Marketing processes to outsource, and the ones to keep

Key takeaways

The marketing processes to outsource are the production and running of channels: content production, social posting, email campaigns, reporting and website updates. Strategy, positioning, offers and pricing stay in-house. Most SMEs get the best results from a split where the owner sets direction monthly and a managed team delivers consistently.

• Outsource: content production, posting, email, reporting, web updates.
• Split: campaign planning, paid ads management.
• Keep: strategy, positioning, offers and pricing.
• Consistency usually beats occasional brilliance.

Which marketing processes outsource best?

Repeatable production with a clear standard: writing and designing content to brand guidelines, scheduling and posting on social, building and sending emails, updating the website and producing a monthly report. These are where in-house marketing stalls when the business gets busy.

• Which business processes should you outsource?
• Email marketing outsourcing: what to hand over
• Website content updates: who should make the changes?
• In-house versus agency social media for UK businesses

Which marketing processes should be split?

Campaign planning, where a provider proposes and the owner decides. Paid advertising, where daily management moves and budget and targeting decisions stay. Community management, where routine replies move and sensitive conversations come back to you.

• Campaign planning: proposals out, decisions in.
• Paid ads: management out, budget in.
• Community: routine replies out, sensitive ones in.

• Marketing reporting: one monthly view across channels
• Paid social in-house vs agency: who should run your ads?

Which marketing processes stay in-house?

Strategy, positioning, the offers you make and the prices you charge. These commit the business and need knowledge of customers and plans. Outside advisers can challenge and help articulate them, but the owner decides.

• Should you outsource brand strategy?
• Should you outsource pricing? Why the decision stays in-house

What does outsourcing marketing processes cost?

Costs vary widely by channel and volume. A managed team handling production and reporting usually costs less than an in-house marketing hire, but a specialist agency for strategy or paid media costs more per hour. Compare the cost of the processes you need, not of a whole department. We discuss requirements rather than quoting a rate card.

• In-house marketing team vs agency: the cost compared
• Social media agency pricing in the UK

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: marketing runs in bursts when the owner has time and stops when they do not. Moving production to a steady routine, with a monthly direction meeting, gives consistency without losing control.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Marketing process checklist

Agree these with any provider.

• Brand guidelines and tone of voice.
• Monthly direction meeting.
• Approval route for content and offers.
• Channels and volumes for each month.
• One monthly report across channels.

• The process selection score: outsource, split or keep?
• Sales processes to outsource without losing deals

Next step

Tell us which marketing you do today and what keeps slipping. We will suggest which processes to move and how the split would work.