If you’re an estate agency looking to grow your business, your digital marketing strategy is crucial. But you may need to take a realistic look at whether you can develop and implement your strategy using your in-house team alone.

You’ve probably been managing your digital output well until now – with interactive social media feeds, a great blog that adds value to customers, a regular newsletter and more. However, to scale up your business you will need a whole new commitment to your strategy that could divert you from the key business of selling and letting homes.

If you think you might need a bit of extra help, we look at when and how to bring in the experts.

What does outsourcing my digital marketing function mean?

Outsourcing means bringing in an experienced marketing agency or freelancer to take care of certain tasks or your whole marketing operation. So, you might be keen to run a campaign aimed at new vendors but want someone with the time and energy to throw themselves into the task.

Alternatively, you might want to outsource a certain element of your marketing to a company with the right knowledge for that niche task. Search engine optimisation is a good example. Getting the right expertise to perform this niche and ever-changing task is essential.

How do I know I need to outsource?

You may feel you don’t have the in-house talent to really do the job well or you may be struggling with staff shortages. Your existing marketing efforts may not be hitting the mark, or you may decide that to scale up the business you need to concentrate on the core elements – rather than running a social media account or writing a blog in your lunch break.

Or there might be areas of the fast-moving digital world where you feel you need to seek out specific knowledge – creating a new website, getting to grips with AI or developing a paid social media campaign for example.

What are the benefits of outsourcing?

These will depend on the size and ambitions of your business as well as your marketing objectives, but here are some to consider:

 – Access to skills and knowledge – while your in-house team can spend time getting to grips with new areas of marketing, professional agencies are living and breathing these every day, so can quickly adapt to your needs.

 – Cost benefits – outsourcing to an agency for a specific project or campaign can work out more cost effective than bringing in additional in-house staff as you can increase and decrease the level of activity depending on the results you want to achieve.

 – You can get on with the job – diverting time to work on your marketing strategy could be a distraction for your team, especially if you’re a small agency without a dedicated marketing function. By outsourcing you can give them time to work on developing customer relationships and building new business.

Picking an agency with access to the latest marketing tech could be considerably more cost effective.”

 – Access to the right tools and technologies – in digital marketing, the best results frequently come with paid tools or premium versions of free platforms. Investing in these can boost your impact but also affect your bottom line – not to mention the staff time it takes to research and acquire the right products. Picking an agency with access to the latest marketing tech could be considerably more cost effective.

 – Flexibility – there are many ways in which an agency team can bring more flexibility. You can scale your activity up or down depending on marketing conditions, Agency teams are often more agile too and able to bring in additional support when a tight turnaround is needed.

How do I go about outsourcing?

There are a few things to consider before you select your agency:

 – Price – don’t go for the cheapest, this might be a false economy. Do, however, look at the pricing structure carefully. What are they are offering for the money and how transparent is the quote? Might hidden costs be added later on?

 – Industry experience – it is a good idea to look for property knowledge and experience. The sector is a complex one and if your agency specialise in real estate they will have a head start.

 – Track record – ask about their previous campaigns and successes, read their case studies, look for reviews and follow up on testimonials.

Above all, remember that you would expect your customers to shop around before selecting an estate agency – the same is true about marketing companies. You need to talk to different agencies to find the right fit for you – people you can trust and work with well.

Do you need any help with your digital marketing? Contact us at www.artdivision.co.uk.