If you've ordered household products from Amazon Prime, hired a cleaning service, or hitched a ride with Uber, you're already a part of the consumer Do It For Me (DIFM) revolution. But what about DIFM for business? Can someone do it for companies too?
Setting Goals Is Easy, Achieving Goals Is the Hard Part
Day in and day out, business leaders juggle shifting priorities and a seemingly endless to-do list. Often, the important long-term tasks end up at the bottom of the list, behind all of the urgent priorities. So it's no surprise that DIFM is on the rise in the B2B world.
Anthony P. Lee explains the phenomenon in a post on TechCrunch, "Why Do It For Me Is the Next Big Thing": "We call it the Do-It-For-Me Revolution, or 'DIFM' for short. DIFM is more than software. DIFM combines technology automation with specialized labor to deliver a complete solution to a business problem. It's as much about people-powered customer service as it is about code-powered efficiency."
Think about the investments in technologies and platforms that your team has made over the years. Each project ROI has promised to transform something, improve metrics, or drive specific efficiencies. But how many of those projects actually achieved the desired results? Likely only a few.
The reasons for failure are many—wrong platform, lack of experience, limited bandwidth, and short corporate attention spans.
Remember the adage, "If you want it done right, do it yourself"? The idea behind DIFM is the opposite: Sometimes, if you want it done right, you should hire an expert to do the heavy lifting for you—and then hold that expert accountable for the outcome.
It's Time to Power Up Your Marketing Services With DIFM
Today, B2B technology vendors are offering much more than technology: Many also offer DIFM services (AKA, managed services) to execute the tactical activities associated with using their platform. For example, marketing automation technology vendors might offer DIFM services like these:
- Designing email and landing page templates
- Building and executing nurture campaigns
- Developing and implementing lead scoring profiles
- Building and managing events
- Performing A/B-testing
- Creating and managing campaign reports
This video from Salesfusion's Marketing Minute Video Series provides an overview of the ins and outs of DIFM and why it may be the right move for your business.
Although marketers cannot depend on technology alone to transform their business, DIFM services can make it possible for marketing teams to employ advanced technologies without neglecting their existing workload—ultimately, allowing team members to be in more places and do more things.
And, perhaps most important, DIFM augments your team with seasoned experts who know the ins and outs of the technology at hand and who are well-versed in the best-practices behind those efforts. Harnessing the expertise of a DIFM provider can give your team the boost it needs to deliver more marketing programs, maximize its efforts, and meet your marketing goals.
