How outsourcing and white labelling can help a digital marketing agency grow to new heights without too much stress
Starting and growing a digital marketing agency in Australia can be a challenging yet rewarding endeavour. As you look to scale up and take on more clients, outsourcing work and white labelling services can help lighten the load so your business can reach new heights without as much stress or growing pains.
Outsourcing 101
Outsourcing involves hiring external service providers to take on certain business tasks and processes rather than trying to handle everything in-house. This allows you to tap into skills, talents and solutions that exist outside your organisation.
For digital marketing agencies, common outsourced tasks include:
- Graphic design – Hire freelance designers for creating branded templates, social media graphics, infographics etc rather than hiring an in-house designer.
- Web development & IT – Farm out website builds, technical troubleshooting and custom platform development to an external development team.
- Content marketing – Assign blog posts, articles, eBooks and other content assets to professional freelance writers.
- Paid advertising – Let an external paid ads manager handle the setup and optimisation for search, social and display ad campaigns.
- Marketing automation – Use third-party automation software and services to streamline lead nurturing and email campaigns.
The benefits of outsourcing for digital marketing agencies include:-
- Cost savings – No need to hire, train and pay the overhead for full-time resources across multiple disciplines. Pay only for the work that’s needed.
- Access to expertise – Tap into specialised skills from seasoned professionals rather than trying to be an expert in everything yourself.
- Scalability – Easily scale up or down different areas of your operation by outsourcing more or less work to external partners.
- Focus your core competencies – Concentrate your in-house talents and energies on the essential services that power your agency rather than getting bogged down trying to do everything.
- Start small by outsourcing non-essential tasks and see how much time and energy it frees up internally to focus on growing your agency.
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White Labelling Opens Up New Horizons
White labelling takes outsourcing to another level for digital marketing agencies. This involves purchasing services, software or solutions from external providers, then slapping your own brand name on them to on-sell to your clients.
For example, you could white label:
- Web hosting, website templates and custom web builds through third-party web development teams.
- Email and content marketing automation platforms already offered by industry software companies.
- Done-for-you social media post templates offered by content creators.
- Complete SEO packages or ad management services supported by other agencies with those core competencies.
Essentially, you become a broker for solutions you don’t necessarily handle in-house – you outsource all the work externally but present the services as your own.
The key white labelling benefits for digital marketing agencies include:
- Expand your offering – Roll out new services without needing the technical expertise, resources or experience in-house.
- Increase deal sizes – Sell higher-value packages by bundling white labelled services with your core offerings.
- Gain industry knowledge – Get a behind-the-scenes education on services before deciding to eventually bring select disciplines in-house.
- Improved credibility – Deliver professional-grade solutions across a wider range of digital marketing channels and tactics.
- Respond to client requests – Satisfy clients asking for specific services outside your wheelhouse by white labelling those services.
Starting out, explore white labelling opportunities with highly reputable partners through clear contracts. Ensure your clients understand you are brokering – not directly delivering – certain solutions. This manages expectations while enabling huge growth potential.
Managing Outsourced Partners
While outsourcing and white labelling enable expansion opportunities, you need structured processes to manage external partners smoothly. Critical tips include:
- Start with a strict vendor selection process – Time invested here ensures reliable, high-performing partners who help grow your agency.
- Use detailed briefs and checklists – Leave no stone unturned detailing exactly what you need delivered with due dates for clear expectations.
- Schedule progress calls – Book regular standups, brainstorms and reviews based on scope size to catch issues early.
- Request works in progress (WIPs) – Have regular touchpoints to provide feedback so the final output aligns with the desired quality and direction.
- Set clear pricing and payment terms upfront – Address how, when and how much you will pay for all services prior to commencing work.
The more structured your approach to managing outsource partners from the start, the more seamless the collaboration process to yield successful outcomes all round.
Streamlining internal processes is equally vital to help scale external work volumes efficiently while maintaining quality control. Suggested areas of focus include:
- Centralised communication – Appoint internal point persons for liaising with outsourced talent.
- Process documentation – Map your procedures clearly so any team member could pick up managing outsourced projects.
- Project management (PM) software – Use PM tools to schedule tasks and milestones, share files and track progress.
- Quality assurance (QA) – Designate QA staff to review all outsourced work prior to client delivery for continuity.
Invest time designing and documenting robust operational processes guiding outsourced engagements. This investment pays dividends helping your agency handle accelerated growth courtesy of an expanded external resource pool.
Stress is the sworn enemy of a scaling digital marketing agency. Outsourcing non-core activities paired with white labelling complementary services can provide the leverage and capacity needed to grow your operation without overburdening your team. Savvy management underpinned by disciplined processes is critical in making this expansion seamless and sustainable over the long haul.
While relinquishing control of certain tasks may seem daunting initially, the only way to thrive in this industry long term is to embrace the support outsourcing and white labelling enables. This allows you to play to the core strengths that founded your original success while benefiting from external expertise to take your agency to the next level.
SkillSets Marketing provides digital marketing services to other digital marketing agencies who wants to grow but are scared of additional overhead costs. We do the tasks or projects, then you white label them as your own. Reach out to us if you think this interests you!
