In the past 10 years, many small businesses have saved on marketing costs by engaging a digital marketing agency. The agency augments their existing marketing team, or takes over all marketing work.

Why this method? Well, every small business needs to have a digital marketing presence to grow. You see proof of this every day on social media, in your inbox, looking up products & services online, etc.

Is the ‘outsourced’ approach the right one though? Do you really save on costs? What other advantages would it convey? Let’s find out.

What a Digital Marketing Agency Does

When you outsource your digital marketing, an agency takes over some, or all, of your company’s marketing processes.

Marketing and creative agencies can help you develop your marketing strategy and marketing plan, as well as provide insights and advice on the many marketing activities you can engage in.

The agency performs services like branding, web design & development, graphic design, content creation, SEO, email marketing, social media consulting, and digital advertising.

The question then becomes...how do you determine how much work an agency should take over?

Identify where you need help the most. Marketing agencies can provide skilled support and increased capabilities to your marketing manager, or they can work directly with your business leaders to perform like their in-house marketing department.

Advantages of an In-House Marketing Manager

If you can financially swing it, we do recommend having a full-time, onsite marketing manager. Why?

• Having a marketing resource, right there, able to jump on projects and coordinate with outside vendors is the ideal.
  
• The best marketing managers are the ultimate advocates for your company’s success—positive,  action-oriented, visionary, and all-in on helping you succeed.
  
• Marketing managers have direct access to the company’s leadership, and they understand the company’s expectations, goals, and corporate values.
  
• Experienced marketing managers know what’s been tried in the past, what’s worked, and what hasn’t worked.  They know cost sensitivities, team dynamics, customers/products/services, and who on their leadership team is willing to engage in sales and marketing projects.

Even with a Marketing Manager on board, they need a team to produce marketing campaigns. How do you balance that expense with budgets? You outsource the team, that’s how.

Why Some Small Businesses Outsource their Digital Marketing

Here are some of the reasons we’ve heard from customers for outsourcing their digital marketing:

• Their marketing plan required highly-skilled professionals and industry knowledge they didn’t have internally.
• They’ve had trouble finding the experienced marketing manager they need, to get the results they want.
• They prefer the customer service dynamic of using an outside vendor.
• Their business doesn’t require a full-time marketing manager.
• An acknowledgement that the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing makes it a specialty now more than ever.
• And finally, cost savings. Depending on the agency, an outsourced marketing contract can cost just 30-50% of the cost of one full-time in-house marketing manager.

6 Advantages to Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing

1. Digital marketing agencies typically employ a full range of specialists.  You will likely need all of their talents at some point to help you achieve your marketing goals: 
   • Brand and identity designers
   • Creative directors
   • Marketing strategists
   • Content developers
   • Web developers, ecommerce and application developers
   • SEO engineers and digital advertisers
   • Social media consultants
   • Email marketers
   • Graphic designers, illustrators
   • Videographers
   
   
2. If you want the very best digital marketing professionals, you’ll find them in agencies. Agency-based pros thrive on variety & challenge, giving you access to a broad range of creative & technical talent.
   
   • That’s not to say an in-house digital marketer isn’t creative or challenged; they just won’t get as many opportunities to stretch their talents.
     
   
   
3. An outside marketing agency can evaluate your business as a potential customer would—from the outside looking in. With that perspective, they can help position you to stand out from your competition, especially in saturated markets where positioning can make or break you.
   
   
4. Outside consultants know you can take your business elsewhere at any time. That provides built-in motivation for them to produce quality work and deliver (and even over-deliver) on their commitments.
   
   
5. For the same reason you’d hire an experienced IT Consultant to evaluate your network—you’d hire a marketing agency to support your sales.  They both work in a variety of environments each month, deploying ever changing solutions that could benefit your company.  The agency atmosphere is creative and collaborative, with a lot of minds and experience aimed at making you successful.
   
   
6. Expertise culled from working in industries outside your own, can yield creative solutions that help you stand out.

Marketing Must Deliver Results Consistently. Outsourcing is a Popular Solution.

The SBA recommends spending 7-8% of gross revenue on marketing (including digital ads). That might sound like a lot of dough! However, through outsourced digital marketing, you're able to get the most ROI from it.

If you can contract a capable agency to take over all or a part of it, and achieve better results at a lower cost, why wouldn't you?

Outsourcing your marketing support makes it happen.