Why It’s Smart to Hire an Outside Marketing Agency: 6 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

by New Boston on October 19, 2016

“Is it crazy to think about hiring marketing specialists outside my organization?”

If you’re asking the question, chances are your business is not actually marketing. You run a ranching operation. You manufacture products. You are CEO of a financial services firm. You are an expert at what you do, and marketing experts can help you do it better with what they do: marketing.

Maybe you have a marketing team already, even if your team is you, yourself, and you. You could keep all your marketing in-house. That’s one way.

Or, you could go outside for help with a specific element of your marketing. Maybe a full-blown marketing strategy, maybe a rebrand, maybe a simple business card.

So, is it crazy to want some outside help? Definitely not. In fact, it might be the smartest thing you can do!

What do you need to consider? As usual, it all comes down to an evaluation of resources and ROI.

Staffing

Mistake?

Genius!

Your marketing team may consist of 12 dedicated marketing employees, all of whom currently have their hands full with tasks they’ve been assigned already. Adding one more item to their plate, whether it’s a set of materials for your next trade show or a full-scale remarketing effort, means that something else has got to give. A plate can only handle so much heaped onto it before it either overflows or breaks or *ahem* leaves the table altogether.

If the day-to-day threatens to get in the way, that means precious little time for you to focus on your marketing. Expand your staff without actually having to hire an employee and all of the payroll hoopla that goes along with that. Let an outside marketing company be your extra set of hands.

Expertise

Mistake?

Genius!

A couple of classes in journalism or marketing can provide a good foundation for understanding the scope of what you’re getting into. However, a class or two won’t provide you with those 10,000 hour-creds that subject matter experts have. Experts can make your pieces shine. Novices, well …

An outside marketing team has those 10,000-hour creds:

Graphic designers with years of expertise, who keep up to date on the latest trends.
Writers who are dang good at crafting a clever message and making sure the details are always, always right.
Web designers and coders who understand the intricacies of creating a fantastic user experience that ultimately makes for happy clients.
Digital marketing specialists that deal with Google Adwords and digital radio and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat and Pinterest and all of those platforms every single day and who know the strategies to help you get the most from your marketing dollar.
Data analysts that can mine information to discover where your marketing efforts are successful or where there are opportunities to improve.
Marketing gurus that can help you develop a full-blown marketing plan, (and yes, you do need one!) that can analyze your market to discover what your clients and customers want, need, and expect, then steer your marketing efforts in the right direction.

Marketing specialists do all this without impeding your ability to focus on what you need to do, which is serve your business the best you can.

Technology

Mistake?

Genius!

A smartphone takes some pretty amazing pictures. No doubt about it. But if you’re trying to produce a top quality video for a television or YouTube ad, your iPhone won’t cut it. Good graphic design and video production technology requires time and moola.

Is it worth it to invest in great technology? Yes. No question. Is it smart to invest in equipment and technology that you would use only for this purpose and none other in your line of work? Perhaps not.

A marketing agency already owns the necessary technology and equipment. They also happen to have the expertise to use it well, with zero learning curve. Let them make the investment, and you reap the benefits.

Objectivity

Mistake?	Genius!
You think you know exactly what you need, what your clients want, and what all of your options are. And then you discover that actually, you have tunnel vision, can’t see the bigger picture because you’re only reacting to the most pressing need. Reactive, right? Now, think proactive.	A good outside firm will LISTEN to you—get your insider perspective, then look at your industry as a whole, your specific organization, the marketing landscape and then make recommendations for the best strategy to accomplish your goals, based on research. It’s a collaboration. And it works. It’s smart.

Time

Mistake?	Genius!
Time is money, they say. You could hire someone new to your business and spend the time to bring them up to speed on both the operation and what you need and want from them. It does take time, and it does take money. That learning curve eats into your bottom line.	An outside agency is dedicated to your marketing and can hit the ground running. A good marketing firm is the best of both worlds: external marketing perspective with the feel and responsiveness of a veteran internal team.

Energy

Mistake?	Genius!
It’s a legitimate concern. It requires energy, patience, persistence and determination to tackle all of your marketing and stay on top of all the responsibilities you’re already committed to. The stress of being in charge of your marketing and keeping up with it (don’t forget the keeping up with it part!) can be overwhelming.	It can be a huge relief to partner with an agency to act as your expert. An outside marketing team relieves that stress, gives an external marketing perspective and provides the feel and responsiveness of an internal team. All that energy spent on you!

In short, a good marketing firm helps you be seen, be heard, be better. That’s what we do here at NBCG.

If you’re still on the fence, consider these key questions to ask yourself.

Find Out Key Questions