When to Outsource or go Inhouse with your online marketing
Over the next five years, enterprises will spend as much on interactive marketing as they do on television advertising today. Investment in search marketing, display, email marketing, mobile marketing, and social media will near $77 billion and represent 35% of all advertising. Search will continue as the largest piece of the interactive marketing pie, growing to more than $33 billion and will be approximately 44% of all interactive spend.
With such large investments at stake, enterprises often face the dilemma of either building an in-house team or to outsource the efforts to a dedicated firm.
Certainly an argument can be made for doing both. Of the 160 enterprises that responded to our survey, 76% of them claimed they outsourced a large part of their online marketing initiatives. The enterprises that do outsource, claimed that a little over 50% of their digital marketing spend is outsourced. While some enterprises turn to investing in an internal team of professionals, the ones that didn’t, indicated that the risk of trying to do it in house and learn on the job was too high. 70% of enterprises indicated having a Chief Marketing Technologist to help guide strategies was by far a much stronger avenue in ensuring a strong ROI. Their three biggest reasons to outsourcing were
1) Experts know their stuff. By hiring an agency you are generally surrounded by people that are leaders in their field and are on the cutting edge of industry trends. Online marketing is complex, and it seems that the number of factors you need to consider to make sure you have the optimal strategy is only increasing.
2) Diversity of Client Portfolio. By hiring an agency, enterprises are leveraging the experiences the agency learns from other clients. Given the challenges of staying current with developments in SEO and online marketing, consulting with a firm or individual who makes a living doing just that can be a big advantage. The consultant’s ability to work on different sites and with clients who have a wide range of needs can be a pretty compelling advantage.
3) Efficiency. By hiring an agency, the results are often achieved a lot faster which translates into millions or even billions for some.
While there are compelling arguments for both outsourcing and hiring in-house talent, the enterprises who are garnering the largest ROI from a percentage perspective are engaging in both. As a rule, outsourcing your digital marketing activities is a smart tactic when you need specialized talent. But you need to monitor results, ensure these providers have a stake in your success, and that they assume some risks.
Furthermore, if you do engage in outsourcing your internet marketing initiatives or plan on outsourcing it is critical if not a prerequisite that the agency get buy-in internally at your enterprise. CMOs and other internal executive personnel need to trust the agency they choose and back them more. They need to allow for some failures, within reason, if they want innovation.
Enterprises have consistently found it much easier to find someone who has the expertise you need now by hiring agencies, we make this task easier by highlighting the best by specialization on our website. Hiring the right external team will help an enterprise understand the current best-of-breed practices and keeps them one step ahead of the curve.
