Should You Outsource Your Marketing?

If we presented you with two salaries you had to pay, say $50,000 and $24,000, you’d be drawn to the latter, right? What if we mentioned that that $24,000 salary paid for a more efficient and effective employee, who was tirelessly consistent and knew the latest and greatest in the field? So what exactly is the catch?

That’s just it, there’s isn’t any!

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a marketing coordinator is just over $50,000 (1). In addition, employers must pay benefits, vacation time, payroll taxes, etc. that roughly equal an average of 1.25 times an employee’s salary (that’s now $62,500).

Add in additional the costs of deliverables like hiring a web developer, advertising in print and online, trade show display graphics, print collateral, etc. of $24,000 for the year for the sake of simplicity (that’s $2,000 a month.) Your total cost for marketing is now $86,500.

On the other hand, take, for example, our typical marketing packages cost $24,000 for an entire year. Add in the deliverables of $24,000 and the total you’d pay for marketing annually would be $48,000. That’s a little more than half the cost of an in-house marketing employee.

Sure, you say, that’s all fine and dandy, but is the quality of work the same? Am I still getting the best bang for my buck? Besides costs, what exactly are the benefits of outsourcing my marketing?

We’re so happy you asked. Let’s dive into it!

1. Time

With 76% of small business owners facing difficulties in marketing, the complexity and diversity of marketing options and channels begs the question of how much time and money you should spend (2). Sure, you may have money, but do you really have the time?

Do you have time to really sit down and formulate a blog article? Do you have time to reply to all those social media posts? Are you putting this all on one marketer (we’ll pray for them)? Outsourcing your marketing allows you to focus on your own priorities and leaves you without the worry of overwhelming your in-house resources.

“76% of small business owners face difficulties in marketing.”

—Capitol One Study

2. Speed

In addition to leaving you more time, you’ll also find yourself meeting marketing goals quicker. Having trouble making a marketing deadline? Especially if you find yourself sweating under a large campaign, outsourcing to a marketing company can again help you break up that work and make that deadline.

3. Quality of Work

If you already have a great marketer, great, keep them there. Play to your marketing employee’s strengths and reduce their workload by outsourcing other marketing areas that they may not be as strong in.

Allow a marketing company to support your initiatives and help bring your vision to full fruition. Your marketers can’t do everything at once at a consistent high quality (as much as you may want them to.) By outsourcing, not only will you gain higher quality work from your in-house employees, you’ll also receive high value work from a group of professionals with expertises in all marketing fields.

4. Consistency & Focus

Marketing agencies don’t take breaks or get sick like typical employees. Your social media feeds won’t suddenly go dead on holidays or weekends or for no reason at all. A whole marketing team works to implement your campaigns day in and day out, rain or shine.

In addition to consistency, marketing agencies keep a keen focus on your marketing calendar, whereas an in-house marketing may be derailed by busy quarters, “all hands on deck” situations or other conundrums.

5. Expertise

By hiring a marketing agency, you're hiring a whole team of professionals with a slew of experience each in their own field of marketing (think digital, content, social media, etc.). Not only are they great a working together, they're also experienced collaborators, frequently helping sales teams achieve their desired goals.

According to Oracle, 75% of marketers feel that supplementing their capabilities with outsourcing can help mend the gap between marketing and sales teams (3). Avoid that skill gap by supplementing with or completely outsourcing to a marketing agency.

“75% of marketers feel that supplementing their capabilities with outsourcing can help mend the gap between marketing and sales teams.”

—Oracle Study

6. Different Perspectives

Of course, you will always be the expert of your own company, but sometimes getting a different perspective offers a new insight into your business and brings fresh opportunities.

A marketing agency uses objective, analytical tools to research what works best for your company and prevents you from wasting money on campaigns that you liked simply because you were too “close” to the picture.

7. Goal-Orientated Results

Good marketing agencies set and achieve proposed end goals. Granted you may set your own in-house goals for marketing, but with a marketing agency, you’re guaranteed a documented ROI. And if you aren’t meeting those goals, well it’s a lot easier to fire a marketing agency and move on vs. an individual employee, right?

8. You Get to Focus on Your Company

According to a study by the economist Michael F. Corbett, “outsourcing can increase productivity and competitiveness 10- to 100-fold” (4).

Talk about a burst of energy. Outsourcing your marketing allows you to focus on your own priorities, leaving the rest of your staff to become more efficient. Even by slowly outsourcing different parts of the marketing process, you can slowly alleviate the pressure on your own to team.

9. Grow

“90% of businesses cited outsourcing as crucial to their growth” and is considered the “growth hack” for most small companies and startups (5). If you’re feeling stagnant, perhaps it’s time to reach out to outside sources.

Marketing agencies can not only give you that fresh look that will transform the perception of your business, but also offer strategies that generate more leads and make it easier to close sales. Working with a marketing company can be flexible, growing with you and your company's needs and far more cost effective than hiring more in-house employees.

“90% of businesses cited outsourcing as crucial to their growth.”

—The Outsourcing Revolution, Michael F. Corbett

10. Get the Latest and Greatest

You don’t need to worry about a learning curve or staying abreast of the latest marketing trends when you outsource your marketing. That’s their job.

According to Capgemini, 90% of companies lack the digital skills needed to stay current with the constantly changing digital marketing sphere and only 4% of companies “align their training efforts with their digital strategy” (6). Good marketing companies continually educate themselves to stay ahead of the curve.

So What Should You Do?

Whether you’re a large or small company, outsourcing some or all of your marketing can lead to better ROI, less stress, more efficiency and overall, better marketing. And of course, actually costs less than hiring additional in-house employees.

Let’s take a look at what we did for Morning Fresh Dairy and Kinetic Industry.

During the time Morning Fresh has outsourced to us, the number of home delivery customers has grown 20% year over year and their website traffic has increased 30% year over year. We’ve also helped Kinetic Industry make a bigger impact with their marketing. Instead of chasing down leads, Kinetic Industry now gets contacted by leaders in their industry. For example, a recent inquiry resulted in a six figure project.

Successfully growing your business requires a consistent marketing plan that won’t exhaust your resources or your time. When looking for a marketing agency to help you, be sure that they offer a wide range of services. From digital to traditional marketing methods so they can help you create the perfect promotional mix for your company.

Remember too, that whether you outsource all of your marketing or just certain areas, you’ll still need internal employees who have knowledge of your products and services, brand, and goals to collaborate with the agency.

If you're not sure how to improve your marketing in a cost effective way, grab a copy of our Strategic Marketing Ebook. It'll help you get predictable results and make your company more money.

If you are interested in learning more about our approach to the items discussed in this article, call (970) 744-3611 or send us an email so we can talk about what that would look like.