Over the years (decades) I have been fortunate to work with some fantastic employees and equally fantastic contractors and believe that my team at Fusion Marketing Partners is first-rate. Naturally, I want B2B companies to use us for their outsource requirements. But, in my opinion, it is very hard to beat a well-oiled team of in-house marketing professionals. However, this is not bad news for freelancers and marketing outsourcers because high-powered internal teams are not all that prevalent.

So bear with me and let me tackle the cons:

* Domain expertise is a key component of successful B2B marketing and your outsource provider may not have a strong base of knowledge about your industry.

Experienced freelance B2B copywriters are quick to grasp the essentials of ANY industry. Not least because they have probably worked for someone in your industry before — and perhaps companies facing the same issues in other industries. Automatic outside-the-box thinking, if you will.

* You give up some control when dealing with contractors instead of “wage slaves.”

Sorry, but I think this is a huge misrepresentation. Unless I’m getting it all wrong, you’re implying that when an employee’s income is dependent on your judgment of his or her performance, the job tends to be executed strictly as instructed. With external contractors, you have exactly the same power. If the agreed result isn’t delivered, you don’t pay. As simple as that.

You could also regard losing a bit of your control as a good thing. Your “wage slave” won’t tell you that you’re just about to step into quicksand, because slaves are conditioned to shut up and obey orders. Independent professionals, in contrast, do their best to provide what the client NEEDS vs. what he WANTS. These can be two totally different things.

* Assuming you have the expertise to manage the program in-house, you can usually achieve better metrics for a given budget amount.

A certain output requires a certain input. As far as I can see, it doesn’t matter in the least whether the output provider is on the payroll or hired from outside. If I’m getting this wrong, please correct me.

You will have noticed I’m talking about freelancers. That’s because I am one. I’ve written about these same issues in my blog before, so if you’re interested, make a little detour to the post here: http://bit.ly/aKHmkd

I would like to especially point to the two other article links at the end of the story.

Great post. People should not forget to check the references of the outsourced contractor to make sure they have successfully executed a similar marketing campaign and have had positive results. Enjoy your writing…keep it up.