Insourcing vs. Outsourcing: What’s Best for My Digital Marketing?

To insource digital-marketing needs or outsource them?

This is the typical question for many businesses, regardless of size.

Both have their benefits. But after two decades of experience that includes positions as an employee and employer, outsourcing has continually claimed the dominant hand.

Here’s why, explained from two perspectives:

• As head of content and business development for a few companies and agencies.
• As a freelancer and agency owner, the latter one who also outsources content and SEO work.

Positives of Outsourcing Digital Marketing

The Big One: Money

When discussing product or service pricing, money talk is always the proverbial elephant in the room.

Many businesses won’t provide prospects any cost numbers until the end of a conversation – regardless if that conversation lasts three minutes or three months.

But when hiring, money talk takes on a much different story. Most businesses will set a hiring budget for their digital marketing needs and spend little time researching the talent needed to move the company forward.

This poor research typically leads to a bloated in-house staff. Don’t think this only occurs in startups; some of the most respected companies remain bloated.

Bloating kills profit margins. But this scenario could have been quickly diverted by outsourcing, which can save thousands of dollars every month due to cutting some major costs.

One example is when I was heading content creation for the marketing department of a pet company, which was then a Fortune 500 company. The marketing department had 10 entry-level marketers basically doing the work of two.

Quick math – even if each person was earning $35,000 a year, that’s $350,000 yearly in salary – not including benefits, paid time off, holiday pay, and expensive cross-country trips to sharpen that saw.

If the company was willing to outsource, a reputable agency would have costs around $10,000 to $15,000 monthly – and that’s thinking in modern prices for multiples services, from content marketing to SEO to PR to paid search (not including paid budget, of course!).

That company is still going but got surpassed by multiple competitors, two of which I freelanced for that outsourced their entire marketing needs.

Outsourcing simply saves money, all while providing further benefits.

More Expertise

When insourcing a digital marketing staff, many companies can’t afford top talent. This results in a staff of entry-level marketers.

Sure, the ones with the proper attitude and aptitude will grow, but this is not the usual case.

Reputable agencies are typically loaded with the best possible talent – especially those agencies that rely on outsourcing.

My agency has 30+ copywriters, each one hand-picked and matched to a client. If my agency doesn’t have a copywriter to match a client, I’ll do everything to find the correct one. Same goes for SEO – my agency only works with top brass, and matches each one to the client.

This is client-forward thinking; each client is matched with only the best talent, which provides endless value. And it all occurs at a fraction of what an in-house, expert-level staff would cost.

Easier to Manage, Less Headaches

When a company outsources their digital marketing needs, there’s minimal management. The agency (remember, not a hack agency) takes care of this, which lessens the headaches of everyone from the CEO to the sales team.

With less worrying about what’s going on in-house, the C-level execs can focus more on important things, like business development or creating an agenda to polish the sales team.

Quick side note: make sure your sales team always works closely with your outsourced digital marketing agency, especially on the content side. When sales and content unite, the results are magical.

I’ve worked with a few agencies that refused to get involved with a client’s sales team. This should be a giant red flag for the client.

When outsourcing to an agency, there is also a lack of delegation. This is directed at the in-house “head ofs” (e.g., head of content, head of PPC, or head of whatever).