The use of marketing automation platforms is becoming a norm among companies so they can keep up with competition, which means companies are at risk if they aren’t using one.

These essential tools can help organizations reach prospects faster, get the right customers to engage with, and allow quick personalization based on consumer preferences. Many benefits of marketing automation include:

  • Increasing efficiency
  • Alignment of marketing and sales teams
  • Personalized strategy
  • Lead nurturing
  • Accurate reporting

However, there are some drawbacks to marketing automation platforms such as Pardot, Marketo, and HubSpot. To many within an organization who aren’t familiar with automation, these tools can be quite complex and confusing if there aren’t any experts on the team who know how to use them, including getting someone to train others on how to adapt to the platform. Organizations often have to decide whether they need to hire in-house talent to train and adapt or outsource their marketing automation platform support.

This blog will outline the pros and cons of keeping marketing automation support in-house or if outsourcing is the best fit.

Pros for outsourcing marketing automation platform support:

  • Cost savings – Generally outsourcing automation support is an excellent go-to budget-saving solution instead of hiring in-house full-time employees for this. Organizations are generally spending more by having a full-time marketing team, this includes having a CMO and other folks on the team like a campaign manager, content writer, and employees specializing in marketing automation platforms. The costs of having these in-house marketing roles can really add up.
  • Specialized experts – People who can provide best practice advice and experts in the specific platform can ensure your platform is up-to-date and aligned with industry standards. Also, these partners bring speed and agility into the project because they are highly-specialized consultants. They also contribute an outside perspective and can share best practices and how other organizations are approaching similar challenges.
  • Having access to more resources – Marketing automation outsourced experts typically have access to additional tools and platforms which can save companies money. This can include more premium versions of marketing tools and software needed to boost marketing efforts. This is a huge cost savings because organizations do not have to pay additional costs for buying premium versions of certain softwares.
  • Target focus – An outsourced partner can focus on nurture and email campaigns, data, and reporting allowing the in-house team to focus on other initiatives or projects. This frees a lot of crucial time for companies so they can concentrate on other ways of expanding the business.

Cons for outsourcing marketing automation platform support:

  • Does not understand the company culture – When organizations hire outside marketing automation experts they often don’t get people who understand how the company works, including not being able to fully collaborate with other teams, don’t often get the full picture of who is who in leadership or what the overall vision is for the company. This can cause a huge disconnect between what is being done from a marketing perspective and the company. In order to mitigate these risks it is important for the CMO or marketing director to make sure the outside vendor they hire understands goals and visions.
  • Security – Let’s face it, when you hire an outside partner you are exposing a lot of confidential information. This can include customers’ personal information,  sales data, product information, ROI figures, and a lot more. Companies will need to learn how to safeguard important information when hiring outside of the company.
  • Challenges with communication – Communication can be challenging if an outside partner is not familiar with all the key players within an organization. That is why it is key that there is always an open communication path and the marketing in-house partner does a great job bridging the gap.

In conclusion, there are many benefits to outsourcing marketing automation support by using a digital marketing agency. Organizations just have to find out how to leverage the advantages properly and do their best to mitigate the disadvantages.

If you need help boosting your existing marketing automation platform and don’t know where to start, contact Marquee Project, for a no-obligation free evaluation of your platform.

Marquee Project has over 20 years of combined experience, and we have led growth initiatives at fast-growing B2B companies like Dremio, Crunchbase, Samsung, Rimini Street, and more. We act as partners and build together, solve for real-business metrics, come with project management support, and hold ourselves accountable in everything we do.