6 Reasons Why You Should Offshore Digital Marketing

Businesses need to meet their target customers where they are — and that is online. Nowadays, people look up on the web for a company, product, or service before making any purchase decision. With most brand touchpoints now digital, online presence is all but mandatory. Digital marketing has become an important — if not the most essential — part of a business’s overall marketing strategy.

However, given how dynamic digital marketing is, it can require as much time and effort as carrying out the core functions of a business. Even the best-laid digital marketing plans can fall by the wayside when it gets to the hard part: the execution.

For B2B businesses especially, where conversions primarily happen offline, there is a risk that digital marketing will be reduced to a mere checklist of disjointed tasks to accomplish — website, check; LinkedIn profile, check; Facebook Page, check — with no overarching strategy.

But doing the bare minimum in digital marketing can hurt more than it helps. There is something off-putting about a clunky and dated corporate website or a social media page that looks abandoned. These things don't inspire confidence in potential clients or customers. They might even drive them straight to the competitors.

Over the last several years, it has been increasingly difficult for lean startups and small to medium-sized businesses to DIY their digital marketing due to constant algorithm updates and fast-moving trends. It is also much more challenging now than a few years ago to establish a sophisticated digital footprint and build a substantial following organically. And it is downright impossible to do so haphazardly.

It is time to call in reinforcements. Here are six reasons why businesses should offshore digital marketing.

6 Reasons to Offshore Digital Marketing

1. Experts on hand and ready

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Digital marketing as an industry is extremely fast-paced and forever evolving. Hard-won skills and knowledge can become obsolete with a snap of a finger — or a Google update roll-out.

Offshoring your digital marketing efforts means you can access a full range of digital marketing and corollary services from day one. You will also be working with experts who have made it their business to be up-to-date with developments in all things digital. There is no learning curve or training needed as professional digital marketers are constantly upgrading their skills.

This is particularly beneficial to smaller operations that would not have been able to afford to employ in-house the same calibre of talents working in a reputable digital marketing agency.

2. Access the best MarTech

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In digital marketing, it is not only skills and knowledge that can quickly become obsolete. Technology does, too. The marketing technology landscape can be daunting and confusing, even for seasoned digital marketers. There is always something new. And everyone is itching to be an early adopter of the next game-changing app or tool.

Nearly every MarTech tool or platform also makes claims for being user-friendly. Some will require advanced training or hours of self-study for a marketing generalist. And since MarTech evolves at warp speed, there is also the risk that by the time you finally see gains, for example, in your SEO efforts, a new algorithm comes along, and you are back to square one.

Many of the best tools and platforms digital marketers rely on are not cheap. Working with a digital marketing agency means not only using the best and most relevant industry tools, but also absorbing the cost of updates, subscriptions, the necessary training, and the like.

3. Cost-efficiency

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A single in-house marketing generalist simply cannot compare to a team of digital marketers with expertise in the different niches and subdomains of digital marketing, and building an entire in-house digital marketing team from the ground up means more overhead. There are also tools, equipment and upskilling costs to consider, which you will not need to worry about when working with an agency.

Why not take advantage of the economies of scale available with a digital marketing agency? You can keep your in-house team lean and benefit from the services of top-notch agency talents at a greatly reduced cost.

4. Time efficiency

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Digital marketing looks easy when done right, but professionals at the top of their game will be the first to tell you it is anything but. It takes a significant amount of time and manpower, which your business may be unable to spare because of competing priorities and demands.

Offshoring your digital marketing operations allows you to focus on your business instead of the activities required to support it. It will also permit you to move fast. An offshored digital marketing team can accomplish a lot in the same amount of time it will take you to recruit and onboard your in-house team.

5. Your digital strategy will benefit from a global team

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Thanks to technology, even smaller operations can have a global reach. And if your market is global, why can't your digital marketing team be?

Working with an offshoring partner with multiple fulfilment locations means benefiting from a globally distributed workforce, and talents with a global perspective that can help you see the bigger picture when brand positioning.

Another advantage of working with an offshore team is the difference in time zones. This is crucial for a business that prioritises responsiveness. Perhaps you require team members who can work round the clock, replying to messages and monitoring social media.

6. Digital marketing is easy to offshore

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Digital marketing is a function that you can offshore easily. It is a discipline that can be replicated and tweaked as needed, and it rarely requires firm-specific knowledge or skills.

Some business decision-makers may still have some brand guardianship concerns and feel that marketing is best fit for in-house. A good digital marketing agency can work with that. You may have an in-house CMO or Marketing Manager to handle the overall digital marketing strategy and work with a third-party firm for specific tasks, like monitoring and analytics. You can also offshore all creative executions, such as graphic design, content creation, animation, and more. Perhaps your needs run more along the lines of social media management (uploading, scheduling, social listening) or paid campaigns (Facebook ads, SEM, PPC). A full-suite digital marketing agency can handle all that for you.

A Word for B2B Businesses

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Although cultivating a solid digital presence is part and parcel of brand building and reputation management for any business, there are marked differences between B2B and B2C digital marketing.

For B2B, it is not always about reaching a broader audience or going viral. The Pareto principle reigns supreme: 80% of your revenue will come from 20%of your customer base. And, as mentioned above, most conversions happen offline. Not every business needs its CEO dancing on TikTok.

Nevertheless, digital marketing still plays a significant, if more subtle, role for B2B businesses.

Networking

Share and amplify news about your business, job openings, and other noteworthy developments within your business and industry. Connect with peers, experts, potential clients and prospective employees.

Generating Quality Leads

Targeting capabilities for online advertising are getting more sophisticated, especially on social media. LinkedIn, in particular, is the top choice for B2B campaigns. It reports a more robust engagement, better demographics for businesses, and greater ROI compared to Facebook. Ninety-seven per cent of B2B leads generated through social media are from LinkedIn alone.

Building Thought Leadership

Give transactional marketing a pause. Aim to provide value rather than to sell a product or promote a service. Create and share quality content that educates, engages, or entertains. This helps foster brand awareness and trust and positions a business or its chief executive as a thought leader.

Work With Unient

Ready to offshore your digital marketing operations? Let us explore what we can do for your business. Book a free consultation with us today.