Fact: Outsourcing isn’t the cause of poor-quality digital marketing results; rather, it’s the lack of training and management that results in a less-than-stellar performance.

You won’t be putting your operations and your company’s good standing in the industry  in jeopardy when you outsource your work to a partner with a pool of skilled and experienced digital marketers. The expert labor will reflect on the overall price tag, but it’s a reasonable compromise between having to maintain an in-house digital marketing department and sacrificing quality in the hands of amateurs.

Myth 4: Outsourcing compromises your company’s privacy and data security

Fact: In any field, there isn’t anyone else more invested in your privacy and security, besides yourself, than an outsourcing provider worth their salt.

Outsourcing runs on trust between partners. The digital marketing firms and agencies that provide it as a service have a vested interest in protecting their clients’ data as it’s the key to their own growth and success. In fact, data security is one of the aspects that make them competitive as a business in the industry.

If you are looking for an outsourcing partner, then check out their organisation’s reputation and the experiences their past clients had with them. It’ll usually be a good indicator if you can build a healthy and beneficial work relationship with one another.

Myth 5: Outsourcing is detrimental to the country’s economy

Fact: Businesses that outsource work actually strengthen their country’s economic position due to the resulting increase in productivity and efficiency.

There’s more to the matter than simply equating offshore outsourcing a digital marketing job to the loss of a domestic employment opportunity. In fact, a study by Möhlmann and Groot states that employees were 32% less likely to lose their job if they worked in a firm that outsourced internationally due to the opportunity to increase size and employment, as well as the need for more labour to manage contracts abroad.

What outsourcing your digital processes to another agency in another country means is that your business gains the opportunity to refocus its in-house resources and talents on achieving important business objectives and goals:

• Providing better goods and services at reasonable prices 
• Working on the overall, long-term growth and development of the organisation
• Securing bigger tax revenues 
• Opening new employment opportunities to skilled individuals

Myth 6: Outsourcing is complicated by language, cultural and geographical barriers

Fact: Offshore digital marketing outsource service providers are almost completely unhindered by cultural or geographical obstacles due to an increasingly integrated world.

Navigating the language and cultural differences of offshore outsourcing agencies shouldn’t have to be a concern. Several countries speak English quite comfortably and are used to working with international clients, so you can expect that processes were adjusted accordingly.

As to the differences in the time-zone, businesses should think of it as an advantage to the existing work processes. Because the outsourced service team is operating on another shift, it should just take some creative scheduling to ensure your project is running 24/7. There’s great potential for better efficiency and quicker turnaround times right there.

Myth 7: Outsourcing is only convenient for large firms

Fact: Any organisation size can enter an outsourcing arrangement and significantly benefit from it. SMBs are increasingly more open to the prospect in order to support their growth.

That only big and well-established companies can outsource their digital marketing processes is one of the more pervasive misconceptions about hiring third party providers. The truth is that various small- to medium-sized companies can partner with specialised agencies to scale an operation or find new and tailored solutions to a problem. 

The flexibility and scope of digital marketing services a third party offers allows businesses stay in budget because they gain access to digital experts without having to train these professionals and they can make sure that their project stays on track.

Want to Scale Your Business? Let’s Talk Digital Process Outsourcing

Innovative strategies and accompanying technologies are dissolving the barriers to global collaboration. Axadra, a digital process outsourcing company, can provide a flexible remote team to leverage a global knowledge base, a deep and experienced talent pool of digital marketers and an operational process that completes the work at accelerated turnaround times so you can roll out products and services quicker.

Talk to us today to learn more.

What is Digital Process Outsourcing: How One Process Can Transform Your Agency

The global population has grown to be more tech-savvy over the years. A study by Shopify revealed that 84% of consumers shopped online in a situation where people were to stay at home for the most part of the year. This tells businesses that more consumers are able to access the internet and comfortably make purchases online. This makes the online market more profitable now more than ever.

Business owners are noticing the development and this is why more businesses are transitioning to ecommerce stores. However, with the growth of e-commerce, comes the change in the way businesses interact with their target audience. 

This is where they need your agency to provide them with the digital marketing services they need to attract, engage and interact with more audiences. Entrepreneurs know that to gain a digital advantage and get more ready-buyers they need a successful digital marketing campaign. 

So what is digital process outsourcing and how outsourcing digital marketing services can it help your agency prosper?

What is Digital Process Outsourcing?

Digital process outsourcing is the process of outsourcing digital marketing services such as web design, SEO, content creation, social media management, PPC, and other digital services to an external provider.

While outsourcing is a common business practice, digital process outsourcing is intended to be absorbed by agencies to task their digital marketing processes to a third-party provider or a white label agency. Partnering with a white label digital marketing agency will allow you to get the services you need for your customers — complete with your specifications and branding. 

Digitisation of Businesses

The concept of digitising businesses has been around for a long time, though it began with the need to dematerialise documents for economic purposes. There’s also the efficiency of having electronic format of the files as it can be easily sorted, shared, and accessed.

