 You're probably thinking, you know, is now a good time to outsource my marketing. Welcome to the We Are Slam show where you'll learn marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly. I'm the co-founder and chief strategist right here at Slam Agency, a full service boutique digital marketing agency designed to help you captivate, motivate, and inspire people to action through advertising. And recently we've been getting calls from marketing directors who are looking to do more with less. And generally that means that they need to be more focused, they need to be more strategic. And you know, if they've lost people in their organizations, if they've had to lay some people off, then now they're looking for an agency partner that can come in and take on the responsibilities that previously they had a team beneath them working on. A lot of times this is social media, creative, graphic design, video production, copywriting, sometimes it's CRM implementation and optimization, and all of these types of things. And so if you're in that boat, then you're probably thinking, you know, is now a good time to outsource my marketing? And so in today's show, I wanna talk about the pros and cons of outsourcing your marketing function to help you determine whether or not it makes sense for your organization. Now generally when we come into an organization, what we see is that the company has spent time and effort and they've dedicated energy to building a sales team, to building customer service support. And a lot of times what's lacking is the marketing function. What this means is that there might be one, maybe two people in the marketing department and they are relied on to do pretty much anything and everything that's creative, anything and everything that is communications, anything and everything that is digital social media. And really if you're in that boat as a marketing professional, then you know that that's a lot of work. A lot of times you're undervalued and generally when sales are suffering, you're the first call. You're who they're gonna call and they're gonna say, listen, you gotta do something to bring more leads in the door. And so what marketing becomes is it becomes like a graphic design department, PR and communications department and a sales lead generation department. And if you're just one or two people, that's a lot of work. I mean, you're really the catch all. And so when we're talking about outsourcing the marketing function, we're really talking about coming in and supporting your vision, your strategy, taking that production load, that production burden off of you and allowing you to really think through what you do best and that's marketing strategy. And so there's generally two reasons why a company like yours might choose to outsource and the first is it's obviously cost. I mean, everything always boils down to cost, like is there a room in the budget? And so the first thing you've gotta figure out is can you afford it? And when you think about can you afford it? Number one is obviously the hard numbers, right? You gotta think about those numbers. But also I want you to think about time because time is money. How much time would you be saving to where you're able to put that time in other places and it's gonna bring you more money in. So when you think about cost, I want you to think about not only like what are those actual numbers, but what potentially, how much time could you be saving by passing off certain functions? It could be that old cliche, it's true, time is money. And if you're able to hire a partner that's more efficient and more capable, able to do things and turn things around more quickly, then at that point, you're not only gonna be saving money, but you're gonna be allowing yourself to spend time in other areas that are more important to you. The second factor that you need to think about when thinking about outsourcing is competency. I mean, right now, if you're in one of those one or two person departments, or if you've lost the majority of your team, then what you're faced with is you're faced with this catch-all of trying to do everything under the sun to fill out all these requests, to write emails one day, produce videos the next day, to post on social media and engage on social media, and then to develop digital marketing advertising campaigns or television commercials, whatever the case may be. I mean, you're called on to generate leads, and so that catch-all, really what it does is it sets you up for failure because you're obviously not an expert in all of those areas. I think when we think about who's the perfect marketing assistant? Well, if you go to Indeed and you look, I mean, you'll see that there's companies out there that are saying, you know, we need a marketing assistant, you're gonna make $45,000 a year, and we need you to understand social media and CRM HubSpot. We need you to be able to code, and you need to be a great graphic designer. You need to know how to create viral videos, and the list just goes on and on and on and on, and the point is this person doesn't exist, and this person definitely doesn't exist, you know, at $45,000 a year. The problem is your boss, your CEO, expects you to be that person, or maybe you expect yourself to be that person, and the point is that person doesn't exist. That person or that function happens within the framework of a team, and so when you're looking at competency in an agency, really what you're looking for is, you know, what are all these functions that the agency has access to or in-house that can come alongside me and allow my vision to flourish, and that brings us to the benefits or the pros of outsourcing an agency, and I'm gonna talk about the cons as well, but let's start first with the pros, and the first is just expertise. I mean, you know, I do a course called Marketing Agency Secrets, and the premise of that course is that there, you know, I could write a blog, I could give you the exact recipe of exactly how to do what it is that we do, but because you don't do it day in and day out, you're not gonna be able to produce the same results that I would or that we would as an agency, and it's just because this isn't what you're doing, right? This is not your day in and day out, and so that expertise that you look for in an agency is a major pro, a major benefit, a major advantage to outsourcing that function because essentially what you do is you say, okay, I have my core competency and I'm gonna focus in on this and I'll rely on my agency to, you know, have an expert in video and social and copy and digital advertising. That way I can focus on what I'm best at, and so expertise is the number one advantage to outsourcing your marketing function because, and I can't speak forever at an agency, but an agency like ours, you know, we're gonna have each of those competencies in-house. The second pro, the second benefit advantage to outsourcing your marketing function is overhead. Not only are you able to, you know, bring in an agency partner for the price of one or two employees, thereby, you know, eliminating the salaries or, you know, not getting to that point to where you have to bring in five, six, seven, eight different people, you know, eight different salaries, eight different retirement plans, eight different insurance packages, but you're able to do that with an agency partner who has all of those roles, all of those people in-house, you're able to do that for one monthly fee, but also think about all the different tools and applications that you might be using now or you might be considering using whether that's a social media posting tool, whether that's an Adobe Photoshop or, you know, any sort of tool or application which has a monthly fee associated with it. You outsource your marketing function and you immediately eliminate all those costs as well because those are the costs that the agency will take on your behalf. And so that's gonna save you thousands of dollars a month just in tool expenses as well. My number three benefit to outsourcing is time. Of course, you're gonna get a lot of time