So what’s an Outsourced Marketing Department, anyway?

Our Outsourced Marketing Department (OMD) is a subscription service that gives companies access to a comprehensive team of marketing specialists to complete nearly any marketing task.

Our service is delivered for a flat monthly fee, a cost that is about 30% less than the cost of employing an in-house team, providing ongoing training, and purchasing equipment and software. When you use an OMD, it’s like the equivalent of getting 11+ FTEs (full-time equivalents).

We assign a marketing director who meets with our clients on a regular basis, usually weekly or bi-weekly. The marketing director quickly develops an understanding of the client’s business, which enables them to recommend plans and tactics that help achieve the client’s goals. The marketing director involves other RSM team members as needed and may also bring those team members into client meetings when it makes sense.

What services are included in an OMD?

We establish a bank of monthly hours that they can use toward any service offered by our team of marketing experts, which includes:

• Marketing Strategy
• Copywriting
• Graphic Design
• Video Production
• Photography
• Editing
• Web Design
• Custom Programming
• Search Engine Optimization
• Online Advertising
• Social Media management
• Campaign Management & Reporting
• Text Message Marketing
• Public Relations
• Media Buying & Planning
• Radio Marketing

What Motivates Our Clients to Outsource Their Marketing

Costs

We see this situation frequently. A prospective client knows they need to expand their marketing team, but when they actually start to crunch the numbers, they hesitate (and for good reason).

You invest more than a base salary in a new hire. You must also account for the sales and general administration costs of that person’s role, plus the opportunity cost of your time finding, training, and managing them.

An Overworked Team

During a high growth phase, it’s often faster and cheaper to outsource staff or processes. For instance, if you have more than 100 hours of marketing work that needs to be completed every week and only two people to take care of it all, it may be time to consider outsourcing your marketing to an outside firm — especially if at the moment you can’t afford to hire another full-time employee.

Burnout

Yes, marketing, party of one… your table is now ready. Initially, your marketing resource has feelings of independence and freedom on their marketing island, but as time goes on, all they feel is fatigue.

Lack of Follow-Through

You know the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Well, in this case, hell is more like a marketing purgatory. This method of “do-it-yourself marketing” typically leads to nothing getting done, because there just isn’t time. The motivation is there, but the hours in the day are not.

Marketing Unicorns

They can do a little bit of everything. These unicorns can fall into the burnout category, but often, their jack-of-all-trades approach ultimately means they are a master of none.

The Value of an OMD

Brings in Expertise

Gaining access to an integrated set of marketing technologies can be timely and expensive. A better solution is to outsource specific marketing functions to professionals who already have experience working with the latest leading-edge technology. With a sufficiently experienced outsourced marketing team, deploying new applications or subscribing to them in real-time can help simplify a once difficult financial decision.

On top of that, an outsourced team has access to specialized software, tools, and marketing management services that are necessary for formulating, executing, and monitoring effective marketing campaigns. You don’t have to worry about buying the latest applications, training your team, or expanding your payroll. Outsourcing offers an all-in-one solution with smaller overhead costs.

Features a Streamlined Reporting Process

If your in-house team is too focused on creating and executing campaigns, they might not find the time to monitor the results and check which strategies deliver and which underperform. With outsourced teams, you’ll receive regularly receive detailed performance reports with numbers and data showing website performance, number of leads, and more.

Allows You To Prioritize

OMD-subscribing companies often find huge value in turning over work that’s light-touch but high-frequency. These types of recurring projects can weigh internal marketing teams down. It’s the kind of stuff that should be done, but often, it’s the stuff that falls second to whatever needs to be done most.

Helps You Eliminate “IF”

When there are more hands on deck, there’s more time to breathe. Marketing teams who are burning the candle at both ends find themselves saying things like, “IF we had more time, then we could focus on this.”

Keeps Your Team Motivated

No one likes a team that’s burned out. Your employees will feel lousy and the work and success of your company will suffer. If you’ve been stretching your team too thin, it’s time to spread the load before you risk costly employee turnover. Think of your RSM OMD as an extension to your internal marketing team, but without the financial overhead.

Gives You Movement

Action. Action. We want action! We’re all about strategy and seeing the big picture, but we also believe in knocking out “easy wins.” To hold ourselves, and our clients, accountable, we have regular status meetings on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. We use these meetings to discuss where we’re at and where we’re headed. Both our team and yours leave these meetings with new tasks.

10 Reasons to Worry About A Competitor Using an OMD

1. They aren’t Burning out Their Team.

The beauty of an OMD is that it works like a spigot. Subscribers can dial it up during peak, labor-intensive months, and dial it back down during steadier months—all with a predictable, flat monthly fee. When we onboard a new client, they can hand over as much, or as little work to us as they’d like. Though more often than not, we hear “No, please, just take it ALL!”

