In the world of business, where every dime counts, the role of an outsourced marketing agency can be instrumental. Every decision they make, every strategy they implement, and every dollar they spend is tied to a fundamental principle: Return on Investment (ROI).

ROI is a crucial financial metric widely used across industries that measures the probability of gaining a return from an invested resource. It’s a ratio that compares the gain or loss from an investment relative to its cost, thereby providing a quantifiable measure of success over time.

In marketing, ROI takes on an even more significant role. It’s not just about understanding if your business is making money but about knowing which marketing efforts are paying off and which ones need re-evaluation. Marketing ROI allows businesses to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, helping them to allocate their marketing budget more efficiently. It’s the fine line that separates successful marketing strategies from less effective ones.

However, achieving a high ROI is not always a straightforward process. It requires expertise, strategic planning, and constant optimization—resources that not all businesses have in abundance. This is where an outsourced marketing agency can provide immense value. These agencies help businesses justify their investments by identifying strategies that bring the most return, ensuring better budget management and results that align with the company’s aims.

An outsourced marketing agency is a third-party organization that handles various aspects of a company’s marketing efforts. From strategic planning and implementation to tracking and improving marketing campaigns, these agencies offer comprehensive services designed to drive business growth and maximize ROI. 

By leveraging the expertise and resources of an outsourced marketing agency, businesses can focus on their core operations while ensuring their marketing efforts are not just effective but also cost-efficient.

In this blog, we will delve deeper into how businesses can maximize their ROI by leveraging the services of an outsourced marketing agency. We will explore the benefits, challenges, and best practices, providing a comprehensive guide for businesses considering this strategic move. We will also discuss how to calculate marketing ROI and why it’s so important, the benefits of measuring it, and how it can help businesses make more strategic decisions and achieve their goals.

The Need For An Outsourced Marketing Director

An outsourced marketing agency having a meeting to discuss new client needs.
An outsourced marketing director typically joins as an extension of your leadership team, working closely with and reporting to the team.

Marketing stands as one of the most crucial aspects of any enterprise. However, managing marketing in-house presents a myriad of challenges: 

  1. Budget issues: One of the first challenges that in-house marketing teams encounter is budget constraints. As market conditions change, businesses are forced to allocate resources to new activities, which can strain their budgets. The search for cost savings is ongoing, and no department, including marketing, is exempt.
  2. Content demand challenges: Another challenge is the growing demand for digital content. Brands like Pepsi now need about 5,000 pieces of content a year, a significant increase from the five pieces of content a year that used to be the norm. The rise of new media channels has only increased the demand for content, a demand that is difficult to meet efficiently with human-powered production services.
  3. Personalized media: The rise of personalized media presents a unique challenge for in-house marketing teams due to the high volume of content variations required to cater to diverse audience needs. This demand often surpasses what an in-house team can realistically produce. Outsourcing marketing to specialized agencies or professionals can be a strategic solution. These external experts often have more resources, including advanced tools and a diverse team, to efficiently create a large volume of personalized content. They are also highly experienced in budgeting and strategies, ensuring nothing goes to waste. 
  4. In-house marketing problems: While in-house marketing may seem like an attractive solution to some of these challenges, it’s not a guaranteed fix. In fact, establishing an internal production facility can introduce a new set of problems. Firstly, the cost of setting up and maintaining an in-house team can be substantial, especially when considering the expenses related to recruitment, training, and retention of skilled staff. Secondly, in-house teams can sometimes be less efficient than external agencies.

To address the above challenges, businesses may need to consider an outsourced marketing director. This approach could provide the necessary expertise and perspective to navigate the complex digital marketing landscape. An outsourced marketing director or outsourced marketing agency can help businesses focus on content and messaging that engages consumers with their brands rather than getting bogged down in data and plumbing that does not truly build differentiation.

An outsourced marketing director typically joins as an extension of your leadership team, working closely with and reporting to the team. They take on ownership and accountability of your marketing strategy and work with their own team of experts, ensuring the company’s overall success in their business strategy and goals.

