With the ever-changing market, it’s challenging to keep up and stand out. This is why you need to address specific business needs to get the best possible results.
Marketing plays an important aspect in generating leads or creating brand awareness for your business. However, having an in-house marketing team may not always be possible, especially if you’re just starting up.
Additionally, each marketing function has its own intricacies that require a specialized approach.
This is why it’s a great idea to outsource your marketing, especially if you are a small business. If your business is large enough to have a marketing team, but not big enough to hire an experienced CMO, another option is to hire a fractional CMO or fractional CDO.
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What Is Outsourced Marketing
Outsourced marketing is simply the process of delegating your marketing activities to a third party. They use their knowledge and expertise to help your business achieve high-quality and desirable outcomes.
A good marketing agency will act as your partner to grow your business. They’ll explain the process thoroughly and keep you informed as to what to expect.
Hiring a seasoned professional ensures that the performance of your small business will improve.
What Marketing Functions Can Small Businesses Outsource
You can save time and money by outsourcing your marketing to a third party.
This also allows you to have access to the best and most experienced marketing professionals that you otherwise couldn’t afford to hire full time.
Depending on the needs of your business, here are some of the functions that you can outsource.
SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and offsite signals to increase traffic via organic search. SEO has a high return on investment and is very specialized. It’s wise to outsource this task to an expert.
You can hire an SEO specialist to focus on your small business’ content strategy, analysis, and scalability.
By outsourcing your SEO to an SEO agency, you can focus more intensely on your core business.
Web and Graphics Design
Web and graphics design is one of the most common functions that are outsourced by small businesses.
Very few businesses, especially those that are just starting up, have the necessary in-house expertise to design and develop a website from scratch.
It’s a task that you may want to outsource to someone who builds and designs websites every day.
Social Media Marketing
With the popularity of social media, it’s no surprise that it has become one of the most important marketing tools these days.
It has become very influential, and you can take advantage of its potential to grow your business.
You can outsource your social media marketing and have them take care of building your social media presence that is aligned with your marketing strategy.
Email Marketing
Email marketing also delivers a high return on investment so it’s a good decision to delegate this task to email marketing experts.
By using their knowledge and experience, they can come up with strategies to optimize your content. They’ll also ensure that your domain doesn’t end up getting blacklisted by ESPs like so many small businesses accidentally do.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Small Business Marketing
There are several advantages of outsourcing your marketing to experienced professionals. It takes the time-consuming tasks out of your hands, removing a significant load off a growing business.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of outsourcing your marketing.
Gives You More Time to Focus On Your Business
As a small business owner, you may find it overwhelming to do your daily tasks. It might be a struggle to prioritize which tasks are more important.
Outsourcing your marketing will help you focus on running and growing your business.
It frees up your time because you will not be executing tasks that can easily be delegated to highly specialized experts.
Save Money
Outsourcing your marketing is a cost-efficient strategy for small business owners. You will save a significant amount of money by not taking into account expenses such as payroll taxes, training, or even bigger office space.
You can optimize your marketing campaigns by paying only a fraction of what you would pay a full-time team of in-house employees.
You also have the option of spending only on what you really need.
Reach Your Business Goals in Less Time
As a small business, of course, you want to reach your business goals quickly.
The skills, expertise, and experience of outsourced professionals will help you achieve the best results in less time. You will have access to experts who have broad experience, so it takes the guesswork out of the picture.
This in turn cuts the time to complete the tasks, allowing your business to achieve revenue growth more quickly.
Fill the Knowledge Gap
Starting a small business does not require experience in marketing. It’s not unusual that some business owners don’t have experience in this area.
And even if your staff understands the basics of marketing, they must learn more to become experts.
By hiring professionals that specialize in marketing, you can fill the knowledge gap so you are not required to re-train your employees, which frankly can be more costly and time-consuming.
Work With Experts That Have Proven Experience
Hiring experts will give you access to collaborating with professionals that are highly experienced in their field.
You can be certain that you are getting only the best resources and information from experts.
They are well-versed in every aspect of their field and they can help you reach your business goals more efficiently.
Fresh Ideas With an Outside Perspective
By having an outsourced marketing expert, you are guaranteed to receive neutral and objective advice.
You are more likely to receive constructive suggestions and insights from a different perspective which is one of the advantages of outsourcing your marketing.
These fresh eyes will enhance the quality of your marketing campaigns, making them more effective.
Access to the Best Practices and Marketing Techniques
If you outsource your marketing, you will gain access to the latest and best trends in marketing. Marketing professionals do their best to keep up with the latest methods and technologies available.
They are fluent with new tools and can implement the latest marketing strategies for your small business.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing Marketing for Small Businesses
There are a lot of benefits to hiring highly experienced professionals. But it’s also necessary to know the risks so you as a small business owner can be prepared to face them.
Let’s take a look at some of the things to look out for when outsourcing your marketing.
Unexpected Fees
You need to be up-front and clear about the charges. Remain vigilant about the costs, so you can avoid additional fees.
Find out about the hidden costs in beginning and be sure to clarify these before committing.
Always be smart and thorough, and stick within your budget so you will get your money’s worth and not be surprised with unexpected charges.
Ideas May Not Align
Selecting the right marketing professional is obviously very important. You have to make sure that your ideas and skills are in sync with them.
You have to do extensive research on their background and previous work to make sure that they are the proper fit for your business.
You need to be strong with your views if it’s really important for you. Make sure that your ideas are aligned with their strategy, and that their approach will not deviate too much from the direction of your business.
Challenges in Communication
You only want to select the best marketing professional for your business. They may not be in your local area, so communication can sometimes be challenging especially if they are in a different time zone.
Another difficulty that you may face would be in reaching them. Let’s say you want to contact your outsourced specialist whenever you need to.
You need to discuss how and when you will communicate with your chosen outsourced marketer to avoid difficulties. Whether it be in the form of a phone call, email, video call, or other project management software, this should be agreed upon upfront.
Having healthy communication will ensure transparency, and that you will always be in control of your business.
Conclusion
Outsourcing your marketing activities can be the best move you can do for your small business. You just have to be smart about it and select the most reputable one that has substantial skills and vast experience.
By hiring experienced professionals to run some or all of your marketing campaigns, you can take your small business to greater heights and achieve your goals.
