What is an outsourced marketing team, and is it right for your business?

By Doug Dinwiddie, Founder, Maitland

Published 2026-08-17

An outsourced marketing team explained: what it is, how it differs from an agency or a hire, what it costs in the UK, and the businesses it suits and does not.

Executive summary

An outsourced marketing team is the marketing function of your business, owned and run by people who are not on your payroll. It differs from a supplier in three ways: who owns the plan, who owns the revenue number, and whether coverage is continuous across every channel. In the UK it typically costs £3,000 to £10,000 a month, against £260,000 to £380,000 a year to build the equivalent in house. It suits businesses between £1m and £20m where the job is bigger than one person and smaller than a department. It does not suit single channel needs, one off projects, or owners who want to keep every decision.

Could you hand your entire marketing function to an outside team, and should you? And what actually separates that from simply hiring an agency, given every agency in the country now claims to be an extension of your team?

You are in the right place, and you are getting the version with the awkward parts left in. I have run this agency for 10 years, and I will tell you plainly which businesses this model suits and which ones should do something else entirely.

Here is what this guide covers: what an outsourced marketing team actually is, the three ways it differs from a traditional agency relationship, what it costs in the UK, what a good one should include, the businesses it fits, the businesses it does not, and the questions that separate a real outsourced team from a supplier using the phrase in a pitch deck.

What it actually means

An outsourced marketing team is exactly what the words say: the marketing function of your business, owned and run by people who are not on your payroll.

Not a supplier you brief on projects. Not a specialist you call when you need a campaign. The function itself. Strategy, planning, execution across channels, reporting, and the accountability for what all of it produces. If you drew an organisation chart for your business, there would be a marketing department on it, and the box would be filled by an external team rather than employees.

The distinction matters because the words have been thoroughly borrowed. Plenty of agencies describe themselves as an extension of your team while operating as an order-taker: you decide what you want, they produce it, and nobody outside your business is accountable if the strategy behind the request was wrong. That is a supplier relationship with friendlier language on top.

Three real differences from a traditional agency relationship

Here is how to tell the models apart, whatever anyone calls themselves.

Who owns the plan. In a supplier relationship, you own the strategy and the agency executes your instructions. In an outsourced team, the team owns the plan, brings it to you, defends it with evidence, and changes it when the data says so. You approve direction; you do not have to originate it. If you find yourself telling your agency what to do next month, you have a supplier, not a team.

Who owns the number. A supplier is accountable for deliverables. A team is accountable for an outcome, in revenue. That single difference changes every conversation you will have, because it makes the agency's success conditional on yours rather than on activity completed.

Breadth and continuity. A team covers the whole function, so nothing sits uncovered because it fell between suppliers. The work continues through holidays, illness and staff changes, and the knowledge stays with the team rather than leaving in somebody's notice period. That is the practical difference from stitching together several specialists, which fails for reasons we have written about at length .

What it costs in the UK

Straight numbers, because you should never have to ask twice.

An outsourced marketing team covering multiple channels typically costs between £3,000 and £10,000 per month in the UK, or roughly £36,000 to £120,000 a year. Ours starts at £2,000 per month for a focused scope, with most partnerships landing in that £3,000 to £10,000 range, and every figure is published in full .

The comparison that matters is not against a single freelancer or a one-channel retainer. It is against building the equivalent in-house, which means a marketing lead, a paid media specialist, an SEO, a content lead and a designer at minimum. That team costs £260,000 to £380,000 a year once National Insurance, pension, recruitment, tools and management time are counted, before a penny of advertising. We laid out that arithmetic in full in our agency versus in-house comparison .

For most businesses between £1m and £20m in revenue, the outsourced model buys senior breadth at a fraction of the salary bill. That is the entire commercial case, and it is a strong one, but it only holds if you actually need the breadth.

What a good one should include

Judge any outsourced team against this list, ours included.

Strategy and positioning, not just delivery. Full channel coverage across search, paid, email, content, creative and web, working from one plan rather than five. Analytics and tracking set up properly at the start, so results can be proved rather than claimed. Reporting you can read in a minute, ideally a live dashboard rather than a quarterly slide deck. One point of contact who knows your business and does not need re-briefing. And a stated revenue number the team holds itself to.

