Startups emerged as a mainstream business activity at the turn of the century when the Internet became a mass market phenomenon. Every startup today wants to grow, expand, and create a durable footprint in a certain market – but all at a minimal cost. That’s when the content Marketing came into being as a growth strategy, and the practice to outsource content marketing became common.

In modern times, the Content Marketing Institute notes that an estimated 44% of B2B marketers outsource content creation; while roughly 57% of B2B technology marketers outsource tasks such as content writing, design, and editing of content.

These numbers stem from the fact that outsourcing content marketing can drive significant cost savings for a startup. The decision to outsource content marketing gives startups an instant access to content creation mechanisms, which otherwise require significant time, talent and financial investment.

As Visually simply puts it in this nifty infographic:

Why do you need to outsource content marketing?

Despite the endless pros of using content marketing as a growth strategy and outsourcing as a method to get it executed, there are a number of startups that still hesitate in getting started. A lot of them think of content marketing as a tactic that does not bring them customers immediately and takes too long to show results. In fact, they also feel that investing social media advertisements instead is a faster way to get them to reach their customers.

Also read: Content marketing myths that make you sound stupid

1. Because it boosts brand awareness and creates authority

Content marketing is all about addressing a consumer’s concerns, needs and introducing your product or service in a way that offers a solution to them. This often includes sharing tips and tricks to achieve a goal, openly talk about certain challenges and offer a consult for free. Simply put, content marketing helps you boost brand awareness in no time.

But as a startup, it can be an uphill task to generate so much content. That is when you outsource content marketing to create different types of content pieces and analyse which of them suits your business the best towards achieving a goal – all without having to risk increasing your capital costs.

Remember, the better the content you generate, the better your reputation becomes in the target market. The idea is not just to produce a lot of content with an outsourced team, but also be able to build authority in your niche.

2. Because it is less expensive than ads

Talking about capital costs, when you outsource content marketing, you can get the most skilled professionals to work on your content pieces. Some market experts note that the decision to outsource content marketing costs an estimated 60% less in terms of campaign design and execution expenses when compared to traditional marketing methods on platforms such as print, radio, and television.

The outcomes of this strategy are amplified when we consider that roughly 78% of consumers believe that a startup that consistently delivers custom content remains interested in building and sustaining a decent commercial relationship. Simply put, you get more leads for less.

While you might contest with the fact that a well targeted social media ad campaign would get you the same results, the truth is that there you’re always battling for attention. The leads you generate on social aren’t always 100% converting. Most of them are just people who are interested in knowing more about what you’re offering, instead of even wanting to give it a try.

On the other hand, a lead that has come in through a content marketing campaign, is aware of what you’re offering to them and how they can achieve a certain goal through it.

3. Because it gives you the room for experimentation

Startup growth is all about experimenting with different tactics. When you outsource content marketing, you can break your strategy to try different tactics – like creating some content pieces for the sole purpose of search engine indexing, some for competitor benchmarking, etc. This could include creating blogs, articles, infographics, ebooks, webinars, presentations or even social media posts.

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We’ll give you an example here. Over time, you must have noticed how startups are moving from creating only blog posts to investing in podcasts and webinars. They are all making use of content to start a conversation with their potential audience, by offering them ‘valuable information’ – when was the last time you actually hear someone pitch a product oh-so-directly in a podcast, for instance?

4. Because it enables collaboration and growth

To scale faster, startups need to collaborate aggressively. When you outsource content marketing, you get the ability to collaborate with different talents, content strategists, writers, agencies and even crack partnerships to create compelling content pieces. This collaboration helps you target different goals at the same time, and reach out to different audience segments that fit into your ideal customer personas.

Let’s just say one of the clear benefits of content marketing benefits, is a lot of social traffic!

Outsource content marketing

While the above mentioned reasons are compelling enough for a startup to outsource content marketing, there is one question that still remains unanswered – how do you know who to outsource content marketing to?

Should you work with an individual or an agency?

The decision is actually pretty simple than it may sound to you as soon as someone suggests outsourcing. You outsource content marketing to someone who can see your vision and mission clearly, and understands your products at least a 60%.

Here are a few things you need to ask them and yourself eventually before taking the final step:

• Do they make an effort to truly understand your product? (Going beyond demos)
• Do they agree with your product vision and mission?
• Do they have something valuable to add to your product roadmap?
• Do they make time to create collaterals that go beyond the scope of work?
• Do they have the resources/ the flexibility to scale as you do with time?
• Do they sound like they would work as a team?
• Do they fit your budgets for content marketing?

Simply put, when you outsource content marketing, you should be looking for someone who fits the bill as much as you would want them to when in-house. They should be your extended marketing team that you’re not afraid to reach out to at even 2 am in the night!

Because they don’t grind with you, they can’t help you take your startup to another level.

We have been working with startups across both B2B and B2C for almost 5 years now. While we’re a small team, we make sure we do our best for them to scale easily. Interested in knowing how we do that? Let’s talk!

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