What is IT Outsourcing And Its Benefits?

Information Technology Outsourcing - It's Benefits

IT outsourcing represents a modern way of increasing the competitiveness of companies. It involves the delegation of responsibility for company IT to a third party, which is called an IT outsourcing company.

This leaves you with more time for your main area of interest. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. What do the benefits and risks of corporate information technology outsourcing look like?

IT outsourcing – in other words, the outsourcing of processes related to company information technology is a solution that more and more companies are thinking about.

A number of opinions are spreading on the internet, which in many cases are fundamentally different. This is not the case even when looking at the specific benefits of IT outsourcing. So, let us tell you what IT outsourcing services bring you?

Specific benefits of outsourcing

See what concrete advantages a modern way of corporate IT solutions brings to you and your company.

Opportunity to work with experts

The transfer of IT management to a reputed IT outsourcing company means the loss of the need to employ any IT specialists who are normally indispensable for your company.

When you decide to outsource information technology, you can optimize your company’s human resources and thus reduce your company’s fixed costs. This will free up a considerable amount of funds that can be used elsewhere.

By outsourcing IT services, you not only get rid of the responsibility for the functionality of the company’s network but also hand it over to a team of experts who have experience in administration, and any errors on their part are excluded.

Insufficient personal knowledge and time

Today, the needs of information technology are constantly evolving and becoming more complex. The transition to cloud time is a technological revolution that is shaping the IT needs and development of companies of all sizes.

The need for support and advisory services is also growing as new technology is constantly being introduced. Dealing with growing needs from within is even more challenging.

With IT outsourcing services, you have flexible access to resources that meet your needs, a certified pool of expertise, and cross-industry experience.

Cost savings

At present, IT budgets already average 3-5% of companies’ turnover. New technologies and their needs require an ever-increasing number of professionals. Rather than cutting IT staff costs, they would prefer to increase further.

And yes, even in IT, the biggest expense is people. The average salary cost of one IT expert in the USA is about 46,000 Dollars per year. IT outsourcing cuts up to 60% of IT costs, and this is the biggest cost saving for a company.

By hiring an IT outsourcing company, you can achieve significant cost savings by modernizing basic infrastructure and optimizing networks, server capacity as well and security.

On the internet, you will often come across the opinion that outsourcing IT is much more expensive than traditional solutions, i.e. within your own capacities. But when you compare the two variants, however, you forget about the partially hidden costs.

These are, for example, the costs of monitoring trends, implementing new technologies, training employees, or disposing of obsolete solutions. The company’s strategic planning and operations also require time each year.

Insurance is also included in the current costs. By adding all the above items to the total cost, you will find that outsourcing IT services becomes a cheaper option.

Thanks to IT outsourcing services, you can grow… and sleep in peace

IT outsourcing helps your company to grow, because it allows you to fully focus on business and leave technical and IT innovation to experts. Functional IT brings your company a competitive advantage, where others struggle with IT setup, you’ve got it covered.

Today’s dynamic work environment favors outsourcing for many advantages. You can eliminate many possible risks through quality planning and well-established communication with an external company. So, you have to choose one company instead of several external companies.!

From IT to a competitive factor in the business

IT is changing from a support function to a competitive factor in the hard core of the business. So, business information management and IT resources need to be freed from the rotation of operational IT to develop technological competitive factors and innovation.

In a cloudy and digital world, companies that keep up with accelerating change will thrive. The winners, on the other hand, are companies that are not going to change but are innovating, recognizing, and exploiting the new potential of technology at the forefront.

As a result, the role of information management is changing quite a bit. IT leaders become designers and developers of business strategies like CEOs.

Flexible operational management

In-house solutions for company information technologies bring demands on technical infrastructure and a qualified workforce. These hardware and software requirements, including human resources, logically consume your funds and thus burden the company’s cash flow.

By transferring this burden outside the company, you get rid of expenses for network administrators and technical equipment. Your company will become more flexible and you will be able to react more effectively to the changes and resist the risks that have arisen.

Savings and an edge over the competition

Thanks to IT outsourcing services, the company gets experts who are well-versed in their field. In most cases, this approach leads to financial savings and to an increase in the quality of the work performed. You will also have a more accurate overview of IT expenses.

You decide for yourself what you need to outsource, and the range of contracted IT services can be increased or decreased over time. You don’t have to deal with the technical side such as software updates, licensing, etc. In addition, you are not dependent on an internal IT department, which is usually not available 24/7.

