Our friend Junta Joe blogged recently about the reasons to outsource, not in-source, your content marketing. The thrust of Joe’s post is that marketing managers need to focus their energy elsewhere. He plugs an upcoming report, but I’d like to elaborate some thoughts in the meantime.

I’ve been on both sides of this question: I have worked as both an in-house content generator and manager, and as a contractor on the outside. In my opinion, Joe left out some compelling reasons for outsourcing—reasons that make sense to me from both sides of the office door. (The list below expands on a previous post about “DIY” (do it yourself) marketing.)

1. No human has all the skills. As we’ve posted, marketing is getting technical. There are lots of techniques, tricks, and toys. Marketing managers—especially in B2B businesses where product knowledge is complex—simply have to take advantage of specialists. Content specialists bring a range of critical skills to the table. Take advantage of them.
    
2. The objective point of view has to come from outside the office. Outsiders take nothing for granted, and they don’t make assumptions about what the reader already knows. Clearer content comes from a fresh source. And even the best companies have culture and politics that color any insider’s writing.
    
3. Marketing’s best subject matter experts are in Sales. Field sales reps know the market, the climate, the winning value props, and the objections first-hand. In my experience, sales reps will share more openly with an outsourced writer than they will with a marketing manager—it’s like being interviewed by a journalist.
    
4. Your CFO doesn’t want FTEs. Since so few companies are hiring full-time employees anyway, outsourcing is typically the only way to add capacity. In a down economy, businesses who keep their marketing strong have the competitive advantage over those who panic and slash the marketing budget. Outsourcing is a low-risk, relatively inexpensive way to gain that advantage.

And what are some reasons to keep it in-house? Except for conserving cash (with the trade-off of using up budgeted in-house resources, i.e., the marketing manager’s precious time), honestly I can’t think of any.

A frequent objection to outsourcing is that a good marketing staffer knows the business better than any outside expert does—so why take the time to transfer that knowledge to another writer? I think the reasons above—and perhaps more that you can name—make a compelling case for making that effort. Once articulated to a content marketing specialist, that knowledge has more power to become great marketing content.