The continued growth and prosperity of your business rely on your marketing strategy. Even if you have the best product or the greatest service, it doesn’t matter if consumers don’t know about it. Today, digital marketing is a complex space where paid advertising mimics content and content resembles paid advertising. Finding the balance between Google advertising, paid social spending, native advertising, and email marketing can be tricky to navigate.
Regardless of your personal marketing experience, there is always an opportunity to learn more. However, you may not have the luxury of time to deepen your learning, especially if your company is scaling at a rapid pace. That’s why many brands today are turning to outsourcing all or part of their marketing efforts.
What is Marketing Outsourcing?
Outsourcing doesn’t mean your efforts will be run entirely by AI and chatbots — although these tools may be utilized by an outsourced team. Marketing outsourcing involves delegating certain marketing activities or tactics to external agencies. These agencies are specialized in the field, and they possess all of the knowledge and tools needed for effectively executing marketing strategies.
When working with an agency, you can expect to hand all, if not most, of your brand’s logins and passwords to social sites, site builders, and backend analytics data. The team will need to know where you are today in order to recommend a winning strategy. Of course, you are the final decision maker, so if there is a route that you don’t agree with, you can always change course. But trust can get you far when working with other teams. Knowing what marketing outsourcing entails, here are some ways that your strategy may benefit from it.
1. Your Team Lacks the Needed Expertise
The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. New platforms are launching, trends are occurring left and right, and advertising tactics are shifting. That said, you may recognize that you and your marketing team lack certain skills. You may have A+ content creators, but that won’t help if the content isn’t being distributed in the best way possible. If your team lacks the needed expertise required to evolve, your business’s future success is at risk.
Instead of training and developing the team, it may be more efficient to bring in outside help. Working with a growth strategy agency, for example, can expedite your growth by adjusting your SEO strategy, web design, and more. These agencies know what your competitors are currently doing well and how you can jump on the bandwagon. They also know what key metrics to analyze regularly to optimize when needed to ensure your stand out. This isn’t to say that you need to get rid of your marketing department; however, bringing in outside help can get you back on track and operating well again.
2. You Don’t Have Access to the Right Tools
Marketing agencies are in the business of bringing forward their best resources for their clients. With so many data analytics platforms available today, you may not have the right tools to access the data and trends you need to follow. While you could invest in this software outright, it would also likely require a significant learning curve. This money and time could be better used in an agency that is prolific in the software and can get the answers you need ASAP.
The tools you’re looking to access will vary based on your objectives and KPIs. For website traffic and trends, Google Analytics and Looker are the most well-known. Social media tools greatly range due to their vast capabilities. A few of the top choices include Sprout Social, Social Pilot, and Brand24. And thanks to developments in AI, the possibilities for research and data extraction are seemingly endless. That’s why working with a specialized agency can help you get the information you need to move ahead.
3. You’re In a Hiring Slump
Hiring can be a slow struggle sometimes, especially today as younger candidates are demanding more from their employers. If you’re struggling to find the right candidates to build out your marketing team, then outsourcing may be your best answer. Working with an agency gives you direct access to a broader talent pool. Agencies are typically made up of a few team members dedicated to your project.
Hiring full-time employees can be costly! Outsourcing is beneficial whether you’re just having a difficult time finding the ideal candidates or your company is currently in a hiring freeze. For the cost of one full-time employee, you can very well have access to a team of people working on your efforts. You can grow your team without taking on all the responsibilities — like benefits and payroll — that come with expansion.
Conclusion
Outsourcing has become a popular avenue for companies looking to streamline their efforts while also boosting efficiency and productivity. If you find yourself in any (or all) of the above situations, then outsourcing your marketing efforts may be the way to go.
When searching for an agency, first ask for referrals from other brands that you value in the marketplace or ask for case studies to see who else the agency has worked with. Next, check their skills and background, ensuring they have expertise in the skills you’re currently lacking. Last, make sure their costs align with your expectations and evaluate how they expect to be paid for their services. Finding the right agency will take a bit of upfront time, but the payoffs can be worth it.