Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Digital Media Work

Digital media covers a wide subject area. From video production and virtual reality, to website design and interactive graphics, it’s by far one of the fastest growing types of marketing in the world.

As this area moves so fast, it can be quite hard to keep up with the skills and abilities needed to create such complex digital media projects. One minute you thought you were up to date by having a leading illustrator creating graphics for your business, the next you’re falling behind due to advanced video production.The question is: should you outsource your company’s digital media work, or is best to keep it in-house?

We’ve explored a few options below:

Pros of outsourcing digital marketing and media

Digital media is a whole lot different to conventional marketing. It has visual perfection at its core, where all outputs must always give a professional result. Any digital media created should be tailored to your customers, including a nod towards your brand.

Due to this, many companies struggle to effectively create professional digital media. It’s one area in particular where you cannot afford the risk of mistakes. By outsourcing to an agency or freelancer, you would opt for one that specializes in digital marketing and media, and has the equipment, skill and knowledge to perform projects every day.

If you were to recruit and train digital media specialists in house, you would find it easily escalates. You may find a perfect video editor, and then someone with skills in animation, or CAD. Before you know it, you’ve built an entire media team as the skill sets are so varied.

Is this really the best way to spend money, along with training, a bigger office and growing utility bills to consider? You would need to compare business gas prices and all other utilities to cope with a growing team, and that’s before even mentioning how much time the process would take up. You can make a head start with comparing prices here.

Outsourcing to a specialist means you can send over a brief and leave it in their capable hands to deliver top quality work to deadline. The jobs get done more quickly, all for the set cost of using a marketing agency or freelancer.

Cons of outsourcing digital marketing to your company

As a brand and a company, there will no doubt be challenges surrounding outsourcing digital media jobs. The first is that as soon as the job is handed over, you may lose personal touch and control. This is where many perfectionists struggle, so it’s worth analysing what type of worker you are to begin with.

Secondly, because the marketing agency or freelancer is not directly employed by your company, they will not be as passionate about the brand and mission statements. This can lead to the brand identity getting diluted. Thorough communication and clear briefs should help with this, in which would mean a little more direction and work from your side.

Thirdly, changing freelancer or agency often means you chance a lack of consistency. Therefore, it’s wise to stick with the same outsourced staff for a long period of time. If you run into any problems, this is when it could become tricky.

Overall, there are equal advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing digital marketing and media, you first need to figure out the way your brand would be happy working. Weigh up the pros and cons, and you should soon find yourself leaning towards an option which will fit into your company’s mission correctly.