Top Benefits of Outsourcing Marketing Technology Support

-By Christina R. Fritsch JD, Founder and CRM Success Consultant

Firm leaders are always looking for ways to make their organizations more efficient, reduce costs improve business development effectiveness and enhance profitability. To help firms achieve all of these important goals, outsourcing marketing functions can be an excellent option – especially in areas that involve technologies to support marketing and business development.

In over a decade of helping hundreds of firms improve marketing and business development technology processes and efficiency, we have found that outsourcing key functions to trained and experienced professionals can solve a number of problems while also providing important benefits. Here are a few examples:

Problem: After making a large initial investment in a CRM system, the firm realizes that more staff time and resources are needed to implement the system. Without the resources system implementation will be delayed and costs will increase. Unfortunately, the firm doesn’t have the necessary expertise in-house or the ability to additional CRM staff.
- Solution: Outsourced CRM Project Managers have the experience necessary to make key decisions, schedule necessary meetings, liaise with the implementation team, prioritize tasks and keep the project on track so the deployment goes smoothly and the firm can realize benefits from the new system sooner rather than later.
Problem: The firm is dealing with staff turnover or vacations and it’s next to impossible to find people to fill vacancies.
- Solution: Outsourcing e-Marketing staff support can provide the expertise needed to ensure deliverability of email campaigns is maximized and CRM and e-Marketing system integrations work effectively. Additionally, they can help with tracking and analytics as well as compliance with data privacy regulations.
Problem: Contact data quality in the CRM system is dated and degraded, containing duplicate records and incorrect and incomplete information. Consequently, Marketing can’t effectively execute campaigns and users lose confidence and refuse to adopt in the system.
- Solution: Outsourcing data management and cleansing will allow the firm to benefit from the experience of trained data quality professionals and will save time and headaches. Additionally, the firm can staff data projects appropriately without having to hire, train and supervise additional staff.
Problem: The firm lacks the internal staff or expertise required to effectively execute email campaigns and manage the eMarketing function.
- Solution: Outsourcing e-Marketing staff support can provide the expertise needed to ensure deliverability of email campaigns is maximized and CRM and e-Marketing system integrations work effectively. Additionally, they can help with tracking and analytics as well as compliance with data privacy regulations.

More Benefits of Outsourcing CRM, Data Quality and eMarketing

By outsourcing these types of functions to qualified CRM, data management and e-Marketing specialists, the firm can also derive a number of additional benefits including:

These professionals not only have technical expertise, they are also typically trained on a variety of CRM and e-Marketing systems, which can allow them to ‘hit the ground running’ to reduce project delays.
They can often provide unique perspective, experience and know-how that your team may lack which can help avoid some commonly made mistakes.
They can help to provide CRM strategies and project planning that may be lacking in some firms.
Options to outsource on a short-term, long-term or permanent basis can provide flexibility depending on the firm’s situation and timelines.
Outsourcing allows for predictability of costs and can often provide substantial cost savings on the overhead, pay and benefits associated with in-house CRM, data management and e-Marketing staff.
Outsourcing can also help with staff retention by relieving valued team members of some routine or inherently problematic responsibilities and allowing them to focus on more complex projects or strategic functions.

Is Outsourcing Right for Your Firm?

There are many factors to consider before deciding to outsource marketing and business development technology functions. Asking a few questions can help you decide if the outsourcing makes sense for your organization:

Why are you considering outsourcing this function?
– If your existing staff is too busy with day-to-day processes and requests to make needed improvements, or gaps in knowledge are preventing you from realizing the benefits of your marketing technology systems, you can reap significant returns from outsourcing. Additionally, outsourcing can make sense to fill a need when key staff members leave the firm or have to be out of the office for an extended period.
Do you have the right team members to accomplish key firm goals?
– Does your current staff have the necessary skills and experience to maximize return on your technology investments? Finding good candidates can be challenging and training (and retraining) costs can be significant. Additionally, having candidates with real world experience can help you accelerate your efforts and avoid common pitfalls.
When should you outsource?
– Is your need temporary or long-term? Outsourcing can bridge gaps when there are staffing transitions or skill deficiencies, fill needs related to special projects and help the in-house team meet critical deadlines. It can also provide the additional capacity needed to manage routine tasks and operations when teams are focused on major projects or organizational change.
Is your firm culture amenable to outsourcing?
– While outsourcing some CRM and data management functions makes good business sense for most organizations, some firms may be hesitant to entrust key tasks to people who are not in the firm’s office. However, many firms have already successfully made the transition to outsourcing, so there are plenty of success stories that can be shared to ease any fears.

Where to Start

For firms considering outsourcing for the first time, it’s helpful to understand that outsourcing provides a number of options. Rather than committing to a large initial project, a measured approach may make sense. For instance, the firm could begin outsourcing some routine but essential functions such as contact deduplication, mailing list cleanup and CRM record cleaning. Then, as confidence builds and firm leaders see the benefits of outsourcing routine or support functions, the prospect of outsourcing higher-level functions such as ongoing CRM system or project management begins to make sense.

With a reliable external team to handle specific essential functions, firms can experience fewer disruptions, greater operational stability and consistency, and more streamlined workload management. And these operational efficiencies can lead to greater productivity and returns on the marketing spend—and greater profitability for the firm. To explore whether outsourcing makes sense for your firm, a complimentary assessment is a helpful first step. Reach out to the team at CLIENTSFirst at 404-249-9914 or info@clientsfirstconsulting.com and we can discuss how your firm might benefit from outsourcing.

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– For more than a decade, the team at CLIENTSFirst Consulting has been helping law and other professional services firms and other organizations successfully select and implement CRM and eMarketing systems to maximize value, adoption, and return on investment. If you need help achieving CRM success, please contact us at 404-249-9914 or Info@ClientsFirstConsulting.com.