I always get asked who is my competition? With the creative and marketing industry saturated with new businesses offering very similar services it's easy to look at companies and individuals like this as my main competition.
But I'm thinking differently on this one, as much as my direct competition is the various marketing, social media, design and web companies in Cardiff and Aberystwyth I also have a much bigger competitor.. and that's businesses, small and medium size ones doing the marketing in house.
Not the businesses with a large marketing or design department with experienced marketing managers or senior designers but the businesses who handle their marketing in house without actually hiring a marketing manager? It happens all the time, the accounts girl or some bloke from IT will be given the job of updating social media, creating pages on their new website and coming up with marketing campaign in the spare 5 - 10 hours they have every week.
Nothing wrong with this practise and I have spoken to a number of marketing managers recently who said they pretty much fell into the role but are now loving it and creating some great content. The flip side is when that person is out of their depth and can't handle the extra workload given to them or what they produce isn't good enough for the brand and if anything it damages that business or brand, short term and long term.
I have helped a number of businesses who need a helping hand in their marketing department or need a graphic designer to produce creative work for them every month, some I have helped for 12 or 18 months, others I have gone in and helped for 3 - 6 months. Offering training to other members of staff so that they can manage their own marketing or design tasks.
So yeah that's my biggest competition I think, small or medium size businesses trying to do it themselves, do you manage your marketing at your business yourself? or are you a marketing manager because you had to be? Get in touch if you need any advice or help.