Inefficient use of people and space

Doing your own marketing can be a major headache. You need to assign people to specific roles, designate space in your office, and manage resources while paying close attention to risk. This is costly and time-consuming, and it can also be incredibly wasteful. If you're trying to operate an efficient firm with few overheads and cost transparency, building your own marketing department is probably not the best way forward. When the wrong people and environments are used for marketing, it will end up costing your business over time.

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Lack of skills and experience

No matter how hard you try, successful marketing requires professional skills and industry experience. While you may know your own business from the inside out, presenting it to the world requires an entirely different skill set. Marketing demands a broad range of skills, from website management and content creation to social media, photography, and signage. From highlighting your ISO accreditation to creating a capability statement, good marketing is about creating awareness and building trust so you can grow.

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Poor strategy and execution

Marketing is a marathon and not a sprint, with good strategies always developed over time. Showcasing your talent is not enough in isolation — you need to attract, engage, and inspire the right people at the right times. There are lots of ways to do this, and the details make all the difference. From initial planning to message delivery, it's important to make decisive moves and stay ahead of the pack. In the construction and engineering fields, your livelihood depends on laying solid foundations and developing long-term relationships.

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Reduced flexibility and scalability

In-house marketing is less flexible and much more difficult to scale, which can lead to numerous problems. For example, if your business performed well during one quarter and you wanted to spread the word, you may need to expand your operating space or employ a new team member. However, when things get quiet again during the off-season, you're stuck with empty office space, too many employees, and expensive holiday and sick pay obligations.

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Insufficient branding expertise

If you want to develop a strong and coherent brand identity, you need to tell a consistent and engaging story. Internal teams are often too close to the action, and they can't always get the job done. Too often, employees focus on the details or develop blind spots without seeing the bigger picture. From website development to creative design and storytelling, marketing requires brand vision, digital know-how, and social intelligence. Instead of working inside the business and failing to see the forest for the trees, outsourced marketing looks down from above with clarity of vision.

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Lack of key resources

With margins tight, competition rising, and expectations high, running a modern business can be incredibly tough. There are so many issues to take care of — producing value for your clients while managing day-to-day operations and compliance obligations. When you throw marketing into the mix, you are almost asking for trouble. While large multinationals can benefit from adopting their own internal marketing departments, small and medium-sized enterprises gain almost nothing and risk a great deal. Why waste limited resources with marketing when you can focus on what really matters — running a successful business.

Smart marketing requires clarity, consistency, and expertise delivered by an experienced team. While working on your own business is admirable, marketing works better when it's performed by experts. With many years of first-hand experience and enduring relationships with construction and engineering firms, we know what it takes to ignite your marketing from the outside. When great products and services are combined with a thoughtful and well-integrated campaign, anything is possible.

For information or advice about your marketing future, please contact Living Lines today.

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For more information and branding advice, contact article author and branding expert, Susan Jones, director of Living Lines branding agency on  0410 590 737.