So, you’re in charge of marketing. Unless you work for a humongous corporation, you probably don’t have an army of staff at your beck and call. That means that all the pressure falls on you – every campaign, every deadline, every call to action … It’s all got to come from YOU.
But what if it didn’t have to?
For too many marketing managers out there, the ugly reality is that minutia makes up the majority of the work, leaving almost no time (or energy) for the part they should really be focusing on: strategy.
Combine that workload with the need (self-imposed or otherwise) to shoulder the burdens on your own, and you’ve got a recipe for burnout, missed deadlines, overlooked details, and as a result, lost revenue.
So why not outsource? Nobody says you have to tighten every bolt yourself, and marketing agencies of all types are ready and willing to help. No matter your budget or scope, here’s why you should consider hiring an agency to maximize your marketing:
1. You Can Lean On Expertise
Whatever it is you’re struggling with, there’s someone out there with precisely the skill you need: graphic designers, web developers, app builders, writers, and more. If you need something done right, get it from the source.
You don’t try to tackle your own plumbing or electrical unless you know what you’re doing, right? When you need a hand, you turn to the people best suited for the job.
We all have our strong points. Be wise enough to recognize where your own might be lacking, and let the pros handle the heavy lifting. Some agencies will offer a range of services, with a team of skillful employees to put their master’s touch on each component you plan to outsource.
An extra bit of quality goes a long way, and the expertise for any piece of your marketing is readily available.
2. Agencies Make You Look Good
Marketing is a busy job – with people to answer to, target numbers to hit, dates to keep track of, and on and on. So much of it, however, can be simplified with a full service agency. Instead of coordinating a gaggle of freelancers (and likely giving yourself more to manage in the process), you can hire a single agency to accomplish the same work – not just with less hassle, but in a way that makes you look even better!
When you set out the scope of a project, a full service agency will take things off your plate and run with them. They’ll hit your due dates, manage the details, and make sure you get a finished product you (and your customers) can be excited about.
3. It’s Scalable
Maybe the best thing about hiring outside help is that it can grow right alongside your needs. Outsourcing allows you to collaborate with as large or small of a workforce you need. You can employ a single service or an agency’s entire spectrum of options, one set of helping hands or a hundred, as determined by your present and projected needs.
And even better, you can adjust as necessary. A single piece of copy to a detailed video series, a complex campaign or a few simple graphics, outsourcing allows you to get as much or as little done as you require without scrambling to assemble a new team or make new hires … or trying to get it all done yourself.
As the high quality work helps you achieve bigger and better things, your agency of choice can come along for the ride, offering increasingly more support every step of the way.
4. Idea Generation
Working with talented, creative people is also an excellent way to refine your own vision, defer to the experiences of others, and constantly generate new ideas for your marketing efforts.
Experts will use methods you may not think of – a writer could generate your new slogan, a designer could perfectly reimagine your color scheme, a web developer could see a better way for users to navigate your site – simply because they will think about your material in ways you aren’t.
This means that, whether or not you decide to go with every single version or draft an agency provides, you’ll always be encountering a professional’s refined take on your direction. Their wisdom will help get your gears turning.
5. Sweet Relief
Finding an agency you can trust is a great feeling and a tremendous weight off your shoulders. As you develop a relationship with the company and its team (your team), you’ll come to trust their abilities and expertise more and more – meaning you worry less about where your money’s going and spend less time reviewing the work.
When you can count on the work you outsource, you can focus your attention on strategy. Instead of fretting over copy and graphics, worrying about whether the landing page is going to display on mobile, or any of the other thousand things you’re currently trying to keep track of, full service agencies (and outsourcing of all kinds, if they’re up to snuff) let you do what you do best.
No more fumbling with Photoshop or limping through lines of code. No more second-guessing if you’re putting out something worthy of an award or something that’s just passable.
Every project is easier when you’ve got the right tools. In this case, it’s the skills and experience necessary to complete each portion of your marketing projects with not just accuracy, but creative flare as well.
Creative and marketing agencies exist for a reason: to provide support for marketing managers who aren’t finding it within their own organizations. Knocking YOUR projects out of the park is in their best interest. It makes them look good too, it earns revenue for their agencies, and it builds both of your reputations.
