Businesses in almost every field face increasingly sophisticated competition when it comes to marketing and lead conversion.
Especially for SMEs, digital is an all the more important part, as it's a powerful growth lever that costs less than traditional marketing.
However, finding the skills you need to stay competitive without spending a fortune is a pressing issue.
To address this issue, outsourcing is becoming an increasingly common strategy, offering greater agility, flexibility and less risk on a number of levels.
In this article, we will detail what it means in concrete terms to call on an outsourced marketing director or a small part of the marketing team.
What is the role of a marketing manager?
As the main person in charge of the marketing department, the director's role is above all that of a supervisor.
With the help of his team, a digital marketing director must implement the company's strategic orientations, draw up a marketing plan and manage the brand image.
The specific missions of a marketing manager
Know your target
To fully understand the target market, it is necessary to conduct research into consumer behavior. This often involves detailed observations such as surveys and statistical analyses.
Drawing up a marketing plan
Once the target has been defined, the marketing plan can be drawn up along four main lines:
- The product
- The price
- Place (or distribution)
- Promotion (or communication)
In marketing jargon, these axes are also known as the "4Ps" or "marketing mix". They refer to operational tasks in line with the strategies set well in advance.
Team coordination
An outsourced marketing manager organizes regular meetings to monitor the progress of all projects in parallel.
Generally, department heads present him with the actions taken to date and the results, often illustrated by figures.
Create, deploy and manage a digital strategy
For example, proper SEO, e-mailing, CRM and website optimization enable companies to generate new customers in a way that is efficient both in terms of workflow and finances.
Work closely with sales management
Even though marketing involves research and strategic direction, the ultimate goal is always to sell a good or service.
This means that a marketing manager must work directly with sales teams to understand the real impact of marketing efforts, so as to refine the marketing approach over time.
Outsourced digital marketing: what are the advantages for SMEs?
Outsourced marketing professionals master these specific missions in a variety of contexts, offering companies several advantages:
Avoid the risk of recruiting unsuitable profiles
Recruitment is one of the most delicate tasks in any company.
Especially when it comes to a management position, the wrong choice can be very costly to the company, not only because of an unjustifiably high salary, but also because of a sub-optimal brand image that impacts sales and stunts growth.
Time-saving
En confiant le marketing à une équipe externe, une entreprise peut se concentrer sur son cœur de métier, laissant les experts en marketing gérer les campagnes et stratégies.
Cela permet de consacrer plus de temps et de ressources à l’optimisation du service client, de ses produits ou services, et de sa stratégie commerciale.
Structure your digital marketing more flexibly
Outsourcing is often used by SMEs to structure their digital marketing before bringing skills in-house.
This enables them to adopt a functional marketing strategy effectivelyfrom the outset, without going through a long learning curve.
Transform fixed costs into variable costs
Actual marketing needs evolve and can depend on a number of factors, such as seasonality, competitors' strategies and the impact of the economy on the market in question.
An external agency can adjust its services according to needs at any time, without the constraints of an in-house structure.
Access to specialized skills
External marketing professionals often have experts in various fields (SEO, content marketing, social networks, etc.), offering specialized know-how that is difficult to find in-house.
New and innovative perspectives
Working with an external team brings a fresh perspective to marketing strategies, enabling innovative approaches to be implemented to better reach the target audience.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution in marketing, as each target naturally resonates with a specific language and strategy, which are constantly evolving.
The experience that outsourced marketing managers or outsourced marketing teams have built up through a number of projects enables them to anticipate what will and won't work for different targets, and to show you concrete examples before embarking on the execution of a well thought-out marketing strategy.
What's more, outsourced marketing agencies are constantly on the lookout for new trends and technologies, so that companies can benefit from the latest innovations and stay one step ahead of their competitors.
How to structure your digital marketing?
At Digital 64, we have created an offering at the crossroads of the three ways of managing digital marketing to combine the benefits of each of these means:
1. Use freelancers
Freelancers, or independent workers, are professionals who offer their services to customers without being bound by a long-term employment contract with a specific company.
They work autonomously, often for several customers simultaneously, and manage their own schedules, pricing and projects.
Using specialized freelancers (marketing director, copywriter, videographer, etc.) for every need without going through an external agency offers a few advantages:
- Flexible costs
- Specialized expertise
- Quick start
However, working exclusively with freelancers can bring challenges in terms of coordination, consistency and project management, as freelancers work independently and may have limited availability.
Relying on freelancers means juggling several providers to cover all aspects of the project, increasing the complexity of a strategy that is supposed to simplify marketing processes.
2. Use an agency
Unlike freelancers, who work in isolation, an agency provides a complete team of specialized professionals who collaborate to ensure project consistency and quality, offering scalability.
This allows for better coordination and smoother management, especially for complex projects requiring multiple skills.
Agencies provide a range of integrated services, from strategic consulting to technical execution, simplifying the process by centralizing all services under one roof.
