Marketing outsourcing ideas, concepts and methods explained

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Contents

1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................2

2. Marketing Outsourcing As A Business Model..............................................................................3

3. Different Types Of Marketing Outsourcing..................................................................................4

4. Email Marketing And Its Power...................................................................................................6

5. Role of content in the digital marketing sphere............................................................................7

6. Social Media Outsourcing..........................................................................................................8

7. Conclusion................................................................................................................................9

“Today’s marketing success comes from self-publishing Web content that people want to share. It’s not about gimmicks. It’s

not about paying an agency to interrupt others.”

David Meerman Scott, Author, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, from BtoB Magazine, March, 2008








Marketing outsourcing is not a very new concept as has been talked about. It has been around on a

small scale basis for ages. In comparison to IT, marketing outsourcing is a weathered fellow, but

with bigger processes and opportunities today. With businesses booming and sales orders

touching billions of dollars, the capabilities and resources of companies are under severe stress.

This is where outsourcing steps in. Many large scale companies are able to cope with massive

projects because they outsource crucial functions to experts. Expert is the key word we will be

focusing on here, because marketing outsourcing is a tricky concept, and only experts can pull it off.

Considering the rise of content, email marketing and more recently, social media marketing,

outsourcing these have become an important factor.

In this white paper we will outline how the outsourcing industry works, why it works and touch upon

certain strategic areas of marketing outsourcing such as email, content and social media

marketing.

Introduction

The pie is here for you to take, which piece

will you choose?








Marketing outsourcing revenues grew by a steady 8% in the year 2011. This is a positive sign in

times of economic turmoil and upheaval. This statistic gives us an in depth understanding of the

reach and power of marketing outsourcing and why it has become so popular and wildly successful.

Various avenues have opened up for the discerning marketer. Be it advertising, sales, content,

websites, you name it and there is an opportunity waiting to be capitalized on. Marketing

outsourcing as a whole is a huge concept and it encompasses the entire spectrum of marketing

ranging from advertising the product to after sales support. Marketing gurus have been quick to

point out that this is the new order of the millennium.

Over the years, marketing has evolved, from rudimentary times of sales person’s knocking on your

door, regaling you with benefits of the product umpteen numbers of times. Television brought

advertising into the drawing room. Millions were spent of 10 second adverts using every trick in the

book to make the product, however poorly incapable, look phenomenal. As time passed, people

became aware of the massive misrepresentation of information and how unidirectional it had

become.

And round about the same time, the internet emerged. With its set of interactive features, reach and

growth potential, the printed word was going online, being read and acted upon. This threw open a

whole bag of opportunities, businesses woke up to its power and everything went viral.

Marketing divisions in many businesses are big; teeming with ideas and yes, the money is good.

But with the marketing scene changing dramatically, selling a product has become a chore and not

a joy.

The initial reason for the outsourcing phenomenon to work is as follows:

1. Lower cost per project

2. Higher ROI

3. faster deliverability

4. Availability of specialized talent

These are fantastic benefits to say the least, and the smart marketing CEO latched onto it. When it

was in its nascent stage, marketing outsourcing was not streamlined as it is now. A business

process and flow were created to manage the huge inflow of projects.

Marketing Outsourcing as a Business Model








There are 3 different core types of marketing outsourcing companies. They are classified according

to the way in which they operate.

1. Project based

2. Customer based

3. Project and customer based

1) Project based outsourcing companies are small scale, working on independent needs of larger

companies. These companies have very focused teams driving the projects and are able to provide

better results than larger corporations. On the downside, they are low on resources and may not be

able to gain bigger contracts due to constraints within.

2) Customer based outsourcing companies take up complete marketing duties for the customer.

This is typically seen with larger corporations who outsource their entire marketing operations to a

vendor.

There are advantages such as cost effectiveness and marketing worries being transferred out of

the company corridors. It adds a lot of value to the customer because they can dedicate their

energies towards core functions of the company.

Disadvantages are that ideas can clash and the customer may not be fully satisfied with the

endeavors of the vendor. Responsibilities are tremendously huge and hence they need to be taken

care of in a very professional manner.

3) Project and customer based companies are doing the best business now. They have a good mix

of complete marketing outsourcing for products and also take independent projects. For a

marketing outsourcing company to become a project and customer based provider is not an easy

task and requires a lot of effort and streamlined processes.

Different Types of Marketing Outsourcing

“Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website with a poor customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes.” Bryan Eisenberg, Call to Action

Given below is a detailed process chart of the key process of marketing outsourcing.








