Should You Outsource Your Marketing? Five Scenarios to Help You Decide

 There’s no single answer about whether outsourced or in-house marketing is the right way to go. It all depends on the company and situation. The right structure will also change over time – outsourced marketing is right for some points in a company’s evolution, while in-house is a better option at different stages of growth.

To help you evaluate what’s right for your company, right now, here are 5 scenarios.  Read each one and judge which option you think is best for the situation described. 

One caveat before you start reading – real business situations always have more grey than black and white examples. Use your judgement to determine the nuances between  the scenarios. 

5 scenarios for outsourced or in-house marketing

1. Walking over to chat is the way things get done

Some companies are built on face-to-face contact. There is a lot of water-cooler chat, and staff are in the office every day from 9 – 5. They don’t use a lot of technology to communicate, and working from home is a rarity. People stop by each others’ desks to check on project timelines, and to bounce ideas around. It’s just the way that things happen. 

There’s nothing wrong with this structure – lots of businesses work this way. And while the work world is changing and more technology and busier schedules mean that less face to face is the direction things are moving, some companies are still used to operating this way. 

When it comes to marketing, it can be difficult for outsourcing to work in this structure. Since outsourced marketers won’t be in the office every day, it can be tough for them to get things done. 

If your team works based on walking over to a colleague’s desk to discuss an idea or update a situation, outsourced marketing will require a dedicated effort by management to try different ways of working. That might not be a bad thing – it can be a catalyst for using more technology and changing behaviors in your company - but it’s not to be undertaken lightly. 

Which option is best?  In this case, in-house marketer is more likely to work, unless management wants to try new ways of working.  

2. You’ve had high turnover of marketers

Your company has a solid track record and customer base. You’ve had a few in-house marketers over the last 3 - 5 years but they haven’t stuck. Either they left to pursue more growth in a company where there were more marketing opportunities, or they didn’t perform well and you let them go. 

B2B companies often hire junior marketers because they’re inexpensive. Unfortunately, they’re also inexperienced and can end up wasting more time and money than they save. 

In this situation, outsourced marketing is the better bet. Outsourcing avoids the risk of a single in-house hire. It means a company gets a team of marketers who have breadth and depth of skill. They don’t need hand-holding because they’re senior. And they won't quit your business for a better opportunity elsewhere.    

3. You’re still Figuring Out your offering

Start-ups and new businesses that are still working on their service or product need marketing basics (website, pitch deck) to be credible to potential customers. But they don’t need a significant amount of marketing, because things are likely to be very different just 3 months down the road. Spending a lot on lead generation campaigns is a recipe for wasting precious dollars in the early stages of a B2B company’s growth. 

At this stage, there’s more value in the sales and management team going out and talking to new customers and getting feedback, and making changes to the company’s offering based on what customers say and do. 

In this situation, a full-time marketer is overkill. Better to hire a marketing consultant or outsourced company for a short period of time to help you get the marketing basics in place. But don’t spend too much or too long on outsourced marketing at this stage – you’re better to focus on sales and product development until your value proposition and target market is clear. Once you reach that stage, then you can consider increasing your investment in marketing.   

4. You aren't sure what skills you need in a marketer

Your company knows that it’s time to implement a real marketing function. The problem is, what skills do you need? And what level of skills? Should you hire a single senior person and get them to do everything, or a junior person and hope that they’ll learn quickly?  How do you recruit effectively when you aren’t sure what kind of marketing you need to be doing, and how to measure the success of your marketer? 

In this situation, outsourced marketing is the better option. An outsourced marketing company will be able to provide a breadth and depth of skills and experience (more than a single person can), and over the course of working with them you’ll learn what skills you need.

5. You need a senior marketer, but can’t afford one

There’s a distressingly common scenario in mid-sized B2B companies who decide to initiate a marketing function. They hire junior in-house marketers because they come with a price-tag that’s easy to digest.  

The problem with this is that junior marketers rarely know how to lead a strategic B2B marketing function, and they fail to accomplish much and leave the business with wasted time and money, and skepticism towards marketing. 

A better option for companies who need serious marketing leadership and execution but don’t need a full-time senior (expensive) marketer is outsourced marketing. They get access to the expertise they need, on a fractional basis. This saves money on the senior hire, and leaves budget available for a junior resource to execute the marketing activities. 

CONCLUSION

Outsourced marketing works best when a B2B company:

• has a good handle on what it offers and to whom
• isn’t sure what marketing skills it needs, what level and what breadth
• has a limited budget 

An in-house marketing team works best when a B2B company:

• prefers a marketer who will always be on-site
• can guide and oversee the marketing function
• has a budget for a multi-person team