Key benefits of going through an outsourced marketing agency:
- Multi-skills
- Responsiveness and support
- Long-term support
3. Internal recruitment
Recruiting internally is more expensive and time-consuming, but it brings three major benefits:
- Combine strategic and operational expertise: in-house people have a global view of the company, enabling them to make progress on both strategy and operations.
- Facilitate the implementation of appropriate marketing tools: it's also easier to identify the tools that will best help the company and its employees.
- Skills transfer: recruiting internally also means having a greater guarantee of know-how that lasts and is passed on.
By combining the advantages of these 3 ways of managing digital marketing, we have succeeded in building a flexible transitional offer to structure your digital marketing before a possible internalization of skills.
Digital 64 - an alternative to marketing recruitment
Located in Biarritz and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Digital 64 is a web and marketing agency that specifically supports startups and SMEs in their digital development, offering a real alternative to recruitment in the company's growth and acceleration phase.
We are particularly suited to companies that meet the following criteria:
- Need advice and support on several digital levers
- Wish to save time and efficiency by not having to manage several freelancers at the same time
- Wish to structure, test and optimize before recruiting internally
- From 3 to 80 employees
- Need to accelerate to meet their objectives before or after raising funds
- B2B sector with longer buying cycles and higher average shopping baskets
- With or without a Marketing Manager
What are our concrete marketing strategies?
Led by a marketing manager and implemented by a team of experts, we define action plans based on the 4 main pillars of digital marketing strategy:
- Growth: Data, analytics, automation, productivity, experimentation
- Conversion: A/B testing, nurturing, buying cycle, UX
- Traffic: SEO, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, E-mailing
- Brand: Branding, positioning, partnerships, authority, content
If our approaches resonate with your objectives, we'd be delighted to help you grow!
Businesses in almost every field face increasingly sophisticated competition when it comes to marketing and lead conversion.
Surtout pour les PME, le digital est une partie d’autant plus importante, car il s’agit d’un levier de croissance puissant et moins coûteux que le marketing traditionnel.Cependant, trouver les compétences nécessaires pour rester compétitif sans dépenser une fortune est un enjeu pressant.Afin de répondre à cette problématique, l’externalisation est une stratégie qui devient de plus en plus courante, permettant plus d’agilité, de flexibilité et moins de risques à plusieurs niveaux.Dans cet article, nous allons détailler ce que signifie concrètement faire appel à un directeur marketing externalisé ou bien une petite partie de l’équipe marketing.
What is the role of a marketing manager?
Étant le principal responsable de la direction marketing, le directeur joue avant tout un rôle de superviseur.Avec l’aide de son équipe, un directeur marketing digital doit mettre en place les orientations stratégiques de l’entreprise, élaborer un plan marketing et gérer l’image de marque.
The specific missions of a marketing manager
Know your target
To fully understand the target market, it is necessary to conduct research into consumer behavior. This often involves detailed observations such as surveys and statistical analyses.
Drawing up a marketing plan
Once the target has been defined, the marketing plan can be drawn up along four main lines:
- The product
- The price
- Place (or distribution)
- Promotion (or communication)
In marketing jargon, these axes are also known as the "4Ps" or "marketing mix". They refer to operational tasks in line with the strategies set well in advance.
Team coordination
Un directeur marketing externalisé organise des réunions régulières afin de suivre l’avancement de tous les projets en parallèle.Généralement, les chefs de départements lui présentent les actions réalisées à date et les résultats, souvent illustrés par des chiffres.
Create, deploy and manage a digital strategy
For example, proper SEO, e-mailing, CRM and website optimization enable companies to generate new customers in a way that is efficient both in terms of workflow and finances.
Work closely with sales management
Même si le marketing implique des études et des orientations stratégiques, l’objectif final est toujours de vendre un bien ou un service.Cela implique qu’un directeur marketing doit collaborer directement avec les équipes commerciales pour comprendre l’impact réel des efforts marketing afin d’affiner l’approche marketing au fil du temps.
Outsourced digital marketing: what are the advantages for SMEs?
Outsourced marketing professionals master these specific missions in a variety of contexts, offering companies several advantages:
Avoid the risk of recruiting unsuitable profiles
Le recrutement est l’une des tâches les plus délicates au sein de toute entreprise.Surtout lorsqu’il s’agit d’un poste de direction, un mauvais choix peut coûter très cher à l’entreprise, non seulement en raison d’un salaire élevé qui ne se justifie pas, mais aussi à cause d’une image de marque sous-optimale qui impacte les ventes et freine la croissance.
Time-saving
En confiant le marketing à une équipe externe, une entreprise peut se concentrer sur son cœur de métier, laissant les experts en marketing gérer les campagnes et stratégies.Cela permet de consacrer plus de temps et de ressources à l’optimisation du service client, de ses produits ou services, et de sa stratégie commerciale.
Structure your digital marketing more flexibly
Souvent, l’externalisation est utilisée par les PME pour structurer leur marketing digital avant d’internaliser les compétences.Cela permet d’adopter une stratégie de marketing fonctionnelle dès le début et de manière efficace sans passer par une longue courbe d’apprentissage.