Over the years, the process progressed from digitisation of business documents, to the digitisation of actual business processes (like specific operational processes, management processes, sales and marketing, and more). Now, we’re at the stage where businesses can fully operate and function online.

The changes and development don’t stop there. 

Unlike running a physical store, where buyers have to be in the same space as you in order to purchase your products or services, anyone can access the internet. Therefore, if you own an ecommerce store, buyers from anywhere in the world can purchase your product or service as long as they know your domain name or your products appear on the search results upon entering a query.

Now it becomes more competitive and more technical. There are many perks to owning an online business as seen from the number of entrepreneurs making the transition online. However, in order to attain optimum business performance online, you have to make sure you appear in front of your target buyers — this is where digital marketing kicks in, and digital process outsourcing comes in handy.

Digital Process Outsourcing: Why Do Agencies Outsource Digital Marketing?

Agencies aim to provide businesses with all the digital marketing services they need to be able to increase their visibility and revenue. However, there are instances where they need the support and assistance of a third-party provider in order to meet the demand of their clients or in some cases, scale.

Here are some situations as to why agencies need to outsource their digital services:

• A highly specialised skillset is needed but the cost of hiring and acquisition makes it harder to scale.
• Assistance in delivering services that are not readily available in-house.
• A lack of budget to maintain an office team.

A digital process outsourcing agency can provide you with these digital marketing services:

• Web development
• Web design
• Content Creation
• Ecommerce services
• Regular website updates or maintenance
• SEO services
• PPC services
• Social media marketing services
• Landing page optimization
• Reputation management

Digital Process Outsourcing: Benefits

As an entrepreneur, you will always experience a lack of time to attend to everything on your plate. But time management isn’t the only factor digital process outsourcing can help you with.  Here are some of the benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing services to a provider:

1. You can focus more on core business process and entrepreneurial tasks

Becoming an entrepreneur and owning your own agency doesn’t mean you’re free from tasks — it’s just the opposite, it might have just multipled. You might even find yourself working on projects that you can delegate to someone else so that you can focus more on client acquisition. 

In cases like this, you can work with a digital outsourcing agency to provide you with the digital marketing services you need to fulfill client requirements. 

For example, you can outsource SEO services if you’re an agency who needs to add SEO as an additional service to clients. This way, you won’t have to do it yourself or hire an additional team. Then you will have more time to focus on tasks related to ideation, planning, implementation and other entrepreneurial activities that will ensure that your agency will move in the right direction.

Outsourcing the tasks that are not within your skill set or initial priorities as an agency owner lets you get back to running your business and plan your next move to get ahead of the competition.

2. It’s cost-effective

Outsourcing digital marketing services is a great business strategy for saving costs. Not only do you save money on manpower, training, and hiring process but you also don’t have to spend on additional hardware, software, and the monthly electric bills. 

The outsourcing method has been a solution for companies who want to remain profitable whether it’s because of challenging economic times or they aim to scale faster.

Today, not only does it save you a ton of money but digital process outsourcing delivers quality work as well without the lengthy and costly hiring process.

3. Access to a pool of digital marketing specialists

Digital process outsourcing gives you access to the technical expertise you need. Whether it’s a web development team to deliver web design services, a PPC specialist to provide PPC services for your campaigns, an SEO expert for your SEO projects, or content marketers for your overall digital marketing campaign.

You get to access a broader skill set with curated expertise. Again, without the lengthy hiring process since your partner agency will be the one doing it for you — with the training need to upskill talents.

4. You have the bandwidth to acquire more clients

These are some of the main issues of an agency who want to acquire more clients:

• They don’t offer the services in-house
• They do offer the services in-house but have maxed out their capacity 

Outsourcing or offshore outsourcing is a strategy practiced by large companies in order to meet the growing demands of clients. An example would be Intel, one of the world’s largest suppliers of computer chips, outsourcing its components to other chip manufacturers. However, they chose to outsource due to a shortage of chipsets caused by an increase in demand for desktop computers.

As a business owner, you want to give your clients the best services possible, if that’s by hiring professionals to provide the services for you then adapt this practice to scale your company.

5. You learn along the way

Time is money in business. By working with an experienced digital marketing agency, not only do you get results, you also get to experience working with experienced professionals. See how they function and how their business processes work. If you like it then adapt and imbibe it into your own.

6. More professional workflow

With outsourcing you are sure to get a team who will always be able to deliver quality work on or before a set deadline. Time and quality are highly valued in the digital industry because they are the foundation of reputation and trust in clients.

In addition, a team of experts will always be there to answer your questions. You can expect that they’re always ready to help you out and give you professional advice at any time.

8. Organised timeline

A professional and experienced company will most certainly provide you with a dedicated support team that follows a timeline. 

You will get the services that you requested complete with timeline and deliverables. This makes for a more productive workflow.

It’s important to establish a bond or a connection with the agency you choose to work with mainly because they will be an extension of your business. They need to understand your brand and be aligned with who you are as a business. They are your team members. They will help you accomplish your goals and grow your business.