Your IT team can thus have fewer members and they can work with smaller spaces. It is obvious that IT outsourcing services reduce the investment in the training of the internal IT department. Especially for specific requirements, for example, deployment of a new system, transition to the cloud, process automation, infrastructure virtualization, etc., you do not need to look for experts in specific areas.

Reduce involvement in IT

You will especially appreciate this advantage for one-off activities that can be covered much more easily by an external IT outsourcing company. The partner company does not have a distorted view of your business from the outside and can therefore effectively advise you on which areas of IT to focus on, what to invest in and what not to waste your time on.

In addition, if you entrust IT to one partner company, you create a relationship with them and the entire cooperation is easier than dividing tasks between several independent contractors.

A good external company can offer professional quality of service and ideally a comprehensive range of services, thanks to which you will need a single supplier for everything.

Outsourcing will thus bring savings, a reduction in IT investments and a perfect overview of the expenses spent on information technology.

Reduce risks

Risk mitigation requires the company to be aware of its cultural similarities with the specialist firm. Business relationships often require trust and geographic proximity; similarities can be found in the historical context or in a common language.

The success of outsourcing usually occurs between organizations that operate in similar industries. Understanding the technical language and best practices in the organization helps create strong working relationships.

By transferring responsibility for the management and administration of the company’s computer network, you reduce your overall risks, which play a role in financial management. Thanks to IT outsourcing, you also reduce the risks associated with the dynamic development of new technologies.

On the other hand, every concluded contract creates risks to a certain extent. However, if you rely on a verified IT outsourcing company with sufficient technical and personnel background, you have nothing to worry about. It is in the interest of every service provider to get good references.

Comprehensive service

Every company that provides IT outsourcing services has an experienced team of professionals that guarantees full management of your network, including professional consultations and comprehensive services, such as hardware and software.

Your money buys their professionalism, reliability, expertise, and quality. An IT outsourcing provider is a reliable partner who relieves you of worries about information technology and at the same time provides a modern and highly effective solution, built on their proven experience.

In addition, they will be happy to create a customized responsive website for you, solve wireless and PC networks, and introduce cloud solutions to the company.

Choosing an IT outsourcing company

While one of the main reasons for IT outsourcing is easy and quick savings compared to your own IT, the price tag offered should not be the main decision criterion when choosing an outsourcing partner. The most important selection criterion is the experience of the end users. It needs to be better after outsourcing.

A game eye is needed here. If the price is pressed so low that the supplier is unable to invest in development, it is quite certain that no one will be satisfied with the quality of service until the end of the contract. The most likely way to make IT services unpopular with staff and reduce work productivity is to choose the cheapest option.

If the time and resources of IT managers and information management are spent on operating basic IT, they will not be given the opportunity to do the work that will determine the competitiveness and future of the company.

What makes a good outsourcing partner?

The portfolio of modern IT outsourcing services covers the delivery of the entire IT environment as a service.

Another really important criterion is the outsourcing partner’s understanding and genuine interest in the customer’s business. In-depth knowledge of the customer’s IT environment and needs is a matter of course – but the outrageous benefits mentioned above will only materialize if your IT partner knows how and genuinely wants to spar your business.

So it’s good to say that a qualified IT partner knows even more about their customer organization than the organization itself. The above things are easy to figure out when choosing an IT outsourcing company.

Ask current customers of an IT outsourcing company what kind of service experience they have – customers can be found on their website. Challenge the company to share their views on how they would develop and digitize your business – a question you should ask right away at the first meeting.

Choose Intrigue IT Solutions as your IT outsourcing company

Intrigue IT Solutions is an IT outsourcing company specializing in IT outsourcing services and application development environments. At Intrigue IT Solutions, we make IT simple and always work from person to person. We put the equipment and connections to play and we support you in seconds whenever you need it.

Why Intrigue IT Solutions?

The market is full of different-sized IT service providers whose selection is easily overwhelmed. From service descriptions, it’s sometimes hard to understand what your business really needs and what specific problem IT providers can solve – this is wrong.

Grow your business with Managed IT Services Provider "Intrigue IT Solutions"

We eliminate your complexity

We provide secure and reliable IT Outsourcing services. When technical jargon is evicted around IT, it suddenly becomes simple and easy. By understanding what you need, you get savings and extra power for your business and, above all, reliability and security.

