Molly Baker, CEO & Founder of Indie Consulting.
Resourcing appropriately for marketing is more challenging now than ever before. Between the variety of subject matter expertise, executional vs. strategic needs, seasonal consumer behavior and the constant addition of new tools, platforms and technologies, building an adaptable marketing team is no small feat.
As a business owner or marketing team leader, bandwidth constraints put a lot of pressure on teams and performance. While traditional agency partners can be helpful in absorbing some of the work, they also typically require a lot of management from an internal stakeholder to be effective. In these instances, fractional marketing resourcing might be the perfect solution.
To be clear, this is different from a staffing solution and/or temporary individual resource. Effective fractional resourcing solutions should include subject matter expertise, in-house experience, specific KPIs within contractual agreements and custom onboarding and offboarding. The goal is to provide a talented resource with experience relevant to the goals of the prospective brand, in addition to a good cultural fit. When fractional marketing resourcing companies take on these types of resource projects, they aim to be as much of an extension of your team as possible.
When done correctly, the brand teams will benefit immensely from:
• Outside in fresh thinking due to exposure to other brands
• The opportunity to ‘level up’ your marketing team through a temporary, external resource
• The opportunity to ‘trial’ a role before investing in a full-time hire
• Adaptable talent to fill the gap during busy seasons and/or temporary leaves
So if this is such a great solution, why do more service providers not offer this?
As an owner of a service company, these types of client engagements are tough to resource on the agency/consultancy side. Risk has to be considered when hiring full-time employees to cover a six-month contract. If the goal is for the client to NOT renew, then your new business pipeline needs to support broad swaths of resource availability on an ongoing basis.
Clients are used to “staffing firm” pricing, which typically includes a standard percentage mark-up on a flat fee. However, in order for this resourcing approach to be successful, it requires much more than just giving a client a semi-qualified body, warranting a different approach to pricing.
All this being said, like most things, with great risk comes great reward. In the cases where my company provided fractional resources, I’ve seen great success and some of the best feedback I could ask for as a service provider—your team made my team better. Having a trusted partner fulfill these resourcing needs vs working with an independent contractor eliminates the need for rounds of interviews, potentially underwhelming talent and the need to set up any sort of employment agreement internally.
What should business owners look for when seeking these services?
Business owners looking for these services should pinpoint firms that are looking to provide custom resourcing solutions based on business needs. Ideally, firms should take the time during the prospecting process to understand goals for not only the marketing team, but the business at large, in addition to understanding team personality dynamics and organizational culture.
To eliminate risk, ask your service provider if they are open to being equally as invested in your team’s success through setting clear KPIs within your contractual agreement. This will create alignment, clarity and accountability in your partnership agreement. Ultimately, you are trusting the service provider to provide the best resource possible and they will be more likely to succeed if joint goals are put in place.
As you think about your marketing team resourcing for 2024, it’s important to look beyond the traditional marketing agency/consultancy support. While I am certainly not downplaying the importance of activation and consulting services, I believe there’s a gap in the marketplace when it comes to effective resourcing services to evolve static teams into adaptable teams equipped with the bandwidth, expertise and talent to deliver on business objectives.
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