You've gained traction with your Shopify business and confirmed that you have a great product-market fit. Now you need to start scaling.
Your business needs to implement a strategy that is long-term and produces results. That strategy is content marketing since conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters.
You see your competition producing content regularly, and you know you need to do the same. But you have a small team. Everyone is already wearing so many hats, and you’re worried that adding content marketing into the mix will burn them out. That's why you are considering outsourcing your content marketing.
Let's go through the reasons for and against outsourcing your content marketing.
Pros and cons of outsourcing content marketing
Pros to oursourcing your content marketing
- Lower costs
When you don't have to hire someone in-house, your cost savings will be considerable.
Outsourcing means you don't have to worry about creating a job description, paying recruitment fees, training, pension contributions, holiday pay, or having to rehire if the person doesn't work out.
You can use all the money you spend on the hiring process alone to create content. Not only that, but the time spent training and managing a new team member can be allocated to managing a freelancer or agency contact.
Outsourcing your content marketing can allow your team to own the marketing channel, but won’t manage the stress.
Think about it. Outsourcing your content will save you time and money and leave your existing team members happy.
- Increased capacity and efficiency
When you outsource your content marketing, you’ll see an instant increase in capacity. Remember, when you outsource, you give the work to someone who specialises in that area.
What might take your marketing associate two hours to do will take an expert one. Outsourcing your content means you can get double or triple the output for around the same cost.
Let's take this a step further. If you outsource to an agency like Kollectify, you will get the expertise of an SEO expert, writer, editor, and strategist for one price.
Can one marketing manager do all those jobs? No.
Finally, know that agencies and freelancers already have processes in place, which means improved efficiency and the bonus of a dedicated project manager.
If you are starting to flesh out your content marketing strategy, it will take a while to decide who does what and when. Outsourcing will guarantee that you won't have the headache of finding the most efficient way to get things done.
- Expert knowledge
For most freelancers and agencies, it isn't their 'first rodeo' when marketing their services. This is important, as their expert knowledge will help you avoid pitfalls and forge the easiest path to success.
When you work with an agency like Kollectify, you’ll get access to the knowledge they have gained over the years. Kollectify has created strategies for reputable Shopify businesses like Okendo and GoodCarts.
You don't have time for trial and error at this point in your business, so expert knowledge is a huge bonus.
- Flexibility
When you outsource your content marketing, you can scale it up or down as your budget allows.
That's the best part about outsourcing. If you’re burning too much cash, you can pump the breaks on the hours with a freelancer. But, if your MRR is going up because of the positive gains from your content marketing, you can increase the budget.
There are many pros to outsourcing your Shopify content marketing, but there is always a downside. Let's talk about those.
Cons of outsourcing your content marketing
- Loss of control
You and your team might have a vision about how you want your marketing strategy to look. You expect that when you outsource, the agency or freelancer will help build upon your vision - maybe even make it better!
On the other hand, you might find yourself working with someone who feels they know your business and customer better than you, which leads to friction and loss of control over your brand story.
At the other extreme, you might find that the quality of content you receive is lacking. Sometimes this is due to the person writing the content, but other times, it can be due to the price you are paying.
Remember, good writers and strategists cost money, so you might not have the ability to get high-quality content if your budget doesn't allow for it.
- Communication
A good agency or freelancer will make you feel like a valued customer, but you have to remember that you are not their only client.
Remember, agencies and freelancers need to manage their time effectively and that means they might not be able to respond to messages right away. If you feel the need to have an agency that is ‘always on’, and expect instant responses to emails and messages, outsourcing might not be for you.
- Hidden costs
When outsourcing your content marketing, you'll have to define a scope. If you change the scope midway, you'll have to pay more.
Let's say you want three content pieces a week from your freelancer, and the contract says 1000 words per article. Three months down the line, you see that articles with 1500 words do better. You'll have to adjust your budget for the writer to create that type of content.
If you want more revisions than is allowed for in the contract, that will cost more too. Remember to keep this in mind when you are outsourcing as it can harm your bottom line.
Kollectify includes two rounds of revisions per piece of content written to reassure our clients.
- Security
When you’re running a business, you need to make sure that your trade secrets and strategies are secure. Working with a freelancer or agency can open you up to security vulnerabilities depending on their access systems.
You might want a writer to post directly into your CMS to save on time, but you have to be careful. You should make sure that you give outside agencies only as much access to your company as they need.
The other drawback is that a freelancer might share information with your competitors knowingly or unknowingly. They might show examples of a strategy they did with you to one of your competitors!.
To handle these risks, ensure you have a tight contract and NDA in place, as we do at Kollectify.
Conclusion
Now that you know all the pros and cons of outsourcing your content, do you want to take the leap and outsource?
Ready to outsource? Let’s do it together!
💚 We help Shopify businesses to develop digital marketing strategies that are environmentally friendly, following our zero waste approach. Take a look at our services here!