Every business needs digital marketing. I’m sure you already knew that seen as you’re on this blog! What was once a powerful gimmick is now an absolute necessity. Pretty soon, companies which completely neglect digital marketing aren’t going to be able to survive in the modern arena. The real question is whether or not to outsource your digital marketing. There are a lot of factors tied to how you do the digital marketing at your company. Here are some of the biggest pros and cons of outsourcing you need to be aware of.
Keeping optimistic, let’s start with the pros!
For starters, outsourcing is generally a lot more cost-effective than hiring a full-time professional. When you hire a digital marketing firm to handle all your work, you’ll be getting results which are equal to hiring a full-time executive. If you were to go with the latter option, you might find your finances get pretty strained. You’ll have to fork out a management-level salary, along with considerable benefits to keep your exec happy.
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Another good thing about giving your work to a digital agency is that you’re guaranteed a fresh, creative approach to your marketing. Digital marketing is a hugely competitive niche, and there are more companies bursting on the scene all the time. This means that all digital marketing companies are constantly looking for ways to one-up the competition, and make themselves more attractive to clients. When you hire a marketing company, you’ll know that you’re getting all the latest techniques and strategies. This will give you a serious edge over the competition.
You may also have been making some big mistakes, which could do with a fresh pair of eyes.
The final big pro is that you’ll be able to skip over some pretty long learning curves. This is especially true if the company you’re running is a start-up. When you hire an in-house marketing team, there’s no real way of telling how competent they are. Sure, they may all have a degree in the right field. However, in such a modern and fast-moving niche, experience is a lot more valuable. You may have to spend a lot of time and money making sure your in-house team is up to the standards you need. Independent marketing companies are pros from the very beginning.
They’ll be able to have a look at your strategy, identify what needs to be changed, and get to work. In a lot of cases, outsourcing can mean skipping past a huge amount of hassle.
These benefits are all important to consider. However, there are several drawbacks to outsourcing your digital marketing which you also need to consider.
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The first potential con to think about is that you won’t be the only customer paying your digital marketing company. To stay afloat, these firms need to service a range of different businesses. The more reputable the firm, the larger the amount of active customers will be. When your marketers are working on many different projects at once, they’ll have to spread themselves much thinner. Sometimes, this can mean sub-standard performance. You may be able to step around this issue by hiring a smaller, newer company. With these though, it will be harder to find out just how good the service you’re getting will be. This brings me onto my next con.
Your digital marketing company might not be all that great at marketing. These days, it’s easier than ever for someone to set up their own marketing firm, and start selling services to clients. Maybe I should have used “anyone” rather than “someone” there! Sometimes, CEOs pay out for a service, only to find that the firm they hired is staffed by inexperienced, incompetent workers. Other times, companies will market themselves as being experienced in all digital marketing. However, they may only be any good with social media or content. If you are going to outsource, make sure you shop around!
Finally, outsourcing your digital marketing strategy means you won’t have a personal hand in the process. I know, this is the whole idea behind outsourcing in the first place! However, doing your marketing in-house can help a lot with brand identity and consistency. After you give a marketing agency a brief, it’s more or less all down to them. They’ll be free to use their own creative license and twist your brand into something that works for them. You’ll need to be very specific with your instructions to avoid this. Alternatively, you could do it all in-house, and simply look over your marketers’ shoulders.
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Marshal Hubs
Priyanka Srivastava
John Stephen