Transform fixed costs into variable costs
Les besoins réels en marketing évoluent et peuvent dépendre de plusieurs facteurs tels que la saisonnalité, les stratégies des concurrents et l’impact de l’économie sur le marché en question.Une agence externe peut ajuster ses services en fonction des besoins à tout moment, sans les contraintes d’une structure interne.
Access to specialized skills
Les professionnels du marketing externes disposent souvent d’experts dans divers domaines (SEO, content marketing, réseaux sociaux, etc.), offrant un savoir-faire pointu difficile à trouver en interne.
New and innovative perspectives
Travailler avec une équipe externe apporte un regard neuf sur les stratégies marketing, permettant de mettre en œuvre des approches innovantes pour mieux atteindre le public cible.Il n’y a pas de solution universelle en marketing, car chaque cible résonne naturellement avec un langage et une stratégie spécifiques, qui évoluent constamment.L’expérience que les directeurs marketing externalisés ou les équipes marketing externalisées ont développée à travers plusieurs projets leur permet d’anticiper ce qui fonctionnera ou non selon la cible, et de vous montrer des exemples concrets avant de se lancer dans l’exécution d’une stratégie marketing bien réfléchie.De plus, les agences de marketing externes sont en permanence à l’affût des nouvelles tendances et technologies pour que les entreprises puissent bénéficier des dernières innovations et garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents.
How to structure your digital marketing?
At Digital 64, we have created an offering at the crossroads of the three ways of managing digital marketing to combine the benefits of each of these means:
1. Use freelancers
Les freelances, ou travailleurs indépendants, sont des professionnels qui offrent leurs services à des clients sans être liés par un contrat de travail à long terme avec une entreprise spécifique.Ils travaillent de manière autonome, souvent pour plusieurs clients simultanément, et gèrent leur propre emploi du temps, tarification et projets.Faire appel à des freelances spécialisés (directeur marketing, rédacteur, vidéaste, etc.) pour chaque besoin sans passer par une agence externe offre quelques avantages :
- Flexible costs
- Specialized expertise
- Quick start
Cependant, travailler exclusivement avec des freelances peut entraîner des défis en matière de coordination, de cohérence et de gestion de projet, car les freelances travaillent de manière indépendante et peuvent avoir une disponibilité limitée.Compter sur des freelances nécessite de jongler avec plusieurs prestataires pour couvrir tous les aspects du projet, augmentant ainsi la complexité d’une stratégie qui est censée simplifier les processus marketing.
2. Use an agency
Contrairement aux freelances, qui travaillent de manière isolée, une agence met à disposition une équipe complète de professionnels spécialisés qui collaborent pour garantir la cohérence et la qualité du projet, offrant une capacité de montée en charge.Cela permet une meilleure coordination et une gestion plus fluide, surtout pour des projets complexes nécessitant plusieurs compétences.Les agences fournissent une gamme de services intégrés, du conseil stratégique à l’exécution technique, ce qui simplifie le processus en centralisant toutes les prestations sous un même toit.Les avantages clés de passer par une agence marketing externalisée :
- Multi-skills
- Responsiveness and support
- Long-term support
3. Internal recruitment
Recruiting internally is more expensive and time-consuming, but it brings three major benefits:
- Combiner l’expertise stratégique et opérationnelle : en interne, les personnes ont une vue globale sur l’entreprise permettant au mieux d’avancer à la fois sur la stratégie et l’opérationnel
- Faciliter la mise en place d’outils marketing adaptés : il est également plus facile d’identifier les outils qui seront le plus à même d’aider l’entreprise et ses salariés
- Skills transfer: recruiting internally also means having a greater guarantee of know-how that lasts and is passed on.
By combining the advantages of these 3 ways of managing digital marketing, we have succeeded in building a flexible transitional offer to structure your digital marketing before a possible internalization of skills.
Digital 64 – une alternative au recrutement marketing
Située à Biarritz et Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Digital 64 est une agence web et marketing qui accompagne spécifiquement les startups et PME dans leur développement digital, en proposant une vraie alternative au recrutement dans la phase de croissance et d‘accélération de l‘entreprise.Nous sommes particulièrement adaptés pour les entreprises qui répondent aux critères suivants :
- Need advice and support on several digital levers
- Wish to save time and efficiency by not having to manage several freelancers at the same time
- Wish to structure, test and optimize before recruiting internally
- From 3 to 80 employees
- Need to accelerate to meet their objectives before or after raising funds
- B2B sector with longer buying cycles and higher average shopping baskets
- With or without a Marketing Manager
What are our concrete marketing strategies?
Led by a marketing manager and implemented by a team of experts, we define action plans based on the 4 main pillars of digital marketing strategy:
- Growth: Data, analytics, automation, productivity, experimentation
- Conversion: A/B testing, nurturing, buying cycle, UX
- Traffic: SEO, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, E-mailing
- Brand: Branding, positioning, partnerships, authority, content
If our approaches resonate with your objectives, we'd be delighted to help you grow!