2. They’re Achieving Breakthrough.

While there are other agencies out there who are trying to recreate our OMD model, no one can copy our secret sauce—breakthrough.

If your competitor is working with us, this should scare you the most!

We’re not a production house, we’re not a design shop, we’re not a website company. We’re a total marketing solution whose sole purpose is to deliver business breakthrough for our clients.

3. They Have an Entrepreneurial Partner.

Companies can end up working inside imaginary bubbles of what’s expected or what has “always been done.” We’re an entrepreneurial firm serving entrepreneurial-minded clients. We work with clients who like to challenge the status quo and flip everything on its head. Companies with an OMD have a powerful partner. It’s the kind of partnership that allows us to arrive somewhere remarkable!

4. They’re Working with a Company that Gets Start-ups.

We’re an entrepreneurial firm working with entrepreneurial-minded clients. Decisions can’t take weeks, they need to be made in days, even hours. When we onboard new clients, our initial discussions are about their business goals, not tactics. With an outsourced marketing department, you get the muscle to get things done, but more importantly, you gain a strategic partner.

5. They’re Up-to-date on the Latest Tactics and Trends.

New marketing tactics are emerging every day, so it’s difficult for the average marketer to keep up. With an OMD, a company doesn’t need to stay up-to-date on new tactics and marketing trends, because they’ve got a team doing that for them!

6. They are Moving the Ball Forward.

At RSM Marketing, we have three governing values: curiosity, candor, and action. Each value has significant importance, but the most tangible, and distinguishable, is action. Some firms talk the talk, but they never walk the walk.

Companies with an OMD from RSM are feeling the momentum and so are their competitors! We’re strategic, but we also know how to grab “quick wins” right out-of-the-gate.

7. They aren’t banging their head against the wall.

RSM Marketing is often the go-to for “orphaned” projects and ideas. We simply figure it out! Because we’re technology agnostic, we’re willing to learn quickly and help clients with whatever situations are stumping them.

8. They’re Tight with Google.

We’ve been a Google Partner since 2013, which means that we have special access to Google. We get sneak previews of new products, enjoy key insights, and have an ear to bend if we’re troubleshooting issues or need direction on behalf of a client.

To maintain our Google Partner status, we must pass annual exams across a wide range of online marketing specializations including search advertising, display advertising, mobile advertising, video advertising, shopping advertising, and Google Analytics reporting. We also must consistently run campaigns that perform above industry averages for click-through, conversion, and cost-efficiency.

So when it comes to Google, it pays to have an inside track..

9. They’re Saving Money.

Would you want to hire and manage more than 11 people or when you could work with one service provider? Not only does an OMD subscription deliver more experience than you could hire yourself, but you are also saving money! Money that you can put into expanding the marketing budget!

10. They’re Probably Having More Fun.

Companies using an OMD have great marketing campaigns and results that’ll make you drool—but even worse, they’re probably having fun while doing it! We love what we do and it shows! That natural joy spills over into the interactions we have with our clients, too. We’ve learned that when the relationship is good, the results always follow.

Things to Consider Before Outsourcing Your Marketing

Outsourcing your marketing can help you save money, gain access to a range of valuable skills, and free up time for other activities. However, there are certain factors that need to be in place to make it successful and efficient.

Do you know what you want to achieve?

Just like an internal team, an outsourced marketing team needs a clear vision and targets to hit in order to be effective. It’s also important to be able to commit to the process and stick to project plans.

Do you have someone to act as a marketing point person, with the authority to make decisions?

This individual doesn’t need to be a marketing expert but should have deep knowledge of your company’s services, culture, market, vision, and goals. It’s also crucial that the point person has the authority to sign off on projects completed by the outsourced team.

Do you have time to dedicate to marketing?

Time savings is one of the main reasons companies outsource their marketing. Still, there is a time investment involved, albeit a far smaller one, for your marketing efforts to be successful.

You can expect meetings at the beginning of the project to lay out goals and strategy, as well as regularly planned status meetings to review results.

Are you open to new ideas?

Is your company accepting of change, and willing to consider new strategies?

One of the major advantages an outsourced marketing firm brings to the table is an outside perspective. Another is knowledge of the latest marketing techniques and rapidly evolving technologies. They may recommend changes to what you’re doing now in terms of marketing or suggest exploring new areas you hadn’t considered.

Ready to free up some capacity on your marketing team and achieve breakthrough? It’s easy to get started.

Contact Managing Partner Mike Snyder

316-619-3926
[email protected]

We often get a subscription scope and rate worked out in a day and can have started work within a week.