As a business owner, you've likely received a phone call or two from a company claiming that they've reviewed your website and promising that they can propel your business to the top of Google web results for just a few hundred dollars a month! We know you've received those calls. How do we know? Because even we have received them. Despite the fact that the services they are offering are services that HIVE offers too. The companies contacting you with these types of offers are most likely offshores outsourcing companies who want to offer you digital marketing services for cheap.
Now, while most reputable sources agree that hiring an agency to help with your inbound marketing services can be incredibly beneficial, this viewpoint doesn't extend to overseas outsourcing. In fact, the there are many more reasons NOT to outsource your marketing overseas than there are to do so.
Let's take a look at 7 reasons you should not outsource your inbound marketing services overseas and evaluate the differences between offshore outsourcing and partnering with a local agency:
1. Quality, speed, price
You are allowed to have 2 of 3 of these items. I’m not just talking about for outsourcing, I’m talking about with any product or service ever. If you find a company who provides all three, congratulations, you’ve struck gold.
But what does this mean in terms of outsourcing? The reason overseas outsourcing exists is to keep costs down. So when you are outsourcing, their only focus is pumping out work quickly to keep their costs down. Due to this, the quality of your work will suffer. So you’re getting speed and a low price but the quality is not there.
Outsourcing companies are structured to prioritize price and speed over all else. This structure actually sets the stage for some of the other reasons outsourcing might not be best for your business.
2. No dedicated account manager
When you choose to work with an agency on your digital marketing, you are assigned a dedicated account manager. An account manager is the liaison between the client and the agency. They manage all of your projects to make sure they are completed correctly, on time and on budget. But an agency account manger is more that that. Your account manger is your strategic partner who is dedicated to using the agency’s resources to help build your business and reach your goals. An account manager is someone who understands all of the capabilities of an agency and can not only speak intelligently about them but also understands them inside and out and can make recommendations regarding how to use the agencies capabilities to best achieve your goals.
When you work with an outsourcing company, you have a project manager. Essentially someone that has enough knowledge to sell the services, but not enough to actually perform them or know when something is wrong.
3. Long-term vs. short-term relationships
You can approach your marketing one of two ways, either in terms of a long-term or short-term relationship. A short-term relationship is normally based on one project that you need done. This type of relationship is over once the project is complete. You are not building a partnership with someone who will continue the relationship or be a partner to you. This is the type of relationship you will have with an outsourcing company because, the way they are structured, they are most concerned with banging out project after project quickly and do not focus on developing a long-term partnership.
In contrast, if you partner with a local agency then you are setting the stage for a long-term relationship. It is in the agency’s best interest to cultivate a partnership and continue the relationship. Likewise, in the case of a long-term relationship, you are more likely to receive higher quality service and work since the agency is setting the stage for a partnership that will hopefully continue.
4. Strategy
For similar reasons as in #2, an outsourcing company will not be a strategic resource for you. They do not know your customers or how to speak to them. They won’t make recommendations for the best overall approach to reach your goals.
In contrast, a local agency will do all of these things. Local agencies have heavier strategic backgrounds and want to help you build your business and reach your goals.
5. Language barrier
This one is no surprise, right? If you’re working with someone in another country, there will be a language barrier. You’re more likely to spend significant amounts of time communicating what you’re looking for and less time making sure the quality of the work is great.
6. Accessibility
If you’re working with someone halfway around the world, they’re on an entirely different schedule than you. They will be working when you’re sleeping and vice versa making it way less likely that you will be able to be in regular communication with them.
7. Black hat methods
Black hat methods are SEO tactics in which a company tries to trick Google to get to the top of listings. Google has cracked down on that significantly but many overseas companies still use those tactics and try to get around Google. If you get caught using black hat methods, you can get you blacklisted from Google all together.
While we strongly believe that hiring an agency partner to help with your inbound marketing can afford you a level of expertise and cost-effectiveness that an internal hire cannot bring to the table. However, this does not extend to offshores outsourcing companies who exist solely to provide low-cost, quick solutions. As outlined above, the cons of working with an outsourcing company far outweigh the pros and, trust us, the benefits you get from working with a local agency vs. an outsourcing company will be 100% worthwhile.
