Outsourced marketing solutions are the future of digital marketing.
Digital marketing is at the core of the modern business model. Digital channels have become crucial for connecting with customers, becoming an industry leader, and achieving growth.
However, a successful digital marketing strategy requires an amount of work and a level of expertise that is often difficult to achieve with in-house capabilities, especially for small and medium businesses.
As a result, more organizations are turning to outsourcing. A marketing partner can take over time-consuming tasks, deliver consistent results, and help improve marketing ROI.
Find out why businesses are opting for the MSP marketing company model, and which benefits they derive from these partnerships.
1. Save valuable time
The average workweek can vary a lot from one organization to another. For some entrepreneurs, it’s not unusual to work 50 hours a week. Others are responding to labor challenges and inflation by reducing work hours to avoid increasing compensation.
Time is a valuable resource. Managing this resource successfully directly affects growth. Whether your marketing team works 50 hours a week or is adopting shorter workdays, you need a strategic approach to managing time and focusing on creating the most value possible during work hours.
For businesses without a dedicated marketing team, content creation tasks are an afterthought in a busy schedule. Crafting quality pieces of content can take several hours and involve multiple employees, which means project managers often have to choose between sacrificing quality or slowing down the production schedule.
An MSP marketing company can take over a wide range of marketing-related tasks and free up valuable time. You can retain some marketing tasks in-house and give employees plenty of time to develop high-quality content or decide to have employees focus on other important tasks, such as phone or in-person interactions with customers.
2. Manage costs
Marketing spending is up. On average, businesses are spending 9.5% of their revenue compared to 6.4% last year. In spite of this increase, marketing budgets are still lower than pre-pandemic levels.
In-house marketing can be costly. An employee costs close to $39 an hour between compensation and benefits, and this amount can be higher for positions that call for more competitive wages. You also have to factor in the cost of hiring and training.
As the buying journey continues to become increasingly digital, customers expect to connect with brands on their preferred channels. Adopting an omnichannel approach and coordinating your marketing efforts means you need a multi-disciplinary marketing team with experts in areas like email, social media, paid ads, analytics, copywriting, editing, SEO, and more.
Small and medium organizations typically don’t have the resources needed to put together a large team. Employees often end up wearing many hats and might lack the time, training, and expertise for the scope of their work. Providing your team with the latest marketing tools and software will also add to your in-house costs.
One of the benefits of outsourcing digital marketing is that you can choose an MSP with a monthly subscription model. You’ll get to build a customized package with a predictable cost, and you’ll have access to experts with expertise in several areas. Plus, the result-oriented approach means you can expect to get a measurable return on your investment.
3. Access top marketing talents
An MSP marketing company gives you access to some of the top talents in different marketing fields.
Putting together an internal team with the same level and scope of expertise can be challenging for most businesses. Hiring requires an investment of time and resources, and some talents are in high demand and can be tough to attract and retain.
In the tech industry, 48% of businesses have a small marketing team, sometimes with a single employee. This trend isn’t isolated. In spite of higher marketing budgets, most businesses don’t plan on increasing their marketing team size.
Keeping up with the demands of a digital marketing plan can be difficult and overwhelming for a single employee or a small team. The benefits of outsourcing digital marketing include having access to these different roles through your MSP vendor:
- Your MSP can fulfill the role of a CMO by helping you develop a vision and overall strategy.
- Account managers can act as marketing and project managers. These professionals take a CMO’s vision, turn it into a concrete plan, and coordinate the execution.
- You’ll also get to work with market research experts who can help you study your market and competition or keep up with the latest trends.
- Many MSPs offer analytics capabilities. This service replaces an internal analytics expert who can measure and optimize your marketing performance.
- One of the benefits of content marketing outsourcing is that you’ll have access to a wide pool of copywriters and other content creators with industry expertise.
- You’ll also work with editors who can ensure your content meets quality standards and is ready for publication.
- MSPs also have social media managers on staff. These professionals can build and manage an online community on your behalf.
- Your MSP will have SEO experts who can optimize your content.
- You might also need to work with PR experts who can manage press releases, mentions in the news, and more.
An MSP marketing company gives you access to all these different roles as needed. You’ll get to work with some of the top talents in the marketing industry without any of the costs and challenges linked to hiring and retention. Plus, the MSP model means all these roles belong to the same organization and can work together to achieve consistent results.
4. Get marketing results fast
Tempesta Media was able to increase leads by 53% for customers in only three months by using a mix of content marketing, off-site and on-site SEO, and paid ads. This kind of fast result is what you can expect when working with an MSP.
The benefits of outsourcing digital marketing include having access to a team of experienced professionals. These experts have worked on similar campaigns in the past and know which strategies will yield the results you’re looking for.
In-house teams make the best decisions possible based on the information available to them, but their limited experience compared to an MSP partner means that there is often a trial-and-error process. It can take weeks or even months to get even data to optimize or decide to scrape a marketing campaign.
