7 Advantages of Onshore-Offshore Outsourcing Your Media and Marketing Operations
The Next Big Thing
Onshore-Offshore Outsourcing is the next big thing for your media and marketing functions.
Over the past few years, many businesses have tried to move their media and marketing operations in-house, but that trend is now reversing itself – and for good reasons.
Often, in times of recession or economic downturn, media/marketing staffing and operations budgets take the first hit. Firms reason that they can reduce costs, increase efficiencies, transparency, and control by performing many functions themselves.
But then, once businesses attempt to create their own in-house agencies, they find that their teams are overwhelmed or that it is difficult to recruit the specialists necessary to navigate today’s technical and complex marketing environment. So, smart businesses turn to outsourcing.
Outsourcing Overview
The vast majority of businesses outsource something, whether it’s their IT, software/app development, payroll, accounting or call center operations. And now, more and more companies are looking to outsource their digital marketing and advertising technologies (MAdTech). The benefits to outsourcing are many. Most companies that outsource say they do so to reduce or control costs.
Investing time and money in recruiting, hiring, training, technology and facilities can take up the lion’s share of your marketing budget – before you’ve done any marketing. And things like retirement benefits, health insurance, vacation pay, etc. become an immovable expense.
Outsourcing these functions offshore – where employees get paid a fraction of the salaries in the U.S. and other developed countries – will almost definitely save you money.
Besides the cost benefits, outsourcing can help your business increase efficiencies and focus on their core competencies, innovation and creativity. It can also provide your company with the technical and executional expertise it might not otherwise have.
There are, of course, challenges to working with an overseas vendor. They can be less accessible than an on-shore agency, different time zones can make scheduling calls a challenge, and there can be communication issues if your overseas staff has English as a second language.
These issues can be easily mitigated if you set up an onshore-offshore arrangement where a US-based firm manages your overseas operations for you. (Coincidentally, that’s what iSOCRATES does.) That way, you work with the onshore agency, and they handle everything with your offshore team.
The Benefits to Onshore-Offshore Outsourcing
1. Greater Focus
The work you send offshore, managed by an onshore firm, will enable you and your team to focus on what matters most: the mission-critical work that you do best. You can offload important work that you may not specialize in, such as programmatic media and marketing, IT functions, or even entire business processes such as accounting or HR. Imagine how much more you will accomplish by narrowing your attention to the key growth drivers of your business.
2. Pre-Built Playbooks and Expert Teams
Working with an onshore firm who has proven outsourcing plans and heavily documented processes will smooth and accelerate your transitions. The right onshore vendor has already vetted and assembled onshore and offshore experts that are available 24/7/365 to meet your specific needs. Additionally, the team you choose should offer a variety of skillsets and levels of expertise to handle both basic, tedious work, as well as high-level, more specialized projects. Flexibility is key.
3. Make the Most of Your Vendor’s Technologies
While your organization may own some of their own technologies, or license them from 3rd-parties, it may make sense to also utilize your vendor’s technologies. Businesses can make use of their outsourcer’s applications and platforms (such as Salesforce, Google, AppNexus, Adobe, etc.) or utilize purpose-built applications which can be customized per client need. In this “Managed Services” model, the outsourcer owns and manages the technology, so you don’t have to invest in expensive licenses or train their employees to use different software.
4. Better Communication and Oversight
The onshore-offshore model offers improved organizational communications and process/project oversight. Your onshore team, made up of professionals with deep, relevant experience, can act a close extension of your organization and its methods. A good team will work with you to understand your needs, interests, priorities and the cultural nuances of your markets.
5. Manage Time More Effectively
An onshore-offshore arrangement ensures that work is getting done around the clock, every day of the week – essentially allowing you to get twice the work done in the same amount of time. This can result in faster, more detailed reporting and analysis, faster optimization, and faster error identification and correction.
6. Save Money from Day One
As soon as you initiate your onshore-offshore arrangement, you should start saving money. Labor costs in an onshore-offshore delivery model is a fraction of what they are in North America-only delivery systems. Many of iSOCRATES’ clients report all-in savings of 50% or more.
7. Increase Revenue
Outsourcing enables your organization to make more money by increasing revenue and profit through better business practices like: improved execution, performance optimization, applied business and market intelligence, and better yield management.
Tried offshoring before?
If you’ve tried outsourcing before but haven’t gotten the results you wanted, we should talk about the difference that onshore-offshore outsourcing can make. Onshore-offshore outsourcing can be a game-changer for your organization. Take advantage of our decades of relevant experience and let it work for you. Contact us today for a better tomorrow.
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