How To Outsource Digital Marketing: A Complete Guide
If you want your business to succeed, online marketing should be one of your top priorities. But digital marketing can be a lot to handle, so many companies outsource digital marketing.
Outsourcing digital marketing, or hiring someone else to market your business online, can help you reach your goals and grow your company more efficiently.
So, should you manage your marketing in-house or hire a marketing agency? The answer to that question depends mainly on your company’s specific needs. Even so, there are many significant benefits to outsourcing that you should consider.
On this page, we’ll explain everything you need to know about outsourcing digital marketing, including:
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What does it mean to outsource internet marketing?
Outsourcing digital marketing involves hiring a third-party expert to help you market your company online. Instead of hiring and maintaining an in-house team, you’ll turn to a digital marketing agency to help you reach your online marketing goals.
A good agency will get to know your business and create custom strategies to help you reach your goals.
8 benefits of outsourcing digital marketing services
Expert insights from
Nicole ThuemmelWebFX Sr. Web Strategy Consultant
When you hire one person internally, it’s not likely that person has the knowledge across everything in the digital landscape. Even if that person DOES possess that knowledge, do they really have the time in the day/week/year to accomplish your business growth goals? The answer is probably not. A digital marketing agency, on the other hand, can bring you full service resources for the cost of one internal salary.
A large corporation has enough financial resources to employ a professional, in-house marketing team. But for small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), that’s usually a much less viable — and useful — option.
Instead, hiring an outside agency to handle your marketing needs is likely in your best interest. Even so, you may hesitate to hire one — what does hiring an agency offer you that an in-house marketing team can’t?
Take a look at some of the many benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing to a professional agency:
One of the most significant benefits an external marketing agency brings is expertise. First, most agencies have been driving marketing results for years, giving them abundant experience that’s hard to beat.
Specialization is also a factor. You may have your own marketing experience, but marketing likely isn’t your sole focus. Agencies, however, center their entire business around digital marketing, giving them a degree of specialized knowledge that’s unmatched.
In some cases, these firms will focus on specific sectors. A franchise marketing agency, for example, will tailor its services to the unique needs, challenges, and key performance indicators (KPIs) of franchises.
When you combine experience and specialization, you get a level of marketing prowess that you’d have a tough time achieving with an in-house team. If you want your online advertising to be in the most capable hands, you should outsource to a marketing agency.
2. Advanced tools and resources
Another reason to outsource digital marketing is that agencies often come equipped with advanced digital marketing tools for managing your campaigns. Whether those tools are paid ad platforms or email management software, they can greatly boost your marketing.
One reason this feature is so advantageous is that many marketing tools cost money. While your business can budget to pay for a few resources, it’s improbable that your budget leaves room for you to purchase as many tools as an agency offers.
The other factor to consider is proficiency. Even if you managed to get all the marketing tools you needed, you may not be intimately familiar with them or have the time to learn everything about them. You could grasp the basics but may not have time to learn how to use those tools to their full potential.
When you outsource to a marketing agency, you get a team that has access to all the right tools and knows exactly how to use them. When it comes to marketing resources, it’s far more beneficial to hire an agency.
Meet MarketingCloudFX:
One platform tracking countless metrics and driving stellar results.
Outsourcing online marketing makes you more likely to end up with a cost-effective campaign. An agency’s increased proficiency allows you to drive more revenue for less cost than if you did your marketing.
When you handle all your marketing in-house, you work with less experience and fewer resources. Under those conditions, mistakes are bound to happen — and since digital marketing requires financial investment, those mistakes will cost you.
A professional agency, on the other hand, knows exactly what they’re doing. They drive marketing results daily, so they know how to avoid the pitfalls you might encounter on your own.
They can also use their expertise to generate a higher return on investment (ROI), meaning you pay less and earn more! Ultimately, partnering with an agency can lead to much higher revenue for your business.
4. Results that matter
When you do all your marketing in-house, it can take far more time than needed. Without a rich background in marketing, you won’t always know exactly what to do, and it may take a long time to figure it all out.
Working with an agency can alleviate that problem. Agencies have gone through the marketing optimization process countless times, so it’s second nature for them to optimize your company’s website and ads. Not only that, but they’ll be able to devote more time to it, meaning they’ll get more work done in less time.
