Outsource or not outsource? It’s a question that comes up often in meetings for managing professional services. And the subject comes up a lot these days in marketing. Why? Because marketing for professional digital marketing services is changing, and many firms are having trouble keeping up.
Professional services have been marketed for years through personal connections, referrals, and a wide range of networking and learning events. All that mattered was who you knew.
But things are starting to change. There is a new generation of buyers who have grown up with the Internet. They think that school should be free. They expect those who give them professional services, to be honest. And most importantly, whether they work in Bangor, Maine, or Bangkok, Thailand, they expect to find a company that meets all of their needs.
Because of this, marketing no longer depends on who you know but on what you know. And how well you can tell people about it.
Even the marketing agencies that say they can be outsourced haven’t been able to explain what they do or show why marketing should be a shared services option.
Several advertising agencies promote their outsourced services heavily on the Google Advertising Network, but they don’t say anything about outsourcing on their websites. This makes site visitors wonder if the term “outsourced marketing” means anything at all.
What exactly is Outsource Marketing Services from Someone Else?
Outsourcing professional digital marketing services is a common way to get help with things like social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, graphic design, etc., from a third party. Since digital marketing is mostly about spreading content consistently, many professional services firms outsource their marketing instead of adding another layer to their daily business tasks.
You can outsource either strategic or operational tasks, or you can do both. For instance, say you have a small in-house team that can only spend a few hours a week on marketing. In that case, you can outsource daily operational tasks and ask your internal team to focus on core strategies, like how to get the most out of advertising business services on a limited budget.
In the meantime, your outsourcing partner can help you with tasks that you do over and over again, such as designing and setting up an email campaign or making a social media calendar.
Reasons Why Companies Outsource Agencies to Do Their Marketing
Outsourced marketing shouldn’t be thought of as a cost to your business’s bottom line but as an investment in its future success. A reputable marketing agency will work closely with your team to figure out the most important business goals, evaluate the marketing you’re already doing, and come up with a strategy based on results that will maximize your return on investment (ROI).
Here are a few reasons why outsourcing your business’s marketing could be one of the best investments you ever make:
Paying Close Attention to Certain Marketing Projects
When it comes to marketing projects that take a lot of time, money, or experience, like a website redesign, rebranding marketing, content marketing plan, or media relations program, it’s a good idea to outsource marketing functions for someone else to do them.
Taking Care of the Daily Flow
Keep a business going, it takes a certain amount of time and energy every day. Adding a new project or campaign interrupts this work, which could be bad for your company. The heart of the problem is that you know a digital marketing plan is important for your business to grow, but you don’t have time in your day to start one without letting something else suffer.
Try to Grow Quickly
Putting together a full marketing team from scratch takes a lot of time, work, and commitment, which many businesses don’t have. When a business decides to start spending money on marketing, they often want to get started right away.
Benefits of Outsourcing Agencies to Do Marketing
We can all agree that the main goal of most businesses is to make the company and sell as much as possible. But not every business has the right marketing, communications, SEO, or design companies to reach that goal. This is normal, and that’s why more and more companies are choosing to outsource their marketing. Let’s talk about some of its pros.
Savings on Costs
Hiring a team of digital marketing experts to work in-house can be very expensive and hard to do well. A competitive digital marketing team has a digital marketing manager, a project manager, a content writer, an email marketing specialist, an SEO specialist, a graphic designer, a front-end developer, a PPC manager, and a social media manager.
Scale Quickly
If your marketing team members wear too many hats, miss appointments often, or find that current marketing technologies hurt them more than they help, you should think about outsourcing your digital marketing tasks. By outsourcing someone else to do your marketing, your team will have more time to focus on running the business, and you will be able to grow quickly. When your vision and marketing goals depend on the company’s current resources, you might get stuck or have to put them off.
A New Point Of View
A business can learn a lot from an outsider’s point of view. I’ve already said in this article that your outsourced marketing team is an extension of your internal team, and that’s still true. Even so, they can still use their years of marketing experience with different companies to give your business a new point of view or a way to do things that may not have been thought of before.
Should You Outsource Your Marketing?
Should you use outsourced marketing? It’s a question that is being asked by more and more professional services marketing firms. Most firms already outsource at least a few jobs, like writing and graphic design.
In many industries, competitive forces like marketing automation tools, new laws, and changes in the market are forcing companies to look at every part of their business, including marketing. Other firms want to stop hiring people for tasks that aren’t part of their core business and aren’t where they shine. Instead, they want to focus on what they do best. There is also a well-established and latest marketing trends and techniques of letting subscription-based professional digital marketing services take care of important tasks.
As you go over your marketing plan, look at each part and ask yourself the questions below:
- Is this the most important thing we do?
- Do we know how to find and manage the people who can do the job?
- Does it take a long time to learn? And can we pay to go up?
- Does it feel natural to take care of this task?
- Can we pay for the costs that don’t change?
If you can say “yes” to all five questions, this job should likely stay in-house. A single “no” puts a job on the fence, and you should think about how well it fits with your team’s skills and time. Could a pro do a better job? If so, do you think the extra quality is worth the cost? What would your resource on the inside do instead?
If you answer “no” to more than one of the five questions, it’s a good candidate for outsourcing.
Conclusion
When it comes to marketing projects, it’s often wiser to hire a third-party marketing agency than to keep an in-house team or hire a freelancer. This is because a third-party marketing agency will have more expertise, save you money, and give you a better return on investment.
Use the tips we’ve given to help you decide if outsourcing your marketing is a good idea. And if you think it would work for your company, look through the companies we mentioned to find the best-outsourced partner for your needs.
Remember that if you do marketing right, outsourcing can take your business to the next level quickly.
Outsourced marketing is something that more and more advertising and marketing companies are offering as a professional digital marketing service, but few people know what it is. Maybe one day, marketing that is outsourced by som