Together, we can get to a point where you no longer have to struggle with broken devices and connections. Your time is not spent coordinating the work of several outsourcing partners, you always get help from one place.

The network connections are secure and the licenses and device choices have been made for just the right need at the best possible price. You can simply be confident that your business will not squat because of poorly managed IT.

Take the network values

Together, we have defined the values that guide our daily operations for the benefit of both our customers and our staff.

Find out

The world around us is constantly changing. As experts, our most valuable selling point is vision. That’s why we need to understand which direction the world is next to turn and what the benefits or harms will be for our customers.

Each of us actively monitors the development of our industry and makes the future understandable to ourselves, our colleagues, and our customers.

High level of professionalism

Thanks to our expertise and vision, we are known for our high level of professionalism. Today’s know-how in our industry is old tomorrow, which is why each of us is constantly developing ourselves. We learn best by working and from colleagues, but if necessary, we certify our skills so that we can also show our customers what we know.

Updates with the latest trends

Sharing know-how is a matter of honor for every Intrigue IT Solutions employee. We also dare to try new things, even at the risk of making mistakes sometimes. At the moment of failure or error, we find out what went wrong. We turn a situation into a positive one by learning from it, increasing our own and others ’skills and understanding.

Take the initiative

We succeed when everyone actively works for our customers. We must constantly make bold openings for both our new and existing customers. We never miss an opportunity when we see that we and our expertise could be useful.

Every member of the network is actively involved in the development of our operations and the business of our customers. Everyone has the right and obligation to come up with ideas and new perspectives.

It is not such a small idea that it could not be taken as an initiative. For us, silence is certainly not gold, but the sharing of knowledge is a diamond. Together, we take responsibility for the success of our customers. Yes, the world can hold a speech, we are known for our actions.

Our core operations are guided by our principles

We know that Otaverkko’s team is only strong together. By working together, we learn and innovate. We also work together with our partners. We involve colleagues, customers, and partners in the work. We do and learn together, and we develop our customers and our own business.

We think that satisfied employees bring with them satisfied customers. Understanding our customers ’business, being proactive, and having short response times are part of our employee’s responsibility. In the age of artificial intelligence and robotics, we always have a person in charge of customer service.

We love to work together

It is our job to best understand IT and your own business. By working and evolving together, we achieve the best possible outcome.

Continuous improvement

Leveraging productivity tools, cloud strategy, and security preparedness. These all require continuous improvement. At Intrigue IT Solutions, we are committed to consistent, continuous development, and you will stay on top of modern IT solutions.

Transparency

We always love to work in a transparent way. Because we hate unclear division of responsibilities, vague pricing, and uncertainty about the state of your environment.

Does it sound familiar? It is our job to remove all this obscurity. We don’t offer anything you don’t really need.

Scalability and Growth with Managed IT Services: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, organizations face a critical challenge – the need to scale and grow while maintaining the agility to adapt to evolving technologies and market demands.

Managed IT services have emerged as a powerful solution to address this challenge. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore how Managed IT Services can be your key to scalability and growth.

Understanding Managed IT Services

Managed IT Services involve outsourcing the management of your organization’s IT infrastructure, systems, and technology.

This strategic approach allows you to focus on your core business activities while a team of experts takes care of your IT needs. The goal is to provide a scalable, secure, and efficient IT environment that supports your business objectives.

The Role of Managed IT Services in Scalability

Flexible Resources: One of the primary advantages of Managed IT Services is the flexibility it offers. As your business grows, you can easily scale up or down your IT resources to match your needs. This eliminates the need to make substantial upfront investments in IT hardware and personnel.
Strategic Planning: Managed IT Service providers work closely with your organization to develop an IT strategy aligned with your growth objectives. They help you identify the right technologies and solutions that will support your expansion plans.

Efficient Management and Maintenance

Proactive Maintenance: Managed IT Services provide proactive monitoring and maintenance, ensuring that your systems are always up and running. This minimizes downtime, increases productivity, and reduces the risk of unexpected IT issues that can hinder growth.
Cost Optimization: By outsourcing IT management, you can control costs effectively. You only pay for the services you need, avoiding the expenses associated with in-house IT departments, such as salaries, training, and equipment.

Enhanced Security and Compliance

Data Security: Managed IT Service providers are well-versed in cybersecurity measures. They implement robust security protocols to protect your data and maintain compliance with industry-specific regulations.
Scalable Security Solutions: As your business grows, so do your security needs. Managed IT Services offer scalable security solutions that can adapt to the evolving threat landscape.

