The Value of Outsourcing Your Marketing

By William Russell

The concept isn’t new, but the trend continues to gain momentum – outsourcing.  While the definition of the word can vary from market to market, in its broadest terms, this pertains to contracted expertise in place of a full time equivalent.  For most, outsourcing is a viable and smart option.  It works well with personnel in IT support, accounting, customer service, human resources and certainly marketing.  From a marketing perspective, it means gaining the professionalism, expertise and deep experience of a marketing resource versus hiring someone and carrying them on your payroll.  There are certainly trade-offs involved in having your own in-house person compared to outsourcing the function.  Depending on your business, its size, growth rate, etc., you will be able to determine what makes sense for your situation.

Best marketing practices centered on business growth

When an outsourcing model is considered, you will be receiving the expertise of a marketing professional who delivers services based on best practices.  This is the heart and soul of what they do all the time.  This isn’t to say that hiring someone will keep you from gaining a similar level of expertise.  However, a contracted marketing resource will bring you a focused approach on how the marketing process will benefit your business.  This includes development of a strategic process on how best to connect your business with your buying market.  Normally delivered in the form of a plan, this approach ensures that the right marketing services are implemented on a scheduled basis that fits your business model.  As a result, this can provide you with a quick ramp-up to implementing marketing initiatives centered on business growth.  You won’t have to spend time on employee orientation, benefits reviews, introduction meetings, etc.  And, you will receive services strategically developed based on market expertise rather than those that may be swayed by career development and progression.

More for your money

One of the key considerations beyond level of expertise is cost.  It’s one of the first questions asked internally:  What will it cost us to hire someone versus outsource our marketing function?  The short answer is ‘more’ – it will cost you more to hire someone.  This translates into a salary, benefits, payroll expenses, workers compensation insurance, vacation and sick time, and a fully-burdened resource.  Over time, your new hire will expect to receive salary increases and performance bonuses.  When you consider the outsourced model, you typically have predictable monthly service fees tied to specifically defined deliverables.  There is no salary, benefits, payroll costs or overhead burden to worry about.  Fee structures bring a level of predictability with them and are often flexible depending on the defined scope of services.  In most cases, a contracted resource is considered a member of your company team without actually being an employee, yet bringing you expertise at a fraction of the cost.

Worry free expertise

But, are you really getting a true marketing professional through the outsourced model?  Absolutely.  Just as you will with an outsourced IT support group, accounting resource, customer service group, etc.  The outsourced marketing model exists so that you can tap immediately into the expertise of a professional who has already endured the battle and has the scars to show what works in the marketing process and what does not.  They’ve already fought the fight for you and can develop strategic plans and growth-oriented marketing processes that have proven to be successful.  The guesswork is removed.  The anxiety of wondering if your new hire will work out is eliminated.

Flexible and scalable

The value continues.  Consider the flexibility and scalability an outsourced model provides.  This allows you to easily ramp up or scale back depending on your business situation.  That’s not something that is easily achieved with a full time equivalent.  Plus, your services model provides inroads to supporting marketing services that can be bundled with your monthly agreement or used to augment project work.  Being able to have creative services for graphic design work, website support, email marketing, collateral development and more is a huge benefit.  Your outsourced solution will have these available to you whenever they are needed.

The trend of outsourcing continues not only in popularity but in practical application.  Companies that choose to outsource their marketing function are able to remain focused on their core competencies while trusting the expertise of a marketing professional to work in parallel with them.  The value is there and companies will continue to pursue these advantageous opportunities.   ¡