How Much Does Outsourced Marketing Cost?

For small business owners considering outsourced marketing to replace or supplement their in-house marketing needs, the fear of unknown costs can be prohibitive. Informed decisions are made based on knowledge, so we’re offering a very practical approach to help you evaluate the cost of outsourced marketing for your business. More often than not, the benefits of outsourcing marketing can easily outweigh your investment in marketing.

Many businesses grow without the benefit of any in-house marketing resources, relying on outsourced providers to meet the company’s marketing needs. Usually these providers work for themselves and by themselves, specializing in website development, search marketing, graphic design, content writing and marketing and others. It’s when a business owner decides that they would be better served by hiring these people in-house that the challenge becomes apparent.

The first step is to on-board a marketing manager to supplement or replace all of the existing outsource providers. Hiring the right marketing manager can be a monumental task. Imagine the job description for this new position that covers the following skill sets:

  • Web developer
  • Content writer
  • Search specialist
  • Graphic designer
  • Strategist
  • And countless other marketing skills as needed

The individual qualified to fill this role and lessen the dependency on multiple outsource providers is a unicorn among trained marketers. A copywriter is seldom a designer and a search specialist is seldom a strategist.

Outsourced marketing is a means of replacing the unicorn marketer with a complete team of subject matter experts for equal or less cost as one full-time employee.

A Close Look at the Numbers Outsourced Marketing
Let’s put numbers to this hiring scenario for a real-life look at an outsourced marketing relationship.

A Kansas City-based marketing manager with 10 years of experience can expect to command an annual salary of $60,000. This figure can vary greatly depending on the applicant’s marketing skills and the size of company for which they work. Add employee benefits and the tangible costs of keeping an employee on staff and a conservative cost for hiring a mid-level marketing manager can be as much as $75,000.

Keep in mind that the investment in an in-house marketing manager may not be enough to cover the cost of a full marketing strategy. Marketing, especially digital marketing, requires continuous education or at minimum, external resources to supplement what an employee lacks in expertise.

For example, an in-house marketing manager may be able to update a website page or post new content, but may find themselves ill-equipped to make substantial changes that require backend work when marketing strategy shifts. In these cases, a web developer may be an additional cost incurred.

If marketing strategy involves paid or organic search strategies, an in-house person may not have the experience and knowledge needed to maximize your investment. Google Certified search marketers constantly work to refine their craft, resulting in much better outcomes.

What You Get With a $75,000 Outsourced Marketing Budget
For EAG Advertising & Marketing clients, this question has many answers. We evaluated the programs of two dozen business-to-business (B2B) outsourced marketing clients and summarized their programs into one list of services.

Typical outsourced marketing services from EAG Advertising & Marketing:

  • One point-of-contact account manager with an average of 10 years of experience
  • Strategies, plans and budgets from senior marketing professionals with 10 years or more experience
  • Digital lead generating programs that can include one or all of the following:
  • Retargeting digital ads to engage site visitors over time
  • Paid search marketing using the Google Ad Network
  • Targeted lead generation campaigns via LinkedIn
  • Email campaigns to one or many targeted prospects
  • Social media management, content development and paid campaigns
  • Ongoing strategic recommendations and campaigns
  • Detailed monthly analytics and competitive reporting

All this and much more is available to a typical B2B client using EAG’s outsourced marketing services.

Scalability is Outsourced Marketing’s Greatest Advantage

If $75,000 isn’t a feasible budget for your small business, outsourced marketing may still be a realistic solution. Outsourced marketing services are often scalable, fitting any budget or business need. The cost of services is spread among an entire team of marketing experts, lowering the cost and enabling you to gain marketing services long before hiring a full-time employee.

Need a deeper understanding of outsourced marketing and how to determine whether it’s the optimum investment for your business?

READ: How Much You Should Spend on Marketing

READ: Outsourced Marketing Q & A