At some point, many businesses ask the same question: should we just do our marketing ourselves?
You know your business better than anyone. You know your customers. You might even have an in-house marketing team. So, on paper, it feels like a logical decision.
In practice, it rarely works like that. That’s not because you don’t have the skills.
It’s because you don’t have the time.
And as a business owner, digital marketing likely isn’t your priority. Your priority is to make your business unique. However, outsourcing your digital marketing can be vital to your business growth. Here’s why.
Can a business do digital marketing on its own?
Your business can certainly try digital marketing on its own.
You could give your employees extra work, hire new staff or create an entire team.
But outsourcing your digital marketing usually makes more sense.
Here’s what often happens when small businesses try in-house digital marketing.
Someone writes blog posts between meetings. Maybe if it’s a slow sales day or if they need a break from their day-to-day. Great!
But you’ll start to run into problems, especially as you grow. For example, is your would-be blogger’s job in sales or marketing, or something else entirely?
How should they specialise?
Digital marketing isn’t just one job. There are many roles running in parallel.
Strategy. SEO. Paid ads. Analytics. Social media. Content planning. Copywriting. Design. Technical work and more.
So, if you’re doing your digital marketing in-house, you have to spread these tasks across people with other priorities. The work might get done, but rarely at any depth or quality. That might create a false sense of progress when really, it’s an extra investment without a payoff.
Larger businesses often have the resources to do their own in-house digital marketing. But even then, outsourcing usually makes more sense.
That’s because external digital marketing is much easier to scale. When you launch a new product line or scale quickly, outsourcing removes the need to expand your team or invest in new software and digital tools. It also reduces risk when you need to tighten your budget, because you can scale the capacity down just as easily.
What’s the real cost of DIY digital marketing?
As a small business owner, the obvious cost of doing digital marketing in-house is time.
Every hour you spend learning how to use a new platform or write a blog is an hour not spent on developing your business.
In the long run, your growth slows because your employees aren’t focused on their roles.
Then there’s the cost of mistakes, especially with paid ads and websites.
Paid ads can burn through your budget if you don’t know what you’re doing. Wasted ad spend can be very expensive. Getting it wrong could be a disaster.
Websites, too, are an important tool for showcasing your brand. If you develop a quick website yourself, it might not look or function properly, and that can leave a huge mark on your reputation.
And so, perhaps the main cost of DIY digital marketing is missed opportunities.
Outsourcing it to an expert will help you get more from your investment.
Can we learn digital marketing on the side?
You and your employees can pick up the basics of digital marketing from online courses and tutorials.
Even YouTube has a vast number of useful resources.
But the thing is, digital marketing evolves all the time. Especially when it comes to SEO and paid ads.
The algorithms change. The platforms adapt their rules. The data models update. Governments change legislation, which causes compliance issues.
So, what worked last year might not work at all this year.
The truth is, tutorials teach tools. But they don’t teach judgment. That comes from experience.
And while it’s certainly useful to know the basics of how your digital marketing works, it’s another reason why outsourcing is a more cost-effective strategy.
Why outsourcing digital marketing means you’re still in control
Even though you outsource your digital marketing, you’re still 100% in control.
It’s just that, instead of managing the execution, you manage the direction. Instead of fixing problems, you set the priorities and review the outcomes. You’re still in charge, but you have an expert team to delegate the tasks to.
As part of the service, you’ll get detailed and clear reports and regular reviews. These keep you involved and in the loop without burying you in the details.
Transparency is at the heart of how we work at QBD.
As a business owner, you’ll see what we do, why we do it, and how it performs.
And if you have any questions, you need only ask.
Does a digital marketing agency really understand your business?
Lots of businesses are concerned about this. And it makes sense. After all, nobody knows your business like you do. Quite right, too.
However, your job as the business owner is finding the right people to do certain tasks, in the way you want them done. It means defining business goals and developing objectives. Then, your staff and your external contractors help you achieve those goals.
Here at QBD, we don’t just guess your message. We chat with you. We create a tone of voice guide that defines how you speak, who you speak to, what to avoid and what matters most to your customers. By mapping and documenting all this, we help you develop a customer journey, and a digital marketing strategy to match.
Understanding your business doesn’t necessarily come from being in the same building. It comes from taking the time to get to know you and asking the right questions.
Why outsourcing your digital marketing unlocks growth
You work hard. Really hard. We know. But unfortunately, your business’s growth can always stall.
That’s not because of a lack of effort. It stalls because your focus is spread too thin.
When you outsource your digital marketing, you can regain that focus.
Your leadership time can be spent on strategy, and your teams can focus on their day jobs.
At the same time, your marketing stops being a background task and becomes a system of its own.
So, back to the question that forms the introduction to this article.
Can you do your digital marketing yourself? Of course you can.
But should you? That’s the killer question.
What more could your business achieve if you spent more time on what you do best, and less time trying to master everything else?
What more could you achieve by outsourcing your digital marketing to experts?
Here at QBD, we can provide you with ongoing digital marketing services to help your business stand out, stay ahead of the curve and maximise your ROI.
So, if you’re looking for digital marketing that helps your business grow, we should talk. It all starts with a conversation.
About the authors
Jon Smart
Jon is our Head of Creative Content. He works with a range of QBD clients, producing engaging, SEO-friendly website and digital content to help them reach a wider audience. He does this by gaining a deep understanding of who our clients are, what they do, who their customers are and what makes them special, then helps them to tell their brand story in a way that connects with their target audiences.