If any of those are missing, you are looking at a service package rather than a marketing department. Both can be useful. Only one of them takes the function off your desk, which is the thing you were actually trying to buy.

The businesses it fits

This model works best in a fairly specific set of circumstances, and being specific is more useful to you than being welcoming.

Businesses roughly between £1m and £20m in revenue, where marketing genuinely matters to growth but a full in-house department cannot yet be justified. Businesses whose owner or managing director is currently doing marketing themselves, in the evenings, badly, and knows it. Businesses with one stretched marketer covering five disciplines who needs a team around them rather than a heavier workload. And businesses ready to measure marketing against revenue rather than activity, which is the mindset the model depends on.

Common thread: the job is bigger than one person and smaller than a department. That gap is precisely where outsourcing the function wins.

There is a second, quieter reason this model suits businesses at that stage. Marketing is usually the first function an owner tries to keep hold of, long after they have happily delegated finance, operations or sales. It feels close to the brand, and handing it over feels like handing over the voice of the business. What actually happens is the opposite: the owner keeps just enough involvement to be a bottleneck, and the marketing moves at the speed of their diary. Giving the function a proper owner, internal or external, is what stops growth being rationed by whoever is busiest.

The businesses it does not fit

Now the awkward part, which most agencies skip.

If your marketing spend is comfortably past £120,000 to £150,000 a year and marketing is a core daily function, building in-house will probably serve you better, and at that scale a well-run internal team can be 20 to 35 per cent more cost-effective. If you need one channel done well and nothing else, hire a good freelancer or a single-channel specialist, which is genuinely the right call at that stage and cheaper than us. If you have a one-off project with a defined end, you need a project specialist, not a partnership.

And if you want to keep control of every decision and simply have somebody execute your instructions, do not buy an outsourced team. You will pay for strategic capability you never use, and the relationship will frustrate everybody. A supplier is the honest fit, and there is nothing wrong with wanting one.

The questions that separate real from rebranded

Five questions, and the answers will tell you which model you are actually being sold.

Who writes the plan, you or us? What number will you hold yourselves to? Which channels do you cover, and which do you not? Who is my single point of contact, and what happens when they are away? And what does the first month look like?

That last one is the giveaway. A real outsourced team spends month one diagnosing before delivering: auditing what exists, setting up tracking, taking a baseline, and coming to see you in person. Ours runs 13 months for exactly that reason, with the first month a Deep Dive and the following 12 for compounding results, a structure we explain in full . A supplier in rebranded language starts producing deliverables in week one, because nobody asked what should be produced.

What the model produces when it fits: The Auckland Project saw revenue rise 1208 per cent at a 14 times return on investment. Complete Weed Control saw leads up 452 per cent with a 16 times return on ad spend. Across all our clients in the last 12 months, the average was 52 per cent growth. Those results come from owning the whole function, not from being handed tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an outsourced marketing team?

It is your marketing function, owned and run by an external team rather than employees: strategy, planning, execution across channels, reporting and accountability for results. The difference from a traditional agency is that the team owns the plan and a revenue number, rather than executing instructions you originate.

How much does an outsourced marketing team cost in the UK?

Typically £3,000 to £10,000 per month, or roughly £36,000 to £120,000 a year, for multi-channel coverage. Maitland partnerships start at £2,000 per month for a focused scope. The meaningful comparison is against an in-house equivalent, which costs £260,000 to £380,000 a year for four to five people before advertising spend.

Is outsourcing marketing a good idea for a small business?

It works well when the job is bigger than one person but smaller than a department, typically £1m to £20m in revenue, and when the business is ready to measure marketing against revenue. It is the wrong choice for single-channel needs, one-off projects, or businesses past roughly £150,000 in annual marketing spend where in-house can be more cost-effective.

What is the difference between an outsourced marketing team and an agency?

Three things: who owns the plan, who owns the revenue number, and whether the whole function is covered continuously. Many agencies use the language while operating as suppliers who execute your instructions. If you are telling them what to do next month, you have a supplier rather than a team.

What should an outsourced marketing team include?

Strategy and positioning, full channel coverage working from one plan, analytics and tracking set up at the start, reporting you can read in a minute, one point of contact who knows your business, and a stated revenue number the team holds itself to. Missing several of those means it is a service package, not a marketing department.