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Besides being a fast information resource and a communication platform, the Internet has become a vast advertising arena. It houses a worldwide customer base that every business owner wants to claim. Hence, promoting products and services online is now a necessity.
Whether you own a budding startup or a seasoned enterprise, you need a cost-effective approach to gain a solid digital presence.
Did you know that business process outsourcing (BPO) can help you stand out in the vast pool of online content? Outsourcing can even boost your digital marketing strategy without overspending.
How? Let’s find out how below.
The Rise of Outsourcing in Digital Marketing
Online marketing is at the core of every company’s promotional strategy in the digital era. Recent statistics show that nearly 51% of global consumers aged 16 to 64 look for brands, products, and services online before purchasing.
According to a 2022 CMO survey, businesses allot over 57% of their marketing budgets to digital marketing campaigns due to their broad online customer base. However, the same study reported that 30% of polled marketers saw average to no returns on their investments, which could lead to funding difficulties in the future.
This is where BPO companies enter the spotlight, offering cost-efficient access to scalable resources. They take over the following digital marketing tasks to let your in-house marketing team prioritize more pressing matters:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)-based content creation
- Social media management
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Email marketing
- Data analysis and reporting
- Website and app development
- Online reputation management
Benefits of Outsourcing Digital Marketing
Outsourcing digital marketing functions brings significant savings to small businesses and larger enterprises. In its latest survey, Deloitte noted that cost reduction remains the top objective achieved with BPO. Process standardization and capability development follow.
Service providers enable reduced costs by charging an hourly or monthly fee per deployed worker. It gives affordable access to skilled digital marketing experts who use advanced tools to streamline the work. They optimize such resources to deliver these specific advantages:
- Gain an overview of recent market trends to understand customers’ buying patterns.
- Enable simplified social media oversight through third-party contact center solutions.
- Focus on product and service improvement efforts.
- Prioritize offline or in-person marketing campaigns.
- Maximize external perspectives to develop an innovative marketing strategy.
- Personalize email and social media advertisements.
- Increase organic web ranking with BPO experts’ SEO-optimized content.
- Automate online content dissemination using artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
Challenges of Outsourcing Digital Marketing
Despite the above benefits, entrusting digital marketing efforts to a third party might still burden your business. Expect to lose money and experience downtime if you do not select a support vendor that suits your needs.
To avoid this, you must understand the potential issues surrounding digital marketing BPO. Doing so allows you to prepare a well-structured plan that helps maximize advantages in the long term and minimize challenges, such as:
- Linguistic and cultural barriers result in misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
- Inconsistent digital marketing output quality weakens your brand image and voice.
- Cyber threats compromise your confidential data and credibility.
- Potential hidden charges, such as contract and currency exchange fees, add to your expenses.
- The lack of content control may lead to misconceptions if not correctly addressed.
- Misaligned digital marketing techniques hinder collaboration and innovation.
- Outsourcing your marketing tasks may introduce longer turnaround times due to remote work and regional factors.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Outsourcing Digital Marketing
Hiring third-party digital marketing agencies requires critical knowledge of what BPO is and how to seek the best support vendor.
The resulting insights assist your internal team in drafting an effective BPO investment plan. They guide you through leveraging outsourcing’s benefits and preventing related drawbacks.
Begin outsourcing digital marketing by learning and implementing the following steps:
- Assess your current in-house capabilities and problems.
- Clarify your objectives, target consumers, and desired outcomes for online marketing.
- Identify the digital marketing services that require improvements and third-party support.
- Determine a budget that suits your business goals and marketing priorities.
- Outline your qualifications for a third-party digital marketing team.
- Consider pricing, credibility, client testimonials, and service history.
- Research and create a short list of potential BPO providers.
- Conduct comprehensive evaluation and screening of prospects.
- Negotiate clear expectations, contract terms, and information security measures.
- Detail service scope, due dates, payment terms, and data confidentiality clauses.
- Establish centralized communication channels to ensure smooth workflow.
- Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor and measure achievements.
- Implement regular performance evaluations and feedback mechanisms.
- Facilitate regular meetings and training sessions to align digital marketing initiatives.
- Analyze BPO’s impact on your website’s traffic, lead generation, and brand visibility.
- Continuously adapt and refine your outsourcing strategy.
Is Outsourcing Digital Marketing Functions Worth It?
Yes, incorporating strategic outsourcing into your digital marketing processes is worth it for the cost benefits alone. Outsourcing digital marketing specialists from the Philippines costs ₱180.00 or $3.11 per hour per worker. Meanwhile, hiring their counterparts in the United States requires you to pay an average hourly rate of $29.02.
Suppose you need five extra digital marketers to boost your team’s efficiency for six months. Your expenses will resemble the figures below when outsourcing or employing in-house full-time workers.
| The Cost of Outsourcing vs. Hiring Five Digital Marketing Specialists for Six Months | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | In-house Recruitment | Total | Outsourcing | Total |
| Human Resources (HR) |
| $139,296 |
| $15,600 |
| Office Laptops (8GB RAM) |
| $7500 |
| $0 |
| TOTAL | $146,796 | $15,600 | ||
Although the data above does not include expenses for facilities and other utility costs, you can already gain up to 90% of cost savings when adopting digital marketing BPO. The provider handles the third-party unit’s office needs to complete promotional activities remotely.
Moreover, affordable access to skilled professionals helps maintain the quality of your marketing materials online. Vendors regularly train workers and urge them to monitor the latest industry trends. They can introduce your unique brand to local or international customers.
The Bottom Line
Digital marketing is crucial to reaching your customers globally or locally. However, the high volume of tasks and increasing expenses hinder your team from maintaining your market position.
Fortunately, BPO companies offer cost-effective ways to produce and monitor high-quality online content. Service providers deliver unmatched benefits to expand your digital presence despite the challenges.
Let’s connect if you want a BPO partner capable of streamlining your digital marketing campaigns. Unity Communications regularly trains its dynamic team and optimizes advanced technology to ensure superior output when outsourcing your digital marketing.