Let’s be clear — marketing can still take time. Results won’t come overnight, and if an agency says it can drive immediate results, that agency isn’t trustworthy. But an agency’s experience can prevent you from dragging the process out far longer than necessary.
5. Larger teams
In-house marketing teams have some disadvantages, but their size is one of the biggest ones. Unless you’re a large-scale corporation, you may only have a few people on your marketing team.
Agencies, on the other hand, often have larger teams — sometimes over 100 people. Having such a large team allows you to accomplish tasks you never could with a smaller group.
With so many more hands on deck, you can afford to give more focus to the details of your campaigns. Rather than one employee handling three different strategies, you can assign each strategy to a separate group of experts who can give it their full attention.
All these experts allow for a broader, more diverse array of viewpoints. Having multiple perspectives on your campaigns can lead to a more robust approach that drives better results.
6. No learning curve
Another reason to outsource digital marketing is that you don’t have to spend time going through the learning process.
If you try to handle your marketing alone, there will inevitably be a learning curve. Even if you have marketing experience, you need to learn more about how strategies work and what campaigns are most effective for your business.
A professional agency won’t have that issue. They’ve managed so many marketing campaigns that they know the best approach to each marketing strategy. When you partner with them, they can set right-to-work driving results.
7. More time
If you have experience with marketing, it can be tempting to think you don’t need the help of an agency. But even if you’re a marketing expert with access to all the right tools, agencies can still offer you something you won’t have on your own: Time.
Marketing is just one component of your business. You can’t afford to spend all your time planning campaigns because you won’t have time to dedicate to other important business matters. With so many responsibilities, you only have so much time for marketing.
If you hire an agency, though, that problem vanishes. Agencies can afford to devote plenty of time to your marketing, leaving you to handle the other aspects of your business. That way, you won’t have to worry about making time for your advertising — they’ll have it covered.
8. Up-to-date digital marketing knowledge
A final benefit of agency partnerships is up-to-date knowledge of marketing trends. If you try to handle your marketing yourself, your marketing knowledge may be fresh when you start, but it can be difficult to keep up with all the constant trends over the years.
Agencies, in contrast, are constantly immersing themselves in the latest marketing trends. Their business revolves solely around the marketing world, so it’s vital for them to know which practices are outdated and which are just coming into style.
Knowing the latest marketing trends is incredibly valuable, as it can help you keep ahead of your competitors and determine which ad formats will be most effective. For that reason, outsourcing online marketing is very much to your advantage.
The costs of outsourcing internet marketing
So, how much does it cost to hire an agency for social media marketing? That depends. The cost of outsourcing will depend on your marketing tactics, how much you rely on an agency, and — above all — your budget.
This table highlights the overall costs of outsourcing digital marketing:
If you want to find a digital marketing agency, there are different factors you can look for when deciding on the best fit.
Businesses should consider the cost of hiring one employee with one very specific skill set vs. hiring an agency that has a diverse skill set and can fill multiple needs at the same cost. Businesses should also consider the type of agency they partner with. WebFX can pivot based on our client needs and resources, while some agencies are only focused on one area. This flexibility allows for businesses to truly experience a strategic extension of their internal team when working with a team like WebFX.
If the cost seems too good to be true for outsourcing, it likely is. Businesses should always ask an outsourced vendor how the work is complete and detailed questions during the vetting process to ensure it aligns with their internal goals + vision.
Nicole Thuemmel, WebFX Sr. Web Strategy Consultant
Here are a few things to consider when trying to outsource digital marketing:
Cost: Does this agency fit within your budget? Are they flexible in their plans?
Agency experience: How long has this company been around? What do their other clients have to say about their work?
Personality: Does their company culture mesh with yours? Are they easy to talk to and work with?
Capabilities: What services does the company offer? Will you have to work with multiple agencies if you want different digital marketing strategies?
Our digital marketing campaigns impact the metrics that improve your bottom line.
WebFX has driven the following results for clients:
$10 billion
in client revenue
24 million
leads for our clients
7.14 million
client phone calls
Outsource digital marketing to WebFX for top-tier results
Looking for an agency to handle your digital marketing? Choose WebFX! With over 25 years of digital marketing experience and over 500 experts on our team, we know how to optimize your marketing for maximum results.
When you partner with us, you’ll even receive a dedicated account representative to keep you in the loop about everything we do for you. Call us at 888-601-5359or contact us online to get started today!
