Change is constant, and businesses of all sizes need to have the capacity to adapt and look beyond traditional models. Economic uncertainty, unprecedented events like Covid-19, unexpected leavers, ad-hoc project requirements, or seasonal variations can all leave businesses with a headache when it comes to resourcing. While recruiting for full-time staff might be the usual practice, it can be costly and slow with no guarantee you will find someone that embeds into your company's existing structure.
For several years now, the interim market has been steadily growing with business demand for contract and freelance resources. One area that is seeing substantial growth is interim marketing.
Why interim marketing over hiring permanent staff?
The need for interim marketing staff can vary, with common reasons like maternity, paternity, and sick cover, as well as ‘try before you buy’ type roles to fill skill gaps in the team.
Sometimes, the skills you need might not be available from the pool of permanent marketers, and the training required to bring them up to speed would be too extensive. If you are running an ad-hoc project, say over twelve months, it can make more sense to hire a skilled interim for that period as compared to permanent recruitment.
Although hiring staff temporarily might sound risky or daunting, especially if it sits outside of your conventional business model, the benefits far outweigh the cons.
Top benefits of interim marketing
Hiring an experienced marketing interim has several benefits.
Cost-effective
There is a misconception that hiring interim marketing staff is expensive. Indeed, they may sometimes have higher hourly rates than permanent employees, but that is offset against other factors. In having a mix of permanent and interim employees, businesses can increase and decrease staffing numbers according to the demand. You have more control over the cost of labor against specific projects and seasonal periods.
For example, due to Covid-19, many businesses were in a position where staff needed to be made redundant to reduce costs. Interim positions allow you to minimize labor costs without impacting permanent employee morale.
Remember that interim employees charge for days worked without additional taxes, CPF, bonus payments, leave, medical insurance or other benefits that a permanent staff typically receives. Even if the hourly salary is higher, it is quickly balanced out by removing these extra costs.
Flexible
There are times when businesses need to quickly and strategically respond to market changes to maintain a competitive advantage. Interim marketers can bring in the right skills straight away for as long as required, without time-consuming recruitment processes.
Highly-skilled
Interim marketers are already experts in the field. For example, cmoCre8 is experienced in digital marketing, content creation, website design, managing social media, marketing strategy, and planning. As a highly-skilled agency, the cmore8 team can instantly support your projects with expert knowledge. You can negate weeks or months of training that it can take to get permanent employees up to speed.
Project delivery
Hiring for an interim marketing position allows a business to access skills that are not available in-house. If you have a project that requires a specific skill set, such as website design but don’t have any permanent web developers, you can utilize experts like cmoCre8 who have the expertise at hand. It is a far more efficient strategy than recruiting permanent staff for a single project.
New strategies
There is also the benefit of gaining a fresh, expert perspective from interim marketing professionals. The cmoCre8 team has worked on a broad range of projects, gaining an in-depth understanding of digital marketing strategy across several industry verticals. Hiring an interim marketing professional can give you the added advantage of new ideas that are not clouded by how the company typically does things.
In larger firms, it can be challenging to change processes and practices quickly enough to keep pace with developments in the market. An interim will offer up-to-date ideas that drive growth.
The business value of interim marketing
Each level of interim marketing has different advantages. If you bring in somebody of a Directorial position, the experience can help establish a project strategy, given their experience in implementing marketing tactics. For new product launches and go-to-market strategies, an Interim Marketing Director will understand the right phases for execution.
When hiring an Interim Marketing Manager, the return on investment can be substantial. For example, when a company is faced with challenges, failing to deliver change can often be more costly than hiring an interim manager who can help you adapt. The skills and experience of interim marketing resources can apply to many scenarios and is an effective way to obtain leadership at crucial times for the business.
Interim marketing professionals are an excellent way to boost the motivation of permanent staff if the role is managed correctly. For example, if it is clear that the interim position is designed to take the pressure off the existing team and support their work, they will welcome the help with open arms. In the majority of cases, permanent employees can learn from the experience of interim workers, improving their own performance.
We can help with interim marketing roles
Marketing teams are thinly stretched with the continued growth in digital channels and technology. There isn’t enough resource for smaller businesses to handle all aspects of marketing, and in larger enterprises, projects that require specific skills need to be filled quickly with a team that can hit the ground running. At cmoCre8, we have the skills and experience to support small and large businesses.
All the people at cmoCre8 are trained and experienced in these fields and are flexible enough to integrate into your business culture. If you need a marketer for help with a project or fill a temporary vacancy, interim marketers bring a lot of benefits and value.