+Client Has Product/Service To Market And Sell*

Client May Also Need Resources i.e. Data, IT Enabled Services

And So On*

Client Unable To Maintain Momentum Since Resources Used For Time

Consuming Processes

Vendor Does Research And Gives Reply With Quote

Client Gives Requirement To Marketing Outsourcing

Client And Vendor Come To An Agreement On Project

Project Is Executed By Vendor And Delivered To Client

*The client need may range from product creation, launch, selling; branding and other such associated marketing needs, to various requirements such as data, resources, and

HR operations, IT services and so on.

Depending on the type of requirement, vendors provide solutions.








What do you look for while outsourcing email marketing?

These are some of the insights from a Marketingsherpa research chart. The top result is for an email

service provider. Today, email marketing has evolved into one of the strongest ways of marketing. It

has in fact one of the highest ROI’s among all the marketing tools.

Since it is so effective, it does come with issues too. One of the most significant problems is of plenty.

At one point of time, bulk emailing was the norm. Millions were sent out in a day. The effect of this

was catastrophic.

The industry still reels from its after effects, and hence email marketers have to be on their toes.

Effective fail safe mechanisms to beat these issues have to be in place to be an email marketing

outsourcing firm of repute.

Email Marketing and Its Power

71%Email service provider

Email Deliverability monitoring Service

Email Preview Service

Email Analytics Service

Spam Filter Testing Service

Reputation/blacklist monitoring Service

Testing and Optimization Service

List hygiene/scrubbing Service

Design Firm

Agency

Certification/Accreditation Service

39%

32%

29%

28%

18%

16%

15%

12%

10%

8%

Source : 2011 MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded July 2011, N=2,735








1. SPAM compliant email templates

2. Database which is verified and opted in

3. Strong server back up

4. Top of the line analytic tools

These are just few of the many guidelines which email marketers need to follow. When done

effectively, email marketing can create incredible results. The reach and power that an email

message has cannot be compared to any other tool.

These are very apt words to explain content marketing. When an email message is sent out, the

content inside it is what persuades the reader to act. Making it sharp, precise, aggressively

positioned and true to its words is what an effective email campaigner should look for.

Content marketing has come a long way from just text documents to a whole arsenal of collaterals

ranging from the humble whitepaper to the very effective know it all guide.

Role of Content in the Digital Marketing Sphere:

“Content is NOT king – seeding and promotion tactics of said content is king.” Brian Chappell, via Twitter

B2B Content Marketing Challenges (% of respondents)

December 2011

42%

18%

20%

12%

7%

1%

Producing the kind of contest that engages prospects/customers

Producing enough content

Budget to Produce content

Lack of buy-in/vision from higher ups

Producing a Variety of Content

Budget to license content








SEO writing has become an integral part of website development. Search engines love content, and

the more original it is, the better. Blogging is also a very effective medium to create a dialogue.

Websites are not very dynamic but blogs are the opposite, and hence leveraging them is what gets a

conversation going online.

Lead generation has also become closely tied to content. The sales funnel has been designed in

such a way that leads are nurtured with appropriate collateral at the appropriate stage. Content

ranging from white papers, guides, manuals, primers and so on are incorporated into the lead

nurturing program.

Inbound marketing is the new kid on the block. The art of persuading the lead to do business with

you through carefully planned content strategies is called inbound marketing. A majority of the top

500 emerging companies are hard core inbound marketers. This is reason enough to invest in the

phenomenon.

Social media has taken the digital world by storm. Having a strong social media presence today has

become a vital part of branding. Social media has added an extra feature and that is accountability.

Brands are created and destroyed with the same zeal on social media sites.

Social Media Outsourcing

69%

69%

My company always answera when a customer asks a question online and/or offline

Employee participate in conversations with customers and clients

My company offers objective added value when dealing with commercial questions from customers

My company admits its mistakes and apologizes to the customer

My company managers its conversations itself

My company monitors customer conversations both online and offline

The conclusions of these observations are shared with all employees

My company sometimes posts questions on public forums to gain input and feedback from customers

My company participates in online conversations

57%

48%

40%

38%

37%

36%

56%








This research chart furnished by marketingcharts.com clearly shows the position conversations

have on social media. Social media outsourcing has great potential, mainly because many

companies do not have the time to invest on social media.

When a company outsources its social media initiative, the vendor carefully plans out its brand

image on social sharing sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. An entire social media brand

is created which gives the product or service a voice capable of reaching its target audience in an

informal way.

Marketing outsourcing has come a long way and today we see a lot of technology incorporated into

it. Lead management software and customer resource management platforms have made lead

generation precise and effective. Various digital channels have been utilized to reach the prospect

right where he is.

It has decreased the strain on resources and has improved productivity, creating new opportunities

as it advances. Jump onto the marketing outsourcing bandwagon if you have not yet and see how it

can turn your business into a truly customer centric one.

Conclusion





