Marketing outsourcing, the pros and cons

Is your marketing still leaving much to be desired? For example, you’ve had plans for months to refresh your online presence, but it simply hasn’t happened. Many companies are just too busy or have no one with marketing experience. Outsourcing your marketing can be a solution. In this article, we briefly explain what that exactly means but mainly discuss the pros and cons of marketing outsourcing.

What is marketing outsourcing?

Outsourcing marketing means delegating the responsibility for (part of) the marketing externally. For example, handing over the entire ‘online’ part to an external party or hiring a PR agency. There are various reasons to do this, such as bringing in more expertise or capacity. What are the advantages and disadvantages?

The advantages of marketing outsourcing

Getting things done – Many companies have limited experience with certain marketing activities. This is not a problem in itself, but it often has a paralyzing effect because people are ‘afraid’ to do it wrong. By ‘buying in’ knowledge and experience, your organization gains the confidence to take action and get things done.

Adding knowledge and experience – But where do you start? And how exactly does it work? What challenges will we face? These are valid questions but also easily solved by involving someone with knowledge and experience. Your organization learns the ropes, and you can rely on results.

Fresh perspective – If you do what you always did, you get what you always got. We often talk about the ‘blinkers’ people naturally wear when they have been active within an organization for a long time. They simply no longer see the opportunities! Someone with a fresh perspective can give everything a huge boost.

A push to keep going – An external party also keeps you sharp! They need to deliver results and need you for that. So don’t be surprised if they suddenly start pushing you with questions about why things are being left undone.

The disadvantages of marketing outsourcing

Employees are brand workers – In our positioning projects, we always build on the organization’s own strength, and marketing is naturally part of that. Your most important representatives are your employees; employees are your brand, hence also called ‘brand workers.’ Marketing outsourcing should also aim to make your people ‘wiser’ and eventually able to do it themselves.

It costs money – Outsourcing marketing obviously costs money, but in practice, it is much less than hiring a good marketer. And often, it’s still questionable whether you can attract the best marketers at all. Besides, marketing has only one goal: to generate more sales. So you shouldn’t ask what it costs but rather what it will bring you.

There is a ramp-up period – The organization and an external partner need to understand each other to achieve optimal cooperation. After several weeks of intensive collaboration, both parties can read and write with each other, and many things don’t even need to be said anymore. But this is an investment you have to make.

You pay someone to tell you that you’re not doing well. And you have to be able to handle that – The flip side of the advantage ‘fresh perspective’ is that if you bring someone from outside, they won’t beat around the bush: What are you doing well, and what not? You must be open to improvement and able to accept that someone else has more experience or knowledge, even if it doesn’t come from your company. Trust is the foundation of successful outsourcing.

In practice, marketing outsourcing works very well. Companies bring in high-quality expertise without losing focus on their core business, and this often quickly pays off.

Merkelijkheid works for a number of companies that have outsourced their marketing to us, with good results! Within a few weeks, we get to work hard, and the first impressive results are a fact. Above all, positive energy is important; marketing suddenly becomes fun again instead of a worry, and even sales see the value in it. Curious about what we can do for you? We’d love to tell you.