How To Successfully Outsource Your Marketing Activities

by Jeffery Opoku August 15, 2023


You probably just started your business and have been striving hard to keep it up. All this must be time consuming and overwhelming. Marketing your products or services has been something you’ve been thinking about for a while now. Do you have limited resources in-house and thinking of outsourcing your marketing activities to a third party?

Or.

You’ve been in business for some period of time and, you and your team have been overloaded with other responsibilities of your business. Are you planning on outsourcing your marketing to a third party to enable you to focus on other areas of the business?

Whichever category you belong to, worry no more. We’ve got you covered!

Starting your business

As a business owner, there are a lot of tasks to undertake for the growth of the business whether you are a start-up, a small or big company. 

Some specific problems start-ups may encounter include:

  • Lack of planning. Planning is a very crucial stage of a business. A start-up, especially can’t afford to miss this stage. This is where your business plan comes in. It must include the vision and mission of the business, products, and services, financial plan, amongst others. Skipping this stage is definitely not a good idea.
  • Money.  You will need money in hiring key staff, product development, getting office spaces and many others. When there isn’t enough cash flow in the business, you become frustrated.
  • Hiring the right people. People with the right skills for the business is needed to achieve the goals for the business. Hence, there shouldn’t be any delays in getting them. This decision should not be rushed either.
  • Zero or less focus on marketing or sales. There’s a great need to put resources into the marketing of products or services. Gone were the days where we used to rely solely on word of mouth, referrals, and reviews from friends and family, radio broadcasting and other means as marketing. Digital marketing is here to stay.

Since you would like to focus on other areas of the business you are more experienced with, outsource your marketing to a third-party to help you get a solution to your marketing problem. In fact, when you outsource marketing is the best idea for your business when you don’t have a marketing team or when your marketing team is overloaded with other tasks of the business.

One may ask, “How do I outsource marketing?”

Well, first…


You Hire an Expert

The expert can either be a digital marketing freelancer or agency. The one you hire will solely depend on your preference or the specific task that will be assigned. Also, you can weigh their pros and cons and decide on one that is the best suit for your business

What to look for in an expert when outsourcing your marketing

These are attitudes to look out for in experts especially when you outsource your marketing.

  • They should ask in-depth questions on what you do as a business and the problem you’re trying to solve
  • There should be effective communication of the strategies they propose for your business
  • They must explain the procedures they’d go through in getting the results for your business 

Digital Marketing Freelancer

Digital marketing freelancers aren’t employees of companies. They’re contractors who help companies promote their products or services online. Also, they’re independent individuals that work on their own. They reach out to the target customers of clients and drive them to the client’s website. They also convert those customers into paying ones.

The freelancer builds a website for clients who don’t own one. They have relevant skills and knowledge of specific tasks. So getting a freelancer of your choice shouldn’t be a problem. They almost always cost less than when hiring an agency. Even with that, there should be cautious when choosing one.


Digital Marketing Agency

A digital marketing agency is one who has a team of strategists, consultants, creatives, and developers that work together to deliver results to clients. When you hire an agency, you’ll be hiring a manager who is in charge of a team of individuals with different skill sets or abilities that will be at your disposal.

Work is spread across the team, each of whom is experienced at certain levels and will, thus, be efficient in discharging of their duties.

The next important thing after outsourcing your business’ marketing to your chosen third party is that both parties will have to decide on the “terms and conditions” of the contract(mutual agreement). You can do this with a “Non-Disclosure Agreement”.

Non-Disclosure Agreement(NDA)

This is a mutual legal contract that keeps both parties; in this case either the digital marketing freelancer or agency and you, the business owner from revealing either parties’ secrets. NDA creates a confidential relationship with both parties. 

 As a business owner, this protects delicate information between you and the third party.

Delicate information such as: 

  • Passwords.  This includes your website and social media login details that you use to access your online platforms.
  • Internal financial data.  This includes employee records, bank statements, tax returns, payroll and so on.
  • Standard Operational Procedure (SOP). This involves how your business works. Structures put in place in the business, trade secrets and many others.
  • Customer Data. This also involves customer details in the database of the business. And other sensitive data belonging to customers.

Other names for non-disclosure agreement:

Confidentiality Agreement, Confidentiality Form or Clause or Statement, and Nondisclosure.


Some key features of the mutual agreement

  • Timeframe of contract
  • Ownership agreement
  • Non-Disclosure Agreement
  • Budget
  • Scope of work
  • Termination of contract

Breach of Mutual Agreement

This is what happens when mutual agreement is breached:

  • You can sue the party that disregards the agreement for damages
  • You can get a court order that stops that party from revealing any more of your secrets
  • That party might have to pay you any profit losses
  • They might face criminal charges

Other items to add to the contract(Mutual Agreement)

Before both parties sign the contract, there’s a need to:

  • Discuss into details what exactly the task will entail
  • Include fee to pay to the third party
  • Set dates for the report on the progress of the task for the third party to submit

After you sign the contract

When you and the third party sign the contract, this means both of you have come to a mutual agreement about the task. The third-party can then start working on the task or project.

You’ll be able to keep up with the progress the third party makes on the task through the reports that they’ll be submitting. The period for submission of the report can be weekly, monthly, and so on. You agree on this in the contract.

Related: How Long Does It Take To See Digital Marketing Results

When the third party solves your problem or completes the task, what next?

You need to…


Gain full control and access

There’s a need to take over all passwords and other delicate information about the task that has been completed and make sure the third party trains you on how to go about it for future use.

You can then decide whether to entrust the management of the task to another person or not. Protect yourself still with the necessary precautions as discussed.


In Conclusion

Outsource marketing activities to a third party to reduce workload or to invite expertise of a particular task into your business has its benefits but putting up precautions to protect your business’ brand is very important.

Want to share your experience, add up to the topic, “the best way to outsource your marketing to a third party successfully or need help? Or you just want to share your opinion?… Leave your comment below let’s discuss.

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