Here are some ways an outsourced marketing director can help:

  • Marketing expertise to boost your competitive edge: By outsourcing your marketing efforts, you’re placing your work in the hands of marketers who have devoted their careers to helping businesses like yours succeed. They possess the expertise and manpower to make it happen, from developing a brand identity and redesigning your website to crafting a content marketing strategy and landing media coverage.
  • Effective management of time & resources: Outsourcing your marketing efforts doesn’t mean a forfeit of your vision—instead, it leverages experts who can help bring those ideas to fruition. An agency partner can take on the design and development of your website, including content creation and ongoing web hosting and maintenance. This allows you to spend less time consumed by day-to-day marketing activities and more time focused on the bigger picture—growing your business and increasing your bottom line.
  • Cost-effective solution: Although there are certainly costs involved with hiring an outside agency, the overhead is significantly less. A major benefit of outsourced marketing is gaining access to an entire team of marketing experts—typically at much less than the cost of one full-time employee. Plus, it saves the added cost of ongoing professional development, as well as the latest tools and technology.
  • Fresh outside perspective: A less tangible but equally important benefit of outsourced marketing is the ability to tap into perspectives outside the scope of your internal team. Bringing in external resources to spearhead marketing efforts like branding, content Creation, and graphic design can open the door to new, creative ideas from a team of unbiased experts.
  • Dedicated focus on specific marketing projects: A great place to outsource your marketing efforts is when it comes to specific marketing projects that require significant time, resources, and/or experience—such as a website redesign, a rebranding initiative, a content marketing plan, or a media relations program.

Contact us here if you would like to find the best fractional CMO for your business.

How to Outsource Marketing Services To Maximize ROI

An outsourced marketing director strategizing for her client.
Freelancers typically charge an hourly rate or bill by project, while agencies typically bill on a monthly basis.

So now that you have understood the need to outsource marketing services or bring in an outsourced marketing director, how do you go about it? Here is a comprehensive 7-step guide to help you navigate this process:

  1. Decide if you’ll go the agency or freelancer route: Freelancers typically charge an hourly rate or bill by project, while agencies typically bill on a monthly basis. Also, a marketing agency will tend to follow up on projects, adding value to the company, while freelancers won’t necessarily do this.
  2. Establish a budget: Take into account things like how much time and money-keeping activities in-house are costing you, how long you’ll be working with the freelancer or agency, and any potential savings from tools, contractors, or other services that you will no longer need once you begin working with the freelancer/agency.
  3. Nail down your marketing requirements: Before entering the search phase, you should nail down your organization’s marketing requirements and priorities.
  4. Start your search: When looking into an outsourced marketing agency, LinkedIn is an excellent resource. You can search for agencies directly and also reach out to your connections about whom they use for outsourcing marketing.
  5. Give clear instructions: After deciding on your agency or freelancer, let the work begin! To get started on the right foot, it’s important to give ultra-clear instructions.
  6. Collaborate with your team and think outside of the box: While setting expectations and sharing specifics about exactly what you are looking for is important, it is also essential to collaborate with your team.
  7. Monitor progress on an ongoing basis—but don’t micromanage: In the early stages of your partnership, be prepared to monitor the agency or freelancer’s progress while avoiding micromanaging.

Why Strategic Pete Is The Outsourced Marketing Agency You Need

A company that has choosen to outsource marketing services.
Strategic Pete is all about unleashing your business’s potential.

In the quest for maximizing ROI through outsourced marketing services, one agency stands out from the crowd – Strategic Pete. This agency is not your average outsourced marketing agency. It is a team of experts led by Peter Murphy Lewis, a seasoned Fractional CMO whose core purpose is to make your life easier, double your revenue, and make your business systems run like a well-oiled machine.

Strategic Pete is all about unleashing your business’s potential. We understand that building a business can be challenging, but also believe that it doesn’t have to feel like hard work. Our process involves identifying issues, resources, and core processes, building a customizable strategy based on data and metrics, systemizing processes, and tracking and monitoring results. This comprehensive approach ensures that your marketing efforts are not just effective but also efficient.

At Strategic Pete, we offer a range of services designed to boost your ROI and are obsessed over data, and make data-driven marketing simple. We help identify your team’s unique abilities and willingness to work on issues and also ensure your project is on track and always stays that way. Moreover, Strategic Pete is the only company that will teach you how to do what we do so that you can eventually manage your marketing in-house if you choose to.

Strategic Pete’s success is in the stories of their satisfied clients. From business development heads to CEOs, their clients have experienced significant growth and increased ROI through their partnership with Strategic Pete.

Outsourcing your marketing services to an agency like Strategic Pete can be a game-changer for your business. With Strategic Pete, you can focus on what you do best while we handle your marketing, maximizing your ROI.

For more on recent trends in digital marketing, read our blog and talk to us if you are considering hiring a fractional CMO.