5 signs you might need some marketing help for your business.

You're busy, I get it. Your business won't run itself and so you need to prioritize - and marketing isn't on the top of your list. So why not get some marketing help. Here are five sure fire signs you could use a little help:

1. You know enough to nod when people mention blogs, social media and search but you don't actually know what any of those things are for.

Marketing has gotten technical and success today means embracing social and digital. You don't need to be an expert, you just need to understand how these tools fit into your business objectives.

A blog helps you in two ways. It gives you a chance to tell the world about what you think about your industry/product line and as keyword rich content it will help you show up in search (more on that below).

Social media is people talking, participating, and sharing online. Social media marketing encourages discussion, feedback, voting, comments, and sharing of information by your prospects about your products/services and related ideas of interest. It is helpful to think of it as similar to traditional media except more of a two-way conversation, rather than a one-way broadcast. Social marketing means using tools like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to start, facilitate and participate in conversations.

Search marketing is simply making sure that when prospects start looking on the web for products/services or even just answers to questions you well positioned to answer, they can find you. Think of it like the Yellow Pages only organized by more than just your business name.

2. You have 3 inside sales people, 6 account reps and a sales coordinator but marketing is taken care of by the office manager.

Adding sales resources to grow the business can work but it is not very scalable. Instead successful businesses use marketing to manage the top of the funnel and sales the bottom. This allows sales to concentrate their efforts on those leads most likely to close rather than spending time qualifying prospects who can't, won't or aren't ready to buy. If you are a strong sales organization but don't market, you probably need some help.

3. You have never, ever seen a lead that originated from your website.

Your website needs to earn its keep and should be purpose built to capture lead information and nurture leads over time. Fight the urge to focus solely on how the site looks and ask yourself if it is constructed to help visitors move through their buying process. If it doesn't - you need some help.

4. Spray and Pray accurately describes your marketing strategy.

This will sound all too familiar to B2Bs who are marketing but don't have a plan. You spray the market with direct mail, email campaigns, and Adwords and pray it works.

Every marketing activity your company engages in should be aimed at a specific audience with a specific purpose in mind. Every marketing activity should be tracked, even if just manually, to see if it is performing.

5. You think marketing costs money.

Probably the single biggest sign you could use some marketing help for your business is that you look at marketing as an expense. Marketing has a single purpose for your business - to generate revenue. Marketing needs to be seen as an investment in lead generation and revenue and should be managed as such. If you don't have the processes, platform or content to ensure marketing is a revenue generator - you need some help.