The Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Brand Newsroom Debate

It’s a great debate — should we keep our B2B brand newsroom and blog content creation in-house or outsource it?

The reality is that 62% of marketers outsource their content marketing (Mashable). That’s saying something — and we theorize that it’s got to do with a lack of time, a lack of human resources and often a strategy. But outsourcing your content isn’t a yes or no question. It’s more of a “it depends” type of question.

The reason that it’s not so black and white is that outsourcing your content marketing is a highly personal decision. And it can be done really well or really poorly. Before we make an argument for either side, let’s look at a few truths related to content marketing and brand newsrooms.

Marketing Sherpa says that the most effective SEO technique is content creation. But what type of content creation? What is the subject matter that creates the best search engine marketing results?

The answer is again — it depends. Your target audience is looking for content that interests them and solves problems.

Take a look at these stats compiled by ExactTarget:

• Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people connect with brands on social media. (Content+)
• 58% of consumers trust editorial content. (Nielsen)
• 68% of consumers spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in. (The CMA)
• 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Content Marketing Institute)
• 60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content on its site. (Content+)

These facts say a lot — decision makers and those that support them are looking for content from your brand that solves their problems. They prefer an educational approach to marketing versus a mass message.

That’s good news, but there’s a reality behind this “interesting, custom content creation.” B2B marketing teams wear many hats; customer service, analytics, supporting the sales team, managing leads, events, etc. That doesn’t leave much time for creating compelling, original stories to share with your customers and prospects. Content creation and curation takes time and resources, but it’s worth it.

When it comes to solving the insourcing versus outsourcing debate, we have a different take. We think “co-sourcing” is a better description of outsourcing your B2B brand newsroom and other content marketing initiatives.

What is Co-Sourcing?

Co-sourcing means we bring the talent, management and promotion of your brand newsroom to your organization. We work with you for the first month to get the tone, talent, and topics selected. The next month, you approve a few things and you’re on autopilot.

Co-sourcing helps you stay engaged with your audience, but it takes the actual content creation, oversight of outsourced talent and constant topic brainstorming off your hands. It takes away the stress of finding just the right person to curate and create articles, videos, infographics, and other content out of your hands.

But you’re still hands-on and involved. You just have a vetted army of talent to help you make your brand newsroom shine and serve your potential customers.

Next Steps: We’d love to show you how a co-sourced B2B brand newsroom can benefit your company. This comprehensive content and video marketing system generates high quality leads, inbound links, subscriptions, top search engine rankings, thought leadership and traffic from a targeted niche audience. Here’s a link to all the details.