The global spend on outsourcing amounted to $75.2 billion last year, with around 54% of all companies relying on outsourced teams for crucial products and services, and the number of freelance workers in the U.S. currently standing at around 59 million. Technologies such as cloud services and team management software have significantly improved the ability of remote marketing teams to work efficiently, but strategy has also played an important role in simplifying processes and cutting transport costs (to name just two of many expenses). If you wish to outsource a team for your marketing tasks in particular, the following considerations may help.

How Are You Hiring Your Marketing Specialists?

Finding skilled, experienced members with a strong record in creating marketing strategies and achieving goals such as improved brand awareness, SEO, and social media presence, can be a challenge. Companies wishing to hire experienced marketing professionals sometimes rely on the services of outsourced HR companies, which charge between approximately $50 and $1,5. Their fees are based on the extent of services required, which can range from recruiting to running background checks and carrying out compliance assessments.

Even so, an outsourced HR team can save you on the cost of having an HR department in your business for all your outsourcing needs, since the average HR manager alone can earn between $91,000 and $120,000 annually. Your marketing goals may be urgent, in which case an outsourced HR team may help you build the team you need for tasks such as analytics, surveys, brand design and development, and websites and social media.

Keeping Your Outsourced Marketing Team Motivated

In order to motivate remote teams, you need to embark upon a strategy that will help make them feel like they are part of a team. The person managing your outsourced marketing team should hold productive online meetings with a set agenda, a pre-meeting report, and clear ground rules. In terms of communication, connecting ‘too much’ beats connecting too little, so contact workers regularly by video conference, and create social spaces using collaboration software such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. These apps enable managers to set up different channels for specific teams, but also allow all users to set up private channels for a specific part of their projects, documents or tasks.

Managers can go the extra mile by recognizing outstanding work, delegating tasks to able/organized members, and most importantly, offering the chance of a promotion for those who are hard-working, consistent, and eager to be part of your permanent team. As found in a 2015 University of Iowa study, managers can improve work team performance by putting talented members in a central position – one in which they come into contact with as many teammates as possible.

Which Companies Are Outsourcing?

When it comes to outsourcing marketing services, take a cue from the leading industry that hires outsourced workers – the pharmaceutical industry. Rather than hiring individual players, these companies have trimmed their partners down to two to three contract relationships and less than 50 contract manufacturing organizations.

Doing so enables them to cut cost and increase efficiency within the value chain. For your marketing project, relying on companies that specialize in freelance projects will enable you to count on a slick, productive, united team that already has their roles, goals and procedures well set out. By dealing with just one team, you can boost trust between your companies and theirs, organizing your work in such a way that gives you better control and flexibility.

Outsourcing continues to be a powerful means of hiring across all industries. Outsourcing enables companies to cut costs and improve efficiency, thanks in no small part to technology such as cloud storage and communication and time management software. The latter enable contracting companies to maintain full control over the quality and progress of their marketing projects, while an outsourced HR team helps them find professionals with talent, experience, and a proven track record.