Don’t sign off for the holidays just yet. I know many of us go into hibernation, family mode, or even business-off mode over the holidays. At the same time, part of our brains is already thinking about 2025 goals. I’ve had people reach out this month saying, “Hey, can we start in January? I want to secure your services but don’t want to think about it until then.” Not necessarily January 1st, but close to it.
This episode isn’t going to be a sales pitch for my services—although I’d love to work with you in 2025, of course. Instead, it’s going to be a candid conversation about when it’s too early to outsource your marketing. It’s not always about budget, but rather understanding what to consider when hiring someone for your marketing needs.
To be honest, marketing is a tough hire. You’re looking for someone who can represent your business as well as you do, even though they’ll never love your business as much as you do. For many of us, our business is like our baby. Ideally, you’ll find someone who acts as if they love your business as much as you do.
Even with my clients, I care deeply about their success. I think every one of them knows how much I care. I’m focused on making sure they get a strong ROI and consistently have high-quality content. That’s incredibly important to me.
But at the end of the day, I’ll never love their business the same way they do. And that’s why marketing is such a challenging hire. Everything you put out into the world needs to feel authentic to you. So let’s table about it.
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Table of Contents
I think many of us are in goal-setting mode—unless we’ve already checked out for the holidays. That’s why I felt this was the perfect topic to discuss before I sign off: Is it too early to outsource your marketing? Should you be thinking about outsourcing in 2025? A lot of us are setting goals and aiming to grow our businesses, right? Or is it just the Enneagram Threes I’m talking to here?
I feel like most people want to see their business grow year over year. While our goals may all look different, marketing is always a big part of running a successful business. That’s what I want to talk about today.
I also think many of us are exploring new ways to market our businesses. We’re tired of relying solely on Instagram—hallelujah, same—and tired of putting all our eggs in one basket. So, we’re looking into different strategies. But the more options we explore, the more we realize just how many choices we have.
For example, you could start a YouTube channel. You could start a podcast. You should start blogging—notice how I said should and not could. You could market on Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, or even Threads (which I’ve had some success with recently). The options are endless.
It’s overwhelming, right? You think, “I want to make more money next year. How do I do that? Okay, I need to increase my marketing. What does that look like?” And then you’re hit with a million possibilities.
That’s why today I want to talk about how to know when your business is ready to outsource your marketing. Specifically, I’m going to walk you through three key questions to help you decide.
3 Questions to Ask To Decide If You’re Ready to Outsource Your Marketing and Hire a Marketing Agency
Before I get into those questions to ask before you outsource your marketing, I want to make something clear: This isn’t about how long you’ve been in business or how much revenue you’re generating. Everyone’s journey is different. Some people start their business with a larger budget, while others grow more gradually. Some prioritize certain things over others, and we all have unique strengths.
I know very successful business owners who held onto doing all their own marketing for as long as possible simply because they enjoyed it. On the other hand, I’ve worked with businesses that might have been allocating more money to their marketing than I would recommend based on their revenue—but they did it because they hated marketing.
For clients looking to outsource your marketing, hiring me was about prioritizing the long game. They knew they weren’t going to show up consistently on Instagram, and they made that decision early on. Even if it took six to twelve months to see an ROI, they were willing to invest up front, even at an earlier stage of their business.
For them, marketing wasn’t just a priority—it was about having a searchable medium that aligned with their long-term goals. They recognized that they weren’t interested in marketing themselves, so they put a system in place to address it from the start.
So basically… no, I don’t think you have to be making a certain amount of money or you have to be in business a certain amount of months before you hire a marketing agency or outsource your marketing. Let’s talk about what you need to pay attention to instead.
Do you have a proven business model?
Key question one is: Do you have a proven business model?
Essentially, this means that if you hire someone to drive cold traffic to your business, do you have a system in place to convert those leads? Are you creating content that converts them? In some cases, you can outsource this, like hiring a social media manager. Instagram, for example, is often considered a good all-in-one platform. I’m hesitant to fully endorse that because relying on it as your only platform carries risks. However, it does allow you to reach new audiences and warm them up effectively.
This brings up a larger debate: Is marketing responsible for sales?
You need to think about that before you outsource your marketing. Sometimes when marketers say, “We’re not in charge of sales, just getting eyes on your business,” it feels like a bit of a cop-out. That said, there’s some truth to it. I’ve worked with clients where I bring the right audience to them, but their offers don’t convert. That’s not something I can fully control.
However, as marketers, we do have a responsibility to help optimize every part of the funnel. Whether or not our advice is implemented is another story. For example, as a Pinterest manager, if I see traffic bouncing, it’s my job to say, “Hey, here are some ideas to increase conversions.”
Before outsourcing your marketing, you need to have an honest conversation with yourself: Do you have a business model that is already converting customers?
This takes time to develop, especially in the earlier stages of your business. If your business model is still unproven, outsourcing your marketing can be riskier because any gaps in your sales funnel or customer journey will take time to refine.
As much as I’d love to say, “We’re done with all testing in month one,” that’s rarely how marketing works. Testing and tweaking are ongoing processes. So, this is an important question to ask yourself before deciding to outsource your marketing.
Can you afford to hire a marketing agency or outsource your marketing?
Question two is: Can you afford it long-term?
Let’s be honest—many of us look at what we want to earn in 2025 and base our spending decisions on that hypothetical number. This is such an important question but it can also feel like a chicken-and-egg situation.
