Why Holding Off on Marketing Outsourcing Might Be Your Best Move
Business owners must understand marketing enough to keep the agencies honest.
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Hi friends,
I know I may piss off some ghostwriters and maybe prevent myself from getting some ghostwriting gigs, but I have to say this: think twice before you outsource your marketing.
Even if you’re in the early stages of your business. Especially then!
I’ve been in the digital sales and marketing field for over 13 years and have held many positions, from parenting blogger to a PR agency, to a full-stack marketing agency, small business and more significant businesses.
And on both sides - in the agency and within the internal marketing team, I often thought, “I’m not the one who should do this”!
The reasons?
I knew there was someone much more suited than me to do that particular job.
I consider myself an expert in content writing, but paid ads? Not even close.
I know enough.
Not enough to do it.
Enough to keep my agency honest.
I know a fair bit about marketing, and I’ve been doing full-stack marketing in my current company for four years. But that doesn’t mean I do everything.
We started from a one-woman show with a newly created marketing executive position four years ago, and now we have reached the point where we will soon have four people in our marketing team.
It means my job today is not to do everything but only the things I am really good at: making marketing strategies and plans and managing - monitoring projects.
But I still need to delegate and outsource smartly.
Before I came on board, one of the directors did marketing. And she did an excellent job.
Two pathways, and both are wrong.
Here is the typical company marketing pathway no 1:
The company doesn’t want to have anything with marketing (they have smarter/better/more important things to do). So they hire an inbound marketing agency and expect an on-stop-shop to do everything:
Develop marketing strategy
Develop campaign strategies
Write all the copy
Create ads Fb/Instagram/YT/Google
Create/update the website
Do the socials
They forgot one “tinny” thing
For every point, the agency needs:
Brief
Building material
Insights
Revisions approval
Final approval …
…from the company - client. They can’t play guessing games, even for the most minor thing.
And whilst for some work it’s ok to have this workflow, for some other, back-and-forth emailing, meetings, and approvals will make outsourcing not-so—cost-beneficial or time-beneficial.
And then we have typical company marketing pathway no 2:
Keep all the marketing in the hands of one person. That is extremely hard to handle, except if you’re in the early stages of your business.
This decision usually means that often things don't get done as well as they could (and should). I was that poor marketing all-arounder who was pulled in too many directions, left often with things half done or worse, things are never done as I didn’t have time to do them properly.
You can’t have in one person all these marketers:
Long-form content creator
Social media expert
Video/photo creator
Graphic Designer
Paid ads Specialist
SEO Specialist
SEM Specialist
Marketing Strategist
Event Organiser
How to outsource smart?
Outsourcing is amazing, but it should be used with caution in small business marketing.
The bottom line when deciding if that specific marketing role or task should be outsourced or not is:
Is that role something that communicates your brand’s voice, shares your company/brand values and requires a high level of insider knowledge about the company?
If so - keep it for an in-house team
If not - you can consider outsourcing.
Things I believe shouldn’t be outsourced
1. Content creation
Content creation is the backbone of your marketing. Blog posts, white papers, case studies, social media posts, videos, testimonials, you name it.
All these things are closely tied to your brand voice and your back story; they all should communicate your message and come from your content strategy.
An insider knows your products, their benefits, your customers’ pain points and the industry inside out better than anyone outside of the company.
Even if you have a long-term partner in the agency, they still need to spend a fair bit of time gaining insights from your team. It’s not time and cost-beneficial. Additionally, the in-house person will keep the brand tone and voice consistent.
Last but not least, you can use your in-house resources to deliver outstanding content - when you work with freelancers or agencies, you’re usually limited by one or two revisions.
There are some exceptions, of course. If you can find an excellent fit, go with content outsourcing.
I was a content manager for years for my friend’s business, Domaccini - which produces homemade food in my home country. We had shared memories and values, and it wasn’t difficult for me to pick up their voice, mission, and products (I was their customer).
2. Video creation
Video and photo production job is usually never done. If you decide to outsource video creation and editing, that person will likely miss many capturing-worth moments in your company - behind-the-scenes, informal team things, trust-building moments…
If you have video content creation person in the company, it’s more likely other team members will join: you can create high amount of content working with your sales reps, customer support and other team members.
You can send them these raw materials and ask them to edit, but that is usually time-consuming, costly, and often not the best solution.
Outsourcing video is costly - it is always cheaper to train someone in the company who has an interest in video and mould that person per your brand needs. If you need high-end videos for specific projects and campaigns, you can always hire help.
What should you outsource?
Paid media
This area is so waste and requires so much specialisation and up -to-date knowledge, so there is no sense in keeping it in-house.
So many rules, regulations, and restrictions that are changing daily, and you don’t want to leave that to beginners. On the other hand, you might never need a full-time paid ads manager and outsourcing this role to provide the best bang for the buck is optimal.
When working with the agency or paid ad professional, you don’t need to invest much time: after initial brief and setting up campaign, the team will inform you when they are tweaking things and you’ll get regular reports.
Graphic design
Unless you have someone who is highly specialised, I always recommend outsourcing graphic design. The results can’t be compared. But you need to be aware that for amazing graphic design results, you need to provide excellent briefs for designer.
Web development
You might even know how to create or update your website - there are some cheap and simple options, but you don't want to waste time to get an average-looking website.
Creating a website is much more than just a design - it can be a complex project that involves coding, web developing, UX, copywriting, landing pages, webforms, and CTAs, and it’s best to give it to experts.
Also, there are always some technical bugs and issues that require high-level knowledge.
Updating the website should be kept in-house once the website is created, especially if you post new content regularly. However, you may decide to outsource just the SEO component.
For example, at my 9 to 5, we work with an agency, and this is how updating content on our website looks like:
We suggest topics - pain points, what customers need to know…
Agency provides a keyword research and topic suggestion
We create a yearly blog post plan
We write blog posts
The agency does an SEO review to make sure the SEO is top -notch
We publish the content
Sales and marketing audit/strategy coaching
It is beneficial for businesses to have someone outside to come and do a full marketing audit. Even if you have a good in-house team that knows strategy, chasing daily tasks can lead to overlooking the big picture.
The role of an external consultant is to go step back and see the big picture and potential holes in your marketing funnel. That person should be able to reignite your marketing and provide clarity on complex marketing problems, helping you overcome them and go to the next level. That person won’t have the bias all inside members inevitably have.
This outsourcing is often expensive, but it’s one-off or seasonal (every two years, for example). But it should bring a fresh perspective and a clear pathway for your business from where you are now to where you want to be.
p.s. If you want me to look at your marketing strategy, do a proper audit, and create a clear blueprint for you - I’m just an email/message away.
How to decide what to outsource
Skills: Do you have the necessary skills and resources in-house to be an expert who does the task?
Resources: Are you and your team already too stretched with other tasks, and additional tasks can’t be a priority?
Cost: Is outsourcing more cost-effective than hiring and teaching an in-house person? Look at this long-term, not just in next few months!
Your time: If you decide to outsource, will it still require your time and resource commitment?
What if you’re a solopreneur or just starting?
"I know, you’d ask:
“But, Angelina what if I’m a solopreneur who just started with marketing and can’t have multiple people doing marketing or paying expensive agencies?
Then, you need to create a simple, sustainable, low-cost plan for your marketing.
No fancy campaigns, paid ads, or six social media accounts until you get your business on straight legs.
I wrote an e-book to help you start and leverage your marketing on a budget, without outsourcing it, but without burnout.
I’m launching it in October, and you can get it for free when you upgrade your membership.