If you have been reading this blog for a while you know that we don’t recommend outsourcing one-off projects.
Instead we recommend that you find someone you can work with on a regular basis, who can handle a variety of similar projects for you.
When you are looking for someone you can have a longer relationship with, the first project is important.
You need to find out several things:
1. Can they do the work?
Yes, they looked good on paper and sounded good on the phone. Now you need to see if they can actually do the type of work you need done.
You need to find out… Did they do the work right? Did they pay attention to the details? Was it what you asked for? Was it the level of quality you need?
2. Do you like working with them?
Are they reliable? Did they understand what you wanted? Did they deliver work as promised? Do the two of you get along? Can you see yourself working with them over the long term?
3. Is the price right?
Did they take a reasonable amount of time to do the work? Is the price what you were quoted?
4. How much training do they need?
How quickly did they understand what you were looking for? Did they ask good questions? Did they listen to your answers and act on them? How much more education will they need if they are going to take on bigger projects? How do they learn best?
Choosing that first project…
A good first project is one that lets you answer all of those questions.
It should be something that takes relatively little of your time to pull together.
It should not require you to do a lot of training.
And preferably it should deliver something that will be useful to you whether or not you continue working with this person.
Here are 9 characteristics of an ideal first project for your new marketing person:
1. Requires relatively little background knowledge about the company and its products/services.
2. Has a process that is fairly simple to explain or is already defined somewhere.
3. Requires materials or information that is easy to gather and can be easily sent to someone by email.
4. Is not critical to the business or highly confidential.
5. Takes 5-10 hours to do.
6. Does not require the involvement of a lot of other people in the company or outside it.
7. Has an output that you can easily describe.
8. Has goals that are easy to define or where it will be easy to tell if they have done a good job or not.
9. Does not have a hard and fast deadline.
This is why we say a nurture marketing project makes an ideal way to start working with someone. Nurture marketing meets all 9 of these characteristics.