All departments of a company working in-house are a thing of the past. Due to many factors, outsourcing is the ‘norm’ for most businesses these days. But finding the perfect contractor to get the job done can be a long and challenging process.

Companies must look for a candidate that meets all the criteria to take on the outsourcing assignments. Outsourcing digital marketing is something many businesses need to consider to reach a vast amount of potential customers.

These 10 factors should be considered when choosing a contractor.

1. Availability

In-house jobs may be the typical 9-5 workday, but digital marketing is 24 hours a day. Does it make a difference if the outsourcing contractor lives in the same country as the company’s headquarters?

There’s a misconception that every outsourced contractor is from overseas. Domestic outsourcing is common but doesn’t get as many headlines as outsourcing to another country.

The availability of a digital marketing contractor is something companies should strongly consider. Starting the day with the digital marketing projects complete is a stress-free way to start the workday, but at what cost? The internet never sleeps. Could hiring a contractor based overseas negatively impact site visits later in the day?

Each company must decide if it makes business sense to outsource the marketing to an international contractor or a home-based one.

2. Reasonably priced

Many companies make the mistake of offering contractual work to the bidder with the lowest pay rate. Sure, the company may save money, but is it worth it in the long run? Does cheap labor equal a cheap quality of work?

Conversely, the highest price doesn’t necessarily guarantee the highest quality work.

The correct answer is somewhere in the middle. Seek out a contractor with a fair pay rate that respects both the company’s bottom line and their employees’ cost of living.

It may be tempting to go with the lowest bidder to meet the capital allocated to marketing, but many companies have had bad luck with cheap labor.

3. Follows Trends

Digital marketing is a medium that can change very quickly. What may work one month to drive traffic may not be working the next month.

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a time when no one knew what SEO was, let alone based their marketing strategy on it. According to research statistics, just over half of all companies have a detailed marketing strategy. Make sure you’re one of them.

The ideal contractor will follow industry trends to keep tabs on the latest moves in marketing. Should the company focus less on content and more on SEO? Following the trends is essential to the success of the marketing and by extension, the company as a whole.

4. Trustworthiness

Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship, professional or personal. It’s especially important for employees working off-site without supervision. It would be easy for outsourced laborers to slack off and produce low-quality work without the company knowing until it was too late.

Look for a contractor the company can confidently expect to live up to and exceed their obligations of great content production.

There is another tricky consideration the company must make if outsourcing overseas. Is the contractor’s home country one of trust and stability? Political unrest and other uncertainties could potentially result in unreliable labor.

5. Ability to Meets Deadlines

Deadlines are essential for digital marketing because trends come and go quickly. If you’re outsourcing content creation, it’s important to get the content online as soon as possible before the consumer reads the content elsewhere.

As another example, your company could potentially miss out on revenue if the digital marketing contractor misses a trending moment on social media.

Deadlines also increase productivity and morale among the workforce. The ability to meet deadlines goes hand-in-hand with trustworthiness. Pursue contractors who display both characteristics.

6. Prior Experience

Ideally, the contractor considered for the outsourcing job will have previous experience in digital marketing. Make sure to check any applicant’s references to confirm their prior position and responsibilities.

It’s strongly encouraged to hire a contractor who has worked on similar projects in the same marketing industry. This ensures that they will be able to handle the assignment of launching a similar campaign.

However, it’s important that the contractor creates new content instead of recycling previously used ideas.

On the other hand, offering a contractor their first opportunity isn’t necessarily a guaranteed catastrophe. The green team could bring fresh ideas to the digital marketing plan.

Experience is important, but keep in mind that everyone has to start somewhere.

7. Customer Reviews

How would the contractor’s prior clients rate their work product? If a potential outsourcing team doesn’t have the best reviews, it can be a reflection that their work isn’t up to standard.

Hiring managers should do their due diligence regarding what people are saying about an applicant’s work ethic and results. Look for any social media commentary, positive or negative, on the contractor’s previous work.

8. Consistency

Everyone has bad days. But having continuously poor work product, missing deadlines, or unexplained absences are all red flags of an inadequate employee. Creating a great marketing campaign once in a while isn’t the type of consistency your company needs or wants.

A contractor and his or her team should produce a steady stream of high-quality work.  Meeting deadlines is one way for employees to show they are serious about helping the company grow.

Of course, there are liberties to be made during times of personal strife, but dependability should be the norm, not the exception.

9. Fluent in English

The majority of digital marketing is geared toward English-speaking consumers. Yet, a great deal of marketing content is full of grammatical errors and nonsensical sentences. English speakers can easily spot text that’s been translated by someone who isn’t proficient in English.

Hiring contractors who don’t have a grasp of the English language ultimately costs the company money when the content must undergo drastic correction and re-writing during the editing process.

Considering only contractors fluent in English will save the company a lot of money and hassle in the long run.

10. Don’t Neglect In-House Employees

The last factor in choosing a contractor for outsourcing applies more to the company than the contractor. It can be easy to turn all the company’s focus onto the outsourced marketing team, but the in-house employees shouldn’t be forgotten or neglected.

Outsourcing may be extremely common, but there will always be some aspects of a business that needs to be done in-house. For that reason, it’s best not to alienate the employees working within the company’s headquarters.