“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin Within a few years, from a luxury which a few businesses did, digital marketing has become a necessity for all businesses, including yours. It is no longer shocking that more than eighty five percent of organisations spend around 50% of their total income on digital marketing, or related strategies. It’s important that you look for a professional digital marketing agency like Orange Label Marketing that have your results as their best interests.
It’s a common saying that “If your business is not on the internet, then soon you’ll be out of business”. It has now become a must for every organisation to have a dedicated strategist, marketer, analysts, sales person, product marketing people and also business development executives.
Wait! Startups don’t have that much money to recruit such a big team. It is definitely something to worry, isn’t it?
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What I learn from my experience
I have been into engineering since around 10 years now. With my confidence (or when I look back – my overconfident) belief in tech, I came up with an idea to start my venture. At the start, everything was great. We only worries about technology, deployments, website speed, app size etc. being 100% sure that if our tech is awesome, our product will be amazing too!
Well, perhaps not to your surprise, it failed miserably. The stats did not even exist for me to actually share. And all of this made us realise the fact that since we did not have any digital presence it was actually not a venture but just a project. Neither did we have funds at that time, nor did we have services like Smooper where you could find expert digital marketers or social media managers for live consultations or guidance.
This is when, I started learning more in-depth about digital marketing, about agencies, and freelancers. I struggled myself, hired an agency, worked with a freelancer, and almost tried everything in the digital marketing landscape. From these experiences I would like to explain to you if it makes sense for you to outsource your marketing, or if you should do it in house.
Good Idea: Do what you’re good at
If you are even considering to hire an external agency, it is safe to say that you don’t have much knowledge in this area. If someone from the outside is handling your digital marketing needs, you can focus a lot more on your area you hold your expertise it. In other words, you can provide undivided attention to your section of work and be a profitable asset for the venture.
Bad Idea: Not in your hands anymore
When you have an in-house team you meet them every day, work with them closely & set your own deadlines. Agencies or freelancers can’t be trusted so easily. Usually agencies (or freelancers) work perfectly for the first few months, then start slacking and missing deadlines every now & then. Which usually ends up in changing providers. This continuous shift will also affect the value of your product. One agency might want to present your company with one view, the same is not possible for other agencies.
Good Idea: Can be cost effective initially
As I mentioned earlier, most of the companies tend to spend around 50% of their funds on digital marketing, so that they can have a full-fledged dedicated digital marketing team. So if we compare with that, outsourcing would definitely be cheaper. You do not need to have a dedicated team, but only need to share your requirements with these agencies and get things going.
Bad Idea: Can be expensive in the long term
Outsourcing can be cheaper initially, but if you’re not able to find your soul-mate-provider you might end up spending much more than you actually save.
Good Idea: Profit on their experience
It goes without saying that you would perform a basic vanity check on the agency or freelancer whom you will be outsourcing your digital marketing needs. The final selection that you make will ensure that you are selecting a team of experts who have had previous experiences handling business needs similar to yours. That can’t be said if you’re managing it yourself or hiring someone else.
Bad Idea: Might not be that dynamic
Entrepreneurs meet a lot of people daily each having their own set of suggestions for your product. If you’re managing your product & marketing yourself, you can accumulate the best suggestions and do a few changes or pivot completely. These dynamic changes will also require alterations in the way external providers are targeting prospect leads or customers. This is one of the most dreadful con while outsourcing your digital marketing needs.
So what’s the verdict?
There are certain pros & cons to outsourcing your digital marketing to either freelancers or agencies, and the same goes to managing it yourself or having an in-house team. There is another middle ground of working with experts on a consultation basis through platforms like Smooper. I’ve tried my best to highlight the important benefits & drawbacks of doing so. You just need to make sure you know that you’re getting into.