Contents

01 What is outsourced marketing?

02 When do you need to outsource or partially outsource marketing support?

03 Outsourced marketing models

04 Advantages: Why hire an outsourced marketing company?

05 Who is on the outsourced marketing team?

06 Tips for successful outsourced marketing

07 BrandPulse Solutions LLC’s outsourced marketing approach

Mid-sized businesses that are serious about growth often have very ambitious growth goals. Strategic marketing is critical to transforming those goals into reality. But how do you engage in effective marketing with limited internal resources?

Building and managing a full in-house marketing team is expensive and time-consuming…and with so many specialists needed to do it right, it’s not always feasible.

You’re not alone. And there IS an answer.

Outsourced and fractional marketing are gaining popularity as potential answers. These models offer a different lens through which to view your marketing needs, promising flexibility, expertise, and cost-effectiveness. Whether outsourcing specific tasks to external partners or engaging a fractional marketing expert, there’s a path forward that empowers you to focus on growth while amplifying your marketing impact.

What is Outsourced Marketing?

Simply put, outsourced marketing involves partnering with an external consultancy or individual to handle specific aspects of your marketing function. It often involves partnering with an outsourced marketing agency to develop and execute a research-driven marketing strategy and plan. Fractional marketing specifically refers to engaging marketing professionals on a part-time basis, accessing their expertise without the cost of a full-time hire.

Some companies outsource their entire marketing function while some choose a hybrid option, keeping some aspects in-house and outsourcing others. Fractional marketing is increasing in popularity because traditional marketing departments are struggling to drive the revenue growth that companies demand. The buying journey is longer, more complicated, and almost entirely digital and requires more tailored content at each stage. At the same time marketing has become highly specialized, requiring diverse expertise beyond a single generalist.

Businesses are already seeing the value in tapping fractional CFOs, COOs and CGOs (Chief Growth Officers), to access a slice of time and capabilities without tying up capital in a full-time position they likely don’t need. As marketing budgets are stretched thin, companies are considering marketing with that same lens.

Whether fully outsourced or hybrid, outsourced marketing gives growth-oriented businesses access to marketing experts for specific needs without the time or cost involved in building a team in-house.

When do you need outsourced or partial marketing support?

While every company’s experience varies, outsourcing or partial marketing is generally a good fit for companies that have a small or tactical marketing department that is unable to achieve strategic growth goals or does not have an in-house department at all.

Here are some signs that it’s time to consider outsourcing marketing.

Your marketing team lacks strategic guidance.

Many companies face a dilemma: They recognize the value of experienced marketing leadership but lack the budget or resources to hire a full-time chief marketing officer (CMO). The result is that marketing activities lack coherent planning and alignment with overall business goals.

Your in-house efforts are too expensive (or non-existent).

Building and maintaining an in-house marketing team requires significant overhead, including salaries, benefits, software licenses, and training. It’s also susceptible to expensive turnover, and simply balancing expertise across a fixed in-house team can be challenging. When trying to achieve growth goals, a failed hire can mean the difference between becoming a market leader or falling behind your competitors.

You need to leverage specialized skills strategically.

All marketing departments need to use specialists, but needs change over time, making it difficult to staff them full-time. Cobbling together a large team of freelancers (a typical approach) can result in fragmented marketing efforts, poor communication, and a lack of measurement capabilities. The solution requires a more strategic approach to bring in the specific talent you need, when you need it.

Your growth practices are unsustainable.

Relying solely on referrals and meetings can result in inconsistent and unpredictable growth. And you may not be attracting prospects who fit your ideal customer profile. You need a sustainable strategy that leverages multiple channels and tactics, delivering reliable and scalable results, but you don’t have the internal capacity or expertise to focus on the challenge.

You need seasonal or opportunity-driven flexibility.

Many companies need to scale up or down their marketing operations based on real-time results and market conditions. This agility allows organizations to seize opportunities and respond to challenges more effectively. But having a permanent in-house team limits your ability to adapt to changing needs.

Due to situations like these and the increasing complexity of marketing, growth-minded companies are structuring their marketing differently.

Check out the future of outsourced marketing for a deeper understanding of why hiring an outsourced marketing expert is a smart solution.

Outsourced Marketing Models

When it comes to outsourcing marketing, it’s critical to understand the different models, and the most appropriate model depends on your needs and goals.

