If you have found your way to this article, you have probably already identified that you are time poor and are struggling to fit online digital marketing around your day to day business operations.
You are trying to decide if taking the plunge and investing in outsourcing your digital marketing is worth it? Or, with a little tweaking, could you manage to organise this yourself?
We are going to discuss the pros and cons of outsourcing your digital marketing to help you make an informed decision.
The Pros of Outsourcing Digital marketing
You gain a full team of experienced professionals
One of the greatest advantages of outsourcing your digital marketing is that you gain the benefit of an entire team of strategists, designers, writers and SEO (search engine optimisation) experts who possess a diverse range of skills, knowledge and experience.
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You can focus your time on operations
You might feel like the time you are spending on trying to figure out and action your digital marketing plans, is pulling you away from managing your team or essential day to day business operations.
Outsourcing your digital marketing will allow you to focus your time on running your business, while keeping your precious ‘out of office’ hours to spend with friends and family for important work life balance.
It’s cost effective
Outsourcing your digital marketing might initially feel like an outgoing for your business but if you compare this to hiring and paying a full marketing department, outsourcing is actually a cost effective way to gain the knowledge and experience of a diverse marketing department. You will also gain the use of a lot of equipment and software that might be seen as a huge investment if buying internally for the business.
Established industry connections
Professionals that have been working in the digital marketing industry for a while will have established connections and built a network of individuals and businesses related to online marketing. They can quite easily put you in contact with influencers and ensure your content finds its way to the right editors and publications.
Leadership of an internal team is a skill and that takes time to master and drive results. It’s easy to get lost in jargon and how to translate it into actionable business.
With an outsourced marketing team you will agree a plan to follow and measure results along the way, with regular meetings to discuss progress.
Follow a timeline
As a business owner, you’ll be used to working to schedules and deadlines, but it is not always possible to achieve all the tasks you would like within a certain time frame.
You will be a lot more productive once you outsource your digital marketing, firstly with the increased time you’ll have to commit your own business operations, as we mentioned earlier. And secondly, a marketing agency will assign a project manager to supervise everything and make sure that your marketing timeline is being followed. This person will also be in charge of making sure that things run smoothly and that problems are resolved quickly.
The Cons of Outsourcing Digital marketing
Lose personal touch
You might feel that you lose the personal touch, passing the ‘marketing baton’ to an outsourced freelancer or agency. The wording that you use might be changed and new copywriting lingo used to attract new customers. This can be a hard thing to let go of, after years of building your business.
Choosing the right outsourced team is time-consuming
You have finally decided you want to outsource your digital marketing, great! But now you’re realising that there’s a lot of choice out there. You certainly don’t want to make the mistake of investing your money with the wrong person or team.
You need to take the time to do a bit of research and ask your own business connections for their recommendations.
Commit to a marketing strategy for a long time
Following on from choosing your outsourced marketing provider, you want to stick it out with the plans they advise for your business marketing. It can take time for an online marketing strategy to take shape and convert into sales.
You might be tempted to chop and change your digital marketing provider if it is taking longer than you hoped for their plans to show on your bottom line but it is important to commit fully and allow the time for your online marketing strategy to take shape – ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’.
Immediate availability is difficult to find
You have spent the time doing your research and asking around, you’ve found the perfect outsourced marketing freelancer or team. They have a portfolio packaged full of clients and boast countless PR success stories. You’re keen as mustard to get the ball rolling but, there’s a queue! Frustratingly, you might have to wait a good few weeks or maybe longer to get started with your digital marketing journey.
You won’t be top priority every day
An outsourced agency, will have many client businesses they are working on at any one time. Their time is spent juggling and dividing their time between their clients’ and you might not necessarily feel top of their priority list every day. There may be a bit of a lag between when you want the work done and its turnaround time. Choose an outsourced marketing team that wants to work in partnership with you in the long-term, to deliver goals and ensure you clearly communicate any hard deadlines.
They don’t work in your office
For some businesses this is ideal, as they don’t have the space to host a full marketing team anyway, but for others this might worry them that they have less sight on progress. Finding the right outsourced marketing team is important so that you trust them to get on with the job and that they do it right.
Outsourcing Digital Marketing: Pros & Cons
Investing in digital marketing, whether this be with your own time or investing in outsourcing is an essential tool to grow most businesses.
If your skills are better spent on the operational aspects of your business and you want quick access to an online network of influencers, with professionals pushing your online digital marketing strategy to a strict timeline, then outsourcing is the perfect option for you. Alternatively, if waiting in line for the right digital marketing team and the long term commitment of working through an online marketing plan to completion doesn’t appeal, you might want to take control of your own digital marketing.
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