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From the Trenches

Rightsourcing Your Marketing: Why It Makes Sense Now More Than Ever

Mike Sweeney | July 9, 2009

As most of our readers know, the Marketing Trenches blog is run by the leadership of Right Source Marketing.  It should come as no surprise that one of the first questions we get is “What is Right Source?” and/or “What does it mean to rightsource my marketing?”

Let’s start with what rightsourcing is not.

Rightsourcing isn’t revolutionary.  Smart, but not revolutionary. (Isn’t everyone a little tired of companies and technologies that are deemed ‘revolutionary’? I know I am.)

Rightsourcing isn’t outsourcing, insourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, or any of those other overused terms.

Rightsourcing isn’t even new.  Companies have attempted to rightsource for years.

To define what rightsourcing IS, let me illustrate with a statement from an intelligent software executive I spoke with today:

“We’re finally at the point in our growth where I want to consider building out a marketing department to support and accelerate that growth.  My gut tells me to build out an internal team and take on more of a managerial/leadership role, but I know that certain functions and tasks are better handled externally.  I need to get a handle on what to bring in-house and what to look for outside help on.”

Refreshing to hear on my end.   A stark contrast to the “hire a marketing manager to coordinate all the stuff I can’t handle and then start interviewing all kinds of agencies to handle 5-6 different marketing functions and hope they make me look good” approach that I typically run into.

One of my business partners claims it takes me forever to get to a point in my blog posts, so let me prove him wrong 7-8 paragraphs in.  Rightsourcing is exactly what this software executive is referring to, and where the average marketing organization fails.

Rightsourcing is:

  • Identifying the most effective resources to execute a marketing plan, as opposed to relying only on the resources already available.
  • Finding the balance and best fit between in-house resources and external resources.
  • Optimizing that balance and structure based on performance tracking.

Rightsourcing, as implemented by Right Source Marketing, results in the following benefits:

  • Strategic guidance/planning and implementation of services, something the average consulting firm or advertising agency simply does not offer.
  • Specialists in every marketing function, not generalists who are learning on the fly.
  • A real single point of contact that serves as primary advisor and project manager.
  • A more cohesive, polished process and final product.
  • An approach that is based on educating clients, not just providing information.
  • Potential cost savings and flexibility in client service models.

Hiring 5 agencies or vendors rarely makes sense.  Hiring a marketing director just to manage those 5 agencies makes even less sense.  Stop following old models and ways of doing things.

Right Source it.

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About Mike Sweeney:

As Right Source’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Sweeney creates, plans, and implements our vision, mission, culture, and strategic direction as well as serving as an advisor to our clients. Mike received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in marketing from the University of Notre Dame and has more than 20 years of experience in B2B marketing strategy, including digital, content, and marketing technology. You can find Mike on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, or read his other posts.