Have you ever thought about how your digital marketing function should be organised?
Or perhaps you’re getting ready for a growth phase and need to decide how to resource your efforts.
In the middle of all the ambiguity caused by COVID-19’s economic effects, marketing budgets are being carefully examined. It might be difficult to decide whether to hire a full-time digital marketing team or to outsource to an agency. There are many factors to take into account, many of which are obscured from public sight. particularly if you have never experienced it before.
In this post, we’ll look at why outsourcing digital marketing can help your company expand steadily and explain why you should even think about it.
Defining in-house and outsourced marketing:
In-house marketing is carried out by staff members who are employed by your business. You get to select and assemble the team, which could consist of a single individual or a group of professionals.
When you employ a firm to work with your business externally, you are engaging in outsourced marketing. A team of experts in digital marketing, copywriting, graphic design, public relations (PR), search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), Google Ads, and other fields make up a full-service firm.
A hybrid marketing strategy combines internal and external marketing execution. Developing the strategy and assigning responsibilities to an agency could be done by an internal marketing resource who also serves as the project manager.
Why do businesses choose to outsource digital marketing efforts?
Get the most of your time
Outsourcing can help you with your time, which is one of your most valuable resources. You’ll have more time to concentrate on your business if you outsource your marketing. receiving a good product back with clear reporting and outcomes.
When you opt to outsource, whether it’s for an ad campaign, content creation, social media management, or SEO Outsourcing, you get experts in the area. They also work concurrently with multiple businesses and are exposed to more productive work methods. As a result, they might be a highly appealing choice when it comes to finishing a project quickly, leaving you more time to concentrate on other elements of your organisation.
To get a wider range of skills
Hiring an agency gives you access to senior specialists who can help you build your plan as well as less expensive implementers who can put it into action.
It is their responsibility to stay current with emerging trends, methods, and technology. Additionally, marketing organizations must allocate substantial funds and resources for training.
You receive the appropriate brains in the correct quantities when you hire an agency, which is the “expert team” method. This way, you may get what you need and avoid paying too much for unnecessary services.
And 96% of marketers believe that teams now require a far wider range of marketing expertise to succeed.
By outsourcing, you may access a wider team of specialists in each digital marketing function, including copywriters, strategists, marketing technology, designers, and more.
It saves on hiring costs and salaries.
The expense of hiring applicants is borne by the business. The organization initially works with a recruitment agency to select the best candidate. For each hired candidate, each agency assesses fees differently. I believe you should at least avoid paying a recruitment firm to locate the ideal digital agency.
The following are the resources you spend money on when you wish to have in-house digital marketing:
- Social Media Community Manager
- Content Writer
- Graphic Designer
- Digital Media Executive
In an ideal or practical scenario, you need these individuals to manage digital marketing inside. When you factor in the cost of overhead, HRAs, and XYZs for each of these employees, working with an agency seems like a better option.
Keep prices competitive
It can be quite expensive to hire a large staff of internal marketers or a variety of marketing experts. An internal team will require a range of skill sets to construct the full plan, including programmers, graphic designers, copywriters, and marketing experts. However, outsourcing reduces your entire budget and keeps your expenses competitive because you don’t truly require a sizable workforce.
Growth
Business owners can focus on growing their company rather than worrying about marketing by outsourcing digital marketing. A digital marketing agency’s job is to deliver pertinent and persuasive campaigns that help you increase your clientele and revenue. In the end, keeping your doors open will depend on sustaining your current audience while bringing in new business.
Problems with Outsourcing
Turning the conversation around, let’s discuss some of the outsourcing’s disadvantages.
Brand Consistency Issues
Lack of brand consistency over time might damage your reputation and value. While keeping your brand consistent can be difficult, having an outside freelancer or marketing firm help you makes it considerably harder. To make sure that everything produced is completely consistent with your brand when you opt to outsource, you should also establish a quality-control system.
Scheduling is hard
Successful companies or independent contractors will work with you to set timelines and adhere to delivery dates for your materials. However, the bulk of freelancers and agencies have a wide range of customers. You won’t have the option to change your priorities, whereas a full-time employee would. It’s possible that they won’t be available when you need them for a specific job. You could consequently have to change your entire timetable or hunt for another freelancer with a comparable skill set.
You risk losing that distinctive touch
Most people would find this problematic because outsourcing allows you to see the final product, but if you’re a startup or a new business owner, you might want to offer your clients something extra that your outsourcing partner might not be able to provide because they only care about meeting deadlines and hitting goals.
Well, this might not apply to all outsourcing companies.
Conclusion
Every organisation will use a different mix of in-house resources and outside agencies. depending on the variables we looked at (Ex- In-house social media initiatives are more successful, and they can outsource SEO work to take control of Google and increase organic traffic). There is no one size that fits all, but if the shoe fits, you might be able to use both. An efficient strategy may be a hybrid marketing plan with an internal coordinator. monitoring the organization’s long-term goals while coordinating with a third-party implementer.
And a hybrid structure may be the best option for individuals who lack the financial means to operate entirely in-house or through outsourcing. For some people, it offers the best of both worlds, even though it may present some unique difficulties in terms of alignment and coordination. But at least that choice is offered.