back. A lot of the things that you're spinning your wheels on and you're putting in a lot of extra time on right now, you'd be able to hand that off to your agency partner and they'd be able to handle that for you, not only more efficiently, but you're gonna have quicker turnaround, you know, things are gonna happen more at the speed of digital and you're gonna be able to focus, like I said, on things and spend your time on things that matter more to you. Along these lines, I also want you to think about if you're considering bringing some people in-house, the time that it takes to hire, to interview, to train and the average employee is around, I think it's like two years is the average and so you're gonna have to do that over and over and over again with an agency, you really get that time back because no longer are you managing people and doing what you need to keep those people in-house but you're managing a partnership. The final benefit that I wanna mention is breadth of experience that an agency brings to the table because an agency obviously is working with multiple clients in multiple industries and what that means is that they're gonna see things that you don't necessarily see. Obviously, as a marketing director, as a business owner in your industry, you're focused on your business and your industry and so maybe you'll miss something here or there or maybe you'll see what a competitor is doing and think, well, they're doing that so I wanna do that too. Maybe that's a good idea, maybe it's not but an agency can bring in that breadth of experience and really provide that knowledge of what's working and what's not working in other industries and bring that to the table and apply it in your specific case and really give you the edge when it comes to competing at that next level. And so when I think about the advantages, the pros, the benefits of working and outsourcing your marketing function to an agency partner, I really think about the cost, the time that you get back, the expertise and the breadth of experience and applying that to your specific case but there's also some downsides to working with an agency and as a marketing director, you need to be prepared for this, especially if you've just engaged agencies on a project basis. Now we're talking about bringing in a team and that team becomes your team. That team suddenly becomes your marketing department so there's some disadvantages, there are some cons to working in this regard as well and so I want you to be aware of those. The first and most obvious con I think would be if you don't pick the right partner and this is where we're talking about generally when we talk about outsourcing, we're talking about what we call here at SLAM, a retainer agreement. So this is an agreement that is, it's a 12 month agreement, there's a monthly cost associated to that and there's a scope of work that happens on a monthly basis. I mean really we come in and we become your marketing department and so with that type of commitment, if you pick the wrong agency, then you're stuck in a long-term contract and to get out of that there's gonna be a cost there but then also just to go out and find a new partner. You might be gun shy or you might not have the approval and the go ahead to do that again. So one of the cons is if you don't find the right partner, it's very difficult to bounce back from that. So you gotta be aware, you gotta put your time and effort and energy into making sure that you ask the right questions and making sure that there's a fit there so that you can avoid making the wrong choice. Now if you're not the only one in the marketing function at your company and you have people under you or on your team that I can guarantee you that if you bring in an agency that there's gonna be some friction there. It always happens, there's always somebody that feels like their voice wasn't heard or that they're not being taken seriously or that this agency is coming in to replace them. If you're a marketing director and your CEO is saying, okay, I want to bring in this agency to be your partner, your marketing team, then you might feel this way as well. It's just, it's a natural human tendency to feel like, okay, like what's happening? Are they getting ready to replace me? And it's just, it is what it is and you have to be able to, number one, be aware of that and number two, be willing to face that head on because the agency, at least I can only speak for SLAM agency, but when we come in, we want to be your partner and we want to set you up for success. We want to make sure that you get the promotion, that you get the credit, knowing that when the time comes and you move on and you move up the ladder, whether it be at this company or your next company, that you're gonna remember us. And so we believe that the partnerships that we form are not necessarily with corporations or organizations, but we form these partnerships with people and together we can create better outcomes for everyone involved. That's our true win-win. The third con to outsourcing your marketing function specifically to a marketing agency where the marketing agency becomes your entire marketing department. The third con is that a good agency is not necessarily an order taker, meaning that if they see that you're doing things in a way that might not necessarily be the best way, they're gonna let you know about that. They're gonna say, listen, you should be doing it this way. So if you're super opinionated, if you think that it's your way or the highway and that you know what's best, then working with an agency partners is probably not the best idea for you. It'd probably be better for you to hire people in-house so that you can be their boss and tell them what to do. And finally, the fourth con, and this is a big one, and you need to be aware of this, is that working with an agency, you have to understand that the agency has other clients and so they will develop a package that works within the scope of the agreement, the scope of services on a month in and month out basis, but you can't just like pick up the phone and expect to talk to the CEO or expect to have your team on a Zoom call like right now, like you would if they were in-house, right? So you have to understand that they work with other clients, they have other commitments, and even though you're probably gonna get every bit as much if not more than you've contracted them to do, you have to understand that you're not always gonna be their central focus and that they have other priorities. So you have to realize that when working with an agency that you're not their only client. So those are the disadvantages, the cons to outsourcing your marketing function. And these are just things that you need to think of. Now, if you are considering outsourcing your marketing function, if this is something that you've thought about or if it's something that you've been forced to think about, then I want you to reach out to me and let's chat about how this plays out for you and how SLAM agency can come alongside you and make you better at what you do and help you accomplish and to reach your goals for 2020. Let's not write off 2020 yet. I believe there's still plenty of time this year to make an impact. And if you are looking to make an impact, then let's chat, go to slamagency.com, click on the free consultation button that will connect you with me, I'll reach out, we'll schedule a time to talk. And if you've enjoyed this episode and you know somebody that might enjoy it as well, please share it with them. If you're listening on Spotify, iTunes, any of the podcast networks, be sure to subscribe, follow, rate, review. And if you're watching any of the clips on social media, leave me a comment, let me know who you are. I would love to communicate with you in social media. Thank you for tuning in and I'll see you next week. Thanks for watching. If you like what you saw, subscribe and hit that bell. You'll be the first to be notified when new content goes live. After that, you can watch more videos from slamagency. We picked something we think you'll love.