Project-based

This model is for specific activities or short-term initiatives that require expertise, such as marketing plan development, website building, or rebranding efforts. Think of it as hiring a highly skilled consultant for a defined goal. The benefits are clear: cost-effectiveness, flexibility to switch providers, and predetermined scope.

Marketing Function-based

Outsourcing specific marketing functions involves hiring an outside provider to handle ongoing defined tasks, such as social media management or email marketing.

These models typically focus on execution, with overall strategy and responsibility remaining in-house.

Managed Team

The full-service, strategy-led model, like the one employed by BrandPulse Solutions LLC, involves an integrated approach. The outsourced team sets the strategy, develops and executes comprehensive marketing plans, and is accountable for results. This approach also involves handling implementation across channels and continually optimizing campaigns for maximum impact and increased ROI.

The managed team or full-service model is a game-changer for businesses that need marketing leadership and a full team of marketing professionals to support strong growth goals. Benefits include proactive management, ensuring your marketing efforts are aligned with your business goals, and working with a dedicated part-CMO to develop deep knowledge and trust. Predictable retainer fees cover all team members and services, while maintaining flexibility to scale the team or adjust services as needs evolve.

Choosing the right outsourced marketing model depends on specific needs, goals, and desired support duration, and these are just the basics. You can combine different models to customize a solution that fits your needs perfectly, based on your business goals and the level of collaboration and control you want.

Benefits: Why Hire an Outsourced Marketing Firm?

Making the strategic decision to hire an outsourced marketing consultancy can be a game-changer for your business, unlocking new levels of growth and efficiency. The marketing landscape is constantly evolving, demanding agility and expertise to stay ahead of the curve. Businesses often face challenges in accessing specialized skills, scaling efforts efficiently, and keeping pace with cutting-edge technologies. Partnering with an outsourced marketing consultancy can be the key to unlocking your full potential.

Here are key reasons to consider outsourcing your marketing.

Access to Specialized Expertise

Outsourcing marketing offers a unique approach to acquiring specialized expertise. From Fractional CMOs providing strategic guidance to SEO specialists optimizing website visibility, you gain access to a pool of professionals with diverse industry experience and best practice knowledge. This ensures your campaigns leverage cutting-edge trends and achieve optimal results.

Outsourcing also allows you to scale expertise precisely to your needs. Instead of hiring full-time senior professionals for every niche task, you can engage specific specialists like writers and designers, or delegate broad responsibility to a managed team. This aligns resources directly with your marketing plan, maximizing efficiency and avoiding unnecessary costs associated with underutilized talent.

Finally, outsourcing creates a “virtual brain trust” at your disposal. This network of experienced professionals, each with domain-specific expertise, brings diverse perspectives and proven methodologies to the table. By tapping into this collective intelligence, you can stay ahead of the curve without the limitations of an in-house team focused on a single area of expertise.

Scalability and Flexibility

Outsourcing marketing offers businesses a versatile approach to navigating dynamic market conditions. It allows for scalability, enabling you to ramp up efforts quickly or adjust spending based on seasonal fluctuations. This eliminates the burden of fixed overhead costs associated with full-time hires, freeing up budget for strategic marketing initiatives. Additionally, by avoiding FTE commitments, you gain the flexibility to scale up or down as needed and adapt to changing environments.

This adaptability is crucial in the ever-evolving marketing landscape. Outsourcing partners can seamlessly adapt your strategies to new platforms, shifting buyer preferences, and changing algorithms. They can launch targeted campaigns in new markets and pivot strategies as needed, ensuring your brand remains relevant and engaged with your target audience. This strategic flexibility empowers you to confidently conquer market changes with the assurance that your marketing efforts are built to thrive in any environment.

Cost-Effectiveness

While outsourcing your marketing might seem like an added expense, it can actually be more cost-effective than building and managing an in-house team. As the demand for specialized skills in areas like digital marketing, content creation, and marketing analytics has grown, so have the salaries of qualified professionals. Building and retaining an in-house team with the necessary expertise can be expensive and time-consuming, especially for B2B companies with limited budgets or rapid growth aspirations.

In contrast, outsourcing your marketing allows you to avoid the costs of recruitment, training, benefits, and software, while offering you access to a broader range of expertise for a fixed fee and better aligning your resources to your needs.

