Is It Time to Outsource Marketing at Your Business? Here’s How to Be Sure

You built your small business from nothing.

What once was just a simple idea is now a full-fledged, revenue-generating machine.

When you started, you did it all.

Sending out sales emails one-by-one, keeping track of customer information on a collage of post-its, and racing between local networking events to meet your next prospect.

But as your business has grown, your time is better spent focusing on certain aspects of the business and delegating to others.

You’re wondering if it’s time to outsource marketing at your business.

As the owner of digital marketing agency, BJC Branding, I’ve met many small business owners who have found outsourcing makes more sense than hiring full-time employees.

How can you be sure that outsourcing is right for you? Below are five common reasons businesses outsource their digital marketing.

5 Reasons To Outsource Your Digital Marketing

1. You’re throwing digital spaghetti against the wall

Successful digital marketing programs require time and focus — two things busy marketers like you don’t always have.

For example, in a perfect world, each of your email marketing campaigns would start with a healthy brainstorm, some in-depth market research, and observations from campaigns past.

Then, you would design and refine the email campaign through several iterations to ensure you have the best finished product.

Finally, after some split-testing with your target audience and email lists, you’d gradually roll out the campaign and pay close attention to your metrics to determine your ROI (return on investment.)

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, and you most likely don’t have the time and bandwidth to commit. If instead, you find yourself skipping some steps and throwing digital spaghetti against the wall, then you’re probably doing your digital marketing a disservice.

Too many of these last-minute spaghetti sessions will compromise the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build and waste your time and budget. Consider outsourcing to an expert digital marketing agency so you can be sure that the necessary time and resources are going into your next campaign.

2. You’re always playing catch-up

Let’s face it: running a business is stressful and exhausting.

If you find yourself always playing catch-up when it comes to your marketing projects and campaigns; if you continuously push all of your tasks to the last second; if you pull your hair and chew on your nails because of tight deadlines, then it may be time to outsource your digital marketing.

Look at it this way: If you’re always running behind on your marketing, then you really can’t stay ahead of future projects.

With an ever-changing digital marketing environment, to be successful, you need to be on-trend. If you don’t have the time to research new strategies and best practices, then you’re potentially losing some major opportunities.

A specialized digital marketing agency could do all that work for you and give you the advice on the best way to stay ahead of the competition.

3. You’re using a microscope instead of a telescope

If you find yourself looking through a microscope, examining every granular tactic of your digital marketing campaigns instead of looking through a telescopic lens at the big picture of your overall marketing strategy, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointing results.

It’s important to step back from those small tasks and focus on improving your company’s overall marketing program because there are so many moving parts.

Instead of knocking out small tasks for small gains, it may be better to let go of the reigns and outsource to a digital marketing expert that can free up your time and foresight to rediscover your greater vision for the company.

Once you’re away from the minutia, you’ll find that you can dream up some amazing new ideas for your future campaigns.

4. You’re looking for financial flexibility

Finding and keeping quality employees can be rather expensive when you factor in medical and dental benefits, retirement plans, payroll taxes, and the cost to recruit, interview, negotiate, onboard, and train your new full-time employee.

Let’s not even think about if they choose to leave the company down the road.

Conversely, outsourcing to a professional marketing expert can produce substantial savings for your company. The true beauty of working with a marketing agency is that they, too, are entrepreneurs, and they understand what it takes to grow a business.

Because of their entrepreneurial spirit, the marketing expert realizes if they don’t produce results, you don’t produce payment, so their success is tied to your own. In my experience, you won’t see that from most employees.

Another benefit of outsourcing your marketing is the lack of commitment and red-tape like labor laws and worker’s compensation. Even better, hiring a marketing agency gives you more control over the process without requiring a human resources professional.

The greatest benefit of all is the financial flexibility your company will enjoy. In effect, you’re moving a sizable chunk of your operating expenses from a fixed cost to a variable cost.

Whether you’re testing new markets or protecting yourself from a downturn in the economy, this flexibility allows you to adjust accordingly based on results.

5. You’re disappointed with your marketing results

So you’ve been sending out weekly emails, and your open and click-through rates keep going down.

There must be something wrong with your contact list because you’re sending out a major discount for your products. Anyone in their right mind would take advantage!

If you’re disappointed with your marketing results, you may want an expert set of eyes to take a look and develop a plan.

In this case, outsourcing your marketing provides huge upside with little downside. Keep in mind, although you want to see results right away, that’s simply not how it works.

Set your expectations to working with your marketing expert for at least six months to allow them to start getting traction and building momentum with your marketing machine.

If after those six months, you’re still not seeing results, then it’s less costly (and much easier) to get out of a marketing program than it is to let go of a full-time employee.

Ready to explore your outsourcing options?

Outsourcing marketing for your small business may be uncharted territory, but it doesn’t have to be unnerving if you know where to look.

You can find certified marketing experts, like BJC Branding, in Constant Contact’s MarketPlace.

Search by your business need, industry, or location to find an experienced marketing professional to help your business get to that next level.

Visit Constant Contact’s MarketPlace to learn more.

About the Author: Bryan Caplan helps businesses lock down their marketing. CEO of BJC Branding and professional speaker, Bryan travels the country, presenting on a wide range of digital marketing topics. Bryan is also one of the nation’s first Master Certified Local Experts with Constant Contact. Learn more at www.BJCBranding.com.

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