The Cloud Advantage

Scalable Infrastructure: Cloud computing, often integrated into Managed IT Services, allows you to scale your IT infrastructure effortlessly. You can add or remove resources as needed, ensuring that your technology can support growth without interruptions.
Remote Work Capabilities: The cloud facilitates remote work, which is increasingly important in today’s business environment. Managed IT Services can set up secure cloud-based solutions for your team to work from anywhere.

Case Study: Company Elegant Floors Texas’s Journey to Scalability

To illustrate the power of Managed IT Services in achieving scalability, let’s consider Company Elegant Floors Texas, a mid-sized e-commerce business. They partnered with a Managed IT Service provider Intrigue IT Solutions to revamp their IT infrastructure.

As their business expanded, the Managed IT team seamlessly adjusted their resources, implemented scalable cloud solutions, and ensured data security. This partnership allowed Elegant Floors to grow by 25% in a year.

Conclusion

In a world where technology evolves rapidly, staying ahead and growing your business can be a complex endeavor. Managed IT Services offer the flexibility, expertise, and scalability needed to support your growth.

By outsourcing your IT management, you can streamline operations, reduce costs, and focus on what matters most – driving your business forward.

As you plan for your company’s future, consider how Managed IT Services can be the catalyst for your scalability and growth journey.

Your IT infrastructure should not be a barrier to success; instead, it should be a driving force that propels your business to new heights.

Digital Marketing: The Different Ways to Find Customers

Digital Marketing - Find Customers Online

Strategy on its own, a revolutionary concept is no longer enough to boost the growth of a company and to sustain it. The reason is that the current competitive environment is very aggressive. Companies are grabbing market share and giving themselves the means to attract customers from their competitors.

Faced with this, you must redouble your ingenuity. Instead of just surviving, unfortunately, many companies do, stand out and focus more on growing. This is what will allow you to boost your profitability.

For this, it is a question of carrying out actions that are as effective as they are concrete to develop your customer portfolio. Otherwise, potential customers risk favoring your competitors to the detriment of your company.

Customer development is not an easy thing, however, it requires both hard work and long-term effort, but also the activation of a number of levers. In this article, we will dwell on a few digital marketing tactics that you can take full advantage of.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing: the best acquisition and conversion lever

Inbound marketing is proving to be very relevant in the face of the growing digitalization of consumer behavior. It has been seen that the digital-first consumer segment continues to ramp up like never before. This explosive phenomenon was notably propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictive measures.

The digitization of customer shopping habits has brought about new experience requirements including authenticity, heightened consideration, and personalization. Inbound marketing is the very first tactic that will allow your business to comply and succeed.

Entrust your inbound marketing to a specialized digital marketing agency

We have to admit that the deployment of inbound marketing cannot be improvised. It involves the mobilization of a multitude of resources that you do not necessarily have internally. Therefore it seems more appropriate to solicit a digital marketing agency for your inbound marketing of your project, even though you have a qualified internal team.

Such a digital marketing service provider takes care of your inbound marketing from A to Z in accordance with your requirements and your budget. It guarantees you total peace of mind and allows your employees to devote themselves entirely to what they know how to do best as well as to the most strategic missions.

The intervention of the digital agency goes from the audit of your company as well as your resources to the deployment of your acquisition campaigns. This will also go through the definition of your buyers, the strategic framework, the choice of levers to implement, and the planning of the deployment.

It can also go as far as the training of your internal teams. The goal is to enable them to master inbound marketing and to continuously improve and sustain the actions already implemented.

The digital marketing agency ensures that your expenses are optimized to the maximum and you only benefit from methodologies that have already proven themselves.

Find new customers with inbound marketing

The principle of inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is an online marketing practice that consists of attracting prospects to you instead of seeking them out using outbound techniques. Remember that, outbound marketing is traditional marketing. More specifically, it is based on a digital content creation strategy.

These are the ones who will lead prospects to the end of the conversion tunnel while retaining newly converted customers and transforming them into real prescribers.

Learn more about traditional marketing VS digital marketing.

Clearly, inbound marketing brings prospects to a brand, makes them prominent, and accompanies them in each purchasing journey and lasting relationship with them, thanks to content marketing.

Inbound marketing is also closely linked to search engine optimization (SEO), which allows your website to position itself in priority on different search queries in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo.

