An excellent content marketing strategy works like a Rolex watch.
It’s difficult to create, but – if you get it right – the finished product will not only look stunning, but it will also work perfectly for years to come. Inversely, it's not nearly as expensive!
You'd never expect the local repairs shop to service your Rolex to the same standards as Rolex themselves would, would you?
Outsourced content marketing frees up your time to focus on what matters; your business. We've rounded up some solid reasons why you might want to consider outsourcing expertise to a Content Marketing Agency.
A Solution Fit For Purpose AND Budget
Let’s say you want to learn to play tennis.
You have two people with you on the court: a professional coach and someone with just as much (or as little) experience as you. Which person would you like to coach you? The same principle can be applied to content marketing.
You may rightly be concerned that the ‘content pro’ (like the tennis coach) would cost a small fortune to hire. But, that’s not the case when you explore your options.
If you want to create a content marketing campaign for your business and you’re not sure what a ‘content marketing campaign’ entails, you’re likely to look to the experts for an answer.
Whether you bring those experts in in-house or outsource is up to you. The cost of training and retaining in-house soon adds up.
The Cost of In-House: Time Is Money
If you create content in-house, you might find the costs stacking up quickly. A major aspect to consider is that content will take as long as it takes – and you pay set salaries.
An agency will have set deadlines and timeframes in place to ensure content is always produced to meet these. Since time is money, it’s a better deal already.
Not to mention your ability to vet an agency before hiring them - a much more challenging feat when hiring a team in-house!
Let's take a closer look at the financial costs of an internal content marketing team.
What Does an In-House Marketing Team Cost?
Consider if you hire a content marketing team in-house – you’ll have salaries to pay, downtime, benefits, overheads, pensions, National Insurance, sick pay, turnover costs, hiring costs...the list goes on!
What may seem like a budget-friendly option can quickly become more expensive than you bargained for. After all, you can’t expect Mark from accounting to write and edit five blogs a week and do his actual job, can you?
So what can a content team cost to assemble? We have used reliable industry sources to put our list together. Here’s the average cost of content marketing professionals (for more experienced workers, you’ll pay more) if you were to hire them in-house:
These four professionals alone would cost a whopping £132,890 a year, and with only one of each, there would be limitations on what you could actually create and the volume of content you could produce.
Then there are additional experts, often used by agencies, which are crucial to a successful marketing campaign. If you really need results you may also have to hire other employees which would specialise in:
Factoring in these additional employees to your own workforce would surmount £107,500 to your content marketing bill, bringing the total to a staggering £240,390.
An in house content marketing team costs approximately the equivalent of 6 top-of-the-range Tesla's (accurate at the time of updating)
Okay, if you’re among many of the largest companies who would spend over £500,000 a year on content marketing alone, these numbers aren’t daunting; but if your business operates on a tighter budget, they may be.
With all of the additional costs of employment to consider it is easy to see why the smart choice for a business is often to mitigate risk, save money, and outsource these roles.
(...SIX Tesla's?)
A Large Team for a Small Budget
If you’re concerned about the rising costs of an in-house team, it makes sense to outsource to professionals who live and breathe content marketing.
One of the key benefits of outsourcing is that you have access to a full team of professionals, with different skill sets, who all have input into your campaigns. So, you have the benefits of a large team - for a small budget.
This outsourced approach comes with built-in flexibility.
- If you need to turn on the taps, you can always increase your spend.
- When you have achieved your goals, you can easily reduce your spend.
If you have ever tried quickly increasing or reducing the headcount in your business you will know the difficulties and costs this can bring. Think of an agency as an extension of your team, without all the headaches that an extension of your team can bring! An agency is the most non-committal commitment you can make.
Where Can I Get the Best Content Marketing Services?
Often – as with economies of scale – an agency can offer more competitive rates because there are many people working on projects, and work can be completed faster and more efficiently.
You’ll also have a contract in place with an agency detailing agreed-upon costs, which gives you transparency from the outset. Outline your expectations and your budget, and a marketing agency should be able to shape a contract to meet your needs.
As you can see, hiring an agency for your content marketing is much more cost-effective (and more time-effective) than hiring an entire marketing team in-house.
And, if you try and do content marketing in-house without hiring a team or providing additional resources, if you expect already busy employees to add to their plate, you’ll likely not have happy campers.
Agencies Are Accountable: Measurable ROI
It’s no good just to create content and let it float out in the world (or, err, the internet). You need to know it’s working and that you’re getting your money’s worth – because, even if it’s less expensive, it may not be worth it if you aren’t generating the same or higher ROI.
When you outsource your content marketing to an agency, they will be able to show how well your content is working by using analytics tools to gather data and report. Having these figures gives you full transparency of which pieces of content are bringing in revenue, and which need tweaking (or time) to achieve better results.
If it takes your in-house team half their week to write blog posts and come up with campaign ideas, then it’s not cost-effective for your business. It’s recommended to assess your ROI when considering which aspects of content marketing are costing your team time, money, and stress. If any of your current content marketing has low ROI, it’s best to outsource to an expert who can do the work much more quickly. That way your experts can focus on what they are good at.
The Cost Of Industry Tools
Your internal software might not have the ability to track the performance of your content marketing, but an agency will be well-versed when it comes to tracking and analysing performance. They'll also foot the bill for the software needed to monitor, track, and report on your content's performance.
You can actually see where your money is going and the return that your investment is generating for your business. Plus, once you’ve paid for the content once, it’ll continue to give you returns for years to come.
Buy The Asset That Yields Returns
HubSpot notes that most content adds value over time (similar to compounding interest) because 75% of their blogs that currently rank are older blog posts, but this content provides 90% of their leads – and has more than paid for itself.
When you outsource your content marketing, it’s an initial cost, but it’s more than just that – it’s an investment that yields better returns the longer it's around. So once you’ve invested, you should expect returns with the real-time figures to prove it.
Why Is Outsourcing Your Content Marketing An Excellent Idea?
To summarise:
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- Building an in-house team of experts takes time
- And money... lots of money
- An agency gives you access to a range of useful talents and expertise without increasing the cost
- Agencies offer a faster turnaround time
- No lengthy tie-ins
- Agencies are accountable for results
- You're buying an asset that will yield results over time
- Agencies don't take sick days
An agency of experts provides access to a full range of tried and tested content marketing strategies that will generate results.
Content marketing takes a village, and only an agency can provide that at a price that meets your budget. Outsourcing your content marketing is cost-effective, fully optimised, and provides returns.
Looking for an Affordable Content Marketing Agency?
For us, Content Marketing is a bit more than a big deal.
When it comes to delivering successful lead generation campaigns, we create a complete marketing system. We step away from vanity metrics and focus on what matters – targeted traffic, qualified leads and converted sales opportunities.
We’re also a HubSpot Certified Agency Partner – an accreditation awarded to those who have brought the Inbound Marketing methodology to clients, and executed services to the highest standards.
Find out how our team of HubSpot and Digital experts can save you money, time, and resources by speaking to us or booking a free Marketing Assessment.