This approach is costly, and it gives your competitors the opportunity to strengthen their digital presence while you’re testing different strategies.
Once you identify a strategy that works well, it’s only a matter of time before you have to make changes to response to the latest market trends. An MSP can make you more reactive by identifying the right strategies faster and anticipating these changes.
5. Adopt a proactive approach
Switching from a reactive approach to a proactive marketing plan allows you to anticipate issues before they arise. No matter how closely you monitor marketing performance and other factors, a reactive marketing strategy means that new challenges have time to impact your organization negatively before you respond.
An MSP marketing company can anticipate changes by conducting market research and monitoring the results of your marketing campaigns. For instance, the vendor you choose to work with can anticipate when you’ll need to focus on new client acquisition or adopt a new channel to keep up with the competition.
Being proactive will help you meet customers’ expectations. If a company fails to anticipate their needs, 45% of consumers will switch brands.
A proactive approach will also turn your brand into an early adopter when new channels and trends emerge for your niche. Plus, the benefits of outsourcing content marketing include being able to publish content on short notice to address the latest hot topics for your niche and establish yourself as a thought leader.
6. Benefit from a personalized outsourcing
One of the benefits of content marketing outsourcing with an MSP is the highly personalized approach these vendors take.
It’s true that outsourcing isn’t without its share of potential drawbacks. Finding the right partner can be a challenge. You can end up with a partner that doesn’t match your culture or vision. A common concern is that your marketing partner won’t be able to reproduce the voice and branding that made your organization unique.
The rise of digital marketing means users have access to more content than they can consume. Achieving authenticity and using hyper-focused channels that make sense for your audience are crucial strategies for standing out.
The kind of personalization that only an MSP can offer will make a difference. The MSP marketing company you choose to work with will get to know your organization, your market, and your target audience to develop a customized approach aligned with your goals and the expectations of your audience.
7. Build flexible and scalable marketing processes
Digital marketing moves fast. There is always a new trend to incorporate, an emerging platform to turn into a new channel, or a new industry issue to address for thought leadership.
There are other potential reasons why flexibility can give you an advantage:
- You might need to amp up your marketing capabilities for a specific campaign or event, such as a promotion or new product launch.
- Your organization is going to grow over time, and your digital presence should grow with it. Reaching out to a new niche can be a crucial factor for growth.
- Landing a new contract with a major client can cause your needs to change overnight.
- Resilience is key in the current business landscape. You might have to make some unplanned spending cuts and temporarily scale back on your marketing efforts.
This level of flexibility can be difficult to achieve with an in-house team. The main variable you can use to create a flexible team is hiring. However, HR professionals agree that it takes around 60 days to hire a new employee, and you’ll have to give new hires a month or two to catch up and become fluent in your company culture.
Outsourcing to an MSP marketing company means you can build a customized marketing package. Your vendor will give you the possibility to include different services or choose a service tier. It’s a flexible model where you can add or remove services as needed.
You can make changes to your package to develop a presence on a new channel, increase content production for an event, or get help for a special project. An MSP makes you scalable, and you can scale up quickly so you don’t miss out on any opportunities.
8. Keep up with the latest trends
Digital marketing evolves at a fast pace. Marketers need to constantly think ahead and identify the next trend that aligns with their target audience’s preferences and behaviors.
Keeping up with the latest trends means developing a presence on emerging social media platforms that resonate with your target audience. It also means adjusting your SEO strategy to reflect the latest search engine algorithm update or updating your content marketing plan to account for new formats and preferences in consuming content.
For instance, with over 123 million voice assistant users, a growing number of brands are optimizing their content to appear in featured snippets that the Google assistant can read out loud. Some brands are also exploring video results, slideshows, and other varied content formats that increasingly appear in search results.
Keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends is also important in the context of Generation Z coming of age. You need an inclusive marketing plan that addresses the needs and expectations of these digital natives.
With 64% of 18 to 26 years old seeing their brand choices as a form of activism, many brands are rethinking their core values. An updated marketing strategy is crucial for clearly communicating your commitment to the societal and environmental issues that young adults care about.
In-house teams already have a lot on their plate, and there might not be enough time to keep up with the latest trends. Plus, developing a modern marketing plan also requires identifying the trends aligned with a company’s branding strategy and target audience. It’s also crucial to learn enough about a new practice or platform to implement a new strategy successfully.
Investing in the wrong marketing trends can be a costly mistake and adopting a trend after a competitor has already done so won’t yield the same ROI.
One benefits of outsourcing digital marketing to an MSP is that you’ll get help from a team of industry experts. These professionals know what is happening in their field. They can anticipate the next trends and determine the latest practices and strategies that correspond to your marketing goals.
