Many marketing departments struggle to keep up with the demands of cross-functional teams and their requests. Meeting pipeline growth, lead generation goals and contributing to quarterly sales targets can be an uphill battle. Deciding when to get help to boost productivity and drive marketing goals is something you need to weigh up.
Take a look at these three signals that indicate it’s time to start outsourcing your marketing:
When things aren’t getting done
Sometimes, there are too many requests, all with the same deadlines, urgencies and priorities. It’s likely that you may become paralysed by what needs to happen. Typically, it’s only normal that things start to slip, things don’t get started, or you never finish a job. It’s not without trying, but acknowledging when things are not getting done is the time to seek outside help.
When you need a fresh perspective
When sales are stalling, the pipeline needs a boost, and your marketing team are frequently playing catch up or firefighting, something’s got to change. If you are in this situation you may find it’s difficult to get the breathing space to bring the creativity you need to your work. Your marketing can also become stale simply because you’re so used to doing things the same way, just to get it done. To inject a fresh marketing perspective, you can outsource marketing as little or as much as you need. Sometimes all it takes is a little outside perspective to revitalise and kick-start growth.
When you need to resource ‘special’ projects
From time to time, businesses have ambitions to launch new products, enter new markets, and run conferences. Sometimes there may be a host of other ‘special’ projects which come along unplanned and unannounced. These situations don’t happen every day but when they do, they can be disruptive. Often you are left scrambling to resource the project. You may find the people required to resource these projects are already on their limit. And sometimes, you simply can’t complete these projects with just you and your team’s current capabilities. This is when you need a contingency. Only with additional outside help is it possible to meet the demands of ‘special’ projects. Employing an extra set of hands with the expertise to manage ad-hoc requests on a project basis can make your life a lot less stressful. It also enables you to keep the rest of your marketing plan on track. Where possible, think about outsourcing all or part of these ‘special projects’ and take advantage of choosing the right skill set for the job.
Next time you feel overwhelmed and can’t see the wood for the trees, review the tips above. Decide when you should outsource your marketing and what you can get help with.