In this context, outsourcing marketing services becomes an increasingly attractive option. By partnering with an external agency, B2B businesses can access a pool of experienced professionals without the burden of recruitment, onboarding, and ongoing salary expenses. Consultancies often have access to a wider range of talent than individual companies, allowing them to assemble teams with the specific skills and experience needed for a particular project or campaign.

Here’s an illustration of how the budget might look if you hire a three-person in-house marketing department (a pretty lean model, given marketing’s complexity) at current average salaries vs if you outsource the marketing function.

At first glance, it may seem cost-effective to build an in-house team of just three generalists. However, the reality is less rosy. You’ll still need to outsource (and budget for) basic functions like content, design, and paid media, which may offset these initial savings. This cost burden becomes even greater in large cities where wages are skyrocketing, or if you seek out top talent or experts who master the magic of artificial intelligence and big data (both of which come at a high price).

The specific amount you save by outsourcing doesn’t matter. Whether it’s $100,000, $150,000, or more, every six-figure sum represents valuable marketing firepower you can unleash to achieve faster revenue growth. Investing a large portion of your budget in wages, especially full-time positions that you’re not fully utilizing, will hinder your ability to achieve real results.

With marketing wages continuing to soar, outsourcing marketing is the only viable model for growing middle-market companies looking to achieve a high ROI.

If you run a middle-market company and are serious about accelerating growth and getting a measurable return on your marketing spend, outsourcing is an option you need to consider.

Access to Cutting-Edge Technology

According to the 2024 Marketing Technology Report from BrandPulse Solutions LLC, which updates their Marketing Technology Landscape Tracker, the number of marketing technology applications and tools grows 18.5% in the second half of 2023 to 13,080 different solutions across 49 categories. While it took four years for the landscape to grow from approximately 150 solutions to approximately 2,000 solutions between 2011 and 2015, it now takes only a few months to add the same number of applications. This growth, fueled by innovations like generative AI, is both an opportunity and a challenge.

Keeping up with this ever-evolving and changing marketing landscape can be time-consuming and complex, but technology plays a key role in the modern marketing department. From providing valuable insights into website traffic and enhancing customer engagement to driving decisions through predictive analytics, technology is key to keeping up with trends and fine-tuning marketing efforts. Many outsourced marketing consulting firms, like BrandPulse Solutions LLC, invest heavily in the latest tools, technology, and expertise to make the most of them. By outsourcing, you gain access to tools and expertise without the upfront costs and ongoing maintenance burden of developing skills in-house. Your internal resources can focus on core business activities while you benefit from the latest innovations and potentially gain a competitive advantage. An outsourced marketing company will also establish workflows and processes for using a variety of tools, allowing them to run marketing campaigns quickly and efficiently. An outsourced marketing consultant can also help you integrate marketing tools and platforms to create a seamless experience that improves data management and enables better campaign optimization.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Modern marketing thrives on data. From clicks to conversions, every interaction contains valuable information waiting to be discovered.

By working with an outside company, you gain access to advanced tracking and analytics tools. These tools meticulously capture data on every aspect of your marketing campaigns, providing precise insights into audience engagement and campaign performance. This nuanced understanding enables real-time optimization, allowing you to continually refine your messaging and targeting for maximum impact. Imagine transitioning from guesswork to data-driven decision making, ensuring that every marketing dollar spent delivers measurable results. Your marketing campaigns will become well-oiled machines, producing predictable results and a steady stream of leads and conversions.

However, effectively harnessing the power of data requires expertise and resources. That’s where outsourcing really comes into its own. External marketing experts bring a wealth of industry knowledge, analytical tools, and strategic thinking. They can help you decipher complex data sets, identify hidden patterns, and turn insights into actionable strategies. By leveraging their expertise, you can realize the full potential of data-driven marketing and transform your campaigns into predictable success stories.

A New Perspective or a Strategic Reboot

When campaigns are stagnant or underperforming, an outsider’s perspective can be a game changer. Unlike those buried in their day-to-day work, outsourced marketing experts bring a fresh perspective that’s on hand to spot blind spots and potential problems. They have access to cutting-edge tools and broader industry knowledge, allowing them to develop innovative strategies to address specific challenges and capitalize on emerging trends.

By challenging assumptions and leveraging data-driven insights, external experts can help you break free from outdated approaches