In a world where marketing involves building relationships with prospects first, before selling, the role of content is becoming more and more vital. Customers are looking for content that they can engage with and share. They are looking for content that provides value. This calls for the creation of a smart content strategy. Moreover, it calls for the consistent creation of highly relevant and useful content.
Businesses and marketing departments grapple with a decision: Should we outsource content marketing? Below we look at the pros and cons of outsourcing your content marketing:
Pros
Cost-effectiveness- Doing content marketing in-house may mean increasing the members of your marketing team. This involves onboarding, salaries, and benefits, which cost money. You would spend much less by outsourcing content creation to a freelancer or content agency.
Expertise- Outsourcing equals access to particular skill sets that you need in different aspects of content creation. You need to check their portfolios, profiles and feedback from clients to ensure that they can deliver.
Different perspective- Outsourcing content marketing brings a different perspective in your marketing efforts and content. You will be challenged to see things from a different angle, and even be more creative.
Latest trends- Highly skilled and professional freelancers will take the time to understand what is happening in their world. They follow industry experts and keep learning about the latest trends and strategy improvements that will increase effectiveness in content marketing. As a business, you may not have the time to keep up with the latest content marketing trends.
Concentrate on your core business- With someone else taking care of your content marketing, you can focus on building your business. You will have more time to concentrate on your product or service or even ensuring that your customers get the best experience when they deal with your brand.
Cons
Knowledge of the Business- Outsourcing content marketing to an agency can provide industry insights and best practice. Unfortunately, the marketing department or business owner understands the business much better than the agency does. To a large extent, in-house content may provide deeper insight.
Availability- If you’re outsourcing to freelancers, availability can be a challenge. Most work with different clients at a particular time, while others actually have day jobs. If you want your content delivered on short notice, you may need to look for agencies with a large pool of freelancers. They may find someone else to handle your content marketing if the chosen freelancer is unavailable.
Support- The freelancer or content agency may require support, especially at the beginning. They are still trying to get a grasp of your brand and audience. There may be a period of corrections, as you may not agree with some of the content that they create. As they begin to understand your brand, audience, and how best to communicate with them, there will be fewer corrections to be made.
It may be more helpful to strike a balance between in-house and outsourced content marketing. This way, the former brings the depth of understanding their product into the picture, while the latter brings in their skill, expertise, creativity and up to date industry knowledge. For outsourcing to work, there should be team work between your business or marketing department and the freelancer or agency you are outsourcing to. Provide what is needed, and ensure that they understand what you need from them.
