Outsourcing of Marketing

Today marketing outsourcing is a growing trend in many organizations. Most of these organizations pump a lot of money on promotion and research. However some experts feel that outsourcing marketing to other companies can jeopardize the marketing projects of the business. This article discusses some of the pros and cons of outsourcing marketing.

Marketing outsourcing basically means delegating marketing processes and other marketing-related jobs to an outside agency instead of delegating of the job in-house. There is no doubt this has resulted in reduced cost of staff salaries and other expenses by hiring staff in other countries where taxes and labour expenses are comparatively much lower.

Marketing outsourcing caters for various management problems because a measurable number of management tasks are delegated to a professional firm offering marketing outsourcing services. A significant amount of information is shared among the companies involved with mutual coordination and trust.

Cutting cost is a major reason for marketing outsourcing this includes offering high quality services at comparatively lower rates than the local service providers. Flexibility is another major point. By marketing outsourcing enables you hire an efficient,reliable company that will serve the needs of your organization properly. You always have the liberty of switching over to another outsourcing agency for the marketing of your products if you are not satisfied with the people you working with.

Marketing outsourcing can save you a lot of money especially if you are a new entrepreneur,you can save a lot of time and money because you do not have to establish a separate in-house setup for the purpose of marketing. So the big advantage of marketing outsourcing for new entrepreneurs is that they save overhead costs. All of the necessary marketing services and facilities are handled by the outsourcing agency.

Quality of service is improved because the people in the outsourcing agency are professionals and experts with a lot of marketing experience. Advantages of outsourcing are attracting more and more companies to apply this method and it can definitely be said that the future belongs to outsourcing. However marketing has become a more sophisticated than ever before. Here are some factors that plague marketing outsourcing aspects of a business.

Marketing needs quick decision making and a thorough knowledge of the entire business performance. With the advert of IT revolution,marketing has become more challenging and undergone a colossal change, traditional methods no longer work. With so many challenges facing marketing, you really need to think before you delegate projects to outside marketing experts.

Marketing outsourcing can savor customer relationships, you know your clients much better and their preferences in your marketing strategies. A third party will not have such good understanding of your customers. Another issue, marketing outsourcing might limit you usage of data collected by the outsourced company. The control over the input gained through marketing research conducted by outside parties is not possible.

More outsourcing means becoming more dependent on the outside company, as a result the external party might hike the price of its services. Innovation will be hit, the outside company will not like to spend more time than necessary on providing the basic services agreed on.

Redundancies of the outsourcing process may affect your business adversely. Your business may lose capable people because their services are no longer required after outsourcing. Customer relations may suffer, since the company you outsourced to focuses more on the product.

Marketing research companies you delegate projects to may not have the requisite knowledge of company goals and values. Political sensitivity is a key consideration when outsourcing to offshore locations. Many countries may face political crisis, wars, and epidemics. When companies based in these countries cannot work, your business also suffers.

All these factors should be put in consideration before you outsource your marketing to a third party. Loss of talent, increased expenditure, and lack of control over marketing data are some problems you might face while outsourcing your business marketing.