Digital Process Outsourcing: Where to Outsource for Agencies

Before taking a step further, you have to know where to outsource your digital marketing services and the available options. This way, you can evaluate their ability to meet your requirements. With proper research and interview process you can make sure that you’re getting the the right benefits in terms of quality and cost.

Here’s where you can outsource your digital marketing services:

Local Outsourcing. 

Local outsourcing is when you choose to outsource in your own country. Some of its advantages are:  you can easily find an outsourcing company that can service you, you’re sure that you both speak the same language and you’re both in the same time zone.

The setback of outsourcing locally is the cost. The cost of living is quite high in countries like the USA or any part of Europe. If you choose to outsource locally, make sure to do your research carefully as high costs don’t always guarantee high-quality services.

Offshore Outsourcing. 

This is when you choose to outsource outside of your country. 

Asia is a well-known country for outsourcing. The Philippines is a hotspot for outsourcing digital marketing services not only because English is one of its official languages but also, the country stands in the frontline of digital marketing in the area.

Wrapping It Up

Digital process outsourcing is indeed a great addition to your business strategy, however, it is a huge step. Before putting your foot in the door, it’s advisable to consider how every area in your business will be influenced by this move. So not only will you have to research and study how it will affect you internally, but you also have to put in the proper work in choosing the company to partner with. Make sure that they’re consistent in providing quality digital marketing services, they have the experience in dealing with a variety of clients, they’re flexible, and that there’s no language barrier or cultural barrier at all.

Of course, the quality of the services and the price are two of the main factors that will affect your decision, but that’s not all that’s important. You should also establish a great relationship with your partner agency. Get to know them and make sure that your principles align with each other.

When you find the right partner for your agency, digital process outsourcing can grow your digital marketing company in key areas including productivity, client base, and profit.

How Digital Process Outsourcing can Improve the Way You Run Your Agency

Owning an agency isn’t a walk in the park. People may view it as ‘freedom’ but only you know it works much differently. There are the challenges digital marketing agencies initially need to overcome and then there are also the day-to-day responsibilities you have to address as the owner. Some of these duties include management of sales, marketing, and operations as well as business maintenance. 

Juggling these can become overwhelming and that can lead you to lose focus on what really matters, building long-term relationships with clients.

Here’s how digital process outsourcing can improve the way you run your agency and move you towards victory.

Digital Process Outsourcing in a Nutshell

Digital process outsourcing is the method of tasking digital marketing services to a third-party provider. This includes search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, PPC, social media, web design, and development among others. 

Digital process outsourcing for agencies is more than just reinventing digital marketing solutions, it’s a method to provide your clients with quality services without a substantial increase in resources. This not only lets you focus on your core responsibilities but also allows you to scale your business efficiently.

Do you need to outsource your digital marketing?

If your current tasks and duties are overwhelming to the point where you can’t fully pay attention to your core responsibilities, digital process outsourcing can help you change the way you run your agency. Here are a few signs you should consider outsourcing digital marketing services.

-Operational tasks fill up your schedule

– You find it challenging to address customer demands

– You find it challenging to keep up with project deadlines and customer demands

– You find that you’re missing a lot of opportunities

– You find yourself working on projects

– You can’t progress because of routinary tasks

– Your sales are stagnant or declining

– Your employees are unable to handle some tasks

– Your managers are overworked and overloaded

– You find yourself frequently replacing talents as they can’t deliver the quality you need

– Increased churn rate

– Increased employee turnover rate

Why outsource digital marketing?

The benefits of outsourcing digital marketing services can be extensive in terms of saving time, money, resources, and energy.

According to research, 20 percent of small businesses don’t make it in their first year, while 30 percent of businesses get cut off their second year. After that, 50 percent close down after five years and then after a decade, 70 percent of small business owners fail.

There are many challenges that small and big companies alike face in their venture however, one of the main goals that every company is aiming for is to get customers to keep coming back. 

This is where digital process outsourcing comes in. Outsourcing digital marketing allows you to address two main problems of scaling at once. One is meeting client demands with quality services while the other is a lack of time for client relations and acquisition. Digital marketing providers leverage the benefit of an expert talent pool so that your agency can deliver quality services at a fraction of the cost. At the same time, it gives you more energy and frees up your schedule so that you can deal with more important tasks required from you as an agency owner.

By partnering with a trusted outsourcing agency, you can allot time to work more on your business and oversee it instead of being mixed in it. 

Wrapping up

Since the world population can now access the web at any time and from a number of devices, businesses are now migrating digitally and are realising the need for digital marketing. Thus, digital marketing will continue to grow as an industry.

You’re in a field where trends, technology, and strategy will always be developing and changing. There will always be updates happening at any time of the year. In order to be successful in your venture for years to come, you have to be eager to absorb new tactics, learn new skills, and meet new people. Give outsourcing a chance to help you run your business more efficiently and if you have further questions, reach out to a consultant to understand the process better.

5 Pandemic Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Get on Now

2020 was not kind to anyone — the pandemic and subsequent social distancing measures disrupted society on all levels, even forcing the commercial sector to rethink the way they operate and conduct their digital marketing efforts.

