Once you understand that the Internet is more than just an information
super highway, you will truly be able to harness its power for your
own business. After all, while the number of individuals who are
searching for information and new stories may be substantial, the
number of those who are using it as a creative outlet and a social
venue is rising steadily. In some cases, the lines blur and some may
utilize the ‘Net for all three activities and thus will have access to
a wide range of diverse contacts from all over the world. Reaching the
individuals with your business’ goods and services can be a bit of a
challenge sometimes, especially if you are firmly in command of your
niche, but have very little contact outside of this area.

While there are a host of reasons why outsourcing your Internet
marketing efforts makes a lot of sense and can result in a sizeable
increase in business and thus profit, here is a list of the top five
reasons for outsourcing Internet marketing:

By outsourcing your Internet marketing, you will have the ability to
revamp your overall ‘Net marketing and actually infuse it with a
higher level of quality. This holds true especially if you are a home
based business entrepreneur and you are already a Jack of all trades;
leaving your company’s visibility on the Internet to the professionals
will permit you to have it done right and infuse your business with
the kind of reputation that the big corporations enjoy. As a matter of
fact, you might actually find your business ad right next to one of
the heavy hitters, thus siphoning off quite a few sales that way!

You will gain marketing experts who understand that they will not
realize a gain unless they do their job well. Thus, your company’s
exposure will skyrocket virtually overnight since the Internet
marketers you choose to utilize will ensure that whatever mode of
Internet marketing you might have chosen will be exploited to its
fullest potential.

You will reach a diversified audience where qualified leads will come
from segments of the population you would not have reached otherwise.
For example, if you sell dog cookies you will most likely understand
that advertising to the dog lovers is a good idea, but if you keep in
mind that ferrets, too, enjoy dog cookies and if you are familiar with
the various ferret fancier organizations, you will tap into a whole
new market that you might have never reached otherwise. Savvy
marketers will be aware of this market and bring you qualified
clientele.

Risk management is another reason that is highly attractive to the
average entrepreneur. In a day and age where SPAM can be traced
effectively back to a user and machine, the ability to let someone
else deal with and worry about the legality of sending out an email
marketing blitz is a most valuable tool for protecting your company’s
assets and also reputation.

Last but not least, consider the fact that outsourcing your Internet
marketing also allows you to take your company global! Marketers in
India, Russia, and any other country will have the opportunity to
present your promotional materials to their ‘Net surfers, and thus
your goods or services may soon find an international appeal.

Outsourcing your online marketing effort is always a bit of a gamble.
If you pick the right company, your business will soar like never
before and you and your staff will celebrate with Champaign at the
holiday party. Conversely, if you pick the wrong company, you and your
staff may not have a holiday party because by then you might be out of
business or had to cut back on your employment budget so severely that
you may not have any staff left.

Here are the top three dangers of outsourcing online marketing you
must be aware of:

First and foremost is fraud. Sure, you will have an agreement, a
contract, and a clear understanding of the damages to which you are
entitled if the company defrauds you, but what will happen if it is
not the company that defrauds you but simply one employee assigned to
your account? If the company permits this individual in good faith to
work on your behalf, it will most likely be found blameless in court
because it could not have known that this individual was going to
commit fraud. While a criminal prosecution may restore the
outsourcer’s and also your reputation, it cannot restore any financial
damage you may have suffered or still will suffer, especially if the
general public has a hard time letting go of the negative image that
is now associated with your company name. Fraud in online marketing is
easily done, and while it may not always affect the consumer, the
times that it will are quite serious.

Secondly, you face the danger of becoming a victim of industrial
espionage. If a dishonest company or even just one individual within
the employ of the outsourcer works for a competitor, then your trade
secrets and up and coming advertising campaigns will become known to
your competition well in advance, enabling them to take steps to
either counter your efforts or minimize them with the help of their
own well planned promotions. Remember that any time you outsource any
aspect of your company’s activities you are permitting a third party a
glimpse into places that you would not let anyone else peek into. You
may be able to mitigate some of the risk if you specify this in your
service agreement; however, if the act of the industrial espionage
does not become known, you have no way to understand why even the best
planned campaign is not working.

Last but not least, do not underestimate the danger gaining a bad
reputation. While you can specify, to a certain extent, how your ad
campaign will be handled, the fact that you are outsourcing online
marketing completely could spell disaster for your company. Even
though larger advertising firms will be careful in their placement of
your promotional materials, others may underestimate the direction a
certain website will head for when posting your ads. Thus, you may
become associated with generally held to be negative activities, such
as spamming, gambling, or other shady business practices.

