Since the pandemic, outsourcing marketing services have become increasingly popular, especially with large companies who would prefer to channel their resources towards business strategy and more direct business initiatives. The beauty of outsourcing marketing services is that specialist marketing firms have the expertise, tools and professional staff to provide a comprehensive suite of marketing services, freeing up valuable time for the company to focus on operational and strategic objectives.
Levels of outsourced marketing activities
Many companies often outsource marketing services haphazardly without any coordination or direction but rather to fill unexpected gaps in resources. Large companies have come to realise that outsourcing their marketing service is a strategic asset that can make a massive improvement to the efficiency and quality of their marketing efforts.
Marketing tasks can either be routine or specialised, and the nature of those tasks will determine the level of investment that a large company will devote towards outsourcing that function. Routine marketing services are conducted regularly and require less skill than specialised marketing services that are conducted on a relatively high level and infrequently.
Large companies typically outsource marketing services based on their level of need. We touch on the various levels below:
- Level 1 – All marketing functions are kept in house and typically have large and highly-skilled marketing departments.
- Level 2 – These companies usually keep routine marketing in-house and outsource marketing services for some specialised marketing functions, specifically those where they don’t have the in-house skills.
- Level 3 – These companies retain routine marketing functions but outsource all specialised marketing functions to experts.
- Level 4 – These companies outsource some routine marketing services and all specialised marketing services to experts. These outsourced companies work closely with management structures to align the marketing strategy.
- Level 5 – The companies outsource all routine and specialised marketing services to experts, and these outsourced companies work closely with management structures to ensure that the marketing strategy is aligned.
Companies must first ascertain what portion of routine and specialised marketing functions they want to outsource when deciding to outsource marketing services. However, a growing number of large companies are leaning towards outsourcing their marketing services as it is cost-efficient and done by specialists who create compelling content with improved results that produce the desired return on investment.
Most common outsource marketing services
Market research
Market research entails a detailed evaluation of a company’s marketplace and its customers and competitors. Outsourced marketing specialists help companies identify their brand’s unique selling proposition (USP), allow them to understand what their customers need, and assess what their competitors are doing.
Market research involves plenty of research and analytics – a tedious and time-consuming affair that many large companies choose to outsource to specialists. By outsourcing this market research service, specialists are able to provide a deep examination into Google and social media analytics and analyse all competitors to help companies understand where their position lies in the market.
Moreover, these outsourced marketing professionals perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to help the company manage their branding and marketing better.
Strategy and Planning
Outsourced marketing specialists help companies to create a marketing strategy that can define or reconstruct their brand image. In addition, this function helps to determine how and when a company should introduce their brand into the market. When large companies trust outsourced marketing professionals with their strategy and planning, these experts can create the company’s market persona and perform the following tasks to develop that brand’s marketing strategy:
- Positioning the company’s brand.
- Creating value propositions.
- Devising growth strategies.
In essence, by outsourcing the strategy and planning component to marketing experts, they are able to identify the best platforms to market that company – including keyword research for SEO marketing.
Creative projects
Large companies choose to outsource their creative projects to marketing professionals as they get a fresh perspective from industry experts. Creative projects include producing marketing materials that deliver a company’s brand story and help identify that company’s target audience through social media, email campaigns, and the web.
This function also includes the creation of logos, websites, apps, emails, newsletters, and marketing campaigns that entail promotions, communication, lead generation, branding, and awareness.
Additionally, outsourced marketing agencies will have highly-skilled content marketing teams with specialist content writers, editors, copywriters, and graphic designers to perform specific tasks based on your marketing strategy. Moreover, these outsourced professionals will help to create and present a brand’s marketing materials that help to enhance its public relations and connection with its target audience.
Marketing operations
Marketing operations entail managing and optimising the entire marketing process – from strategy and deployment all the way to reporting, measurement, and attribution. As a result, marketing specialists from outsourced agencies are highly-skilled in:
- Creative process management.
- Project planning.
- Brand compliance.
- Market technology management.
- Marketing performance measurement.
These tasks are not only time-insensitive but also require great attention to detail together with an innovative approach for optimal results – things that outsourced marketing experts have years of experience with. Additionally, company’s don’t have to fork out high costs to invest in specialised software to perform these tasks as outsourced marketing agencies have the latest technology at their disposal.
Final thoughts
When considering whether to keep your marketing efforts in-house or invest in outsourced marketing services to manage critical marketing tasks, it is important to evaluate your company’s level of need for routine and specialised marketing functions.
Outsourcing your marketing functions is not only cost-effective, but it enables your business to keep up with rapid changes in the marketplace while getting tailor-made marketing from industry experts who have access to the best resources and latest technology. Therefore, it only makes sense to use outsourced professionals who have the proper skills, credentials and experience to enhance your business marketing efforts and keep you ahead of the pack!
