As a business owner, it’s common to bite off more than you can chew. Why delegate tasks that you can do yourself for free? This is what most business owners get wrong about the concept of “free.” Your time is not free. After all, if you do not value your time, then who will?
From an outside perspective, marketing on social media might look easy, but it’s important to understand that marketing is a very long game that requires consistent quality. In a study for the Business Management Review, researchers found three major advantages to outsourced marketing. Let’s find out what they are.
First, researchers found that marketing companies have an overall efficiency and expertise that comes from years of technical experience (Tayauona). Marketing companies hire specialized employees—such as graphic designers and copywriters—for each step in their client’s campaign process to ensure quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. Specialized designers and writers also have access to certain equipment that most business owners might not have or know how to use, such as Adobe or Microsoft Office. This assembly-line of experts provides small businesses with the same team large competitors have, which can level the playing field exponentially. Overall, the specialized employees and technology of marketing companies are incomparable when compared to small businesses who choose to market on their own.
Another benefit to outsourced marketing is that it frees time and energy that owners should be dedicating to their core business processes. What might take a business owner hours to learn how to do, design, and complete can take marketing companies half the time with better results. There’s also the fact that marketing is a never-ending process that may demand several posts a week and several types of advertisements. With each post, there’s also the accompanying tracking and optimizing that needs supervision and upkeep. Over time, the hours business owners spend here and there on marketing quickly adds up. In the long run, researchers suggest outsourced marketing saves owners valuable time and provides higher quality results (Tayauona).
The last advantage to hiring a marketing company is that it saves small business owners more money than doing it in-house. If business owners choose to hire a part- or full-time employee rather than a marketing company, they will find themselves spending significantly more over time (Dalli). If business owners choose to do their marketing themselves, they often find they have taken on additional time and stress—on top of the usual stressors that come with running a business. Marketing companies spend a substantial amount of money on the newest technology and the most skilled professionals (Dalli). When a small business owner chooses to hire a marketing company, they find themselves benefitting from the same technology and professionals that large companies have—without the additional in-house costs (Tayauona).
Overall, research seems to suggest outsourcing is the most efficient and affordable option for business owners looking for the best quality marketing. When owners try to do everything on their own to “save money,” they unintentionally sacrifice their mental well-being, waste precious time, and lose money. In the end, research concludes that owners will save and earn the most money by using their time and skills to build their businesses, while outsourcing the rest.
Sources
Dalli, Brad. “How Outsourcing Your Marketing Can Save You Money Long-Term.” Dalli Digital, 13 Apr. 2020, https://dallidigital.com/how-outsourcing-your-marketing-can-save-you-money-long-term/.
Tayauona, G. (2012), “Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Analysis of Outsourcing,” 1st International Conference on Leadership, Technology, and Innovation Management, Proceedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 41, pp. 188-195.