Therefore, it will bring organic traffic to your website, and in this way, you can grow your business online. And, without an effective SEO strategy, there can be no visitors, and therefore no prospects.

Is inbound marketing more advantageous than its outbound counterpart?

Inbound marketing is actually far ahead of traditional marketing on several points:

Inbound marketing generates more leads than outbound

In outbound marketing, it is the salespeople who prospect and canvass by betting, among other things, on advertising (media and non-media), SMS or email campaigns, POS, the acquisition of advertising space, sponsored links, and social ads.

On the other hand, inbound marketing is quite the opposite since consumers prospect themselves, up to canvass salespeople. In this context, inbound can generate more leads than outbound and accelerate the sales cycle.

A minimally intrusive marketing strategy that guarantees an increased conversion rate

Outbound methods are more aggressive and intrusive. This is all the more true when they are used exclusively. In this case, the margins of error are substantial since today’s consumers mostly say they are “irritated” by advertisements, both traditional and digital. If they have developed a certain resistance to promotional methods of all kinds, it is because they are tired of being overwhelmed with them on a daily basis.

Inbound offers non-intrusive methods by letting consumers move spontaneously toward the brand through appropriate Calls to Action (CTA). Here, they seek to learn more about the brand and access premium content.

The company only has to “feed” them with relevant, useful, adapted content with high added value and which is centered on their needs, which is referred to as “lead nurturing”.

By doing so, it can subtly show them that it can meet their expectations, even the most specific ones. It positions itself as a true expert in its field, without ever forcing the hand of consumers.

Then, once the leads are interested, the brand can contact them and calmly accompany them to the end of the conversion funnel. Some of them may even request a quote and meet the company on their own initiative. In any case, it is easier to mature purchases and retain customers acquired through inbound marketing.

As part of an inbound marketing campaign, the brand acts delicately, strategically, and surely. It does not bother prospects in any way. As a result, it can claim a much higher conversion rate and focus 100% on the closing and loyalty components.

Inbound reduces acquisition costs and rhymes with a significant return on investment (ROI).

In terms of cost and ROI, the head start is once again for inbound marketing. When you know how to make the most of it, you can generate the maximum number of leads and then convert them at a lower cost.

Experts in the field claim that inbound marketing is about 65% less expensive than outbound marketing and any expenses incurred in deploying it can quickly pay for themselves. The reason is obvious: inbound marketing is an investment, while its outbound counterpart is an expense.

For you to be able to exploit its full power, as a digital marketing professional, we remind you that you must ignore internalization in favor of a fruitful collaboration with a digital marketing agency specializing in this marketing tactic.

Other interesting marketing avenues to expand your customer base

While inbound marketing and outbound marketing are different, they complement each other and can therefore enhance each other when you know how to do it.

In this case, it is relevant to add a little outbound to your inbound marketing strategy in order to boost its effectiveness. Used sparingly and strategically, outbound allows you to reach a larger target in less time and generate qualified traffic both on your website and in-store.

It also provides you the possibility of offering the most relevant advertising to the right target, at the right time and in the right place. Also to follow up with prospects who have shown an interest in what you are offering, but who have not finalized their purchase.

Social media marketing

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are undoubtedly an integral part of consumers’ daily lives. They have become a real business generator, both for B2C companies and for B2B structures. You will have everything to gain by placing them at the heart of your acquisition strategy.

These platforms are an opportunity for you to diversify your sources of traffic, generate a maximum of qualified leads, and unite an active and committed community around your brand.

They also allow you to interact directly with your customers and prospects, to follow more closely the evolution of their requirements, and to strengthen your relationship with them.

Online growth hacking

Beyond the methods mentioned above, consider exploiting growth hacking. It is a question of adopting a maximum of marketing means to generate a maximum of leads in the short term, and this, with low costs.

We would point out, however, that growth hacking requires a great understanding of user and customer data, a good dose of innovation, and the implementation of a series of tests.

How to be close and seduce your customers?

When we talk about marketing, we mainly think about carrying out different analyses. This department plays a great role in an organization.

Whether it is a small or medium-sized business or even a large-scale business, marketing remains a key function that ensures the sustainability of its activities. The studies carried out are divided into two main parts.

The first focuses on the behavior of the market and new customers, while the second focuses on consumer behavior and consumer expectations in relation to products directly.