As a small business owner trying to cope, you’ve probably had to rely more than ever on your online presence to bring in customers. You’re not the only one doing that, though. A majority of companies and marketers are in the midst of a massive digital transformation. 

To help you assess your strategy for the new year, we’ve compiled a list of digital marketing trends for 2021 and show you how you can make it work to your advantage.

Paused Digital Marketing Campaign Launches to Resume

Numerous businesses elected to hold back the launch of new digital campaigns, pause existing ones or defer their plans to outsource digital marketing services in respect to the gravity of the situation. 

The pressure is on to keep operations running, however, and they are expected to resume or even ramp up their activities this summer. Make sure that you adjust your own campaigns to reflect the influx of competition online.

Businesses are re-thinking how they execute their marketing campaigns.

Major Changes to Existing Online Marketing Campaign

Almost half of marketers (42%) state that their teams didn’t have the bandwidth to radically alter their digital marketing plans at a drop of a hat. Instead, they’ve been re-prioritising and learning about creating valuable content during the lockdown.

The result is that existing content marketing strategies have gone through moderate changes to major overhauls to better suit the more digitally focused context of their audiences.

Start the new year at an advantage by revisiting your campaign strategies and making appropriate adjustments, paying particular attention to your social media platforms — a majority of your market has been spending more time there as of late.

Search for Better Real-Time Collaboration Tools

Convenient in-office communication took a blow when lockdown measures took effect. Around a fourth of employees working from home experienced difficulties communicating and collaborating effectively on top of having to shift their business’ priorities.

To avoid the same pitfalls for your workers this year, make sure to invest in collaborative tools like Basecamp, an online task manager and communication channel rolled into one.

Employees are gaining new digital competencies during their downtime.

Upskilling Digital Marketing Competencies

Thinking of putting yourself and your team into extra training sessions and seminars to broaden or upgrade your skill sets? You better! This matter is of special interest to your digital marketing team or service provider.

A survey revealed that 76% of businesses used the downtime caused by the lockdowns to upskill in the areas of SEO, social media, and data analytics. If you want to stay competitive, you need to make sure that your team’s abilities are not only current, but valuable in light of the current situation.

Implementation of More Digital Transformation Strategies

It’s already apparent that a majority of SMBs’ target audience has migrated much of their old activities online. In response to this, a significant number of companies have plans to digitally transform their operations beyond just marketing online.

Although this sort of progression is expected for the industry, the pandemic has set it to overdrive. In order to stay a step ahead, your business needs better tech solutions, like those that allow better aggregation and analysis of customer data.

Whether your business has already made provisions to get a leg up on the recovery or is just about to it, you can count on an emerging method to help you make a clean transition from the outdated model to a more efficient one capable of withstanding the pressures of a global crisis: Digital Process Outsourcing by Axadra.

Discover the optimal way to do online marketing with digital process outsourcing.

Trust Your Digital Transformation to Us

Axadra, a digital marketing agency, can help your transition to a digital presence that provides your consumers with an online experience that is aware of their expectations and uses the best available tools and technologies to address them at every step of their journey.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our Digital Process Outsourcing service.

Top Challenges Digital Marketing Agencies Should Overcome in 2021 | Axadra

Demand for digital marketing services will continue to rise for businesses of all industries in the coming years. It will be the go-to solution to enhance important areas like customer engagement, visibility, search engine optimisation, and more. As an agency, you will have to be prepared for the upcoming challenges and stay ahead of the competition in order to be the first to grab opportunities as they come. Not only will it make managing your digital marketing agency easier, but it will also be more beneficial in the long run. Here are the main challenges for agency owners today.

1. Acquiring Leads

Acquiring marketing qualified leads (MQL) or sales qualified leads (SQL) can be a real challenge for agencies especially with the competition. Remaining visible in the market will give you the edge you need. Sure you need to be able to provide quality services and deliver promises, however before you reach the point of talking to clients, clients must first be made aware that your business exists. People should know about you. There are a number of tips to keep your business visible during tough economic times, here are some of them:

– Know and define your target audience

– Understand their buyer’s journey

– Get their attention by publishing relevant content

– Know which platform works best for your agency

2. Converting Leads to Clients

Once you’ve overcome the hurdle of maintaining your visibility, it’s now time to inform the client why you’re the best option and get them to convert. However, having leads that don’t convert is one of the most challenging aspects of running a successful agency. In order to convert leads to sales, an agency should have a well-informed marketing strategy.

3. Finding the Right Team

A winning agency needs a winning team. However, with the amount of competition, hiring the best can be tough. Most are already working for other agencies or can come at a really high price. 

One solution to this is having an in-house training program and training people yourself. This is great if you have time and resources to spare. Another option is to hire a remote digital marketing team or a virtual team to provide the services for you. Partnering with a third-party digital process outsourcing company will give you access to a talent pool who are best at what they do at a price suited to your budget.

