In business, some departments are mission critical. At a minimum, you need a leader to make the decisions and an accounts payable principle to send out checks each week. (Because let’s face it, no matter how nicely you ask them, no one’s going to work for free.) A sales team is great for making sure money continues to come in, but without the right collateral, they could fall short.

This brings us to the age-old question: is marketing considered essential? We say emphatically, yes! But just because you need it, doesn’t mean you need it in-house. In fact, marketing is one of the easiest tasks to outsource.

Here’s what business savvy brands have to gain by doing so.

1. A new vantage point can widen your reach.

Though it makes sense to do business with a digital marketing agency that knows your industry, getting a fresh perspective could be a big boon for your business. As an outsider, the view from where they’re sitting could look drastically different from yours. This allows them to zero in on untapped markets and design compelling content that targets new potential customers. While your core consumers may not change, they can help pivot your messaging to appeal to wider audiences.

2. Work won’t halt because of the holidays.

What happens when a flu bug threatens to take down your small staff? How do you handle a holiday mass exodus? When you outsource your digital marketing to an agency, you don’t have to worry about any of the above. They work year-round to keep your content continuous. This means staying top of the charts, never letting your SERP suffer due to sickness or season. Your blog posts will keep your keyword strategy strong, and your social content will elicit eyeballs to your brand.

3. You don’t have to keep up with every SEO update.

500-600. That’s the number of algorithm updates Google implements each year! Do you have the fungible funds to pay someone to watch for, learn, and teach everyone about the roughly two changes a day? No?! A digital agency is a good alternative. It’s their job to stay on top of – and master – updates, both major and minor.

4. Save money while increasing your output.

Salary aside, employees are expensive. Insurance premiums alone can increase into double-digit percentages year over year. Not to mention the obligatory cost of living raises instated by most companies. To stay competitive, many business are also finding that on site amenities up to and including snacks or standing desks are the best, if only, way to hire competitively. By contrast, working with a digital marketing agency can save you big compared to the cost of bringing on an in-house entry-level marketing pro. You usually pay a monthly retainer, but only for the services you request, not the benefits.

5. You won’t have to manage your marketers.

With an outside agency, you’ll be in constant contact, but it won’t be because you’re micro managing. Focus on building a strong internal team without having to expend energy onboarding, even as you expand.

6. Drastically cut your turnaround time.

No matter how strong her work ethic, a one-woman department simply can’t keep pace with an entire agency. She might be lucky if she can turn out a well-written blog post and a few social media snippets between meetings. Hire an external marketing team and complete complex campaigns in a fraction of the time.

7. Expand your content marketing creations.

You know that complex campaign you just launched? If you contracted with a digital ad agency it’s likely to have all the bells and whistles. We mean everything – from clickable PPC ads and viral social media posts to HD video ops and strategically placed PR articles. Agencies are more likely to have experts in every communications channel and can send your marketing collateral skipping across every single one of them.

8. Focus on nurturing leads, not generating them.

Finally, digital marketing agencies help you build your brand so you can concentrate on building your business. They’ll free you up to take your leads down the sales funnel and all the way to the bank.

So what do you say – are you in to outsource? We’re all hands on deck.