9. Increase your marketing ROI with a result-oriented strategy
Among B2C marketers, a staggering 48% are unsure of their in-house team’s capability to demonstrate content marketing ROI. This statistic reveals that failing to track marketing performance is a widespread issue.
Several obstacles can stand in the way of implementing an effective strategy to track results in-house:
- Without a proper analytics strategy in place, visibility over marketing performance is difficult to assess. In-house teams don’t always have sufficient resources and skills to implement successful analytics programs.
- Not having enough data to inform decisions means in-house teams often take a trial-and-error approach. As a result, marketing campaigns are often scraped before they can generate a consistent ROI. A succession of short-lived campaigns can be costly.
- Establishing clear goals and a timeline is challenging for teams that lack experience or don’t have enough historical data.
- In some cases, the capabilities of the in-house team in terms of time and budget aren’t realistic for the organization’s marketing goals.
One of the benefits of content marketing outsourcing with an MSP marketing company is that you’ll work with your vendor to discuss your goals, create a concrete marketing plan, and break down this plan into smaller steps with a specific timeline. MSPs use a result-oriented model to optimize your marketing ROI and help you unlock growth.
MSPs also rely on analytics experts to track performance with precision. This data allows an MSP to be more reactive and adjust a marketing strategy if needed.
Analytics improve transparency since you’ll receive regular reports that show how your marketing campaigns are performing. This information can support future decisions and even give you a competitive edge since analytics currently supports only 53% of marketing decisions.
10. Get access to the right tools and tech
Among CMOs, 26% consider data and analytics as one of the top capability gaps for their marketing department. As digital marketing becomes increasingly complex and technical, having access to the right tools can make a significant difference.
Adopting marketing software and other tools in-house isn’t always practical. There is a significant upfront investment linked to implementing a new solution. There are also ongoing costs with software subscriptions or licenses.
Selecting marketing software that meets the needs of your in-house team can be challenging, especially if your marketing experts lack experience with this type of buying decision. Adoption can be another barrier since not all employees are comfortable with technical tools and training represents an additional expense.
Challenges expand beyond your in-house marketing team. Running marketing apps in the cloud or hosting marketing software on-premise requires help from an IT department. For small and medium organizations, the current capabilities of the IT team and IT infrastructure might be insufficient.
Failing to adopt modern marketing tools and tech can hurt the performance of a marketing plan and make it difficult to compete against organizations with a larger tech budget.
Working with an MSP marketing company means you’ll have access to marketers who can rely on a number of tech solutions to optimize your campaign. You won’t have to incur additional costs linked to implementing these tech tools and the MSP team will already have plenty of experience with these apps and software products.
Technology can give you an advantage in the following area:
- An analytics solution can significantly improve visibility over different digital channels, help you measure results, and support decisions.
- Finding the right balance between personalization and data privacy is tricky. Data privacy management software helps you streamline the collection and usage of customer data to mitigate risks, improve compliance, and ultimately deliver a better experience.
- A CRM solution can bridge any existing gaps between your marketing efforts and your sales team. You can gather valuable insights about your customers and prospects, automate personalized content distribution, and more.
- Marketing automation solutions can help you save time on a wide range of tasks, including content publication, personalized emails, reminder emails, and more.
10+.Embrace innovation
Outsourcing creates value in more than one way. One of the benefits of working with a third-party vendor is to gain a new perspective.
Besides giving you access to new skills, an MSP marketing company with a diverse team of professionals will bring fresh ideas to the table. Your new partner will help you consider issues from a different angle and might come up with solutions you would have never thought of.
The post-COVID market is volatile and navigating inflation, labor mismatches, geopolitical uncertainties, and other challenges might require a significant strategic shift. Innovation is more important than ever and could be the key to unlocking growth.
Summary
Thanks to their holistic and result-oriented approach, MSPs can address a wide range of marketing challenges that businesses of all sizes face.
The two most common reasons for outsourcing are saving time and managing costs but working with an MSP marketing company has many other advantages. You’ll get access to a wider talent pool, benefit from a flexible and scalable marketing plan, leverage the latest tech tools and trends, and much more.
Are you wondering how an MSP could help your brand? At Tempesta Media, we have been supporting the marketing goals of our customers for a decade with a unique blend of expertise, dedication, and result-oriented planning.
Our secret? We take the time to get to know every customer before developing a highly personalized plan. We use our Prova assessment, a two-week process that covers 90 points, to learn as much as we can about a business and its market.
Next, we use our Performica framework to develop a customized marketing strategy. Performica is a turnkey solution that allows us to build flexible marketing packages by selecting modules aligned with the unique goals of each customer while taking their budget into consideration.
We’ll deliver regular updates regarding how your campaigns are performing and take your feedback into consideration to continuously improve your marketing plan. Our flexible Performica framework also means you can add or remove modules as needed for areas like content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and more.
Learn more about how Performica works and how it could transform your digital marketing strategy.