4. Scaling Operations

Scaling operations will always be a challenge as your agency continues to grow. However, this coming year will come in tougher as businesses have to adapt to a new paradigm that will influence plans for growth. 

As a business owner, you have to define how you want to scale your business and operations. Do you want your agency to run in different cities or countries? Whatever your vision is, you have to note that each department in your agency has to be ready to scale along with the services.

Acquiring new clients means that you have to make sure you deliver quality services at all times. You have to ensure that you have the manpower to manage the demand from your clients. On top of that, all your systems need to be up-to-date in order to monitor key areas of operations such as sales, operations, finance, and HR.

To address the challenge of scaling operations, digital agencies partner with third-party vendors to provide them with the services they need. One scenario would be is if you had five web design projects for different clients who prefer different platforms and you don’t have the manpower to execute these orders. 

One way to provide the service without putting in additional time and cost of hiring in-house is to have a third-party digital marketing agency offering web design and development services handle the tasks for you. All you have to do is tell the team what you need and they will deliver according to the specifications you require. This is the same with SEO services, content marketing services, and PPC.

5. Client Retention

Retaining an existing client will ultimately result to a greater ROI, not to mention it costs up to 25x less than acquiring new customers. Simply put, client retention increases profit. However, the unforeseen challenges that most have experienced the past year have caused problems increasing client retention rate. 

For digital marketing agencies, one of the main causes of poor customer retention is being unable to manage existing clients. Effectively managing relationships with existing clients is key to a long-lasting relationship.

There are two key factors that you should consider in boosting client retention: 

– Customer satisfaction

– Delivering quality services

If you run an agency that delivers multiple services, it’s important that your clients not only get what they pay for but they are getting the quality service and support they require. 

Your main responsibility as an agency owner is to create new relationships and manage existing relationships with clients. Delivery shouldn’t be a problem since you can hire talents or outsource digital marketing services if you need to address operational issues.

One way to ensure that your clients are happy is to be hands-on with weekly or monthly reporting and calls. You have to oversee that account managers are communicating with your clients and are addressing all their requests properly.

6. Staying Up-To-Date with Technology and Trends

The digital marketing world will be constantly developing, and in order to stay on top, you have to adapt to these changes as well. It’s not just the trends but also the technology which is the primary driving force of digitised marketing.

Most agencies find it difficult to keep up with technologies and trends. Why is this so? Owning an agency can be stressful and digital marketing updates flooding the web everyday can be overwhelming. No matter how good you are at time management, there will be important updates or trends you can miss out on.

Here are ways to ensure you’re on top of technology and trends in the digital marketing landscape.

Sign Up for Newsletters. Subscribing to influencer blogs and newsletters will keep you on track with what’s happening in the industry. It’s also an excellent way to get insight and have an idea of what can work for you or what you would prefer to pass upon.

Connect with Like-Minded People. There’s getting news from the newsstand and then there’s getting first-hand information from savvy marketers like yourself. You can meet like-minded individuals at events or through professional social networking sites like LinkedIn. 

Once you have formed meaningful connections, make sure to catch up periodically and learn what they’re doing in terms of digital marketing for their brands. This is a great way to see how trends are working out for them as well.

Invest in Upskilling. Help your team gain new knowledge and keep up with the changes in digital marketing by upgrading their skills. When employees learn new things about their craft, they become more committed to their job and more engaged as they are driven to step up their game. Upskilling is also a great way to increase the employee retention rate.

Outsource Services. Outsourcing tasked to a specialised digital process outsourcing agency is another way to stay on top of emerging technology trends. Digital agencies tend to always be updated in terms of software, hardware, and digital trends. Make it easier for your agency by knowing what tasks should be done in-house and which ones can be assigned to a third-party source.

Digital marketing has become a key component of a business’ overall strategy. On top of this, businesses are always looking to partner with an agency that can give them the latest services. Regular benchmarking against competitors and make sure that your team members are doing the same thing.

Wrapping It Up

These are the top challenges digital marketing agencies are facing today and can face in the future. There’s no easy road to success but you can always be prepared for the hurdles to come. Knowing how to rise above these challenges will make managing your digital marketing agency much more pleasurable and rewarding. Remember, you’re not in it alone.

If you deem it necessary, you can always get in touch with a digital marketing consultant outside your firm. Getting fresh insights from another professional’s perspective can help you find missing answers to some of your questions – and that might just be your key to a successful strategy.

Succeeding in digital marketing requires an open mind, openness to learning, and trying new ideas, tools, or strategies. Always be ready to experiment and test this way, you’re sure to keep up with the trends and stay ahead of your competitors.

Start the Year Right: Top 5 Digital Marketing Strategy Resolutions

After the unprecedented events of the past year, even if not everything has been solved neatly, the coming of the New Year still feels like a chance to officially start turning things around and face the future. So, while the start of the year has traditionally been reserved for self-reflection and personal goal setting, perhaps this is also the year we break a little from the usual and familiar. 

