THE ONE WEEK MARKETING PLAN is easier when you outsource at least some of it. I highly recommend you hire someone to do your website design, and you may want to outsource some of the other activities as well. The biggest issue is going to be your budget.
Let’s spend a few minutes talking about different resources you can use to outsource some or all of your marketing, and some tips on how to make it a productive relationship.
The least expensive resource is Fiverr.com, where freelancers take jobs for five dollars. There are certain jobs that make a lot of sense to farm out to Fiverr. I’ve mentioned them throughout the book, particularly in the chapters on blogging and video.
The one strategy I would recommend with Fiverr is to give your first job to three people. Then you can develop an ongoing working relationship with the person you decide is the best. You can also try to use the advice below for the other outsourcing services I recommend, though people who are working for just five dollars may not be as likely to give you as many answers as those who you are paying significantly more money to.
For more substantial projects, the two companies I like best for hiring freelancers are Elance (Elance.com) and Guru (Guru.com). They make it easy to hire people for fixed fees, instead of hourly, and they offer escrow programs that protect both you and the freelancer. That makes it easy to get your project started without having to pay the freelancer up front. Instead, you put the money into an escrow account managed by the service, and they release it when the freelancer reaches a particular milestone. If there is a dispute, there is a process to help you resolve the disagreement. You are also able to rate your freelancers on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. That gives you another tool to make sure they treat you fairly.
Your first step is to join one of the services. My personal recommendation would be to only use one service at a time. If you don’t get the quality of freelancer you want, then try the other one. The reason I recommend this approach is that you’ll probably get a lot of responses to your listing, so if you post on both sites, it’s really easy to get overwhelmed.
The next step is to develop a budget for the project. You can search on either of the sites for jobs similar to yours, which will give you a rough sense for the going rate. You can also search freelancers in a variety of categories without posting a job. If you look at their profiles in detail, you’ll be able to see what they charge and what they’ve been paid. The particulars are a bit different between Guru and Elance, but with a little research you should be able to develop a very appropriate budget.
You’ll notice that talent overseas tends to be less expensive than comparable resources in the United States. There are pros and cons to hiring vendors from other countries. The advantages are that you’ll spend less money, the quality is generally quite good, and the person you interface with will have a decent command of English. However, there’s a difference between being decent and being fluent in English. My experience with overseas vendors is that they are frequently extremely direct and literal when it comes to English. It can require an enormous amount of patience to communicate with them, and you have to be willing to convey your instructions in great detail. If you’re the type of person who says, “You know what I mean,” you’ll likely get frustrated. If, however, you can say, “I want this in blue, and I want this box moved from the upper right-hand corner to the lower left,” you’ll be fine.
While I’ve found that the people I’ve hired from overseas have strong technical skills, most of them have great difficulty in writing persuasive copy. I wouldn’t outsource writing sales copy to them. Some people do, and when you read what’s on their website, you can usually tell.
Next you need to come up with a job description. The more detailed you can be, the better. Here’s an example: “I’m looking for a WordPress site that includes a squeeze page with a form for prospects to input their name and email address, and a tab for a blog. The form will be attached to 1ShoppingCart as the auto-responder. Familiarity with Google Analytics will be important as well. Here are some websites that are close to what I want.” Then list two or three examples.
I’ve added one sentence to job postings that significantly increases my response rate. That sentence is, “I’m looking for a long-term partner.” The truth is, people who use Elance and Guru are not that good at marketing themselves. Once they complete a project for a client, they have to find another job, so they continually have to respond to posts for work. If you communicate that you are looking for a long-term relationship, you’re likely to see an increase in both quality and quantity of applications. (It should go without saying, but I’ll mention it anyway: You shouldn’t say you’re looking for a long-term partner if you’re not.)
You will find that some freelancers send out the same canned response to everyone, without regard for what your job posting says. That’s why I add the following sentence to all my jobs: “If you just use a cut-and-paste response, it will be obvious and I’ll delete your submission immediately.” Adding that sentence will cut down considerably on the “spammy” responses that you’ll tend to get otherwise.
Once you finish writing your job description, Elance offers you the opportunity to make it a featured job by paying $25 extra. (Guru doesn’t have this feature.) This supposedly gets you more responses. My experience is that it doesn’t make a difference, so I’d save the $25.
One technique that increases the quality of the responses is to search for freelancers and invite them to bid on your job. Each site lets you pick categories to search in. When you find freelancers who do the kind of work you need, look at what they typically charge. If it’s in your budget, check out their portfolio of work and also their ratings. If you like both of these items, invite them to bid on your job. Each of these sites lets you do this quite easily—just follow the steps they give you. If you have trouble, they both have terrific technical support services you can call.
When people bid on your job, if you like what you see, you can contact them by phone or email on Guru or via a message board on Elance.
When you interview them, I suggest you ask:
• How long does it take to complete a project like this?
• How do they work with clients?
• What types of projects do they most enjoy?
• What projects are their least favorite?
• What was their best client like?
• What was their most difficult client like? (You can get a lot of interesting information out of this question. For example, if their worst client was too picky, and you’re extremely detail oriented, the two of you are not a match.)
• How soon can they start?
If you still like them, make sure you check out the feedback that’s posted on the site. For freelancers in the website development field (the busiest area on both Guru and Elance), take the time to examine their portfolio of work. You may discover that the websites from one designer all look pretty much the same. If that design is what you’re looking for, then there’s no problem. If, however, you want something different, this should be a caution flag that creativity is not this designer’s strong suit. Again, the more examples you can provide the designer with of websites that you like, the better a job he or she will do for you. Most of the designers you’ll find on these sites are excellent mimics.
Another great question to ask a prospective web designer is “How do you test for multiple browsers across several platforms?” You want to make sure your website works across Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari as well as iOS and Android, which are the two platforms for mobile phones. As more people are accessing your site via various mobile devices, it’s increasingly important that your site be designed to accommodate them.
If you’re hiring a graphic designer or writer, you want to ask how many revisions you can request for the artwork or text. This is often negotiable, but you want everyone on the same page before the project begins. Remember, never assume anything when you’re negotiating the parameters of the project.
If You Have a Problem After You Hire Someone
Both Elance and Guru have features where you can resolve disputes. Elance in particular has done a very good job in adjudicating differences in a way that’s fair to both parties.
I also like the ability that both sites give you to provide feedback. Vendors who receive the majority of their business from these services know that a negative review can severely hurt their business. This is something you can use to your advantage. In one instance, I had a problem with a vendor, and I said, “You can keep the money, but I’m going to write a negative review about you, or you can refund it to me and I won’t say anything.” Not surprisingly, they dropped their claim for payment. The escrow account and the recommendations feature enable you to use these services with a lot of confidence that you won’t get ripped off.