9 Reasons Why Outsourcing B2B Marketing Functions Can Increase Growth
Outsourcing marketing tasks is a trend that’s here to stay. There are many reasons for this, including:
- Change In Marketing Functions
Because
of the influence of technology and the web, marketing functions are
changing more rapidly than ever before. It’s hard for an internal team
to keep up with the shifting environment as well as their business and
the markets it serves.
- Today’s Integrated Marketing Requires Diverse Skill Sets
You need high-level leaders to craft your marketing strategy and
guide its implementation. Also, executing digital marketing requires an
array of specialists. These include web designers and developers,
content and copywriters, graphic designers and videographers. In
addition, you may need gurus of social media marketing, marketing
automation, conversion optimization, search engine marketing, search
engine optimization, digital display advertising, email marketing, and
more. And digital is only part of the marketing equation. For B2B
marketing, you have to add the human touch. For this, you’ll need trade
show and conference organizers and inside sales people or telemarketers.
In-house talent may not offer all the skills and expertise they need.
This
problem, however, doesn’t mean marketers should reshape strategies to
reflect their internal capabilities. The opposite is true. They should
design marketing strategies that promise to produce the highest growth,
then determine how to implement them with company associates and
external resources.
Smart
marketing leaders are taking advantage of technology to increase
efficiency and make campaigns as personal as possible. Since technology
can be expensive, you might want to outsource some technology-intensive
functions, such as marketing automation, to a company that already has
leading edge technology at their fingertips.
- Need To Keep Overhead Low
Even
as the economy becomes more robust, companies are cautious about
onboarding new hires too fast and increasing overhead costs. After all,
boom and bust cycles quickly turn hiring frenzies into layoff
nightmares.
Also, marketing activities don’t occur in even
increments over the year. Companies need to invest more time in
marketing when they are introducing new services and solutions or are
gearing up for conferences. In situations in which they cannot adjust
internally quickly enough to meet work demands, it only makes sense to
outsource where possible.
If
you’re suffering the same predicament as John, you need to take action.
Now. What should you do? Well, it depends on where you are today. So,
first identify your exact problem, and then the solution.
- Desire To Use Best Practices
To
compete successfully, marketers need to use best practices. But it’s
difficult to stay up on them when they’re always changing.
So,
it’s best to go to a firm that focuses on the area of expertise you
need. They have experience implementing solutions for multiple
companies, so they’re likely to know what works best in a variety of
situations. If you go it alone, you may have to build your expertise
using trial and error. The learning curve will naturally slow your path
to growth.
Also, don’t discount what you’ll learn by working with the experts and the new perspective they’ll bring to your business.
Professionals
often believe that doing work in-house is less expensive than
outsourcing. However, because marketing firms are structured to provide
the services they offer, they can often provide them for less money.
Plus, they may have access to less expensive labor sources.
Also,
consider how much time and money you can save by averting the costs of
recruiting, hiring, training, office space, computers, benefits, and
more.
- Conquer New Geographic Territories
Marketing is not limited by geographic borders. However, your firm’s
knowledge may be. If you work for a U.S. company and want to expand into
Europe, for example, you’ll want to partner with a firm familiar with
the varied local cultures and languages.
Every
day there are new marketing tactics to consider: social selling,
influencer marketing, mobile apps, visual marketing, micro-segmentation,
and more. You might want to test one or more of these marketing methods
without gearing up for it internally. The solution is to outsource it.
Probably
one of the most important reasons to outsource is to help you stay
focused on your business. That means: do what you do best and outsource
the rest.
The good news is, it’s easier than ever to outsource
marketing functions. The web puts the world at your fingertips, making
it simple to find and assess firms’ capabilities. Also, once hired,
technology makes communication seamless, whether you’re working with a
company across the street or in another country.
The reasons
discussed above may help you decide what you should outsource. For
example, if you’ve never tested qualifying your leads via phone calls,
it’s a new tactic. Do you really want to test it out in-house? After
all, it would take a lot of time to get up to speed and learn best
practices. Also, you’d need to hire business development specialists
skilled in asking the right questions and developing rapport over the
phone. And you would also have to surmount some hefty upfront technology
costs.
source :
business2community
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