Drive ROI growth in a volatile market with external partners.
Written by Brian Shellhorn, CCWP and Sandra Lopez
Key Takeaways
Modern CMOs face a complex challenge: growth, innovation, and financial constraints. To thrive, they must make smart business decisions, allocate resources strategically, and demonstrate the tangible impact of their marketing efforts, especially in tech, where proving ROI is paramount.
Today's market challenges
Agility is vital for crafting innovative marketing strategies within tight budgets. Modern marketing teams must balance growth, innovation, and measurable impact while adhering to financial constraints, demanding smart decision-making and strategic resource allocation.
CMOs must demonstrate the lifetime value to customer acquisition cost (LTV to CAC), a critical metric illustrating marketing's financial impact. Quantifying revenue generated per dollar spent is crucial, especially in B2C, B2B, and B2B2C tech sectors, where CMOs are required to prove tangible results and leverage frameworks such as SMART (Specific Measurable Actionable Results Timebound).
Leveraging external teams
Leveraging extended teams through partnerships with companies like Aquent offers invaluable advantages for marketing. Businesses can optimize resources across demand generation, social media, UX design, and customer experience by accessing external expertise.
This collaboration empowers organizations to introduce fresh perspectives, fostering creativity and innovation. When gaps arise in areas like social media or customer experience, they can quickly engage experts to efficiently advance projects such as an upcoming product launch.
This flexible approach lets businesses use external partners as extensions of their teams, gaining recruitment and partnership benefits without permanent hires. Trying specialists before committing full time allows businesses to scale their workforce according to project demands, maintaining the right expertise at every stage. By focusing on adaptability and innovation, these partnerships provide a dynamic workforce that drives success and competitive advantage.
Access to specialized skills
Whether it's marketing strategists, performance marketers, content creators, graphic designers, SEO experts, or social media managers, agencies supply CMOs with professionals who stay current with industry trends and tools.
A good agency keeps its talent relevant through rigorous vetting and offers free online courses, like Aquent’s Gymnasium, to keep skills sharp. By examining the 12-month roadmap, CMOs can identify programs suitable for temporary or project-based outsourcing.
This allows businesses to adjust marketing efforts as needed, avoiding the costs of full-time salaries, benefits, and long-term commitments. There's also the option to transition temporary hires into full-time positions if they fit well.
For example, a company launching a new product can hire freelance Content Creators and Digital Marketers for campaign tasks. Once the launch ends, the contract concludes, saving ongoing employee expenses. These freelancers integrate with the marketing team, aligning with branding and product marketing to ensure consistency with the company's vision.
Cost efficiency through individuals, projects, and / or managed outsource agencies
Maintaining cost efficiency is crucial. Companies are increasingly using external talent agencies to manage their P&L effectively. Hiring full-time employees can be costly, with SHRM data showing an average cost per hire of nearly $4,700 and some employers estimating the total cost at three to four times the position's salary. By partnering with external agencies, businesses can convert fixed headcount costs into variable ones, gaining efficiencies.
Aquent, for example, provides access to over three million specialized freelancers in marketing and creative fields, often at a lower cost than full-time staff. This shift can result in significant savings compared to traditional hiring. External partners should manage recruitment, training, and freelancer management, freeing CMOs from hiring and onboarding tasks.
A practical example is event management. Instead of a full-time events team for an annual conference, CMOs can work with agencies specializing in event services as needed. This approach cuts costs related to planning, equipment, software, and labor.?
Agility in scaling marketing efforts
New trends, shifting business goals, and market dynamics can cause rapid changes in marketing demands. Currently, AI is at the forefront of challenges for CMOs. A key benefit of talent agencies is their flexibility in scaling marketing efforts. When AI integration in Marketing Operations is a priority, access to specialized talent is crucial.
Agencies' access to advanced technologies and tools can greatly enhance marketing campaigns. Whether it's using advanced analytics, optimizing content workflows, or deploying AI-driven solutions, external agencies often have cutting-edge resources. For example, Aquent developed RoboHead, its proprietary tool, to emphasize workflow efficiency and effectiveness.
Boards increasingly challenge CMOs to create a vision for operating in an AI-driven world. Partnering with experts can provide the insights and options needed for an AI-first strategy, allowing full-time teams to remain focused while leading an AI transformation.
A relevant example is Salesforce's recent initiative at Dreamforce, which demonstrates effective AI use in event management. Collaborating with Aquent, Salesforce navigated AI integration complexities smoothly.
Enhanced creativity and innovation
External talent often bring a wealth of experience from various industries and projects, providing unique insights and creative ideas that in-house teams may lack. This outside perspective can help CMOs overcome internal biases, foster innovation, and revitalize campaigns. By integrating select experts for specific periods, companies can co-ideate with their existing teams, blending fresh ideas with established knowledge.
Envision a company revitalizing its brand with a new in-house creative agency. By integrating flexible talent with specialized skills, the company boosts creative innovation and market responsiveness without the need to hire a large agency with big overhead. This strategy aligns creative efforts with demand, enhancing agility and efficiency. The collaboration between external talent and internal expertise exemplifies how diverse creative minds drive brand transformation and campaign success, contrasting the weighty costs of traditional big agencies.
Risk mitigation and accountability
Aquent is a trusted partner known for quality work and meeting deadlines. By offering service guarantees, Aquent reduces risks like project delays, low-quality output, or budget overruns. This accountability sets them apart from independent contractors, allowing CMOs to focus on strategic initiatives rather than quality control, as the agency is committed to high standards.
Aquent's dedication to staying up-to-date with compliance, sustainability, and industry requirements like SOC 2? Type 2 ensures that risks are managed throughout the project.
Consider a tech company needing a social media campaign. Aquent manages performance, ensures compliance with advertising policies, and provides detailed reports, giving the client peace of mind.
In tech, hiring individual contractors is common but can sometimes fail to meet specific needs, raising reliability concerns. Aquent is a reliable partner, offering consistent solutions for attracting top talent and achieving project success.
Focus on core competencies
CMOs should prioritize core hard budget dollars on essential marketing competencies that directly contribute to their business's competitive advantage. Allocating these funds toward internal strengths, such as product marketing, ensures close collaboration with product teams and engineers, which is vital for maintaining alignment with core objectives.?
For non-essential tasks or specific skill sets, CMOs can utilize soft funds to engage external partners, such as for flex talent or project-based needs. This approach allows the internal team to focus on strategic initiatives while leveraging external expertise for tasks like content creation for performance-based marketing programs. By doing so, CMOs can optimize resources and maintain their company's leadership position in the industry.
Conclusion
CMOs need to get creative with their budget. Often overlooked is how external partners offer a strategic solution by providing access to specialized skills, enhancing creativity, and allowing for flexible, cost-efficient marketing efforts. By implementing a strategy that leverages temporary talent or services to enhance the organization, CMOs can achieve marketing excellence, maximizing their budget while staying agile and focused on core business objectives.
Those who embrace external talent partners will be well-positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape. When every marketing dollar counts, forming strategic partnerships with agencies like Aquent is not just advantageous—it's essential.?
This post originally appeared on our Aquent Talent blog.
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