Notice how I didn’t say, ‘Should you outsource’ to a digital marketing agency but ‘how much’ should you outsource. Let’s face it: today there are just too many platforms, best practices, tools, and search engine updates to keep up on. You need to focus on running your business. While your agency will certainly still need your input on strategy, it’s definitely a good idea to let them do the heavy lifting when it comes to building out your online campaigns. Let’s take a look at a few possible scenarios that you could follow to outsource the lion’s share of the work, and get the best results:

1) Social media: This is a time-consuming, albeit potentially rewarding part of your digital marketing mix. Since your fans will come to expect daily posting, you may wish to leave this aspect to a digital agency, along with allowing them to build special strategies to drive traffic to your website. Events, giveaways, and contests are just some of the tactics a digital marketing company can use to build excitement for you. The ability to consistently post and monitor engagement allows the agency to be highly responsive to your followers. This responsiveness along with the sharing of (created and curated) highly relevant and unique content can grow your social audience faster than you could on your own.

2) Paid search: PPC is notorious for being time and knowledge intensive. People who want to seriously use this channel to drive traffic should leave its management to professionals. An agency experienced in Google Adwords, Facebook ads, and other ad offerings will know which ones fit your demographic’s tastes. For example, if your agency is sure that Pinterest is where your audience is, they will build up a paid campaign there. The digital marketing agency will also know how to perform keyword research and place bids that will get you the targeted traffic you’re looking for. PPC is management intensive in addition to taking a lot of time. Do some careful interviewing of paid search professionals and find one that you feel comfortable with. Yes, you can become knowledgeable on this subject yourself. But that takes time and not everyone is suited to working on these types of campaigns. It’s recommended that you hire a pro.

3) Email marketing: This pairs well with social, and provides you with a great place to re-purpose some of your best content. You can ask for newsletter signups on social and follow through by delivering awesome content via email that’s helpful, upbeat and unique. So what if your city has a dozen pizza places; show people why yours can’t be beat. Or if you sell baby monitors, use email to highlight the features and offer coupons. Your digital marketing agency can help build your email list and convert these people into loyal customers.

4) Organic search: A good way to get bang for your buck is to ensure your agency shares the keyword research it conducts across all your campaigns. The idea is to gain as much Google first page real estate as possible, and the core of that mission starts with a solid organic campaign. Great content has always won the day with Google, and more marketers are spending more time and money today creating it. To be frank, you must meet this challenge. How? An effective method is to have your in-house people produce the most detailed articles, graphics, or videos (create graphics and videos only if you feel qualified and have time – otherwise you can provide all the background material for these and have your agency create them). Have your agency optimize them for search.

The digital agency can be responsible for two main tasks:

a) Finding the best platforms to showcase your content. One of your digital marketing agency’s most important jobs is to find places where your audience likes to congregate then serve them content there. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Houzz, or any of the other current social, education, or business platforms, your content needs to be shared where your audience is most likely to see it.

b) Creating a steady flow of additional content to ensure your company’s name stays in the news.

There are some highly talented writers and graphic design folks out there who can create the unique content you need to stay out in front of your competitors. If you don’t have time or don’t have the resources to compete, then make the most of the best tools, and if you’ve hired an agency, ask them if they use some of the top content creation tools such as Canva, PromoRepublic, Storify and Haiku Deck.

Remember, outsourcing your online marketing doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. Keep some marketing in-house if you want to; many companies do. For best results (higher conversions and brand recognition plus improved trust and loyalty) consider outsourcing some of your campaigns. Take some time to interview the digital agencies you’re interested in and get to know them. Then once you find a firm that you want to work with, be ready to help them succeed. You can reap incredible rewards.

Organically Interactive can partner with you to get the most out of your existing assets, plus help you create new ones to make your marketing campaigns a success. Talk to us today about your online marketing goals and let’s get you a bigger piece of the revenue pie!