For example, sometimes people say, “I want to make a million dollars, but I don’t want to spend anything to get there.” And that’s not realistic. You might need to make investments to reach your goals.
That said, affordability is an important consideration. This comes up often in consultations because of the type of marketing I do—Pinterest and blogging—which takes time to yield results. I wish it didn’t take so long, but transparency is really important to me.
When people are deciding between the packages I offer—either two blog posts or four blog posts a month—I often encourage them to start smaller. It’s much better to do two blog posts a month consistently for 12 months than to do four blog posts a month for just four months.
Consistency and longevity are so important. As I mentioned in question one, tweaking your offer and strategy takes time. It might take a while before your ROI exceeds what you’ve invested. Any marketer who tells you otherwise is, in my opinion, not being honest. You need to think about that before you outsource your marketing.
Even on faster-moving platforms, there’s always a process of refining and optimizing. Everything—from how you reach people, to how you warm them up, to how you get them to buy—needs to work together.
And to get the strongest ROI possible, this process doesn’t happen in the first month. It requires time, patience, and a commitment to tweaking and improving every part of your marketing strategy.
Is your business ready for visibility?
The third question is: Is your business truly ready for increased visibility?
If I doubled your workload tomorrow, would your business be able to handle it? This has been on my mind a lot this year. When I started working with a business coach a few months ago, one of the first things she asked me was whether my business was ready for the visibility and growth that marketing could bring.
Of course, the “sexy” part of working with a business coach or outsourcing marketing is making more money. That’s usually why people hire help—they want their business to grow. But the advice I got was to first make sure my backend processes were rock solid, based on my unique situation.
I’m so glad we did that. It’s easy to say, “I wish I had tons of leads, customers, and opportunities,” but you need to make sure your business can handle that growth. For example, if your pricing isn’t where it should be, more leads might actually hurt your business.
I often talk about the time I burned myself out in 2020 and 2021. Back then, I was charging between $20 and $50 per blog post. Increased visibility brought me great clients and referrals, but I couldn’t keep up—I was dropping balls everywhere. That wasn’t a good time to outsource my marketing because I wasn’t making enough profit, and I wasn’t even following up with leads properly.
Bonus: Are you in this for the long haul?
You need to think about that before you outsource your marketing. Your long-term goals matter when choosing your marketing strategy. For example, if you’re selling candles on TikTok, you may not need to think about the long term as much. But if you’re hiring someone to write blog posts for your wedding photography business, I’d prefer you to be committed to the long haul.
Here’s a funny example: A friend hired me a while ago to write blogs for her wedding photography business. We got her ranked on page one for her city’s wedding photographer search. Years later, she decided she didn’t want to do photography anymore. She left her website up for a while, but people kept inquiring, so she eventually had to take it down. Even without updates, she was still getting leads from Google! That’s the power of consistent, long-term marketing.
What to Think About Before You Outsource Your Marketing or Hiring a Marketing Agency
To be clear, these questions aren’t meant to deter you from outsourcing your marketing. Outsourcing can be a great idea! Often, we hold onto tasks too tightly, especially things like blogging and Pinterest. These platforms don’t require your face or constant real-time updates, which makes them easier to outsource.
I sometimes do reels for clients, but they’re simple—just B-roll with text. I’m not a social media manager, and I’m upfront about that. Instagram, for example, often feels more personal and high-pressure. Everything has to look and feel perfect, like it’s coming directly from you.
With blogging and Pinterest, though, you don’t have to worry about posting in real time or referencing something timely. You’re not glued to your phone waiting to respond immediately. It’s much easier to outsource blogging and Pinterest because it’s less personal and doesn’t require as much hands-on attention.
That said, I’m always upfront about what outsourcing looks like. It reminds me of a thread I saw recently where someone mentioned how long Pinterest takes to show results and how hard it is to rank at first. They wondered if it was worth it.
Is it worth it to outsource your marketing or hiring a marketing agency?
Honestly, I get it. The online space is full of promises of “a million dollars in 30 days” or “1 million impressions in a couple of months.” I’ve probably undersold Pinterest at times because I want to avoid those over-the-top claims. But the truth is, I absolutely believe it’s worth it.
I’ve built my entire business around Pinterest and blogging. I keep doubling down on it because I see amazing results for my clients. What’s great about those results is that they’re less about hitting a specific number and more about creating a sustainable lifestyle. That’s another thing you need to think about before you outsource your marketing.
My clients feel more relaxed knowing leads are consistently coming in, and sometimes those leads are even a backup plan. That’s why I believe in it so much. Honestly, I could go on and on about this.
Should we work together in 2025?
If you’re considering whether or not to outsource your marketing, now is actually a great time to reach out. You can take your time over the holidays—casually collecting the collateral and materials to share with me or whoever you’re hiring. That way, when January rolls around, we’re ready to hit the ground running.
Of course, no pressure. That’s not really the focus of this episode. But I do want to say that I’d love to work with you in 2025. That’s the truth. Everyone I’ve spoken to who listens to this podcast is amazing—not just because you listen, but because I feel like I get to connect with the coolest people here.
So, thank you. I really appreciate you. Have a wonderful holiday season! The next two weeks of the podcast are batched content, but I think you’re going to love it. I can’t wait to reconnect with you in the new year.
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