Outsourcing your marketing to a team can be used in addition to an in-house team, or it could replace the need for in-house staff entirely.

What is involved in outsourced marketing?

A good marketing agency — like BRIGHT+CO — will create a strategy before they start any activity on your behalf. Generally, the agency will need to:

• Understand your business goals and audit your current activity

• Create a strategy for achieving your goals

• Create a marketing plan for your approval, detailing the tactics to be used

• Implement the planned activity

• Measure and report the results, adjust the strategy as necessary, and plan the next phase

Why outsource?

There are numerous reasons to outsource your marketing, but for most businesses it comes down to cost and effectiveness. Using an outsourced team can cost less and deliver better return on investment (ROI), as outsourcing gives you access to a wider pool of expertise.

Growing your business through marketing will require investment – this could be your time, the time of your staff or budget to outsource your marketing activity. The option that is right for your business depends on the expertise of you and your team, and your ambitions for growth.

Outsourcing your digital marketing could especially be a huge benefit to your business – it could supercharge growth, save you time and money and help achieve a better return on your marketing investment.

Outsourcing could be beneficial for you if:

1. You are planning for growth.
   
   Outsourcing your marketing can help you get where you want to be quicker, with lower overhead than employees.
   
   
2. You want measurable ROI from your outsourced marketing investment.
   
   Outsourcing makes it easier to manage costs and the return on your investment. Because it’s easier to separate out your marketing costs, it will be much easier to see if the marketing activity is delivering a healthy return on investment. It’s also more likely to be strategic, rather than ad-hoc, which can sometimes become an issue when marketing is only done when someone has spare time.
   
   
3. You don’t want to commit to a long-term contract.
   
   One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your marketing is that there’s no long-term commitment. Most firms operate on rolling contracts, so you can try out marketing activity without committing to a long term, allowing you to test it and see what works for your business.
   
   
4. You’re not ready to employ full-time people.
   
   If you’re new to marketing, outsourcing gives you an opportunity to test its effectiveness without the long-term commitment of employing a staff member. Outsourcing often costs much less than employing a full-time member of staff, yet you get the benefit of a cross section of marketing and design expertise from your outsourced team.
   
   Outsourcing your digital marketing is less commitment compared to taking on a new member of staff. If in-house staff are not required, there are significant savings to be made on recruitment, training, office, software, and equipment costs. Another key benefit of outsourced marketing is flexibility. Expanding, or worse, decreasing the size of an in-house team is a slow and often painful process. When outsourcing, you have the ability to very quickly ramp up or down your marketing activity and spend.
   
   Hiring full-time employees means you need close to 2000 hours of marketing expertise per employee. With outsourcing 2000 annual hours, companies get the benefit of a dozen people specialized in different marketing disciplines.
   
   
5. You don’t have marketing expertise in-house.
   
   If your business doesn’t have the internal staff with time or expertise to manage marketing, outsourcing is a cost-effective alternative to recruitment. One of the biggest benefits of outsourced marketing is having access to an entire marketing team and the cost of that team can work out less than hiring an individual team member, who may only have one specialism.
   
   Look for agencies that match your missing skills. Good, outsourced marketing should give you access to a range of talent that you couldn’t normally afford to employ on a full-time basis. With this level of expertise and experience working on your account, you can expect significant results and value for money in the early stages.
   
   
6. You want to run integrated campaigns.
   
   If you want to run multiple campaigns across online and offline channels, an outsourced team will deliver both at a greatly reduced cost.
   
   
7. You need extra help with certain elements of marketing.
   
   Outsourcing doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If you have some internal resources but there are elements, such as design or content creation, that would be more effective to outsource, then our expertise would be an excellent addition to your in-house team.
   
   
8. You’re not doing any marketing activity.
   
   If you’re not doing any marketing activity at all, you’ll be surprised by the difference outsourcing will make to your bottom line. Outsourcing is the simplest way to give marketing a try: fixed costs, short term (six months to a year) commitment, access to multiple skills, and honest advice.
   
   
9. You’re not seeing any results from your current marketing activity.
   
   If your marketing isn’t working out as planned, outsourcing will give you a fresh perspective. With a clear strategy and accurate measurement of results, you’ll be able to see a true indication of your return on investment.
   
   
10. You get no leads or sales through your website.
    
    If your website isn’t working hard enough and you’re missing out on increased online sales or leads, then outsourcing your digital marketing can help identify and convert new revenue streams.
    
    
11. No time to take on marketing yourself.
    
    Maybe you’ve got the know-how, but time is the problem. Outsourcing is the answer to your problem. You can give input into the marketing strategy, then relax, knowing that the hard work is being done for you.
    
    
12. Your website is outdated and lacks content.
    
    Is your website showing signs of age? Maybe the design is outdated, it’s not responsive or it simply doesn’t reflect the power of your business.
    
    Outsourcing your marketing and your website to us gives power to your online presence. Poor website content makes it harder for customers to find you when they need you and it will also negatively affect search engine rankings. You’ll also be limited to what you can share on social media or in email newsletters. Worse still, there’s no way for visitors to get to know and trust you.
    

What marketing activity can be outsourced?

Depending on the capabilities of the agency, you can choose to outsource all or just some of your marketing activity. If you choose BRIGHT, you can outsource all of your marketing activities.

How much does it cost?

The cost of outsourced marketing varies depending on how much you want to outsource. The first step is to decide your budget. Outsourcing is often very cost effective and certainly costs much less than employing marketing experts. BRIGHT will tailor a marketing package to fit almost any budget, and advice, combined with a friendly chat, is always free of charge.