In any case, the clientele is an important element in increasing turnover and maximizing sales. In this section, we will talk about the steps to follow to find new customers and retain customers.

How to approach customers?

Since the dawn of time, customers have been approached in the traditional way, and that issue is not resolved by talking to them face to face. Sales agents had to approach future customers at their workplaces.

This type of approach allows proximity with the customers since one can define by their gestures, expectations as well and appreciation of the product.

Subsequently, with the advancement of technology, we first went through telephone approaches. They consisted of calling a list of numbers each day to ask for their opinions and their assessments.

Then, we continued with the approaches via emails. We sent reminders to the customers or sent enticing advertisements to future prospects so that they could become interested in the company’s products and services.

Nowadays, we have reached a new level of approach. We now use social networks to reach customers. In addition, there are software as well as extensions that facilitate the work.

Indeed, we can carry out an acquisition strategy with tools, which will allow you to benefit from a large address book where you will find many future customers categorized according to areas of interest, professions, or according to the needs of the company.

How is customer retention going?

First of all, you should know that customer retention is quite close to the approach of new prospects. Indeed, it is quite possible to approach customers to ask them for an opinion on products and services.

You can use the same techniques such as calls, emails, or posts on social networks. Then, you can also build customer loyalty through commercial gestures. Your company can set up a system based on the loyalty card, such as offering a gift when the customer reaches certain purchases, such as 5 or 10.

So, it is possible for you to offer your loyal customers a percentage discount on these purchases. Then, setting up a promotion at set times can build customer loyalty.

In any case, we notice that customers are loyal as soon as they are well treated and when we take their needs into account. It is therefore advisable to always listen to customers.

Marketing by object: how to set the budget?

Object marketing has been one of the most used communication strategies by companies for several years. It brings together all the objects or advertising goodies given in the form of gifts to thank employees, customers, or suppliers.

It is also used to reach a maximum of prospects during a promotional event and thus increase the visibility of the company.

So, if you are considering giving a giveaway, here budget is crucial. We give you the procedure to follow to carry out your project without breaking the bank or choosing an approach that goes against your interests.

The personalized product, a real communication tool

To mark the spirit of your collaborators, customers, or prospects, the advertising gift must be useful, functional, and personalized. It would indeed be useless to offer a gift that would be added to the trinkets in the drawer. Customers generally appreciate:

Office accessories, such diary, calendar, notepads, pens, etc.
High-tech goodies, such as USB key, smartphone case, power bank, etc.

Choose a quality logo, slogan, and description so that the customer proudly uses your products. The personalized product is a popular direct marketing tool. It is the information medium par excellence because it creates direct visual contact with your company.

Note that the price of personalized products varies according to certain criteria. These include the marking technique, the grammage, and the spinning technique.

The advertising object must be of quality, useful, and durable in order to ensure a successful campaign on all levels. To achieve this objective, it is then necessary for you to establish the advertising budget using the right method of financial development.

Methods for determining the advertising budget

To determine the online advertising budget of your company, different methods are possible. All you have to do is sort through to find the one best suited to your project.

The goal-oriented method

This is the method that seems to make the most sense, as it focuses on interacting with business prospects. You will estimate the number of customers to reach and the communication strategy to consider.

For example, to attract customers at a promotional fair, you may choose to add an advertising flag, or use social networks or mass media for more visibility. This marketing strategy will boost sales and increase performance.

The percentage of sales method

Generally, companies define the budget taking into account the percentage perceived on the sales or on the turnover. This evaluation makes it possible to establish a limiting margin on the cost of the advertising object. The budget can also be set based on the percentage of sales from the previous year.

However, this alternative is very little recommended, because it has limits and in particular, does not take into account real prospects. If the break-even point was not reached the previous year, offering a promotional item should still generate more sales.

The competitive alignment method

The principle of this method consists in establishing the advertising budget while referring to the expenses made by your competitors. To have your market share, it will therefore be necessary to make a higher estimate than the competition, especially if you have just established yourself.

Establish the advertising budget

This is the stage where you must ask the crucial questions on which the success of your visibility campaign will depend. Is the advertising object intended for a thank you or only to attract customers?

In any case, it will be necessary to define the advertising budget according to the target for which the gift is intended.

Define the target

The promotional item generally comes in two forms: corporate gifts and goodies. The first has a much higher value than the second. In most cases, the corporate gift is offered to employees or important customers.

