There are more marketers out there who don't outsource elements of their team. Reasons cited include a lack of internal skills and a shrinking team size.
Outsourcing is becoming increasingly common, with nearly half of marketers saying they will outsource some aspect of their marketing by 2024.
According to Marketing Week's exclusive Career and Salary Survey, 46.2% of marketers agree that in the past 12 months they have had to outsource an element of marketing to an agency, specialist or consultancy. I found out that
This number is not all that surprising, given the slowdown in the recruitment market and the general increase in workload and responsibilities that marketers are expected to take on, as revealed in the data analysis above. Maybe not.
Just under a third (28.7%) of marketers say the reason they've had to outsource an area of marketing is because their team has shrunk in size. Other factors include a lack of in-house skills (48.7%), not needing to hire someone full-time to do this work (28.9%), and cost savings (14.4%).
Research shows marketers cite data analytics as the biggest skills gap within their teams As a way to close the skills gap, outsourcing plays a key role in reducing the burden on many marketing teams, and marketing Almost a quarter (24.5%) of respondents said their business will be employed by a consulting firm or freelancer in 2024.
Outsourcing is much more prevalent in B2B than B2C. More than half (53%) of marketers working in B2B say they have outsourced some part of their business, while only a few in B2C say the same. 2 (40.6%). Companies with a mix of B2B and B2C (43.5%) fall somewhere in between.
When it comes to what marketing teams are outsourcing, the most common aspect of the role being delegated is digital marketing. More than a quarter (28.2%) of marketers say digital marketing is outsourced, significantly more than content (16.6%), public relations (13.5%) and market research (10.3%). Additionally, 9.5% of marketing teams outsource social media.
Digital marketing is the most popular aspect of marketing to outsource across B2B (29.3%), B2C (28.7%), and mixed B2B and B2C companies (26.5%). Whether you work in B2B, B2C, or a mix of both, content and public relations will be second and third respectively.
Marketing Week will publish a series of exclusive news and features based on our 2024 Careers and Pay Survey findings, including the impact of burnout and evolving work patterns. Click here to see all the content we've published so far.