If you are a business owner, you should look beyond the self and set an online marketing strategy resolution to revamp your digital marketing services. You’ll be able to tailor a smarter and nimbler strategy based on the lessons learned last year, thereby helping increase performance rates and revenue in the face of the new normal, as well as revitalising your brand’s digital presence.

To help identify which digital marketing practices could make your year, we’ve listed down five resolutions that are sure to give you an opportunity to get ahead of your online endeavours.

Curate a More Meaningful Online Presence 

You can future-proof you and your company better this year by overhauling your business’ digital marketing strategy to make it more meaningful. Make time to review your website and social media pages and curate content accordingly. 

You want to go for a look that is both true to your brand without being flippant of the circumstances you and your clients are in the middle of. Empathy and compassion, with a drive to overcome obstacles of the present, is key for the new year.

Better Digital Marketing

Step Up Your Digital Marketing Gameplan 

For too long, marketers have been overly focused on keyword-based digital marketing campaigns. This year, your business’ online gameplan should take advantage of burgeoning online advertising tools, platforms and other opportunities, such as providing content that your audience will value and engage with and ensuring excellent user experiences.

Remember: your marketing plan isn’t a two-dimensional map. Rather, it’s a complex web of interconnecting parts that move at their own pace but still significantly affect one another. Your 2021 digital strategy should thus also involve:

Investing in Video Marketing. Videos have undoubtedly come out on top when it comes to keeping an audience’s attention, as well as garnering likes, shares, and other types of engagement. While it does take a little more effort and resources to create and distribute this type of content, the payoff for quality work is worth it.

Optimising for voice search. Voice search volume has steadily been growing a loyal user base in the background. Mobile users alone are three times more likely to use voice search, which is not to say that their smart speaker counterparts aren’t utilising the technology to shop and to input a search query widely as well. 

Voice search is a heavily underutilised tool that you can use to rank your site because competition is so scarce. Grab the opportunity to pull ahead this year.

Utilising video content. With so much information bombarding your consumers, it’s natural that they’d gravitate towards a medium that could give them what they need to know quickly, briefly and efficiently — and, with brains able to process videos 60,000 times faster than text, resolving to use this type of medium more in the new year seems like a no-brainer.

Enhancing your business’ social media presence. Social media platforms are one of the most dynamic forces on the internet, currently. This year, don’t hesitate to enhance your online presence by utilising interactive posts and stories — polls, promotions and the like — to encourage engagement with your business content. Also, don’t forget to keep your social media efforts consistent!

Building an Online Community through Digital Marketing

Use Digital Marketing to Build a Community

While a large audience is a dream for online marketers and businesses, it’s not a very realistic one if you really want consumers who are present and truly interested in your brand or products and services. Make it a New Year’s resolution to focus on building smaller but tighter-knit communities. 

You’ll need to take advantage of all the resources at your disposal, including checking product reviews and engagement on your social media posts, to realise this resolution. So, be sure to actively listen to your existing customer base. 

Show that you value their opinion and that you’re ready to take their suggestions into account. This won’t only be a positive mark on their books, but will also make a good impression on first-time visitors.

Learn a New Digital Marketing Skill

As we discussed in a previous article, the digital transformation was accelerated further by the global circumstances last year. Not only is an above-average understanding of emerging trends online a nice “extra” to have. Rather, it’s become somewhat expected in order to keep up.

Right now is the best time to learn a new digital marketing skill. It could be about learning the bones of a social media campaign or getting better at using your online tools for paid ads like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Not only will it look better on your resume; the new skill will help with creating an integrated digital process for your business so your marketing channels move more synergistically.

Opportunities from Digital Process Outsourcing

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone: Look into Digital Process Outsourcing

Your New Year’s digital marketing resolutions serve as your business’ road map to the online landscape in the middle of a  transformation. When things seem difficult along the way, just refer to this and remember what you and your company strives for — you can even use this as a basis to tailor your own list!

Whichever method you choose to use to set yourself up for the year, Axadra can help. We are a digital process outsourcing company that can provide the online marketing solutions you need to thrive even when things are in flux.

Contact us today to learn more about our services.

Reinventing Internet Marketing Solutions through Digital Process Outsourcing

The pursuit of better ways of doing things has long been a human preoccupation. In the past couple of years, however, the activity has gone through a massive transformation in the digital sphere. From industries in their entirety all the way down to individual businesses, a majority are utilising digital processes to ease the burden of a task or job. And it’s certainly been a welcome lifeline during these unprecedented times. 

Each digital tool that is developed brings technological system improvements, like more efficient operations and reduced process costs. They thus lead to a more flexible repertoire of solutions. That’s only scratching the surface of what one can do with the digital process, however. More than the enhancement of physical working conditions and operations, the system could also be harnessed to cover less tangible matters like marketing one’s business online.

What is Internet Marketing?

What is Internet Marketing?

Marketing is the practice of using any available means or channel to spread a target audience’s awareness of a brand or that brand’s capabilities in order to draw in potential clients and grow that business’ customer pool. 

