From brand strategy to website management, social media and advertising campaigns, your marketing department now has an ever-growing list of responsibilities. So how can you ensure your team is playing to their strengths? Outsourcing could be the answer.
In the last ten years, the importance of a robust marketing department has increased significantly. With more marketing opportunities available to businesses than ever before, marketers are feeling the pressure to stretch themselves too thinly. Now these professionals are expected to engage in everything from customer engagement to content marketing, PR, graphic and web design, social media, advertising and collateral development.
It’s little wonder then that many marketing teams are doing too many things poorly, rather than focusing on their strengths. But when the only solution is hiring a team of individual experts in the fields listed above, many businesses feel they have no alternative but to continue on in this less-than-effective-but-it’ll-do-for-now manner. But Seth Godin very succinctly highlights the inherent problem of ineffective marketing.
“In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” – Seth Godin
So how can you stand out without breaking the budget?
From internet search to billboards and social media, today’s marketplace is crowded with messages. When your marketing team doesn’t have the time or resources to do their job properly, you have to ask yourself what return you are getting on your investment. If you are invisible, you are missing out on valuable opportunities to stand out and generate new business.
One of the simplest ways to improve the effectiveness of your marketing department without taking on additional full-time staff is to outsource some of the workload. Working with an agency allows you to outsource specific tasks and be re-energised by an external team with fresh ideas.
In some cases, the decision to outsource marketing and design work is a chicken-and-egg question. Should you outsource now or wait until cash flow improves? The truth is that as long as your marketing team is unable to perform at their peak, your cash flow will likely continue to suffer. An investment in improving your marketing team’s effectiveness is a commitment to improving the ROI your marketing spend.
This is the case for a growing number of small and medium businesses that simply don’t have the capacity to maintain a large marketing team. With design and digital support, however, they can sound and look like they are from the big end of town.
What marketing activities should you outsource?
The tasks you choose to outsource should depend upon the areas you need assistance with. Look at the strengths of your team and then determine how you can use external support to cover skill gaps, provide fresh ideas or enhance efficiency.
Many of the marketing teams we work with do not have in-house design and digital capabilities, and they use our team for this. By doing so, our clients know they will get professionally designed work, fast turnaround times and access to a team with creative and strategic guidance.
The most commonly outsourced marketing tasks include:
- Graphic design
- Web development
- Campaign strategy and implementation
- Rebranding and brand refresh projects
- Content writing
Keeping an agency on retainer means that you’ll have guaranteed access to design and creative support every month. Top advertising agencies have a team of specialists that you can access as you need them. For example, if you are getting ready to launch a new website, you can focus on web design and development for an entire month of your retainer, and then change gears once the site is live and you’re ready to start work on your next big campaign.
Key benefits of outsourcing to a design support studio
Scale up your capacity
Agency support is like putting your marketing team on steroids. By scaling up the capacity of your team, you can start working towards your business goals.
Save on staff overheads
Staff come with a lot of additional costs. Design and marketing support means you can work with specialists without incurring the expenses of a full-time staff member.
Greater accountability
When you are successful, we can sleep at night. We know we are accountable to you and will work tirelessly to achieve the best results.
Cover skill shortages and leave
Use a support studio to provide coverage for skill gaps within your team and to keep things moving when staff members take leave.
Elevate your brand
With access to professional design, your brand will appear consistent and credible to your customers. And with credibility, you’ll have greater appeal and cut-through (remember, we’re all about lifting that invisibility cloak).
A fresh perspective
Sometimes you need a third party for clarity and a new perspective. brand refresh Agency provides this function by working closely with you to create new ideas and build on what you’ve done in the past.
How can we work together? To learn more, see our design support services.