In today’s competitive business world, consumers are constantly looking for awesome customer experiences, and would not hesitate to switch brands if your business doesn’t meet their needs. For this reason, it is important for you as a business owner to build and maintain a unique brand image, which is important in underwriting a memorable impression on your customers and creating your businesses’ unique selling position. And with a recent report by Clutch showing that over 50% of SMEs invest their budget in marketing, no business owner can afford to overlook the importance of brand marketing services. In hindsight, however, the huge importance placed on branding has triggered a huge demand for brand marketing skills, with companies the world over scrambling to hire brand strategists.
Whilst it’s possible for multinational companies to hire a brand marketing manager or an entire team in-house, it’s a whole different ball game for startups and small businesses working on a tight marketing budget. And that’s where a dedicated brand marketing team comes into play.
In this article, we are going to explore the benefits of offshore internet marketing service providers and how to find a manager for your brand in Ukraine. But before we do that, let’s get the basics out of the way. Shall we?
The Roles and Responsibilities of a Brand Content Manager
Generally, a brand development manager is responsible for crafting and adopting a brand strategy for an organization’s target market. They also help maintain brand integrity across all company’s communications platforms and marketing initiatives, as well as manage the product’s portfolio.
Below are some of the roles and responsibilities you should expect a digital brand manager to handle:
- Brand strategy, including crafting the brand’s short-term and long-term vision, guidelines, and value proposition.
- Planning and execution of all digital communications.
- Assist with product development, product launch, product pricing, and developing new business opportunities.
- Creating, managing, and maintaining promotional collateral to maintain product branding.
- Managing the advertising and promotional budget.
- Conducting customer and competitor insights analysis
- Analyzing sales forecasts and conducting financial reporting on all product sales.
Remote Brand Management Team vs Local Brand Communications Manager vs Freelancers
Entrepreneurs and business managers have plenty of options at their disposal to hire a brand manager or brand management teams including outsourcing, hiring an in-house team locally, or hiring freelancers. Depending on your hiring needs, all these options have their respective pros and cons.
Freelance Brand Strategy Manager
Pros | Cons |
Less costly compared to hiring an agency or an in-house team. | Limited in terms of resources, meaning they can only handle so much. |
Easy to manage as there are few team members to supervise. | A change in projects’ requirements can have a domino effect in terms of time frames and deliverables. |
Flexible in terms of working hours. | Freelance workers work with different clients, meaning they aren’t fully invested in your company values. |
The on-demand nature of hiring freelancers, means you pay for what you get. | Less control over your project. |
Local In-House Brand Manager Consultant
Pros | Cons |
Better control of your project. | Hiring an in-house team can be costly in the long run. |
Reduced risk of intellectual property. | An in-house team may not have the necessary skills to handle all your company’s brand marketing aspects. |
The brand marketing manager or team is fully invested in your project and business values. | Lack of outsider perspective. |
Outsourced Brand Marketing Staffing Agency
A brand marketing agency means that you have a complete team of highly skilled and creative professionals who have the necessary experience to handle every aspect of digital marketing. Indeed, 34% of small businesses outsource most (if not all) of their brand reputation management services. Here are the pros and cons of brand manager remote workers.
Pros | Cons |
Outsourcing brand or personal brand management services is relatively cheaper compared to an in-house team in the long run. | The risk of intellectual property theft is a possibility, especially if you haven’t signed an NDA. |
Unlike freelancers, brand marketing agencies have better and well-defined systems for periodic reporting and reviews. | Some agencies tend to exaggerate their expertise. |
Brand marketing agencies offer varied skill sets, meaning they can handle all brand marketing tasks and subtasks. | |
Building a remote team via an agency is easy as all the team members are vetted in advance. | |
Outsourced brand marketing teams are flexible, meaning you can scale your workforce upwards or downwards depending on your hiring needs. | |
Unlike hiring locally, outsourcing gives you access to global talent, as well as gives your marketing strategy an outsider’s perspective. |
From the above analysis, it’s clear that the benefits of hiring a dedicated brand manager far outweigh those of hiring a freelancer or an in-house team.
How Our Company Can Assist in Setting up a Dedicated Brand Marketing Team
We are a brand marketing agency based in Ukraine, and we have been helping companies all over the world hire dedicated brand marketing professionals. Our brand marketing experts are well-versed in a variety of digital marketing strategic planning tools that drive business growth.