For years, it was the playground of in-house teams from big-brand companies that could spare the manpower and afford the heavy toll on resources. But digital transformation has drastically leveled the playing field via internet marketing, which is, in a nutshell, everything that regular marketing is but with the added benefit of being significantly more cost-effective, far-reaching, exacting, and even more diverse. 

Internet or digital marketing changed the name of the game. Businesses could now promote themselves or their brand using digital tools like email marketing, search engine and social media marketing, display and mobile advertising to drive traffic and subsequent sales.

It gave rise to a trend of advertising and marketing agencies that catered to the needs of less digitally savvy business owners of small and medium enterprises with less in the way of budgets and more to gain. 

Why is Internet Marketing Critical in Today’s Climate?

In the past, consumers were dependent on the information fed to them by the very same businesses they bought their goods or hired services from. Now, they have found a voice online — or, rather, voices. 

Consumers are turning to a growing and thriving network of crowd-sourced information for help with their buying decisions. This means that the power over who can influence final purchasing decisions is heavily skewed to the consumers’ side.

When further applied to current circumstances which led to lockdowns and travel and social distancing restrictions on a global scale, internet marketing’s role in the global business community is further emphasised; not only are customers dependent on online voices on various social media platforms to sway their purchasing decisions, but they are also online to make those purchases.

There has never been a time when investing in digital marketing solutions for your business made more sense.

Businesses’ Benefit from Internet Marketing

How Do Businesses Benefit from Internet Marketing?

Marketing materials cost-efficiency. Cost is always going to be a consideration for any business. Often, it’s the marketing budget that first takes the hit when the company needs to cut back on its spending. With the onset of internet marketing and the growth of the digital landscape, however, many businesses are able to bypass the prohibitive expense related to running several high-cost traditional marketing campaigns. 

Internet marketing, therefore, is an effective and cost-effective method for spreading brand awareness and gaining new traffic. It scraps the costs of physical retail markets, recurring costs of property maintenance and rental significantly, if not entirely. 

Another consideration is that, without the need for a physical store, there is no need to keep your shelves lined with products. Rather, you could simply restock when it’s necessary instead of incorrectly anticipating the demand for your product.

Reasonable and convenient working hours. With an internet marketing strategy in place, you could be the business hero of your employees. Not only will you be cutting down your expenses while advertising your company round-the-clock; you’ll also be removing concerns over staff wages, overtime and store hours. Customers can simply shop for your products and services online on your website when it’s convenient for them, irrespective of when your physical store closes.

Furthermore, the combination of a digital platform with which to sell your product or service and an internet marketing strategy means that you can go global. The different time zones in different parts of the world won’t affect your campaigns.

Personalised advertising approach. Internet marketing not only opened new channels with which to reach out to and engage with a business’ target audience. It also made the manner in which enterprises communicated with said audience easily customisable. 

By compiling a customer profile with their preferences and purchase history, businesses can send out targeted offers that suit customers’ needs and personalise communications between them and their clients, further strengthening the business’ brand image and presence. 

The data you gather to be able to personalise your campaigns can also help you plan your moves better. You can help increase the value of your sales by consumers with a more accurate understanding of your customers’ behaviors and pain points.

Diversification of online platforms. While the internet provides a general avenue with which to market your brand and products and services, it doesn’t mean that it is a homogenous channel. There are various platforms that draw in different types of users with different tastes and needs. Chief among these are social media platforms.

Social media’s function goes beyond acting as a digital space where users can gather. Although virtual in nature, social media is still a community — and businesses can leverage that power to positively influence online revenue growth.

Consumers are strongly influenced by their social networks, especially when the forum allows for comments, reviews, and other easy ways to engage and share thoughts with others. By incorporating social media into an advertising campaign, therefore, a business stands to gain much in the way of profits.

Enhanced ability to retain clients. An internet presence already makes it easier for your customers to find you. The ease and convenience of finding a solution to their problem is a double-edged sword, however; your competition has as much of a chance of being found and luring paying customers away from you. 

How do you retain your target market’s attention?

Building strong, lasting relationships with customers is a simple, but often overlooked aspect of brand building and which internet marketing holds a natural edge. While using this strategy, businesses can contact or engage with prospects and existing buyers to send information about special discounts, new products or services, etc., generally keeping their name at the forefront of consumers’ minds. 

Another way you can build upon your relationship with your customers is to add a personal touch to the information packet your business sends out. Alternatively, you could also invite them to share their thoughts on their purchases by submitting a review. 

Not only do reviews and other types of engagement contribute to your social signals, but it also fosters a healthy community network between other customers. 

Extended reach via social media. Internet marketing, by way of social media platforms, not only allows you to bypass employee working hours and advertise in different time zones. Marketing your business online allows you to overcome a slew of barriers related to distance, such as setting up shop in those faraway places; it means a global reach for your business. 

With the ability to get in touch with customers all around the world, your small- to medium-sized business can compete on a level playing field with multinational companies.  

Maximising Your Internet Marketing Potential through Outsourcing

The case in favor of utilising internet marketing solutions is solid. Certainly, the benefits of using it as part of your brand awareness and advertising strategy are significant enough to consider barriers to using it negligible. There is one consideration, however: methodology.

