Most blogs or experts talking about small business finances will encourage you to outsource particular services. Outsourced marketing is usually the starting point as it gives you access to a professional marketing team. You don’t need to hire an in-house squad, but you will still pay for marketing services.
The prospect of outsourcing this specific service is daunting for some. A lot of small business owners like to be in full control of their marketing at all times and palming it off to an external team feels scary. However, you need to consider how much you’ll genuinely save from outsourced marketing.
Actual figures vary depending on where you work and who you pay to handle your marketing, but here’s a general overview of the potential savings:
THE AVERAGE MARKETING SALARY IS…
Let’s say you’re running a small business and want to handle marketing in-house. That’s perfectly fine, but keep in mind it’ll cost you at least £28,874 to hire one team member – and this can rise to £71,479 for the more experienced marketing individuals.
According to Reed, the average marketing salary in the UK is £39,730. This doesn’t take into account the cost of putting out job advertisements, interviewing candidates, onboarding, providing benefits and so on.
Speaking of which, Crunch Accounting states that the average employer will pay over £2,000 per year on National Insurance and Pension contributions for an employee operating at the Real Living Wage. For marketers, you’re going to end up paying more, so the total annual costs can be significantly over £40,000 – and remember, that’s for ONE employee.
OUTSOURCING COSTS SIGNIFICANTLY LESS
Finding the exact prices for outsourced marketing is hard as it depends on the services you’re after. An SEO agency is likely to be a lot cheaper than a full-service marketing agency while paying for a single marketing consultant could also be less expensive.
Nevertheless, it’ll be substantially cheaper than the cost of building an in-house team. You’ll need more than one employee, so you’re looking at £50,000 – £80,000 per year. On the lower end of the scale, you’d be paying just over £4,000 a month on outsourced marketing to equal that.
We can tell you now that this is rare and it’ll usually be for extremely high-end services. Some places might charge £1,000 a month, so you’re saving tens of thousands of pounds each year.
DON’T NEGLECT THE FLEXIBILITY OF OUTSOURCING
We’re assuming that you’re outsourcing all of your marketing efforts, but you can save even more money by only outsourcing a handful. Maybe you can deal with social media on your own but you need a helping hand with SEO. Perhaps you require additional assistance with PPC or general content marketing. Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to pick and choose what you pay for, so you always get great value for money.
And then there’s the time-saving aspect of it all. How much more productive will your small business be if you aren’t trying to handle marketing in-house? You could have more time to focus on developing your products/services and improving your overall business model. As well as saving money, outsourced marketing could help you make more money and boost your bottom line.
Thank you so much for reading! – xo N
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this is a contributed post.
New Lune 
I agree that outsourcing to a specialist will usually make sense for a small or start-up venture, and that value for money is key.