Goodies, on the other hand, are suitable for attracting customers and prospects. When the gift is intended for employees, setting the budget you must take social security contributions into account. They will be determined annually based on the total value of the gifts received by each employee.

However, for any value below 5% of the monthly social security ceiling, the company does not pay any contribution. The tax authorities in fact consider gifts dedicated to employees as an advantage linked to the tasks they perform within the company. They are therefore subject to income tax.

With regard to the gifts offered to customers and prospects, the total value of the gifts is automatically deductible and is estimated under certain conditions. The company must offer the gift free of charge without expecting compensation from customers and prospects. The gift must also be given in the interest of the company.

Advertising budget calculation: Set prices

In developing the advertising budget, rough forecasts are important to make the gift memorable for the recipient. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the price of packaging, the unit cost and the quantity to be ordered, the delivery costs, the exhibition costs not to mention the printing techniques to be used on the objects.

Administrative taxation on the advertising budget

When making the decision to offer giveaways, it is important to find out about the tax rules and benefits established by law. In the event of non-compliance with tax legislation, you are subject to fines. The legislation is fortunately precise on the subject and rigorously fixes the applications with regard to the taxation of corporate gifts.

In principle, all promotional gifts are subject to VAT with a few nuances. The tax is reclaimed on gifts of very low value. However, it is important to remember that goods which are given free of charge or which are offered at a price much lower than that fixed by the market should in no case be subject to the deduction of VAT.

Ultimately, it should be remembered that the notion of the interest of the company is crucial in this process. It is thus necessary to anticipate a possible control by proceeding to the constitution of certain elements of evidence which must be material and factual.

For the present and future progress of the company, the precise facts justifying the attribution of the gift must thus be clarified for total transparency.

How to choose your digital marketing agency?

If you run a business and you plan to use online to increase your turnover, you must use digital marketing services. Nevertheless, it is still not obvious that you have mastered all its facets. This is where the usefulness of digital marketing agencies appears.

Digital Marketing Agency For Your Online Business Growth — Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

In this article, we show you several criteria to consider to avoid making mistakes in choosing your digital marketing agency.

Reflect and determine the goal you want to achieve

It seems trivial at first glance, but be aware that many people forget to ask themselves the right questions before embarking on their quest. You can’t search for a good digital agency if you don’t know what you want to achieve as a result.

It is not up to the agency to help you find your needs, even if sometimes it can help you discover other aspects that you have not been able to detect. The digital strategy agency as we have seen above is there to help you, to serve as your guide.

It will therefore not be a question of remaining inactive and putting everything on your back. Otherwise, you have an important role to play in your success, and it also has its two cents to contribute to the achievement of your goals.

For example, you have chosen to launch a business website for your activity or to launch yourself on a social network, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. You need to know why you made this choice and what it will bring you as a benefit.

Will you present your products or services on the site in question? The latter must be pro or classic? What are your competitors offering on their sites? How do you plan to overcome them through your site?

It is for this noble reason that we advise you to read articles on the subject. This will allow you to better choose your objectives without wasting your money while always remaining as competitive as possible. Write down your objectives in black and white, draw up specifications, and then take action

It is after taking stock of your needs and the improvements to be made within your business that you are now going to embark on the search.

Would you like to improve your search engine optimization or SEO? Turn to an SEO agency specializing in search engine optimization.

Do you want to sell more effectively on your site? Turn to an agency specializing in online sales.

Are you looking to get a little closer to your customers and gain good traffic to your site? Do you turn to an agency that offers traffic acquisition services? Thus, it is your objectives that will determine the type of digital marketing company to consult.

Embarking on the quest for a digital agency without doing this little personal work will cause you heavy losses and a lot of frustration. The reason is that without a goal, without a vision, you obviously won’t achieve a concrete result.

For further

For more ideas on the process to put in place to succeed in this step, we advise you to consult the article: How to create a specification for your website?

Cost of a digital marketing agency

Estimate the cost of your upgrades and make your selection. Whether you like it or not, you will have to face this crucial problem which is the cost of the services that your future collaborator will provide. So, how much do you have in your wallet? How much are you willing to spend on achieving your goals?

In most cases, the price of the services offered by digital marketing professionals is conditioned by the following main variables,

The time

The more demanding the work you entrust to the professional, the more time and sometimes resources they will need to accomplish the digital marketing mission. In addition, be aware that the more urgent the mission to be carried out, the longer the completion time will be and therefore the price of the services will naturally increase.