With all the advantages promised and the relative ease of access to the internet, plus the online tools necessary to start a marketing campaign, it might be tempting to jump right into it. Take some time to fully consider this direction, however.

Unless you already have an in-depth understanding of internet marketing services and how it relates to your business’ industry, starting a campaign from scratch is a gamble. Internet-savvy consumers — likely also a significant portion of your target market — will be able to sense, if not plainly see, the disorganisation of your online presence.

For the best results, it’s ideal to coordinate and plan your online marketing efforts first. From the initial campaign design phase to the launch and subsequent maintenance of your internet marketing efforts, your business’ strategy needs to be an air-tight ship sailing along.

The burning question now is: does your business have the bandwidth and resources to get that show on the road?

If you’re a small- or medium-sized business trying to utilise the opportunities offered by the internet to be more competitive, then the answer is likely “no.” In order to accomplish all these in-house, you’ll have to hire an experienced internet marketing team or train new professionals. Either way, you’ll likely be draining your budget on a department that isn’t a direct revenue-generating part of your operations.

What’s a business of your admittedly limited means to do? After all the trouble to point out all its benefits, will you be left hanging? Of course not. Outsourcing the work is a wholly viable and responsible way to reap the benefits of internet marketing without throwing a significant portion of the company budget on the investment.

By digitally outsourcing your internet marketing service needs, you’ll be able to focus on the profitable aspects of your company without sacrificing any opportunities for growth. These advantages can even be applied and measured on a short and long-term basis, including:

Work and process automation. A third-party set-up could ensure better coordination and synergy between your business and supplier or customer.

Quality standard compliance. Outsourcing tasks that aren’t part of your business’ core competencies to professionals significantly reduce issues related to quality compliance.

Resource and space optimisation. By opting for an outsourced internet marketing arrangement, you free up employees to focus on their specialties and don’t have to worry where to place the marketing team.

How are you going to make the most of your Internet Marketing endeavours this year?

Outsourcing Your Internet Marketing in 2021

The digital landscape is ever-evolving. What does the new year mean for the internet marketing industry? The short answer is that the already dynamic strategy and process will be further bolstered and pushed to the limits by the market’s expectations and current global circumstances. 

The more detailed explanation is that businesses can expect the following changes and prepare for them accordingly:

Sweeping digital transformation. The novel coronavirus hastened the evolution of many aspects of the digital sphere over the course of last year. It left many businesses scrambling to find solid ground. This year will be about settling into the new normal; business processes, models and competencies will be more defined by updated regulatory frameworks and innovative bodies.

Scarcity of “new” skills and competencies in businesses. With the boom of new technologies and applications, like food delivery apps and the like, in such a short period to account for our new normal, businesses were understandably busy playing up. They’ll be in need of specialists and solutions to properly utilise these developments and turn them into revenue-generating opportunities.

Demand for process interconnectedness. In the face of such rapid change and the call for pioneers who could lay a solid foundation for all those developments, businesses and even third-party providers need to look more closely at how to make processes even more interconnected.

The challenge is for all the main players to cooperate and develop a holistic approach to outsourcing by broadening their scope of services and introducing an innovative value proposition. They need to blend the unique aspects of C-suite business growth concerns with the plethora of outsourcing specialties into an organic whole into the next step in digital outsourcing.

What’s Next? Axadra’s Digital Process Outsourcing

Although some aspects of the digital revolution have already been around for a couple of years, the unique blend of circumstances has created a perfect storm that’s set to quickly change the entire tone of the industry for the foreseeable future. 

What does it look like? And how do you make it work to your advantage? 

Axadra can show you. Our Digital Process Outsourcing solutions take into account all the benefits that you want to see as the result of all your internet marketing campaigns as well as provide critical “emerging” industry tools and expertise to make everything work. We strive for the fulfillment of the evolving demands of clients and global circumstances to make businesses strong competitors locally and abroad.

Moreover, Digital Process Outsourcing, as we’ve envisioned it, goes beyond the scale of a venture. Rather, we will zoom into the very nature of our business relationships with each other. The interconnectedness of the disparate campaign segments and the process that ties them all together will allow Axadra to respond nimbly with inspired and highly developed solutions to the evolving demands of businesses like you and your clients. 

From a simple solution that addressed convenience, audience reach and cost issues among several small- to medium-sized businesses by leveling the marketing playing field on the digital landscape, internet advertising has evolved into an opportunity to develop entire industries and its partners. Together, Digital Process Outsourcing can become an intrinsic and holistic apparatus that benefits all the players.

Once only driven by the desire to reduce overall spend, transfer the job of non-core tasks to specialists, and improve in-house operational performance, the internet marketing strategy has evolved the concept of outsourcing a business’ digital processes into a veritable juggernaut of interconnectedness. 

It’s come to mean that businesses can enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with their outsource partner — instead of one party investing in the convenient service that the other offers, both or several parties invest in and care about each other’s growth.