Thoughts on Thought Leadership
Outsourcing Marketing: Can it Work
in Professional Services?
A March 2005 article in the Harvard Business Review discussed the rise of outsourcing of the marketing function. Citing data from Forrester Research, the article said more companies than ever are farming out parts of their marketing operations and analytics to marketing specialists. In fact, 53 percent of B2B marketing executives plan to outsource more than half of their marketing activities.
The article raises several interesting points, not the least of which is the contention that many recent marketing outsourcing arrangements are driven by companies’ desire to build greater “left-brain marketing expertise”—i.e., skills that, the authors contend, are in short supply in departments populated by “creative types” trained in the art, rather than science, of marketing.
While we agree with this point, we
wouldn’t necessarily limit outsourcing to left-brain activities.
In fact, we’ve seen examples of how professional services firms
have benefited greatly by outsourcing certain aspects of intellectual
capital development—arguably one of the most creative exercises
in a professional services firm—as well as marketing planning and
execution. These companies have benefited in several ways.
Gained access to expertise that is in short supply.
Creating compelling intellectual capital requires a mix of creative and analytical skills that is not readily found in many marketing professionals. While every marketer understands the importance of having strong “content”—great ideas from the firm’s professionals to fill their publications, speeches, books and other marketing channels—marketing often struggles with how to help the firm’s experts develop their content. That’s a pressing market need that firms like ours address. In a world in which professional services companies compete on the basis of the quality of their expertise, the ones with the best—and best marketed—ideas win. Great marketing of weak ideas does little to stoke demand for professional services. The glut of poorly conceived and poorly written business books that fail to make the phone ring is testimony to that.
So if developing professionals’ ideas is as important as marketing those ideas well, whose role is it in the professional services firm to develop the professionals’ ideas before they are put into articles, books, speeches and other forms of marketing? The professional himself is responsible, one might say—which is true to an extent. But we believe marketing plays a necessary and critical role here: to bring skills to the table that help the firm’s internal experts refine—and on new topics, create—a compelling diagnosis of and solution to a business problem.
It’s important to note that these skills are not typically found in traditional advertising agencies, PR firms or ghostwriters. These marketing professionals work best when the professional services firm brings them well developed material that’s “market ready”—not when they’re expected to hone and shape the content. Communicating solid ideas well is what the ad agency, PR firm or ghostwriter is about.
One consulting client of ours struggled for nearly a year to develop an article intended for the Harvard Business Review, which is known for its rigorous standards and high article rejection rate. The problem wasn’t that the consultant lacked good ideas or that the topic wasn’t of interest to the publication. The real issue was twofold:
- The consultant had precious little “spare time” away from client work in which he could work on the article, so weeks often dragged by with no progress made; and
- Even though he didn’t realize it, he was using the ghostwriter to develop the content. While the ghostwriter was indeed talented at translating ideas into readable prose, he did not have the research, logic and argument-building skills that are vital to developing compelling content.
The consultant eventually hired us to help
him develop the piece. Over a few months, we helped him completely
restructure the article; conducted in-depth ghostwrote the article
copy; and placed the piece in HBR. The consultant reports that the
article has been a major generator of business for his consulting
firm—in fact, responsible for opening doors that have led to $5 million
in new consulting business in a short period of time.
Tapped a new source of additional “arms and legs” (and brains).
Coming out of the most recent economic downturn, many professional services companies—especially consulting organizations—have found that their marketing staffs are just a fraction of the size they were during the booming 1990s. However, the demands for marketing have not decreased accordingly (in fact, they have increased exponentially). By teaming with an outside marketing firm, organizations can develop and execute the programs critical to differentiating themselves from competitors on a timely basis and at a predictable cost. What’s more, they don’t have to rebuild their in-house marketing function. Interestingly, much of what these organizations are outsourcing is highly creative: writing services.
One company, for instance, has an agreement
with a major business publication to provide a monthly article giving
“expert commentary” on a particular management topic germane to its
readers. For marketers, securing such an arrangement is certainly a
major coup. Unfortunately, the company soon figured out that writing a
solid in-depth “thought piece” every month was far more time-consuming
than the authors thought it would be. With no professional writers in
the company’s marketing department, the company’s head of
communications opted to outsource the writing of the articles to us.
The firm’s consultants have been meeting their obligations
to the publication—and reaping significant exposure among key
prospective buyers of the firm’s services every four weeks.
Built a marketing culture out of a sales-driven environment.
Most professional services companies—whether engaged in consulting, law or accounting—are launched on the basis of the founder’s expertise and grow largely through sales activities. Eventually, however, these organizations find their growth stunted by their inability to “clone” the founder. Their leads and business development opportunities are limited to the amount of time the company’s chief rainmaker can spend cultivating relationships and closing deals. As a result, these companies find themselves virtually sprinting to a particular revenue figure (whether that’s $5 million, $10 million or $20 million) and then being unable to “get over the hump.”
Some companies, though, recognize that the way to get over the hump is to create a marketing capability that generates leads and creates many, many more sales opportunities than simple person-to-person “door knocking” can. They also recognize that they may not be able to afford a large marketing department with all the requisite skills. Therefore, they team with a full-service marketing services firm that can handle marketing strategy, content development and marketing-execution activities—ranging from writing white papers, bylined articles and other collaterals to developing sales presentations and proposals and conducting media and analyst relations.
In some cases, the companies have a head of marketing who manages the services provided; in other cases, the provider is the de facto chief marketing officer reporting to the company’s CEO or managing partner. In all cases, it’s critical that the firm providing marketing services a) specializes in the marketing of expertise, not products; and b) can grow and flex with the company as its needs change over time.
The Bloom Group currently is working with a small consulting firm in just such a way. The firm has no marketing function to speak of—its growth has been entirely driven by partners’ sales activities. Yet the partners also know that marketing is a key to the firm’s continued growth and the ability of the partners to more effectively use their time. The firm initially hired us for a predefined set of small-scale marketing activities—revamping its website, redoing several sales presentations, helping to promote a book written by several of the firm’s partners, and researching and writing a collection of in-depth client case studies. These activities have had a measurable impact on the firm’s business-development efforts and have laid the groundwork for a broader shift to a marketing-based culture. The firm is now considering a full-scale marketing outsourcing arrangement that will enable the firm to grow more quickly—and efficiently—than it has in the past.
Conclusion
Regardless of whether the aforementioned companies are outsourcing intellectual capital development, writing, events management, media relations or the entire spectrum of marketing activities, there’s one element that’s common to all: a single person to whom the marketing services provider reports. This person— generally the head of marketing in a large company or practice and the CEO or managing director in a smaller organization—has to be able to either set the marketing strategy for the services provider to follow or work with the firm to jointly develop a strategy that makes sense for the company or practice. Importantly, this person must be able to “run interference” internally—i.e., navigate the company’s political landscape to ensure that the services provider gets access to who and what it needs to be successful.
Just as other types of outsourcing have moved beyond simple, transaction-based activities into higher-value areas, marketing outsourcing in professional services is poised to encompass a broader range of activities formerly thought to be strictly the purview of “internal” people. As competition in the marketplace of ideas continues to intensify, professional services companies can enhance their growth prospects by working with a partner that can help develop and communicate those ideas strongly, quickly and effectively.