Business owners and leaders often wear many hats. You’re the CEO, the CFO, the COO, and oftentimes, the marketing department. In small or midsize companies, there is often only one marketing person who may also be in charge of sales or another department.
As your business grows, you will hit a point where you can no longer do everything yourself. This is when you should consider outsourcing your marketing tasks.
But before you hand over the keys to your social media accounts or start searching for a freelance writer or graphic designer, there are a few things you need to consider. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at when, why, and how to outsource your marketing, as well as some of the core marketing activities you can begin outsourcing.
When to Outsource Your Marketing
1. You Don’t Have the Time
If you find yourself constantly putting off your marketing tasks because you don’t have time, that’s a sign you should consider an outsourced marketing department. Marketing is a time-consuming task, and it’s important to do it consistently to maximize marketing ROI (MROI).
2. You’re Not Seeing the Results you Need
If your marketing efforts are not generating the results you want, it’s time to get some help. A marketing agency or consultant can help you take a fresh look at your marketing strategy and make adjustments that will help you achieve your goals.
3. You Don’t Have the Expertise
Let’s face it, not everyone is a marketing expert. If you’re not confident in your ability to create and execute a winning marketing strategy, you should outsource. A good digital marketing agency will have the knowledge and experience to help you reach your target market.
Why Outsource Your Marketing
1. Save Time
If you are the primary content writer at your company, you likely aren’t able to keep up with your other work. By outsourcing your marketing, you can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
2. Save Money
Hiring a full-time marketing staff can be expensive. Outsourced marketing for small businesses will save money on salaries, benefits, and office space.
3. Get Expert Help
Working with a marketing agency gives you access to their expertise. Together, you can craft a winning digital marketing strategy tailored to your business.
4. Stay Focused
When you outsource to a marketing firm, you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the latest trends or managing each marketing campaign. You can focus on your core business with minimal energy spent on marketing.
5. Become More Flexible
Outsourcing your marketing allows you to be more flexible with your budget than if you hired a full team. This enables you to increase or decrease your marketing spending as needed without long-term commitments.
How to Outsource Your Marketing
1. Define Your Goals
What should your marketing campaigns achieve? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? What needs to happen in order to hit these goals? What specifically has prevented your team from implementing changes to hit these goals already?
By defining your goals and where you want to take your company, you can make sure you find a marketing partner that can help you get there.
2. Do Your Research
When you’re looking for a marketing partner, do your research to find an agency that’s a good fit for your business. Look at their portfolio, read reviews, and check out their case studies. Ask them questions and determine if their values are aligned with yours.
3. Create a Style Guide
Before you start working with a marketing agency or consultant, create a style guide. This will help ensure that your brand’s voice is consistent across all your marketing materials. If you aren’t sure where to begin, start by collecting your logo files, brand colors, and fonts in one place. Having this information ready will help your new outsourced marketing agency get started quicker.
4. Set a Budget
When you’re outsourcing your marketing, you need to set a budget. Reserve a portion of your budget for paid digital ads and print ads. Once you have a budget in mind, you can start looking for a marketing partner that fits within it.
5. Make a Plan
You can make sure your marketing efforts are focused and effective by creating a plan. What type of content should you create? What kind of results are you expecting?
Be sure to communicate your plan and expectations with your marketing company so everyone is on the same page. They may have insight to help improve your goals as well, so be open to suggestions and aim to be collaborative.
Your plan doesn’t have to be perfect; a strong marketing partner can help you craft a marketing plan that will bring results.
What Marketing Activities Should You Outsource First?
1. Outsource Content Marketing
Content marketing is the foundation of many other marketing activities. Content creation is time-consuming but fairly easy to outsource, so this might be the first area you want to look at bringing in help for. Content marketing includes blog posts, white papers, success stories, podcasts, and videos. With you as the expert, a good marketing team will consistently write high-quality content for your company’s needs.
2. Outsource Graphic Design
Graphic design for B2B is where science and art meet. B2B tech companies need high-end, professional materials that convey their brand without looking generic. This takes serious skill and experience to pull off and should only be handled by teams who understand these principles.
3. Outsource Social Media Marketing
It is not only standard but expected that your company is active on at least one major social media platform. Being active and posting content regularly takes more time and effort than you might think. Outsourcing social media strategy to a marketing team will help ensure consistent and proven results that are backed by best practices.
4. Outsource Email Marketing
Although it’s an older form of communication, email marketing campaigns are still a major way for B2B marketers to generate leads. Unlike other channels, email is very powerful because it gives you direct access to your audience.
This power should not be abused, and every effort should be taken to personalize your email outreach. This can be hard to get right without prior experience, so it is best to leverage a marketing company that already knows how to create and distribute emails to your list of subscribers.
5. Outsource Website Design and Maintenance
The day your site launches, it starts to become outdated. Similarly, web design trends change from one year to the next and technical aspects of websites need to be updated and maintained.
Updating the backend of your site at the wrong time can break your site, but refraining from updates for too long leaves it vulnerable to cyber-attacks. It’s best to bring in a team with experienced web developers who can manage your site and ensure it will function properly as well as meet today’s standards.
6. Outsource Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential, but it is also very technical. SEO has the steepest learning curve and the most ambiguity. Doing SEO improperly is costly and hurts your web presence. Hire a full-service marketing team that offers SEO instead.
Outsource or In-House: Which is Right for You?
Outsourcing your marketing is a great way to save time and money, and achieve your business goals quicker. By following the tips above, you can find the right marketing partner for your business and earn more by removing your roadblocks to victory.
You may find that you aren’t quite ready to outsource your marketing yet and would rather keep it in-house. Either option can work, but if you are on the fence, you should consider hiring a team sooner rather than later. Waiting and continuing to follow a strategy that isn’t working will ultimately hinder your growth.
Whether you are ready to get started with a marketing team or you aren’t sure what to do next, reach out to our team. We can help guide you to make a decision that will be best for your company.
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