What is outsourced marketing? A guide for B2B businesses

Outsourced marketing provides marketing services to a business, enhancing the capabilities of the existing marketing team. It allows you to hand projects to an expert team with the flexibility to dial your services up or down depending on your business requirements throughout the year. For example, if you’re attending an exhibition and require design expertise for completing the stand and merchandise. Or, if you’re looking to expand into a new market and would like an omnichannel strategy to guide your campaign.

How can it supplement my marketing team?

According to recent outsourcing statistics, half of all marketers outsource some of their content marketing (Search Engine Journal). By outsourcing your marketing to an agency, they become an extension of your internal team, supplementing them with specialist skills and industry knowledge. These skills are [highly] desirable and beneficial, as they allow account and marketing managers to leave their larger, more demanding marketing activities in experienced hands. With the enhanced capabilities of a dedicated outsourced team, larger businesses can focus on managing their day-to-day activities more efficiently and driving their business operations.

Learn more about outsourced marketing.

Why do companies choose outsourced marketing?

There are many reasons to outsource your marketing. Particularly when spending allocation is stricter than ever, outsourcing is a wise choice for many businesses. It doesn’t matter whether you want a fully outsourced marketing department instead of expanding your internal team or need support to successfully launch and oversee a project.

Another reason is the access to marketing skills and knowledge that some business owners and teams simply don’t have, such as SEO, PPC and website design and development. Marketing is a specialised skill with many facets, and if you’re lacking the resources internally, being able to call on the experts is handy.

Outsourced marketing is also a reliable solution to a key problem that many businesses face: they simply don’t have time to do it themselves. Whether you’re growing at speed or want to maintain your momentum, it’s helpful to know there’s a pair of [capable] hands managing this business area. When you’re managing and scaling numerous brands, partners and internal channels, having additional support to call on, leaves you adaptable and flexible.

Explore how outsourced marketing supports businesses in our case studies.

So, what are the benefits of outsourcing marketing?

It’s a cost-effective solution that means you only pay for the marketing services you require; as many or as few as your business needs.

You gain access to specialist skills at a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house specialist [ker-ching]. As businesses build credibility and expand into new markets, they may desire to rebrand or launch a new website. These are highly skilled projects that only experienced marketing agencies can offer, and some of the most common outsourced marketing requests.

Outsourcing means you save time planning the strategy, writing the content and monitoring the campaigns yourself. But don’t worry, it all still comes over to your marketing and management teams for approval, just without any of the leg work.

There are also very practical benefits from a human resource perspective. Instead of recruiting and training new team members, you can save time by plugging internal resource gaps as and when needed. This cuts down the time needed to brief projects and onboard your marketing team, leading to a smoother and more consistent process.

Read more about the benefits of outsourced marketing.

What are the challenges of outsourcing marketing?

Whilst outsourced marketing is a fantastic solution for a lot of businesses, there are several things to consider before you reach out to an agency.

For a lot of businesses, the primary challenge is finding an agency that’s a good fit. Whether it’s ensuring that your values align, that you work in similar ways or they provide the required level of detail in their reports. It’s important to do your research and compare different options to find a choice that’s right for your business.

Another challenge is finding the right mix of skills. Digital marketing alone isn’t enough to provide a competitive edge in the current business landscape. Instead, you need to ensure you have the right mix of skills to optimise your website for a higher search engine ranking, turn your organic social media content into paid ads and share exciting developments with a reputable PR strategy. If all [or even some] of that sounds a little too tricky to achieve with your current marketing capabilities, you’ll benefit from working with an agency that has a full-service offering.

Learn more about full-service marketing.

So, what does outsourcing marketing mean in different businesses?

Here’s an idea of what different outsourced service offerings can look like.

Lightbulb Credit

Company credit rating experts need to champion themselves as knowledgeable and trustworthy business partners to attract and retain clients. To ensure this and to gain an advantage over competitors, they could outsource marketing services to complete a rebrand. This would transform the way the business looks [and feels], including a refreshed logo and branding and a completely new website. This transformation would also encompass brand guidelines and a revised tone of voice to ensure the client communicated their value and enticed their target audience. From the rebrand, regular monthly marketing activities including email campaigns, social media and paid ads could be incorporated into their marketing strategy, utilising the expertise of the entire marketing agency.

Have a nosey at the Lightbulb Credit case study here.

The Melton Mowbray Building Society

A building society providing independent financial advice and mortgage support to its local community may want to raise its profile and strengthen its marketing activities. A marketing agency could then take the lead on all campaigns, in-branch collateral designs and printing, rebranding and website support. By outsourcing retained marketing, the client could also have technical support to launch and update new websites, so they never have to look further than their trusted marketing partner.

Read The Melton Mowbray Building Society’s full case study.

Keri Barr Architects

An architecture firm might be excelling in its field, but the brand doesn’t quite match up to the work that it offers. By outsourcing design services to rebrand, everything would be covered from a new logo to brand guidelines and guidance on visual concepts to carry forward. Outsourcing to a full-service agency also means that the new brand is [effortlessly] rolled out across all collateral, making the whole process smooth, consistent, and professional. Oh, and the client looks fantastic.

See for yourself in the Kerri Barr Architects case study.

Dufrain

A data management services provider might be looking to gain a cutting edge over its competitors through B2B marketing. With a fully outsourced marketing agency, the client would benefit from a retained marketing contract that oversees all monthly activities and provides fully integrated solutions. This includes monthly blogs that are written with an SEO-first approach, monthly content creation including copywriting and graphic design, and website optimisation.

Take a look at the Dufrain case study.

Considering outsourcing your marketing? Here’s what our marketing team offers

When it comes to packing a punch with valuable services, the Ketchup Crew are heavyweights. Our team includes…

Brand Managers who create and oversee our impressive marketing strategies [otherwise known as magic wand wavers].

Marketing support, including marketing coordinators and account executives who ensure the entire process runs smoothly, in line with time and budget.

Digital support with a host of social media digital specialists expertly executing social media campaigns.

We could stop there, but we’re a full-service agency. So, our team also looks like this…

Design support from our dynamic designers, with an impressive portfolio to inspire your wildest design dreams.

Search support that provides specialist skills in digital search, including SEO and PPC services.

Content support from our creative copywriters who cover every form from social media bios to webinar presentations and print brochures [so you don’t have to].

Technical support powered by our web developers and overseen by our experienced Technical Director John, for when turning it off and on again doesn’t quite work.

Do you fancy a side of Ketchup?

At Ketchup, we take great pride in outsourcing [first-class] services to ambitious companies across the UK and beyond. No matter the industry, sector or size, we make an impact, and our 97% client retention demonstrates the effectiveness of our outsourced marketing services.