11 May Should You Outsource Your Marketing?
By Scott Jones, 123 Internet Group, 11th May 2016
Many companies are learning that outsourcing marketing responsibilities can be a good idea.
To decide whether you should outsource your entire marketing strategy, part of your efforts, or none at all, you need to really understand your company and its’ capabilities.
It is critical to understand what your personnel are good at, you need to make sure that you stick with your core competency; it is an absolute must.
Then review the areas you need support with and let experts in their respective fields come in and execute those other business functions. Avoiding the expense of both time and cost of attracting and hiring top-tier talent, which in a competitive market such talent can be near on impossible to lure.
I mean, it is already common practice to outsource your development team, your accounting team, your human resources, and many other facets of business. By doing so you save on overhead, commitment, recruiting time, training time, and the general expenses of full-time staff, while allowing you to tap into experts, who will deliver without all the associated expenses.
Why should Start-ups to Multi National Corporations, outsource their marketing?
If you’re a start-up, small business, or an organisation focused on other growth initiatives such as product, bringing your marketing efforts to an agency that can strategise and execute across multiple marketing channels could be key. For new companies, such as these, it makes little sense to employ one full time member of staff – who probably won’t have all the attributes to be able execute both traditional and digital marketing requirements.
Even an established large multi-national corporation, who hasn’t really got to grips with the non-stop changing technologies of digital marketing and new strategy thinking, the same applies. Why employ one or more full time members of staff when you can simply pull on the resources of established digital marketing experts? With the added benefit of being able to guarantee results and help educate your company.
Additionally, you can get all the perks of having a multimillion pound marketing team, but within your budget. Outsourcing allows you to tap into digital experts — who have worked with top-tier brands — at a fraction of the cost with no long-term commitment.
So what are the benefits of outsourcing your marketing?:-
– Time
If you are looking to take on your own marketing, you will often find yourself distracted from you key activities.
Successful marketing strategies and execution require long term dedication, experience and the time to really analysis the results. You can save time and focus on what you do best by outsourcing you’re marketing and placing it in the hands of the professionals – who really know what they are doing.
– Cost
Outsourcing your marketing can seem an expensive option but when you consider hiring a full time senior marketing professional would cost you in the region of £30k per year, the costs of hiring an external company on a month to month basis plus with KPI’s which qualify return on investment, it’s more like putting money in the bank.
– Experience
Your in-house team can draw on the knowledge of your external marketing agency. A good marketing agency will educate you with the forever changing digital trends and marketing strategies as well as provide you with further in-sight into your target market and the many marketing channels and opportunities available.
– Access
The right marketing company will ensure there is complete transparancy and access to your data and learnings. They will know that continual two-way client and marketer communication will allow them to provide an open and honest service, which in turn makes for a more rewarding process for both parties. It is with this work ethos and unpretentious approach that our clients love and is the reason why the majority of our works comes from referrals.
– Results
If you need to improve upon the marketing results or are just flat disappointed with them, then by outsourcing your marketing you have nothing to lose.
You can put KPI’s in place to help enforce expectations.
With all our clients, we work on a month by month basis, meaning if we don’t perform, then we simply don’t get to keep our clients. Our business is built on results and that’s why our client base is growing stronger and stronger each day.
This being said, if you do become unsatisfied with your external marketing company, make sure you haven’t been tied down to any long term contractual obligations, so that if they are not performing after a few months, you can go elsewhere. It’s a lot easier than firing a full-time member of staff, especially for a small business.
“The benefits are endless…. Trying to hire and manage a team in-house, can not only be very expensive but it usually doesn’t land you the same level of expertise, experience and results.”
Make the right choice for your company’s future growth
Outsourcing marketing isn’t always going to be the right call for every company.
If you are a well-financed, larger business, it is important to have an internal marketing team as well. Besides, who knows your company, product, or service better than your internal employees? They can convey a true passion and some on-the-ground knowledge to your marketing efforts.
You don’t always have to choose between all-internal marketing and all-external marketing. In fact, hybrid marketing strategies are becoming more and more common place.
Introducing an external company who can view your business from the outside looking in, may produce some surprisingly new results, sometimes people become so absorbed and wrapped up within the business that they become a little blinkered and a fresh pair of eyes could be just what is needed to revitalise your next marketing campaign. So the collaborative approach is just what you may need to produce the goods.
Either way, outsourcing your marketing in its entirety or simply one campaign at a time is always a big decision for any company. But managed correctly, it can produce the long-awaited results your company has been seeking.
The key component is to truly know and understand your company and its needs, so you make the right choice for its future growth.
