Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing – Pros & Cons

Let’s start off with a quick definition. Outsourcing means you find third-party contractors and forward them a portion of responsibilities from any department that lacks resources. This extends to tasks like managing SEO and PPC advertising, blog & social media content writing, lead generation, video production, or web development. But why would you outsource at all?

• Resource & risk management. There’s no need to waste time on training candidates. Outsourced specialists know how to perform a task straight away. Then, hiring a full-time employee usually comes out more expensive. With outsourcing, you can hire on a temporary basis or for specific tasks – and that’s sustainable. The amount of money you can save by outsourcing your digital marketing is around $300,000 per year – salaries posted on ZipRecruiter show it clearly. In terms of risk management, the outer party may have more useful connections in digital marketing, and certainly has a different experience. This way, you get a wider perspective on market threats and supplement your marketing approach with new solutions – every little bit helps.
• Specific focus. One clear advantage is that you can hire an outsourced expert for an unusual task that would otherwise require effort from the entire team. In a case where you decide to experiment by following a new path, but don’t want to risk it or spend resources on training the current team, outsourcing is your go-to.
• Fresh insights. The background of your outsourced pros works like a charm here. While cooperating, the in-house team has a chance to derive valuable feedback and expertise, which goes on to fuel your company’s further development. And you, as an executive director, get an outside evaluation of your company’s inner workings.

Improvement in other areas. Outsourcing lifts the burden that is sometimes present when executives aim to control every operation all throughout. Once part of the tasks gets handed down to a professional, you gain more time and energy to focus on improving other functioning parts of your venture. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

Mostly, the decision to outsource depends on the kind of tasks you need to be done. Let’s look at a couple of examples here.

Outsourcing works when:

• Your job requires you to be present – think consulting or mentoring. An outsourced SMM manager runs social media while you can improve delivery, gain knowledge, or introduce new offers.

• You supervise a multiple-branch team with a variety of tasks involved. Here, outsourcing helps untangle operational issues and becomes a game-changer in terms of organization, performance, and expertise.

After all, it depends on your goals and the time you’re ready to put aside until the results appear, as well as your workload and financial capabilities. But if you do decide to outsource, choose wisely.

An outsourced specialist can become your long-term partner and enrich your business with their skill set and attitude. In fact, finding the right fit isn’t as much of a challenge with a plan laid out. Here are some of our recommendations to ease your search.

• Social media. Simple, but worth a try. You can search for specific professionals on LinkedIn, for example. The platform features an impressive list of top specialists, and you can specify your search requirements based on the task you need to be completed. Another option apart from social media is remote job platforms. Websites like Fiverr, Guru, or Upwork feature a diverse scene of experts in various fields.
• Recommendations. The professional network you’re part of can point you in the right direction. It’s possible that someone there is friends with a digital marketing expert or hired one. This helps set the right tone straight away since being recommended would make a candidate treat this opportunity with more consideration. Also, you can make use of professional communities online and ask people there to redirect you to a skillful specialist.
• Company listings. If you search for “digital marketing outsourcing” on Google, the results can show irrelevant pages you’ll waste time looking through. Whereas listings including digital marketing agencies enable you to discover their completed projects and decide if they’re a good fit for you.

As your search begins, it’s important to focus on a few areas that will simplify choice-making and save you time. Applying a set of fixed parameters that matter most  in cooperation with an outsourced expert streamlines your analysis as you rely on the same metrics for different candidates. Here are the parameters to consider:

• Experience. The very first thing that helps set the right person apart is what they’ve completed in the past. Here, consider the type of projects the candidate worked on to analyze their skills and expertise needed for your requirements. Their work measured in years can also give you a good hint. Overall, this paints a strong picture of their effort in providing services.
• Communication. This either makes or breaks a partnership, so watch closely. Communication isn’t just the way specialists express themselves verbally – above all, it’s an indicator of their outlook and values. If you are aligned, evaluate how they communicate with other team members and approach clients. Another aspect to consider is time zones, as this impacts workflow and task reporting.
• Cost. Last, but not least. Generally, you either pay an outsourced specialist an hourly rate or opt for contract-based pricing. Regardless of the option, a fair price that potentially gives you more than it takes away is the ultimate target.

Now, let’s clear up our understanding of cost formation in outsourcing digital marketing. Costs vary depending on your chosen type of cooperation – in-house team or freelance specialists.

We’ll give you an average rate for the core roles within an in-house digital marketing team:

• Marketing Lead: Manages projects, sets timelines, controls objectives, and improves working processes. Average rate – $72,300 to $93,000
• SEO/PPC Manager: Supervises search engine optimization and enhances team operations; forms and executes PPC pricing, optimizes strategy. The average rate for an SEO manager is $81,530, and $54,140 for a PPC manager.
• SMM Manager: Plans, executes, oversees, and manages social media strategy and presence. Average rate – $51,400.
• Email Marketing Specialist: Creates email lists, drafts and writes emails, reaches out, and secures leads. Average rate – $60,000 to $110,000.

The overall cost of hiring an in-house team can be as high as $490,000. This includes other team members like graphic designers, project managers, copywriters, and UI/UX designers.

You may think that these rates are too high for a fresh start-up – that’s reasonable. So, let’s take a look at the rates of freelance specialists.

Let’s kick off by saying that the costs are much lower here. Freelance digital marketers and managers charge around $70 to $90 per hour. SEO and PPC specialists, as well as email marketers, charge between $25 to $50 per hour. And the average price for other specialists is around $40 per hour. As you can see, hiring freelancers is tangibly more cost-effective, especially when you choose to work on an hourly-rate basis.

If you, like us, strive to spend less time and get more done without compromising quality, start the ball rolling and outsource. You’ll be able to achieve more while spending money saved from other intents on unexplored development opportunities. As long as you remain clear in what you need to be done and research meticulously, it will pay off.