Here are some of the services that our brand marketing services staff can help with:
- Brand development
In today’s competitive business environment, you need to properly communicate what your business has to offer, as well as what makes you stand out from the competition. And that’s exactly what our marketing team does. Whether it’s selling your slogan, social media reputation, or new symbol, we’ve got you covered.
- Brand identity & messaging
Successful brand identity and messaging strategy connect your brand with its audience by engaging them on terms they resonate with. Our team of brand marketing experts has a long track record of aiding companies to create brand identity, product naming, brand positioning, brand identity design, brand guidelines, and brand experience.
- Content development
Our experienced brand marketers truly understand that the creative assets posted on your website and social media platforms are important in the ultimate success of your brand marketing campaign. Hire a social media brand marketer with our agency and they will stop at nothing to ensure they produce optimized content and creative media that resonates with your audience.
- Email campaigns
Email is a great tool to keep in touch with your customers, offering special offers, deals, coupons, and communicating special events or new product launches. Our email marketing team will help in list building, nurturing new leads, eBlasts, and CRM setup.
- Social media boost campaigns
With most of your customers using social media on a daily basis, you cannot afford to overlook this space. Our team of brand marketing specialists uses both social media data and advanced targeting methods to create expertly crafted social media marketing campaigns.
- SEO
Search engine optimization is a combo of marketing and technical discipline covering both technical back-end processes and front-end content. Our remote experts will handle all aspects of SEO, so you can focus on your core business tasks.
- PPC
Pay-per-click advertising is an excellent way to target qualified audiences. On top of letting you reach your customers in their domain area, PPC also gives you an upper hand over your competitors. Our brand marketers can craft, deliver, and manage custom PPC campaigns to help boost conversions and revenue.
Skills to Look for in a Brand Marketer
Whether you are looking for a remote hire brand consultant or an in-house brand marketing manager, there are several essential brand management skills to consider including:
- Collaboration and relationship management skills. Typically, a brand manager is the gatekeeper of your organization’s products and services. As such, they should be able to provide a brand message that resonates with your customers and workers.
- Strong communication skills. When the marketing noise is loud, a good brand manager should use their communication skills to craft thoughtful elevator pitches and messages explaining what your brand stands for. Along with that, they should be able to listen to unsolicited feedback and let the customer’s voice tell your brand story.
- Customer focus. To understand the customer’s needs and respond appropriately, brand managers should adopt a customer-centric approach by immersing themselves in all customer-driven media, using customer feedback, and engaging with customers on social channels to gather actionable data.
- Tech and social media savvy. We are living in a digital age, which is why it’s important for a brand manager to be tech and social media savvy, as well as have the ability to use modern digital marketing tools.
Ukrainian Brand Marketers: What’s So Special About Them?
Ukraine, in particular, is a hard-to-ignore player when it comes to IT, and is developing as a major force in remote sales and marketing as well. Indeed, with a highly-educated population and relatively low prices, Ukraine is the perfect place to look for a little extra support for your business.
- Education. Ukraine has some of the best public education systems in Europe, which means that their graduates can easily integrate into Western corporate life.
- Convenience. Most countries prefer working with Ukrainian digital marketing companies due to the convenient time zone, meaning that the business hours overlap with many other countries. This is especially important for companies looking for 24/7 digital marketing services.
- Cost. One of the biggest reasons why companies look to outsource is to save costs. Unlike most countries in Europe, Ukraine has relatively lower salaries, which can save you up to 60% compared to hiring an in-house brand marketing team.
Our Process: How We Hire a Social Media Brand Marketer
Here is a step-by-step outline of our recruitment process for digital marketing professionals.
- Book time with us. The very step in our rigorous hiring process entails meeting with our clients virtually to determine their hiring needs.
- Selection of brand marketers. After we’ve established and agreed on your hiring needs, our recruiters will draft a catchy advert that attracts the most skilled candidates. Thanks to our huge pool of talent and a robust referral-based system, our selection process is relatively fast. While at it, we will send you the chosen candidate’s resume for your consideration.
- Screening and interviewing. Next, our recruiters will profile the candidates to ensure that they have the right skills, as well as conduct background checks to reduce employee turnover. We will also arrange virtual interviews via Skype, Zoom, or any other video conferencing platform of choice.
- Contract signing. The next step in our brand manager outsource process entails signing the contract outlining your workflow, starting date, and salary.
- Onboarding. The new hire is introduced to the rest of the team and starts working right away.