What Outsourced Marketing Actually Means
Outsourced marketing means hiring an external team to handle some or all of your marketing instead of building an in-house department. For small businesses, this usually means working with an agency or consultant who becomes your marketing team without the overhead of full-time salaries, benefits, and management.
At Buzz Cue, we act as the marketing department for small businesses across Kitsap County and beyond. You get a team of specialists for less than the cost of one junior marketing hire.
What Is Included in Outsourced Marketing
Every engagement looks different because every business has different needs. But here is the typical scope of what we handle:
- Marketing strategy: We build a plan based on your goals, budget, and competitive landscape. Not a generic template. An actual plan.
- Website and SEO: Ongoing optimization so your site ranks for the searches that matter to your business.
- Content creation: Blog posts, service pages, email campaigns, and social media content that supports your strategy.
- Paid advertising: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or other platforms when paid media makes sense for your situation.
- Email marketing: Newsletter campaigns, automated sequences, and list management.
- Reporting and analysis: Monthly reports that show what is working, what is not, and what we are doing about it.
Who This Is For
Outsourced marketing works best for businesses that meet a few criteria:
- Revenue between $500K and $10M: Big enough to invest in marketing but not big enough to justify a full internal team.
- Monthly budget of $500 to $2,500: Enough to make meaningful progress without the $60K+ annual cost of even one in-house marketer.
- Owner-operators who are stretched thin: You know marketing matters but you cannot be the one doing it anymore.
- Businesses ready to grow: You have a good product or service and you need more people to know about it.
How Engagements Work
We keep things straightforward. Here is the typical process:
- Discovery call: We learn about your business, goals, and current marketing situation. This is free and takes about 30 minutes.
- Audit and strategy: We review your website, SEO, social presence, and competitors. Then we build a strategy with specific recommendations and priorities.
- Monthly retainer: We execute the strategy month by month. You get regular check-ins and monthly reports. No long-term contracts required.
- Quarterly reviews: Every 90 days we step back and evaluate what is working, adjust the strategy, and set new priorities.
Most clients start with a 3-month commitment to give the strategy enough time to show results. After that, we work month to month. If the results are there, you stay. If not, you leave. That is how it should work.
Outsourced Marketing vs. Hiring In-House
This is the comparison most business owners are working through when they find this page. Here is how it breaks down:
- Cost: A full-time marketing manager in Washington state costs $55,000 to $85,000 in salary alone. Add benefits, tools, and training and you are looking at $80,000 to $120,000 per year. Outsourced marketing with us runs $6,000 to $30,000 per year.
- Expertise: One in-house hire is one person with one set of skills. An outsourced team gives you access to specialists in SEO, content, paid ads, design, and strategy.
- Speed: We can start executing within two weeks of signing. Hiring, onboarding, and training an employee takes months.
- Flexibility: You can scale outsourced marketing up or down as your budget and needs change. An employee is a fixed cost whether you need them or not.
The main advantage of in-house is that the person is fully embedded in your business. They know your customers, attend your meetings, and live your brand every day. For businesses under $5M in revenue, though, the cost usually does not justify that advantage.
Pricing
Our outsourced marketing retainers range from $500 to $2,500 per month:
- $500 to $1,000/month: Focused on one or two channels. Typically SEO plus content or social media management. Best for businesses just getting started with professional marketing.
- $1,000 to $1,800/month: Multi-channel strategy covering SEO, content, email, and social. Our most popular tier for established small businesses.
- $1,800 to $2,500/month: Full-service marketing including paid advertising management, advanced analytics, and strategic consulting.
Making the Decision
If you are wondering whether to hire or outsource, our guide on when to hire a marketing agency walks through the decision in detail. And if you want to make sure your marketing spend is actually producing results, read our breakdown on how to measure marketing ROI.
Let Us Talk About Your Marketing
The first step is a conversation. Tell us about your business, your goals, and where you are stuck. We will tell you honestly whether outsourced marketing is the right fit or if something else makes more sense.