Outbound Marketing

Where do companies turn when additional marketing resources, expertise or focus is needed? The answer can often be found in outsourcing.

In today’s tough economy, organizations are desperately trying to find new and creative ways of driving the marketing pendulum – while dealing with technology advances, innovative new marketing techniques, and competitive uncertainty in the market place.

Successful companies know that they can’t slow down or stop their marketing activities. So where do they turn when in-house resources, expertise or focus are scarce? They turn to outsourcing. Outsource marketing is often not a luxury in today’s competitive environment – it’s a necessity.


Most organizations start out with their share of tumbleweeds and crickets on the great marketing highway to success.


But marketing’s an investment that pays dividends over time – if you stay in the game, and know when and how to utilize external resources.

Key Questions to Consider:

1.  When should I consider outsourcing?

There are a number of different scenarios when outsourcing can make a lot of sense:

• When the company is too small for a marketing team, or their current staff lack specific expertise and skills.
• When a company does not have the available resources needed, either on staff or free to work on a specific project.
• When a second opinion or outside perspective is needed. This could be because a company is not comfortable with an internal proposal, or it might be because of past failures.
• When organizations realize that there are certain tasks that are best done externally. For example, many companies will outsource market activities that require non-biased or fresh new approaches. An outsource marketing team can supply that all-important “objective viewpoint”.

2.  What marketing activities should I consider outsourcing?

To answer this question you need to understand your staff’s current skill capabilities, workload, and marketing priorities. These three key inputs are needed to determine if it makes sense to go outside for help, and if so, for what activities.

Another approach is to concentrate on marketing activities that you as an organization are not good at, and/or that no one likes to do.

Ask the question, “What could somebody else do better, faster and for less money?”

For a lengthy list of marketing activities you might consider for outsourcing, please click here.

3.  Why should I outsource when I can simply hire someone?

There can be significant benefits associated with outsourcing, such as:

• High-quality output – outsourcing firms must perform at a very high level to satisfy client’s ongoing needs. By establishing success criteria for each project, you have the ability to measure real results. High-quality output is imperative for marketing agencies – they’re keenly aware that they can be replaced.
• Improved focus on core competencies – often projects like telemarketing lead generation, brochure design, or designing & managing a webcast are not core competencies within an organization. However outsourcing to a firm with expertise in the chosen area, removes many of the issues associated with doing certain projects in-house.
• Cost efficiency – you only have to pay for the time worked, there is no downtime that can eat into budgets, and without the overhead you have the flexibility of paying only for what you need, when you need it. Long term outsourcing represents a cost effective alternative to full time employees, and can be seen as a smart way of augmenting existing in-house capabilities.
• Economies of scale – quite often in-house marketing teams are backlogged with projects that seem too numerous to count, or there’s a shortage of resources to get thing done because of rapid growth, staff turnover, or a combination of both.
• More collaboration – by nature in-house teams are often limited to opinions based on ones immediate management or co-workers, were as outsource suppliers have the ability to call on an array of resources to assist when tackling new projects.
• Solution neutrality – with outsourcing, every strategy, media and alternative is on the table. An outsourced team has a very simple goal: Identify and deploy the resources needed to meet a project’s objectives & success criteria, while staying within budget.
• Talent pool – outsourcing firms are specialists in their areas of expertise, and use their sills and experiences to produce high quality results and materials.
• Organizational flexibility – going out-of-house provides the ability to increase or decrease needed resources based on project workload. Ultimately this provides an organization with long term cost savings.

On the other hand there are advantages to hiring resources internally, and keeping the responsibilities in-house:

• Small changes/projects faster – internal resources are better aligned to make small changes to existing collaterals & materials, such as websites, email templates or print brochures. The very nature of small projects, and the time and effort needed to move them out-of-house sometimes renders them incompatible with outsourcing.
• Control & understanding – because in-house teams are part of the business, they may be able to grasp concepts more easily or quicker than an outsource agency, especially when the concept is specific to certain industries or technologies. Also by keeping responsibility in-house, the organization has direct control over a project, every step of the way.

Even in this day and age of one-to-one marketing, vertical and analytical skills & experience are becoming more important. This is especially true when discussing the pros and cons of hiring versus outsourcing.

4.  What should I look for in an agency when outsourcing? 

Outsourcing can be a waste of time and money if you end up with the wrong agency. Experience is key, and not just within marketing. Make sure that the individuals you’ll be working with have previous business experience outside of a marketing agency environment. This is important because it gives them a business perspective, and understanding of the day-to-day workings of companies. Finally, make sure your outsource firm has a solid understanding, preferably first-hand experience, within your company’s area of expertise. If you’re a technology company for example, make sure that the agency fully understands the complexity of marketing technology products or services.

Successful outsourcing depends on hiring the right supplier. Referrals can come in handy. Ask experienced friends and co-workers for recommendations, and always check references. Get samples of previous work.

The majority of our business has been generated through word of mouth. If you do a good job at a reasonable price, people with be more than happy to recommend you.

5.  Do you need a back-up plan?

As soon as you bring other people into your business, you’re exposing yourself to some degree. In most cases the risk is low, and if you’ve chosen the right people to work with you’ll end up strengthening your marketing team – but what if something does go sideways?

You should have a back-up plan that includes someone else taking over at a moment’s notice, or plan on doing it yourself. Like the old saying goes “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

6.  What are the keys to successfully managing an outsource relationship?

Outsourcing is not an instant solution. It takes preparation, negotiation and communications skills to make it beneficial for you and your company. Hiring a marketing agency is not the end of a process, it’s just the beginning. Set them and yourself up for success. If they’re real professionals, they’ll do their part, but it’s a two way street. The best arrangement is a partnership. They need to be briefed thoroughly, and have access to many of the tools and information you use on a daily basis – and the autonomy to do their thing.

Outsource marketing agencies should not be regarded as simply another supplier, since suppliers don’t always perceive a long-term stake in the relationship. Remember they’re now part of your marketing team.

Outsourcing can be challenging – but offer enormous upside and flexibility.
Hopefully, these questions have helped you realize that outsourcing is not simple, but very necessary. Take note of which questions you answered “I don’t know” to. Those are areas you need to focus on, in order to make outsourcing work for you and your company.