Mission requirements

The more accurate the results you expect for your project, the higher the cost of completing the mission will be.

The expertise of the professional

The third factor that can affect the price of the services is the number of years of experience of the professional agency that takes care of the mission. You should know that an agency that recognizes itself as an expert in a field tends to inflate its prices a little since they are sure that its offer will have a very positive effect on your business.

It would therefore be a good idea to prioritize your goals and then allocate a higher budget to those that you deem too important and a lower budget to those that are less important. Use the online tool or social networks to find the agencies that are more reliable and transparent to you according to your needs.

Compare their offers, their prices, and their respective skills in order to identify the one(s) with whom you wish to work.

In summary

Online marketing is now a must for any company that wants to solidify its position or grab new markets. Concretely, what benefits does it bring you? What are the most promising strategies today?

Any company must communicate to its potential customers, partners, and suppliers. Today, online advertising is the main tool of commercial communication. Among its most common objectives, we find the contribution of notoriety, the reinforcement of the brand image, and, most importantly, the promotion of products and services.

Benefits Of An Optimized IT Infrastructure

Managed IT Services - Optimized IT Infrastructure

Is your current IT infrastructure helping your business thrive in its industry or creating barriers to growth? If you’re still not using cloud technologies to optimize your IT infrastructure, you’re missing out on a great opportunity. Here are some of the benefits of making the switch:

Maximize your income

An optimized IT infrastructure can help you maximize your business revenue because it breaks down silos and allows your technology to operate more efficiently. Moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud has many benefits, such as better data management, streamlined processes, and interoperability.

For small businesses, this is a great opportunity to reduce costs and provide quality services, which also means attracting more long-term customers.

Grow more easily

One of the biggest problems with the traditional on-premises infrastructure model is that it’s hard to scale your business. An optimized IT infrastructure could save you from having to buy new equipment and configure servers each time you expand your services.

Fortunately, cloud services are very flexible and allow you to scale your infrastructure both vertically and horizontally with minimal to no impact on your business.

Increase your productivity

Companies that invest in technology to optimize their IT infrastructure often realize productivity gains. A robust IT architecture plays a major role in connecting services and streamlining processes, which are important steps in helping stakeholders gain an overview of the operation, foster agility, and apply best practices. It also frees up existing IT resources by automating routine processes.

Strengthen your network

If you have an IT operation at your office, you must be worried about your data? A virtual private network (VPN) is one of the best weapons against security threats. If you are struggling to set up an agile environment, new servers come with built-in features that make this process easier.

From enhanced cybersecurity to enhanced functionality, a cloud computing infrastructure can strengthen your network and give your business a competitive edge. If you don’t have enough resources and time, you can hire a managed IT services provider to do this job for you.

Reduce downtime

Downtime, breakdowns, and problems can jeopardize your IT infrastructure. It can also compromise the operation of your business and cause you to lose money. Many companies are highly prone to these issues as they still use the inefficient on-premises infrastructure model which further hurts your bottom line.

Moving to a cloud infrastructure can reduce maintenance costs, reduce downtime, and improve your systems management. Either you can build a cloud environment on your own, or contact a reliable managed IT services provider to do this. It’s not hard to find an IT outsourcing company near you, that can provide you smooth IT services for your company.

How to Maximize Your IT Assets

Productivity gains, competitive advantage, and better customer service are just a few of the reasons businesses need to invest in technology. However, not all software and hardware age at the same rate.

That’s why responsible staff need to worry about IT asset management because it helps companies replace outdated technologies, reduce IT costs, and optimize their IT assets.

Update your IT infrastructure

First, it is important for you to understand that IT asset management is an ongoing process. The rapid evolution of the technology sector poses a challenge to most companies as they need to know which technologies are used by the staff and if they are configured optimally.

For example, you can still store sensitive data on physical servers instead of using cloud solutions. Your devices may be vulnerable to a recently discovered cyber threat. When you’re done, a managed IT services vendor can help you identify and resolve all of these issues.

Improve reliability

Using an old system is a mistake that many companies don’t realize until it’s too late because leaders don’t assess the risks of proactively using outdated technology. When you build projects on outdated IT infrastructure, it risks slowing down your employees, losing relevant data, and producing poor results.

It’s like trying to renovate a house when there are signs of foundation problems. Our specialists at Intrigue IT Solutions have the experience to help you manage your IT operations without any interruption.