Who knows your company better than you? Conversely, who care more about your company and its ultimate success than you do? Even if you were able to find an outsource company that shared your vision and were able to lock into an iron clad agreement that would guarantee you an unprecedented level of care with respect to your company’s handling, would you still be able to have your online marketing done in such a manner that is would surpass your in-house capabilities? In all honesty, the answer is probably still no.

Yet can the downside of outsourcing online marketing be offset by higher revenues? This is a question only you and your senior level management team are able to ponder successfully. In addition to the foregoing, you might be able to find out simply by an increase in call volume and productivity figures, yet these may also be due to the fact that mistakes are being made and customers need to be placated with the help of employees working overtime to fill orders so as to maintain the current customer relationships your company enjoys.

Perhaps the greatest danger that will occur during your outsourcing of online marketing efforts is the possibility of a sudden spike in staff retention problem in other departments. Fearing for their job security and perhaps also unwilling to adjust to a sudden loss of a key department in the corporate office, some senior management, and eventually also regular employees, may decide to seek their fortunes elsewhere. While you may be able to head off some of this migration by clearly defining the scope of any outsourcing you are planning to do at this point in time, you may not be able to stem the tide completely. This may affect your other departments to such an extent that the hoped for increase in revenues may actually become a bit more of a liability than an asset, at least in the short run.

Furthermore, the fact that an outsourcer will not possess the knowledge of what makes your company run will be translated into a somewhat skewed picture that is promoted to the consumer. For example, if you pride yourself on the fact that your call volume is low, the outsourcer most likely will not take that into account when crafting an ad campaign. This may or may not present a problem. First and foremost, if this is only an asset to your mind but does not affect overall customer behavior, you will lose nothing. If it is a pet project of several of the management staff and a great source of pride to your staff, than a failure to acknowledge this milestone will result in employee dissatisfaction and perhaps turnover; finally, if this is something that customers care about in your particular industry but the ad campaign does not focus enough on this point, you will be missing out on new business.

The downside of outsourcing online marketing offset by higher revenues is a reality that will only come to pass if certain components are properly aligned. Serious discussions and planning sessions involving your senior management staff first and all other employees subsequently will help to mitigate the worst aspects of the downside in the long run.

Internet marketing is the art of persuading a possible customer to
take a second look at your company, product or service before the
individual even considers entering into a business relationship with
you. Considering the plethora of Internet Marketing tools and you will
quickly get the idea that an unsuspecting web surfer stumbling across
one of your many ads is higher than at first assumed.

After all, if you engage in blog marketing, your name, company,
products, services, and very specific aspects that make you a unique
company are virtually added to the ‘Net’s vast content on a daily
basis. The most skilled blog marketers are able to commandeer stunning
visitor number by adding highly relevant web content to their pages
and blogs, thus making your ads seen by a large group of people who
might never have otherwise been exposed to it.

Similarly, if you engage in affiliate marketing, email marketing, and
display advertising, you will reach a segment of the buying population
that heretofore was perhaps not on your radar screen. Outsourcing this
form of Internet marketing is highly advisable not only because in the
long run it saves you a lot of money in your advertising budget, but
also because you will invite a highly diversified group of
professional Internet marketers to come to your aid.

In addition to the foregoing, it is up to you to decide how much
control of the individual business application you are transferring
you are willing to confer on the individual marketers. This level of
control supersedes any control you might even have of an in-house
marketing department, yet it comes with some trade offs. No matter how
well you draft your contractual understanding of the marketing efforts
that are being undertaken on your behalf, there is no control of the
individual Internet marketer who may choose to disregard your
instructions.

In recent years the notion of offshoring is also becoming a business
model that many companies are beginning to include in their
outsourcing efforts. Everyone already knows that many call centers
have relocated their customer service functions to India and other
countries where labor is cheap, individuals are eager to learn the
skills needed to succeeds, and where the combination of eagerness and
low costs makes the most business sense.

In the realm of Internet marketing, the lure of offshoring this
function is especially great, since savvy start up marketing companies
in the developing countries are highly competitive in their quotes and
promise a level of customer service and results that in some cases is
not rivaled by their domestic competitors.

It is advisable to consider the wisdom of such action, however, since
the doubled edged sword of outsourcing and offshoring Internet
marketing may catch you in the crossfire of a public relations dilemma
that might weigh heavier than the generation of qualified leads for
your business can offset. Criticism has been rife about offshoring in
general, but with the recent barrage of SPAM generating from various
countries, many an email filter is now routinely filtering out any
messages that are generated in those countries.

Similarly, in some cases the leads generated for your business are
simply curiosity seekers who might have seen a foreign looking ad on a
local page, but who have no intent or resources to make use of your
goods and services.