3 Reasons Why Outsourcing Marketing Makes Sense
Some companies only consider outsourcing their marketing as a last resort. Typically, the two primary reasons they wait are that they’re afraid to turn over the control of their brand to an independent agency or they aren’t able to justify the expense. Instead, they turn to their in-house staff to cover all aspects of marketing. This isn’t a realistic recipe for success.
Here are three reasons why outsourcing marketing makes sense.
1. You need the expertise.
The term “marketing” is a wide umbrella of activities, including market research and analysis, creative services, communications, and analytics. In the past, marketing was less diverse. The number of channels that you could use for gathering data and communicating with your clients were far fewer. Today, the fragmentation continues to increase at a rapid pace.
Look at social media as a prime example. Less than 12 months ago, most people didn’t know what Pinterest was. Today, it’s in the top 10 of social media sites worldwide. Additionally, the social media sites are competing for advertising dollars. Does your marketing department know how to create effective ad campaigns and utilize the analytical tools to track their ROI?
Maybe your issue isn’t a lack of expertise in a particular marketing channel. Instead, your business is branching out into new territory or maybe you’ve launched a new product line that is foreign to you. Does your marketing department have the experience necessary to connect with your new audience?
Turning these activities over to the most talented person in the room isn’t the answer. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not knocking the people you have on your team. But when you consider the rapid pace at which businesses compete, can you afford to spend time on the learning curve while your competitors are capturing more market share? The wiser investment is to outsource those areas of your marketing where you lack experience.
2. You want faster growth.
You’ve identified a great opportunity for capturing another niche in your market. You can smell the success. You push the gas pedal to floor in anticipation of racing towards you’re goal, but instead you just move slowly forward stuck in low gear. Seems your marketing engine doesn’t quite have the horsepower you need.
Outsourcing your marketing doesn’t mean you have to turn over everything. Sometimes, you just need a few extra pistons hummin’ to really get going. You may have the right talent on your team, but maybe you just don’t have enough of it to accomplish some goals in your desired timeframe.
Let’s say you want to begin a blitz to introduce your brand to a new market segment. You may consider doing some new product packaging, some PR, a tradeshow, and new sales kits. You may have the right talent in place, but not enough bandwidth to cover these new campaigns along with your current marketing tactics. Outsourcing your marketing can fill in the gaps to help you grow faster.
3. You need better project management.
If you were to ask successful venture capitalists which they would invest in first, a) a great idea backed by someone that lacks experience or b) someone that has a proven track record for success with a mediocre idea, they’ll all bet their money on the latter. Why? Because most people don’t have the expertise to manage a campaign through all of its critical milestones. If a project isn’t managed properly, you will experience delays and additional costs, and in many cases, you will abandon the project instead of seeing it through.
In addition to leveraging outside marketing talent for creative implementation, a big benefit of investing in an outsourcing firm is to get access to the experience and tools they have for tracking campaigns and reporting on the results. Contracting the right marketing consultancy to manage your project makes good business sense because our success thrives on communication and coordinating the inputs of multiple internal and external customers, along with outside vendors.
For more information about how your business can benefit from outsourcing marketing and project management services, call us at (410) 366-9479.
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Dina Wasmer is President of Incite Creative, a marketing and graphic design firm that provides brand-building services and strategies for small-to-middle-market businesses and non-profit organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Additionally, Dina is an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore teaching typography and graphic design principles. For more information, log onto www.incitecreativeinc.com or contact dina@incitecreativeinc.com
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