Here’s How to Justify the Expense of Data Analytics Services
3/8/2017 Todd Hatley
I’m proud to say we’ve helped leading Fortune 1000 companies across a number of industries become more relevant to their customers.
But well before they became our clients, many of these companies found themselves at a marketing crossroads.
Should we keep the work in-house or use some outsourced marketing services?
Are we putting off the avoidable or the inevitable?
Maybe these are questions you’ve been mumbling under your breath.
7 Benefits of Outsourced Marketing Services
Based on our experiences, you’re not alone. Again, our clients were once in your shoes. One, two, or all of the following motivating factors were what helped many of them justify the expense of outsourced marketing services:
No training required. Unlike the hiring of a new marketing [fill in the blank], partnering with a successful marketing agency is free from the usual new hire burdens — on-boarding, training, hand-holding, etc.
Speed to market. Pursuing a new marketing strategy? It could take your in-house team considerable time to get up to speed with the unfamiliar. With the right marketing agency, however, speed-to-market is an added bonus thanks to their team’s ability to execute (complex) marketing campaigns and also generate polished deliverables.
Accessible, accountable experts. When your organization hires one marketing professional, you then have access to one marketing professional. Hire a marketing firm? Your talent pool just grew exponentially. Not to mention, agencies are often held to a higher standard and accountable to providing tangible ROI that includes generating new revenue, cost reductions, and increasing conversion rates.
The latest technology. With thousands of marketing tools at your disposal, identifying and investing in the right one is a tall order. Companies will often partner with a data-driven agency because they know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to prescribing the tool that best matches their needs.
A more efficient staff. Falling behind on deadlines? That means you’re probably struggling to proactively research and effectively implement new strategies. By outsourcing support to handle a finite list of tasks or run an entire campaign, companies will be able to keep up their momentum and stay focused on the project(s) that require their undivided attention.
Valuable outside perspective. If you’re not seeing the forest for the trees, bringing a fresh set of eyes and ideas into the mix can provide a high level of objectivity to your marketing strategies. After all, outsourced marketing agencies aren’t privy to office politics or obligated to maintain the status quo of “we’ve always done it this way.”
Revenue growth … determined. You believe in your team unconditionally. They’re experienced, invested, and dedicated to following best practices. Unfortunately, for the amount of hours they’re putting in, the ROI coming back doesn’t always add up. Good news: Marketing firms often measure their success in terms of ROI. This means connecting the dots between a specific amount of new revenue, your outsourced marketing spend and what they actually did.
Time to Seek Out Marketing Support?
According to Adobe’s 2018 Digital Trends Report, the top three priorities for organizations this year are 1) content and experience management, 2) analytics, and 3) data management. Now, identifying a priority and actually executing it are two different things. If your marketing efforts have had trouble getting traction in the past, how are you going to turn one of these priorities into a reality?
Honestly, choosing between all-internal marketing or completely outsourced marketing services is no longer an either/or kind of thing. In fact, hybrid marketing managed services are becoming more and more common. If you’re unsatisfied with your marketing efforts — for any reason — why not consider partnering with an outside customer engagement firm?
(Hint: Look no further than RRD Marketing Solutions. Contact us today.)
Lacy Schuette is VP, Sales & Marketing for RRD Marketing Solutions.