82% of Marketers Outsource Digital Marketing Projects

Are your clients having trouble staying current with the most effective digital marketing formats? It’s not easy to keep up with the latest tech-based changes. After all, your clients are experts in running their businesses. They’re relying on outside experts to help them with their advertising and marketing challenges. In fact, up to 82% of marketers outsource digital marketing projects.

In their recent survey of over 278 marketing professionals, Ascend2 analysts report that business owners believe in the power of digital formats. Only 13% of these folks noted that traditional media formats are more effective than digital. Everyone else said that digital was either somewhat or significantly more effective.

The top two 2020 marketing goals reported in this survey are:

  • Increasing sales leads generated 54%
  • Increasing customer acquisition 49%

Unfortunately, 48% of marketing pros say they face significant challenges in reaching these goals. Marketers also hope to increase customer engagement (43%), improve brand awareness (38%) and improve their customer experience (33%). These challenges may be what’s leading marketers to outsource digital marketing projects.

Effective Digital Formats

Going forward, you can expect your clients to show a lot of interest in the formats they believe are most effective. This includes search engine optimization (49%) and social media/blog posting (47%). Both of these initiatives are difficult for marketers to manage internally. They’ll also be looking at search and social ads (43%) and personalization/content (43%).

We’ve heard a lot about the importance of video content. The Ascend2 survey reveals that only 33% of marketers consider the format to be effective. Interestingly, a recent Vidyard survey on B2B video content found that only 28% of operators felt video was delivering an ROI.

Measuring Success

We can expect business owners to scrutinize the success of their digital campaigns. With more tools touting the ability to measure outcomes, business owners say the following metrics work best to determine how well campaigns are going:

  • Cost per customer acquired 50%
  • Conversion rate 46%
  • Engagement 45%
  • Campaign ROI 37%
  • Cost per lead generated 35%
  • Channel-specific traffic 16%

We’ve come a long way from simply measuring traffic or exposure with regard to digital marketing. At the same time, rolling out and measuring the return on these campaigns has been challenging. Those challenges likely explain why 11% of marketers completely outsource their needs. Another 71% outsource digital marketing projects as needed.

Talk with your clients about their 2020 digital marketing plans. Give them a snapshot of their current position by running a digital audit on them. The tool is available on AdMall by SalesFuel. And then propose to help them with their most difficult projects.

SalesFuel – Sell Smarter. Manage Smarter.