5 questions to determine if you’re ready to outsource your marketing

When you first start your business, cash will probably be tight, so you’re going to try and do everything yourself. And I’m a big fan of the DIY approach. But, one day, it’s going to be time to let go of your marketing and outsource it to a professional. How do you know if you're ready to outsource your marketing? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself before outsourcing your marketing.

 

 

 

How to know if you're ready to outsource your marketing

I'm a big believer that there's nothing wrong with learning to market your business yourself and doing it yourself in the early days. But, soon there will likely be a time where you have to let go of your marketing.

Social media tends to be one of the easiest things to outsource, but you could also outsource other marketing things like content writing, video production, Facebook Ads, Google Adwords – the list goes on! The thing is, it's not usually easy to decide whether you should outsource your marketing or not. If you're thinking about outsourcing or hiring someone to do your marketing, but you're not sure if it's the right time yet, here are a few questions to know if you're ready to outsource your marketing.

1. Do you have the time to do it?

If you're working 70 hour weeks and burning the candle at both ends then you're either going to burn yourself out, or you're going to stop doing any marketing at all because other things will take priority. You know, things like client work or making your products, because those are the “urgent” tasks.

So, if you don't have the time to do it yourself and do it properly, then it's time to outsource your marketing.

2. Do you love doing it?

I know a lot of people find writing blog posts or scheduling social media posts really therapeutic, and that's wonderful! If you enjoy marketing your own business, then keep doing it yourself – provided you have the time and you can continue to make it a priority.

3. Are you good at it?

If you're good at marketing your business, have time to do it yourself and you enjoy doing it, then you probably don't need to outsource your marketing just yet.

Maybe you're good at it but you hate doing it. In which case, you should probably consider outsourcing your marketing. Why? Because you didn't start your business to spend all your time doing things you hate. Believe it or not, you actually get to choose how you spend your day.

If you're terrible at marketing, even if you have all the time in the world or you love doing it, it might be the best thing for your business to hire someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you.

4. Is there a better use for your time?

Maybe you're good at marketing your business, but you're even better at cutting your clients' hair or doing bookkeeping for your clients. Maybe the time you spend on marketing your business could be spent working with one more client every month, or it could be spent refining processes and systems so that your business runs like a well-oiled machine.

This is a question that only you can answer for yourself, so really think about it.

5. Could someone else do it better?

Maybe your business needs a third party who isn't so close to the day-to-day action to market it properly. Sometimes, we're so close our own businesses that it can be really beneficial to have someone come in with a fresh perspective and do things differently to how they've always been done.

I know I said five questions to know if you're ready to outsource your marketing, but there's one last question that kind of underpins all of these and that is…

Can you afford it?

This is a bit of a catch-22 as you need money to market your business, but you won't make much money if you don't do any marketing at all. But, ultimately, you shouldn't hire someone you can't afford, whether it's a freelancer, a contractor, an employee or an agency.

Results usually don't happen immediately. If you're handing over your last bit of cash and hoping for an instant return, then you could find yourself in financial trouble. So, I don't recommend outsourcing your marketing until you can actually afford it.

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