Outsourcing Marketing Services
- what, why and when?
Every company needs marketing support and effective marketing operations are one of the key elements of a company's success. To be effective, marketing certainly needs to be innovative and engaging. The internal team is not always able to meet new challenges… or better to say — opportunities. Also it happens quite often, that if the same team has been doing the same thing already for some time, it can be difficult for them to see things from a new and fresh perspective, which is essential for the company to grow. And this is exactly when marketing outsourcing comes in.
Outsourcing Talents to Boost Your Sales and Marketing
Marketing outsourcing is when a company transfers a responsibility for the implementation of specific marketing tasks to a specialized external partner. However it is not just subcontracting. It is more like a partnership and a long-term cooperation for the sake of the business strategy and financial results of the firm.
When a company comes to a conclusion that it needs an external marketing support, there are two options: choose to outsource some or all of its marketing activities. The decision is determined by the financial situation of the company as well as by the experience, capacity and skills of the in-house team. When you decide to outsource marketing in full, there is no in-house marketing department and all marketing tasks are performed by an outsourced vendor, that works very closely with company’s management to align the marketing strategy with overall business objectives. If — however — a firm prefers to handle most of its marketing activities inside or when it simply does not have the skills to carry out a particular task, it can delegate outside only selected activities or tasks.
Marketing Outsourcing – key areas to consider
Marketing activities performed by a third party proffesionals may include, for example:
- Marketing Strategy and Planning, that includes developing comprehensive plans formulated for achieving the marketing objectives of the company.
- Marketing Analytics — tracking data from marketing efforts, data base analytics, calculating opportunities, proposals and wins/losses.
- Creative Projects – graphic design and copywriting.
- Market Research – researching your marketplace, competitors and clients.
- Social Media Marketing – creating content for social media platforms to promote products and/or services as well as to build a community.
- Public Relations – communicating with the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees and stakeholders.
Business benefits of outsourcing marketing
Outsourced marketing service brings to the company a substantial cost reduction and an improvement in the quality and effectiveness of its marketing activities, thus delivering better return on investment (ROI).
Marketing is very dynamic. External team of professionals offer an outsider's perspective and bring new ideas and strategies. They are more objective than the in-house staff and may suggest more constructive feedback to help a company to identify and eliminate its weaknesses to accelerate the overall growth of the business. Also, outsourced marketing helps to reduce the need to hire in-house employees to perform marketing tasks and to change fixed costs into variables.
The implementation of the marketing outsourcing method may bring many other benefits to the business, like improving the competitive position, increasing market share, enriching the market offer, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty and attracting new customers. With outside talents, business dreams and ideas can become realities.
How to determine which outsourcer fits you best?
There are many companies on the market that operate comprehensively or specialize in specific marketing areas. Before getting into a long-term contract with a third party marketing partner, it is good to identify the company’s precise marketing needs and services required. Communication is important, so better to be sure the potential supplier understands your business goals well. When talking to marketing vendors, ask them for the complete list of services they provide, ask about their experience, portfolios and case studies.
How much does it cost?
For some small business owners, who are considering hiring a third party marketing service, the fear of unknown costs can be prohibitive, but the truth is that outsourced services are usually flexible and adapting to specific budgets or business needs. Of course, the exact cost varies depending on how much is outsourced. However in most cases outsourcing is very cost effective and certainly it costs much less than hiring marketing experts for full time.
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