Marketing has become increasingly challenging and rewarding for brands over the past couple of decades as technology has changed and continues to evolve at a rapid pace. There are far more layers possible for a marketing strategy now than there ever have been. If you’ve realized that your business doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on your marketing strategy internally, consider outsourcing your marketing efforts.
An outsourced marketing strategy can be your brand’s best bet for clarity and success. Why not work with experts who can hit the ground running and have the know-how to tackle the many components of effective marketing?
Benefits of Outsourced Marketing Strategy
It Frees Up Your Time
Instead of getting caught up in all the little details, outsourcing your marketing allows you to turn your attention to the bigger picture. Outsourcing your marketing lets you focus on the key results, like conversions and ROI.
Having the time to get a clear overview of your business can also make you more productive. It allows you to identify and home in on the issues that matter most. It can also give you and your staff better work/life balance.
It Offers Another Perspective
An outside agency’s perspective can help uncover marketing solutions and problems that might be right under your nose. When you’re too close to the answers, it sometimes prevents you from seeing what should be obvious. Outsourcing your marketing can also bring you innovative ideas you would have never considered internally.
It Saves Money and Time
Outsourcing your marketing efforts can save you money in a lot of areas, including technology. A marketing agency with the latest technology and the expertise to use it saves you the learning curve and the cost associated with it. There are hundreds if not thousands of marketing tech tools out there. An agency that already knows the best tools for the marketing you need is in a better position to help you reap the benefits.
It Takes the Pressure Off of Your Staff
When staff that is already running at full throttle anticipates an even greater workload, it can damage morale and the quality of their work. Taking the pressure off of staff by outsourcing marketing strategy helps them catch up and focus on taking pride in their work. Outsourcing is a good way of keeping employee burnout and turnover to a minimum. You can also hand over unexpected marketing projects that pop up to an agency to keep your staff’s stress levels down.
It’s Educational
Watching how someone else handles the marketing can be a great learning experience for you and your staff. For instance, if you’ve never partnered with social media influencers before, a marketing agency can show you the ropes. Watching as as they work with them on a social media campaign can open your eyes to new types of marketing opportunities.
It Helps You Stay On Top of Changes
Running a marketing campaign consumes time and energy. It doesn’t leave much time to stay on top of trends and changes in your industry. Outsourcing your marketing efforts lets someone else do the legwork while you keep up to speed in other important areas.
It Boosts Your Competitiveness
If you run a small business, an outsourced marketing strategy can help you stay competitive with larger firms. Your marketing efforts get a professional look that enhances your brand’s image, making your company look bigger and more experienced.
It Gets Your Marketing Done Quickly and Efficiently
An outside agency has the staff and resources to focus on your marketing campaign and get it done in a speedy, efficient way.
It Creates a More Effective Marketing Strategy
When you outsource your marketing efforts, an outside agency that specializes in marketing can create a more effective strategy than an in- house team can.
What the Agency Needs to Know
Here are some of the important points your agency needs to know about before they get started on your marketing:
- Your Brand’s Mission and Image. When you meet with your agency, be clear about your brand’s mission, message and image. You should also emphasize the importance of being consistent with these elements in their marketing efforts on your behalf.
- Budget Breakdown. Give the agency specifics about the budget you have to spend, including expenses you’ll cover and those you won’t.
- FTC Disclosure Requirements. If the agency will be working with influencers on your brand’s behalf, make sure everyone involved is up to date on FTC endorsement disclosure requirements.
Some of the Marketing Responsibilities an Agency Can Handle
Depending on the agency, there are a lot of different tasks they can take off your plate when you outsource your marketing. They include:
Audience Research
A marketing agency can do the research to identify the best target market for your brand and the best ways to reach that audience.
Developing Your Marketing Strategy
When you outsource your marketing strategy to an agency, you benefit from its experience developing strategies and ability to view your business objectively.
Marketing Content Creation
You can outsource your content creation to a marketing agency. That content can range from blogs and newsletters to social media. They can create, schedule and monitor videos, posts and tweets as well as create and run contests, giveaways and surveys.
Ad Creation and Media Buying
An agency can create ads for your brand, develop a media plan and make your media buys too. Keep in mind that they’ll usually take a commission for making media buys for you.
Public Relations
You can outsource your public relations work to a marketing agency. They’ll write press releases and pitch articles about your company, products, services and executives to media outlets that are relevant to your industry.
Marketing Event Management
A marketing agency can come up with ideas for events like product launches, conferences, pop-up shops, and parties and manage them for your brand.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing can be tricky, so it makes sense to outsource it to a marketing agency. They can find and vet the right influencers for your brand and manage influencer-marketing campaigns.
Graphic Design
An agency can design your sales and marketing materials, from brochures, sales kits and ads to custom publications.
Lead Generation and Sales
Lead generation and sales can be time-consuming and overwhelm understaffed companies and/or inexperienced employees. Marketing agencies can assist your sales team with jobs like lead prospecting and generation, email marketing and telemarketing.
What to Ask the Agency
You’ll probably have a lot of questions when you first start outsourcing your marketing. Here are some of the key questions to ask the agency you plan to work with before you sign on the dotted line:
- What’s the Plan? What’s the plan for bringing agency staff up-to-date on your company, its marketing needs and strategy?
- How Often Will We Get Reports? What kinds of results will the reports cover?
- Who Will We Be Dealing With At the Agency? Who is your company’s day-to-day contact at the agency and to whom do they report?
- Who Will Be Working on Our Account? What are their responsibilities and what kind of experience do they have?
- What is the Agency Fee? How much is the agency fee, how often will it be invoiced and what will it cover? Are there other potential expenses you anticipate?
