Marketing - In-House Or Offshore?

Maybe you need a promotional flyer or a corporate brochure for your business? You might also need your raw video footage edited or a professional voice over for your corporate video. For business owners, the cost of these one-off marketing tasks can sometimes be exorbitant.

Like most industries, the marketing and graphic design sector has felt the impact of outsourcing. Business owners can now get a logo, flyer, business card or video edited for a fraction of the cost of a local designer. Experienced freelance designers are readily accessible online to help you with your logo design, video, voice over, web design, banner, business cards and photo editing. Some of the most popular sources include:

• Fiverr gives you access to creative designers, voiceover artists and video editors from $US5 per job. Select the provider you want to work with, send them the brief (and any files) then have them prepare the job for your review. Jobs can be turned around within a day to several weeks.
• Freelancer Sites - Online freelancer sites have been around for a while now and services, pricing and quality can vary dramatically. Designers can provide almost any marketing task. Websites to consider include Odesk, Elance and Freelancer (Freelancer has recently dropped its minimum job price from $US30 to $US10). Results can be a little hit and miss though with some good outcomes but also some poor results.
• 99designs is an online crowdsourcing site that allows you to run your own logo design contest. All sorts of packs are available from a full brand identity pack, logo, T-shirt design, flyer, product label or anything else you are after. If you need a web page design, mobile app design, illustration or book cover design, you’ll find they have designers who can help you. Complete the brief, post your contest and the amount you are willing to pay the winning designer.
• Swiftly  is a subsidiary of 99 designs. For $US19 designers can claim simple design tasks that can be completed within 30 minutes. Turnaround time is 24 hours and within one hour from when the designer actually claims the task.
• Elto specialises in open source web development tasks. Web development tasks are broken down into ‘tweaks’ of between 20 minutes to 2 hours work charged at $US39 per tweak. You can post small web development tasks and other online marketing tasks to be performed in days and all managed by an online project manager.
• The Loop provides local specialised talent where creative freelancers promote their services, upload examples of their work and to apply for jobs and freelance projects. Companies and clients can promote jobs for freelancers to apply for making it easy to access top creative talent - find a highly awarded illustrator, TV producer or copywriter to work on your next project.
• Canva is online design software that does not require a designer to use it.  You can use simple templates to create your own customised designs for free.
• Fatpaint is another popular free online design tool.

Tips for successful outsourcing:

The project manager needs to know precisely what they want. Poor design briefs will result in poor outcomes. These tools and resources in the right hands can help you create low cost but high quality, effective marketing materials.

Other articles in this edition:

• Video Killed The Radio Star... But Can Grow Your Business
• Book Corner - Mastering The Rockefeller Habits
• Is Your Business Ready To Explode?
• This Way Out
• What Type Of Business Owner Are You?
• There's An App For That
• Business Start Up Corner - Funding Your New Business Venture