The decisions are made. So you’re an IT firm and you’ve decided to outsource your marketing and have identified your partner as well. You certainly may have made the right move but if your intentions are right and your approach isn’t – then it may spell disaster for all. As marketers, you can keep these points in mind while tying up with your marketing process outsourcing (MPO) partner.
- How clear is the strategy of dealing with the MPO partner – A lot of marketers follow the approach of providing a list of to-do’s to their partners; and expect results – but an ideal situation would be to have a strategy where there is room for continuous feedback and have a close loop where in the cycle of strategise-> implement-> feedback prevails. In fact if you don’t have a CMO it’s always better to let your MPO strategize.
- Marketing – Sales – Marcom – It’s all different – as far as most IT firms are concerned, marketing teams generally deal with Marcom, pre sales support and so on. While dealing with your MPO partner, you may have to clearly define your expectations from the market function as its understanding is different in different industries. This will ensure both of you on the same track.
- Goals – whatever the goals are, whether they are generic or specific towards researching on a new market- they have to be made clear and communicated properly. At the same time there should be scope for review and evaluation as well.
- Metrics- It’s good to define the metrics at the start of the deal. This way both of you can spend quality time and the expectations can be put across.
There may also be times where you may end up outsourcing different activities to different partners. The only caveat here is that as a firm you need to communicate clearly on what the expectations are from each vendor and how will it align well with the organizational objectives- else you know what the saying is – too many cooks spoil the broth!
