When to outsource your digital marketing
Many companies try to keep work internal, hiring new employees to fill positions rather than outsourcing the work. People often think of outsourcing as relocating functions overseas but it can also be done locally to maximize growth potential and efficiency. Outsourced services include finance, accounting, HR, legal, and IT but I’m here to discuss outsourcing your digital marketing.
Why outsource?
Marketing agencies employ staff with specialized skills, with a wide range of expertise and capabilities than companies who don’t specialize in marketing services. In many cases, specialized marketing firms can work more efficiently for an overall lower cost.
New business owners get used to doing everything themselves. But as they scale their business, that model isn’t exactly sustainable. If you manage every daily task yourself, you’ll end up losing money and wasting time.
Leveraging outsourcing to scale your business allows you to work on big-picture tasks and stop worrying about the little activities that slow you down and waste your energy.
Technology has made it possible for outsourced professionals to work from virtually anywhere, thus affording businesses a bigger pool of available talent. This affords companies fewer costs associated with travel and occupancy and the flexibility to add or reduce resources on demand; there simply aren’t any costs of hiring and turnover.
Key considerations before outsourcing your marketing:
So when do you know if it’s time to outsource your marketing? Before handing over key components to your company do your due diligence. Ask your staff if they feel overworked, stressed out, or too busy to deliver high quality marketing strategies. Take a look inward before deciding to invest in an outside firm.
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Internal resources
It’s common for marketing teams to feel overworked, especially in a small company who only has a handful of marketing employees. Got 100+ hours of marketing work to do weekly and only two employees? It could be time to look for an outside firm to reduce the workload.
If your marketing team is constantly working against tight deadlines and all projects are getting pushed to the last minute, an outside firm can help.
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Internal technical knowledge
If you’re falling behind on deadlines, it’s safe to say you also don’t have time to stay ahead of the curve. Marketing, especially digital marketing, changes so much and the most successful campaigns are ones that stay ahead of (or at least concurrent with) major industry trends. If you’re struggling to stay up to date, or can’t afford to spend the time researching and learning the latest strategies and technologies, it behooves you to find a firm that can do all that work for you.
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Budget
Another sign that it’s time to make the switch? Your budget exceeds the time and knowledge your internal team has. Or, you feel that you are wasting your budget because so many marketing materials are being haphazardly put together at the last minute. Better utilize your budget by getting the help of a marketing agency to put together a campaign properly.
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Experience
Maybe you’re unhappy with your marketing results. Why not try running a campaign with an experienced marketing agency? That’s one of the great benefits of hiring an outside firm – they’re undoubtedly more experienced than your team. With their broader range of experience, a marketing firm can advise you on which channels you should be using in addition to your traditional strategies. An agency has the time, resources, and experience to come up with new ideas, research up and coming strategies to engage in, and orchestrate successful campaigns. And who wouldn’t want to work with experts in their field who already know of the best ways to achieve results for your business?
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Growing your internal team is an approach that works for many. It allows companies to have more control over the flow of work and can sometimes be a cheaper solution. But internalizing your processes doesn’t always pay off. Sometimes it’s more efficient to outsource the work.
Get in touch if you’ve determined that it’s no longer efficient to hire your own staff to create and carry out your marketing efforts.
