For some businesses, hiring a full-service, outsourced marketing agency is not only the best choice, it’s the only choice.  Here’s a review of when you should consider this type of marketing service, with insights on whether or not Marketing 360® is for you.

First, let’s define some important terms.

Outsourced Marketing Agency

An outsourced marketing agency is set up to work with businesses that need to execute a comprehensive, dynamic marketing strategy but can’t get ROI by hiring in-house staff.  These businesses need:

• To run multi-channel marketing campaigns.
• Professional design, video, and content work.
• To analyze data to modify tactics and test collateral.
• Ongoing competitor analysis.
• To stay updated and even ahead of digital marketing trends.

For these businesses, it’s not practical to hire an in-house team.  They’re not big enough and don’t have the capital to make that possible.  They must outsource.

Full-Service Marketing Agency

A full-service marketing agency has the staff and tools in place to cover all the needs of the business outsourcing their marketing.  This includes:

• Ability to execute tactics for all marketing channels.
• Ability to formulate and modify a marketing strategy for the business, including setting goals and establishing benchmarks.
• Design, writing, and video production talent.
• Software such as analytics, CRM, and email to organize and track campaigns.
• A dedicated representative to be the main source of contact for the business.

A true, full-service marketing agency has all these capabilities in-house.  That way, they can work with clients as a unit, unified under one well-understood strategy.

The Distinction Between Full-Service Agencies and Specialists

An important distinction to make here is the difference between all-in-one service versus marketing specialists.

There are many marketing agencies today that specialize in one type of marketing tactic.  For example, there are agencies that do only PPC management, others that do only social media management.  Often, these are small agencies or even just individual freelancers.

For a business that must outsource but still needs a comprehensive marketing plan, using multiple specialists is problematic.  The big issue is that the separate agencies aren’t set-up – or often even willing – to work with the other specialists the business has hired.  This means that someone at the business must orchestrate the campaigns and make sure everything stays within the scope of strategy and goals.

That orchestration is often as time-consuming as any other marketing job, which defeats the purpose of outsourcing marketing in the first place.

Some businesses may only need help with a particular tactic.  Others have an in-house marketing person who needs support in a specific area.

But if you need to outsource your entire marketing effort, look for an agency with an all-in-one solution.

A Cost Comparison

Every business would hire an in-house marketing team if they could find and afford the talent.  The main reason businesses seek full-service agencies is because the services are scaled to be affordable.  A large agency like Marketing 360® works with thousands of businesses, allowing us to scale enterprise-level solutions that cost far less than if each business tried to develop the solution on their own.

Here is an example breakdown.

Say you want to have a two-person staff, one as your head of marketing to manage all tactics, the other a designer and video specialist to create all your collateral.

With a modest estimate of salary/benefits at 50k per year each, just that cost is 100k annually.

Say you spend 2k a month on paid advertising.

You do content creation and four blogs a month for SEO.  Approximately $600 per month for that SEO work.  $7200 per year.

You’re starting to develop your presence on Facebook and Instagram, so you use our starting social media management services at $595 per month.  $7140 annually.

For services, your annual spend with our full-service marketing would be $27,480.

That’s a difference of $72,520.

Even if you only had one employee it’s a difference of $22,520.

That makes a pretty clear case why businesses that are in a position to outsource their marketing to an agency like Marketing 360® do so.  If you have staff, your biggest marketing expense is their salary/benefits.

Is Outsourcing to a Full-Service Agency Right for My Business?

Hopefully at this point, the answer to this question is becoming clear.

Still, ask yourself these questions:

• Do I have enough marketing and/or advertising need that I need professional support?  Is my business small enough to manage it myself where I could just hire specialists for one-off work when needed?
• Is my business big enough that our marketing needs warrant hiring in-house staff?  Will the results deliver ROI?
• Do I work well with managed, outsourced services?  Am I comfortable with distance business relationships?  Or do I strongly need to meet with my marketers in person on a regular basis?
• Do I understand enough about the marketing process that I’ll understand what I’m getting when I outsource?  How will I measure the value of their work, both with data-based ROI and the overall feel of the relationship?
• Is there a market need for my offer?  Do I feel confident that I actually offer something worth marketing?

That last question is a big one.  However you choose to market your offer, it won’t matter if there is no market need.  Lack of market need is the number one reason businesses fail.

But that aside, if you fit into the space where you need strong marketing but can’t afford in-house staff, then outsourcing to a full-service agency such as Marketing 360® is your best choice.

We think we’ve developed the premier full-service marketing platform for small and medium-size businesses that choose to outsource their marketing.  We’d love to talk to you and discover how we can take your marketing to the next level.

Here’s an overview from our team members: