Originally published May 31, 2022 , updated on June 26, 2023

The question is no longer whether your firm needs a strong online presence. Rather, it’s whether to hire a B2B digital content marketing agency or to perform the functions in-house.

Return on Investment (ROI) forms the core of business decisions, like choosing a B2B social media marketing strategy and performing the promotion functions in-house or outsourcing these activities.

In this article, we answer the question—is it worth the cost to outsource? Read on to discover the answer.

More and More Companies Outsource to Digital Agencies

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), at least 50% of B2B businesses outsource one or more digital promotion functions to a B2B agency, and here’s why:

Expert Creators Help to Make Your Site Visible to B2B Buyers

Also according to CMI, 50% of B2B content promotion focuses on brand awareness and generating interest in products and services.

Let’s put it into perspective.

Half of the resources go towards the top of the sales funnel.

But hiring a digital content marketing agency to create a steady flow of premium quality SEO optimised information pieces makes sense. You can use your in-house team to focus on the middle and bottom of the sales funnel, where product and industry expertise are essential. The agency’s team can create the content for the top of the sales funnel.

Maintain Organic Search Rank for Keywords

Content drives leads. Nurturing the leads helps to drive sales.

B2B buyers review, on average, 12 information pieces online before they engage with the vendor. You’ll want your site to provide at least one of the information pieces. This means you need content to reach and convert interested parties into customers.

But you cannot expect visits to a site that’s not visible in searches.

To maintain a top position for organic keywords relevant to your brand, your firm must compete with the steady flow of new optimised information daily.

Why? If you don’t, your pages will only display on pages two and three of the search results. It implies a waste of resources since most web users only click on first-page search results.

Hiring a digital promotion firm to generate posts and information pieces optimises your spending without expanding your workforce.

As Think with Google has stated, 90% of B2B buyers start their search for prospective vendors, services, and products with a generic search.

Not showing up in the generic search results means your competitors receive the initial important traffic instead of you.

An outsourced digital promotion provider has the team and expertise to generate SEO optimised content for traffic, leads, and interest.

Lower Cost to Company

According to Databox, B2B agency retainer fees range from $1,000 per month at the low end, with around 10% of agencies setting retainers between $10,000 and $15,000 per month.

A retainer fee ensures that your company receives a specific number of work hours dedicated to your project each month.

Now consider the cost to your firm for a single marketing director. London data showed that, in 2021, a marketing director earns an average of £52 an hour. This makes the median annual salary for the position in the UK over £107,000. In the USA, the same job title has a median of just over $151,000 per year, as measured in 2022.

In contrast, when you hire a B2B content marketing agency, your firm has access to an entire team of specialists for about the same amount of money.

Access to Expertise

It might be possible for two or three experts to handle everything from strategy and design to writing, editing, and distribution.

However, you cannot hire a one-man band or a small power team of three and expect the same output as achievable when outsourcing to a B2B content marketing agency. 

Their team of experts collaborates to handle everything from strategy to publishing and distribution, including the B2B social media marketing strategy implementation.

The team has experience in different approaches, knowledge of online SEO and promotion trends, and expertise in analysing your competitor strategies.

You’ll need several experts on your payroll to achieve the same outcome, but it will be at a higher cost to your company.

Access to Industry Experience

The external provider offers services to companies operating within a specific industry. Once they’re ready to expand their services to other industries, they hire team members with knowledge and experience in those industries. The outcome of this: your firm benefits from access to a wide range of skills applicable to your particular industry.

Take a look at the industries which Goodman Lantern serves, giving you an idea of the industry expertise available to your firm when you work with us.

Guaranteed Performance

Upon hiring marketers, you only have their profiles and some insight as to their performance capacity. It can take months before new team members can work well enough to drive your firm’s sales.

The B2B promotion team already operates as a unit and knows the procedures. And the company knows it’s crucial to perform from the word “go” to keep clients. If you don’t see a return on your spending, your firm goes elsewhere. The agency knows well that its competitors are waiting to snatch up unsatisfied clients, which drives them to deliver on promises.

Reduce the Burden

Hiring an expert company for some or all the online content promotion functions enables you to focus on core business. Every member of your team can work towards reaching your business goals while the service provider focuses on efforts to support these goals.

Their team pushes toward set goals established during the planning phase. They adjust the plan and project scope to keep efforts aligned with your business goals. You also receive performance reports, keeping you in the loop.

Creative Input and New Perspective

With an in-house team of marketers, you have limited scope for creativity. A person who has worked on the same project for years can lose interest. They might find it easier to repeat the same process for years without adapting to changes in the online environment. This approach can lead to stagnation while your competitors push towards new frontiers.

The advertising provider keeps current with changes in search engine algorithms, user behaviours, and technologies. They know to stay competitive, they must offer trailblazer solutions. This approach gives your firm access to new perspectives.

It’s especially beneficial if you want to upgrade or change your current online approach to improve performance results.

Access to Trained Professionals

You don’t have to recruit trained professionals, retrench personnel when you need to downscale, or train people in new technologies.

Hire a B2B content agency with a team of trained professionals.

Considering the cost of training, combined with the need to improve skills, your firm saves money when not having to carry the cost of training.

B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy Implementation

Your audience visits not only your website.

Social media posts drive traffic to your site, build authority, establish trust, and increase engagement.

Only focusing on your website means you don’t maximise opportunities to engage with your buyers.

So, you’ll need a social media team to manage eveything from site blog posts to guest blogging and interaction on social media platforms.

These include anything from LinkedIn to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok.

Also, you have YouTube and other video platforms where you need to post videos and engage with your audience. And what about Podcasts?

It becomes challenging to choose channels, manage those, and produce premium content for each.

An experienced agency can develop a killer B2B social media marketing strategy aligned with your business growth goals.

True, an in-house team can do the same.

But do you have social media experts to create information pieces for each platform?

And is it necessary to have a presence on each of the platforms?

The agency knows which ones are well-suited to your goals, where your audience hangs out, when to publish, and which formats work best for each platform.

Hiring the firm means you can optimise your social media presence and link it in with your website growth goals.

Factors to Consider: In-House or Outsourcing to a Digital Content Marketing Agency

A B2B content agency is more likely to reach your company’s growth goals faster at a lower cost to your firm than a new marketing team member.

The marketer needs to become familiar with your processes. The time of onboarding to actual performance can take anything from a week to three months.

Once the marketer understands the processes, they’re likely to perform well. But can the marketer reach targets within three to six months?

Not likely if it’s only one person. Even if you hire a team, they face the same challenges.

But outsourcing the functions to an experienced B2B content marketing agency puts your firm in a better position to reach even ambitious marketing goals faster.

This is said with consideration of the time to advertise, screen, interview, and onboard new team members.

Now consider the cost of recruitment, appointment, and onboarding processes. Also, consider the salary and benefits each new member receives. The company also needs to put systems in place, which takes time.

Conclusion: B2B can reach targets faster than the in-house team.

Achieve Better Results at a Lower Cost to Your Company

The solution is to hire a B2B content agency with processes and systems in place. The company has a team of established professionals and stays current with the particular industry and latest marketing trends.

Your company can realise up to double the profit in the same period because the cost of outsourcing to the B2B is lower than with an in-house team.

The B2B content agency gets the marketing off the ground almost immediately, which means faster delivery of results for your firm.

With the lower overhead for your firm, combined with the faster results, it makes financial sense to outsource part or the entire online marketing function.

Is It Worth the Cost?

Considering the benefits of outsourcing the marketing function to a B2B agency as opposed to handling it in-house, the answer is yes.

Take away the comparison of what your company gets with outsourcing.

Is it still worth the cost?

Again, the answer is yes.

Content creation remains a pillar for online marketing success. B2B marketers have cited it as instrumental to:

• Develop brand awareness.
• Educate audiences.
• Build trust.
• Generate leads.
• Build loyalty.
• Drive sales conversions.
• Garner support for a cause/service/event/product.
• Develop a subscriber base.

Apart from the content creation function, the B2B content marketing agency optimises posts, articles, and press releases to ensure visibility in organic searches. They don’t randomly select keywords.

Instead, they use software and research tools to find keywords applicable to your service offering and target audience. Each piece of content they add has value and ties in with the overall marketing goals of your company.

The digital content marketing agency tests performance and adapts approaches to reach goals. They measure performance against the most relevant metrics, ensuring you achieve the best ROI for your marketing spend.

They work hard toward generating content that drives traffic.

Targeted Traffic

But traffic alone doesn’t help.

You want targeted traffic. 

And they make sure the information applies to your particular audience.

The agency also follows a proven approach for backlinks to your website. These are important to build trust with search engines.

Getting links back to your site takes time and premium quality content. When several trusted sites link to your website, your site also gains more authority with the search engines. This implies better positioning for keywords and more traffic.

The process includes guest blogging, posting on social media platforms, and publishing articles in online trade journals. The agency also aligns posting with the B2B social media marketing strategy of your company.

Although content means articles, press releases, and blog posts for most, other formats are just as important. The agency produces videos, podcasts, slides, and infographics, as well as case studies, white papers, and eBooks.

Social media posts include a range of graphics and images, all selected to increase engagement levels and understanding.

They develop a strategy to achieve your particular marketing goals before they create content. And they work according to an output calendar, ensuring the project stays on track.

How to Choose a B2B Digital Content Marketing Agency?

Partnering with a B2B content marketing agency that understands your target audience and industry is essential. You’ll want to know if the company can deliver on their promises.

Their past performances count.

Consider the awards they have received over the years, their standing in the industry, and client testimonials.

Their case studies offer valuable insight into their processes, project scopes, and successes.

Have a look at the Goodman Lantern case studies, giving you an idea of the service excellence you can expect.

Our awards also speak to our competence and focus on reaching clients’ goals. For one, our firm has made the Clutch list for the top marketing agencies for 2017, 2018, and 2019. We also rank in the Manifest list for the top 100 advertising agencies.

As far as testimonials go, Inc. says it best:

“Goodman Lantern helps businesses sell better and grow faster.”

But it’s not about awards or industry standing. It’s about long-term client relationships.

We understand that your success also means our success. A positive relationship starts with understanding your needs. And we don’t compromise on getting to know your brand, audience, and goals.

Your investment—our drive and your success

To conclude, hiring an experienced B2B content marketing agency to manage your SaaS online presence is worth the cost. Whether you want to add to your existing strategy or consider changing direction for increased business growth, we’re ready to take on the challenge.

View our digital content marketing agency’s tailored plans to meet your business growth needs. Reach out to find out how to turbo-charge your online presence.

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