Marketing Boost Showdown: n-House vs Outsourcing Content Marketing Strategies

Over 73% of B2B plus around 70% of B2C marketers utilize content marketing to boost everything from click-through rates to SEO integration. Why? The truth is content is king. Sure, it may come in the shape of short videos, posts/articles, or quick photos on Instagram, but if the goal is to increase your online presence, a comprehensive content plan creates a marketing boost.

The only remaining challenge is learning how to start copywriting on your own, cultivating an in-house collection of specialists, or outsourcing to creative agencies. The goal should be to present a consistent and premium quality content strategy, so your target audience feels compelled to make a purchase, engage with your brand, or suggest your services to friends, family, coworkers, and peer business owners.

One key aspect of developing a robust content marketing strategy is deciding if insourcing or outsourcing to experts makes the most sense. Time to dig into the nitty-gritty details of which method works for your business.

Differences of Insourcing vs Outsourcing

First, let’s establish some simple definitions. In-house content marketing managers are those working directly for your business or firm. You are using the human assets and available resources within your company to create captivating content. This is sometimes known as “insourcing.”

Outsourcing is just the opposite. An outsourced content specialist is either people or resources outside your current operations. This could be professional creative agencies or freelancers who use their expertise to create highly engaging content aligned with your business goals.

All About Insourcing Content Marketing

When you decide your business needs to develop a content marketing strategy (whether B2B copywriting or B2C copywriting), you need to guide a team of in-house specialists. These are the people already associated with your company.

In most cases, insourcing means contacting a “lead” provider with a small team under their control for everything from SEO content services to social media management.

Pros of Insourcing:

• Build Stronger/Smarter Teams: In-house content as a service teams get way more professional development. They cultivate a strong working relationship and understand the deeper meaning of your goals and business attributes.
• Cost Effectiveness: Maintaining an in-house content marketing team is much more cost-effective than constantly trying to outsource to expensive freelancers. In addition, the materials and tools they use can be tax write-offs for your business operations.
• More Control: You have 100% control over the final created content when using in-house teams for a marketing boost. This ensures complete alignment with any brand guidelines and maintains consistency in your content voice.

Cons of Insourcing:

• Strategy First: Before you can leverage your content marketing manager inside your business, you need to have an effective strategy that considers your goals, target audience, formats, and distribution channels.
• Multiple Touchpoints: If you don’t have a highly skilled team, the different hands touching your content may not be up to the task. An outsourced team has a specialty in your niche and already knows how to start copywriting from scratch.
• High Initial Investment: Building an in-house team costs a lot of money. You are hiring multiple team members with specialties like B2B copywriting, graphic design, social media management, SEO research, and more.

All About Outsourcing Content Marketing

External B2B copywriting from various creative agencies or expert freelancers is a viable choice for any business. Here, you are hiring talented content as a service providers to best implement your various content strategies.

In many cases, these SEO content services are developed through a full-service agency that “takes over” your strategy. That may be from initial content creation to final published pieces.

The other way to go with outsourcing content specialists is to hire freelancers. That gives your team way more flexibility when you need to scale.

Pros of Outsourcing:

• Adaptability: You get the chance to find the best-fit creative agencies for your unique needs. There is a massive diversity of freelancers and agencies available that have direct experience in your niche business services and products.
• Low Startup Costs: Outsourcing content marketing doesn’t require a large nest egg. The fees tend to be “instance-based,” so you can better budget your needs. Many of these freelancers rely on their reputation for success, so they have speedy turnaround times with your content.
• Flexibility and Scale: The most significant advantage of outsourcing content marketing is scaling with your business growth and flexibility. If you suddenly want to jump on an opportunity from a trend or insight, you can simply hire more expertise.

Cons of Outsourcing:

• Inconsistency: Working with outsourced content marketing managers can be inconsistent. If you haven’t developed strong working relationships, your B2B copywriting services may vary from provider to provider.
• Lack of Knowledge: An in-house content team will always know the subtle nuances of your operations better than an outsourced team. That isn’t to say external SEO content services or creative agencies cannot excel, but they will be operating at a disadvantage.
• Work with Other Clients: Most creative agencies work with multiple clients. While that does improve their ability to be more flexible and cover diverse topics, it can spread their attention. You want to collaborate with a team that has a lot of experience so they can showcase their talents for your needs.

Which Should You Choose: In-House or Outsourced Content Marketing

When you are weighing out which is better – in-house or outsourced content marketing – you need to consider the comprehensive approach to your business. Both methods offer distinct benefits, but outsourcing tends to be the better choice for most operations.

The reason for this is that you want compelling advantages like scalability and efficiency. An in-house team can get quickly overwhelmed, not to mention you are spending time and money that can be directed to other essential operations.

Hiring an external team with expertise and experience allows you to reap the many rewards of outsourcing in content marketing. As long as you do your research for the best content as a service provider available, you can experience massive gains in target market reach, market penetration, and online presence visibility.

Final Thoughts

With so many pieces of content flying all over the internet, your goal is to optimize every single word flowing from your brand. Hiring an outsourced team is a solid strategy, whether that is B2B copywriting for lead emails or SEO content services for engaging blogs to boost your online presence.

Running a business and developing the skills and expertise needed for a quality content marketing boost is next to impossible. Leave that to the experts at Smart Content and focus your resources better on other needs while your online presence soars through outsourced content marketing.