Managing your marketing through outsourcing is a win-win option

You have plenty of ideas to make your business shine, but struggle to execute them consistently, whether due to lack of time, workforce or tools. You lack the visibility needed to make strategic choices. Or maybe your marketing return on investment (ROI) could use a boost.

Rest assured: managing marketing is no piece of cake for many businesses! That’s why choosing the right approach is so crucial. So what sets a B2B marketing outsourcing strategy apart from an internal team or a hybrid model?

B2B marketing outsourcing: a solution tailored to SMEs

Do you recognize your SME in this picture? In a small marketing team of just a few people, members wear—and swap—a nice collection of hats. Immersed in the company and its culture daily, this team usually has a more instinctive understanding of the brand and its products or services, but often juggles a variety of tasks. For this approach to be effective and sustainable, employees need to be versatile, up to date and able to think outside the box (to keep innovating!). But such a team can quickly burn out if the scope of marketing projects exceeds its available time, technical means or members’ specific strengths. Not to mention assignments that can pull them away from marketing altogether.

“Marketing outsourcing is an asset that offers a wide range of expertise and access to specialists who stay with you from tactical implementation to achieving your objectives.”

The key is to find a setup that meets your needs and goals while respecting your marketing budget. In a hybrid model (with at least one internal marketing contact) or fully outsourced, outsourcing relies on a close partnership between the agency and the company.

“Yes, but what are the advantages of a marketing outsourcing strategy?”

1. Expertise at your fingertips. Strategy, branding, content marketing, online advertising campaigns, SEO, graphic design or website creation—a high-performing B2B marketing mix can include many ingredients. But most SMEs don’t need all these specializations full-time. Marketing outsourcing is an asset because it offers this variety of knowledge and experience under one roof, while limiting hiring and personnel management costs.
2. Optimized budget. Speaking of costs, many business leaders think it’s easier to stick to their budget by keeping projects in-house. It’s not that simple: several factors can increase expenses. For example: salaries (including benefits) of each person involved, employee turnover and training, trial and error, lack of strategic vision, absence of campaign monitoring, and high initial expenses, especially for personnel or marketing tools. With marketing outsourcing, you can reduce operating costs while increasing productivity and performance. Plus, fees are predictable and easy to budget, whether by project or through various collaboration agreements. In part or in full, outsourcing can help you achieve a better marketing ROI, notably by prioritizing strategic investments and campaigns.
3. Cutting-edge tools and technologies. An agency uses dozens of specialized—and often costly—tools that would hardly be profitable for a small internal team. It also knows how to choose the right option or combination for the context. Choosing outsourcing saves you the investment in these tools, as well as the time needed for staff training and mastery.
4. Strategic approach. This is often the heart of the matter—whether for talent, market development, audience attention or any other marketing goal. Strategic vision combines experience with a broad view of the market, mastery of trends and knowledge of industry practices. Crucial for boosting competitiveness, this perspective is hard to find in a day-to-day resource—it’s not easy to have when you’re constantly firefighting or overloaded with daily tasks.
5. Stability over time. Even if there’s staff turnover at the agency, the tools and structure remain in place, meaning changes have little impact on ongoing projects—no need to start from scratch. In comparison, the learning curve for a new internal resource comes at a cost and also ties up other team members for training or task sharing.
6. Innovation and fresh perspectives. Opting for outsourcing is a great way to add fresh energy to your marketing campaigns and activities. An outside view can help spot areas for improvement or opportunities to seize based on your market positioning—something that may be a blind spot internally.
7. Flexibility and adaptability. Marketing outsourcing offers more flexibility: an agency can help from A to Z or with parts of the strategy, whether related to planning, managing or monitoring campaigns, or executing small or large projects. The mission remains to meet your goals according to your unique and evolving reality. Need more hands-on support? Or want to explore new ground—social media, trade shows, webinars? No problem!

Why turn to outsourcing? To make life easier!

The simplicity of not having another team or resource to manage counts for a lot! With outsourcing, it’s a bit like having an external marketing department with trusted experts. But what does this approach look like in practice? It depends on your goals.

• Weekly social media posts
• Monthly email newsletter
• Management of Google Ads campaigns, brand awareness activities or lead generation
• SEO monitoring and improvements
• Website hosting and maintenance
• Occasional follow-up meetings
• You can also add larger one-off projects as needed.

“How do I know if marketing outsourcing is really for me?”

Ask yourself what your marketing needs and goals are. What budget do you have to achieve them? Do you have people in-house with the skills required? Do you know which pitfalls to avoid, like relying entirely on artificial intelligence (AI) and text generation for your digital marketing?

Ultimately, the decision depends mainly on what your business aims to accomplish. Weigh the pros and cons based on your available resources (human, financial, time), the level of expertise required for your objectives, and the degree of control you want over the marketing process. And remember, less control doesn’t mean less communication! On the contrary, communication is the key to successful collaboration.

Want to know more precisely what an agency can do for you? Our experts are ready to help—just ask!