Sound familiar? Maybe not. Many companies with in-house marketing departments struggle with whether they should hire a marketing partner, rather than a marketing director. Here are my top five things to consider for outsourcing your marketing…
1. Objectivity
When you eat, sleep and generally live your brand day in and day out, sometimes it’s hard to remain objective. The agency you hire should provide that objectivity – even when you don’t want to necessarily hear it. If you hire the right partner, you’re brand will be stronger in the long run.
2. Cost efficiency
When you hire an agency, you should get and pay for only the services that you need. That cuts back on labor costs and human resources efforts, which can be applied to your core operational efficiencies…and your marketing budget.
3. Solid strategic thinking
A good marketing partner is going to be dedicated to thinking strategically about the success of your business. If you win, they win. If the agency you’re looking at doesn’t operate under this philosophy, don’t hire them.
4. Fresh, creative perspectives
How many times have you asked someone to read a document you wrote because you needed “fresh eyes” on it? Well, it’s the same principal – your agency partner should continually provide new ideas…and help make you and your brand successful in the process.
5. Experience
Many agencies today have core competencies – whether it is healthcare, banking, consumer goods, or whatever. The partner that you hire should have experience in your brand category so they can hit the ground running on your business, saving you time, effort and money.
While doing research about the benefits of outsourcing marketing for a prospect, I found it interesting there wasn’t much information in cyber space about it. Considering the state of our economy, I thought there would be more information out there about outsourcing during an economic downturn. Here’s a good article by John R. Graham called Outsourcing The Marketing Function.
Ready to outsource your marketing? Email us at strategy@activeintegrated.net or from the “contact us” page on our Website.
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