Things to Look Out For When You Outsource Online Marketing Gigs

Every business aims to achieve heights of success in a short period. This ambition leads to a heavy workload and unachievable deadlines for the employees. 45% of entrepreneurs are stressed today because of overwork. And when you are stressed, you can’t produce the best quality work.

The ultimate solution for enthusiastic entrepreneurs is to outsource the work. You can share your workload with professional freelancers or firms. And there are ways to ensure that you receive the best quality.

Why should you outsource?

There are 5 major challenges for every business. They are- hiring new employees, their healthcare, revenue management, cash flow, and boosting profit. By outsourcing, you are relaxed from the first two challenges. The rest of the challenges are automatically overcome if you hire talented freelancers.

Track where you spend your time

Time is the most valuable asset for an entrepreneur. First, you have to find the essential tasks which you should outsource.

This app RescueTime will help you with this. It would track your time spent on different tasks on the computer. Let us learn how to use it.

To analyze how you spend your month, click on the rescue time icon on the top> Go to the dashboard in the drop-down. Now, you will see a break down of spending time. Next click on reports then application & websites. Now choose the month you want to analyze.

You will get a bar graph representing the time you gave to different tasks. Closely observe the tasks you have spent less time with. These are the ones that need outsourcing!

By outsourcing these specific tasks, you can devote more time to the core competencies.

Select the areas where you perform poorly

There are many tasks in your business which you fail to accomplish. It may be because you don’t have optimum skills. Then why to waste your time in those areas? Outsource them to an agency. Agencies have different professionals like designers, developers, writers all in one team. So, they will do the quality work for you.

Here you save a lot because you don’t have to hire for each job role separately. And yes you saved time to focus on your strong areas!

Why you should not outsource certain tasks?

There is a unique style of your company that sets your product apart. If you outsource everything, then you will lose the authenticity. So, don’t outsource the tasks that infuse your essence into the product.

Again, don’t outsource a task only because you are not interested to do it. For example, employee hiring, customer support, and sales. These tasks require close monitoring. If you outsource these, you may suffer a loss. To tackle these types of tasks, try learning the skills or hire a few employees.

Outsource to a software

Software outsourcing is more cost-effective than hiring freelancers. The errors would be less and software never gets exhausted.

Automation with Software

There are many tasks in a business that you tend to repeat. If you use software and automate these functions, much of your time will be saved.

IFTTT– If This, Then That is the name of this free software. Here you can automate tasks like posting on social media, recording invoices. It also automates email sending, Google docs. You get an automatic notification when a customer mails you.

Zapier- This is a more advanced tool for automating segment customer emails, import new Stripe customers to CRM. But, it is not a free service.

Shorten your tasks through software

Instead of outsourcing, you can simplify some processes at work. An amazing tool is Text Expander. It auto expands the half-sentences you write. So, it comes in handy while writing official emails or common headers for your blogs.

You should also learn the keyboard shortcuts and use time-saving apps.

Automate your social media

Social media and email marketing require you to stay online 24×7, which is impossible. Here are a few apps you can use.

Hootsuite- Here you can prepare the social media updates beforehand.

Edgar- Schedule posts using a content library.

Buffer- Create a list of content to be posted on your social media handles.

ContactMonkey- Schedule and automatically send emails to your clients.

Outsource business systems

Some tasks of your company are to be done a few times per year like – tax payment. It is not economical to hire a special employee to look after this. You should outsource this to an accounting firm. Other similar tasks are making an IT team, legal works management.

But how to find the ideal firm to outsource? Take care of the below three things:

1. Local- If your task requires the immediate presence of the worker, the firm must be in your vicinity. So, look for a local agency.
2. Expertise- This must be your top priority. You should never compromise with it.
3. Experience- Outsource to a suitable firm that has rich experience in the field.

F&A- Finances and Accounting can also be outsourced if you are not familiar with it. You can hire an accounting firm, CPA or take an online service. Timber Tax is a popular accounting service. They use advanced resources and software to give you the best service.

You can also outsource the HR Managing Work to agencies that specialize in it. This way you would save time to invest in other important goals.

IT is an important aspect of every business. You will be having project-based and SOW tasks. Instead of squeezing your brain, you can outsource these tasks to talented agencies.

For looking after the legal works, cases, and laws you should hire an attorney. Here go for a firm that is situated in locally and has a good experience.

Apart from the above, you can outsource auxiliary business tasks. Small tasks like formatting, calculations, data entry, typing can be easily outsourced to freelancers. To start with, create a demo by recording the procedure on your computer. Then use it as a resource while outsourcing.

Website design is surely a fine work requiring expert web developers. You should outsource this too. The agencies will maintain your site and update it regularly.

44% of companies are today outsourcing content creation. You can hire freelancers to write and edit blogs for you at a very low cost.

Now let us see how to hire the best freelancer for your task. Here are the simple steps.

1. Plan your budget

Decide how much you will spend on the project. Then research what should be the ideal wage to hire freelancers. Don’t settle for low quality at the cheapest price. Carefully look at what features you are getting for a price.

2. Give clear descriptions of your project

Specify what you want from the freelancer. What are the main objectives, deadlines, and deliverables of the project?

One of the popular platforms for this is Upwork. Let us see how to use this tool.

First, log in to your Upwork account. Click Post A New Job.

On the new page, choose the category and subcategory. Now give a heading, and describe the job or project. Attach pdf files and resources to make the requirements clear. Select a one-time project and opt for one freelancer. Then, provide the required skills. Now, fill up the pay, availability, and level of experience. Fill out all the necessary fields and click post jobs.

3. Chose the deserving freelancers

From all the bids you have received, click on each profile. Now, assess their success rate, experience and languages. Go to the feedback section and check if there is any negative comment. Open their portfolio and review their work quality. Based on all of these criteria, select your ideal freelancer.

It is an important step because you will be working with the selected person for a long time. So, without any hesitation, invest your time and money in choosing a good freelancer. You can also use a paid test project to filter the best talent.

After you hired

Communicate regularly with your freelancers through a video calling tool like Skype or Slack. Progress in the project as a team. Share important files and documents through tools like Google docs, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

Conclusion

Outsourcing is the best way to achieve more productivity in less time. You should outsource the basic and least important tasks. Finally, use the right tools and do optimum research to get high-quality outcomes.