Our thoughts on outsourcing

You may not know it, but a lot of marketing agencies outsource most of their website design work to inexpensive overseas freelancers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you have the right to know who, what, where, and how your website was built.

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Outsourcing is everywhere

Outsourcing has become standard practice across the industry — from virtual assistants (VAs) to design, development, copywriting, and serach engine optimization (SEO). But what’s changed dramatically in recent years is the scale of it.

With the rise of AI-assisted tools and global freelance platforms, it’s now easier than ever for agencies to assemble entire projects without doing much of the work themselves. In some cases, they’re little more than intermediaries.

If you’re a small business hiring a marketing or web design firm, this is the landscape you’re now operating in.

What exactly is outsourcing?

Outsourcing simply means hiring an external provider to perform work instead of doing it in-house. That might involve:

• A local specialist brought in for a specific task
• A contractor in another country
• A fully remote team you never meet or even talk to

Outsourcing is usually done to reduce costs, increase capacity, or access specialized skills.

Why agencies outsource

The primary driver is simple: margin. A designer based in the United States might charge $75 to $150 per hour, while overseas freelancers often range from $15 to $40 (sometimes less).

That huge gap doesn’t just lower costs, it can dramatically increase profit. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it changes the nature of what you’re buying.

The agency model

To be fair, outsourcing is part of how many agencies are structured. It’s in their DNA. They coordinate projects rather than execute every detail themselves.

A typical marketing or design agency may outsource:

• Web design and development
• Graphic design
• Copywriting
• Search engine optimization (SEO) and analytics
• Paid advertising
• Social media management
• Technical support

Sometimes agencies outsource selectively. Sometimes almost entirely. The issue isn’t outsourcing itself — it’s the lack of transparency. More often than not, the client is completely unaware that her website is being built 7,000 miles away.

The downsides of outsourcing

When most of the work is handed off to someone else, gaps in an agency’s knowledge and expertise can appear. Agencies that don’t stay involved on a daily basis can lose touch with:

• Software and platform limitations
• Scope changes
• Compliance requirements
• Accessibility problems

There are also practical risks:

• Loss of control
• Inconsistent quality
• Limited accountability
• Security risks
• Communication delays
• Time zone friction
• Language barriers

And occasionally, misunderstandings around cultural norms or legal standards.

Shared content

Outsourcing can also introduce something less obvious: duplication. For example, a business might hire a copywriting service for a newsletter, only to discover later that the same content is being sold to multiple companies.

It may be allowed in the contract. It may even be standard practice in the copywriting industry. But it’s rarely what the client expects.

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So what should you expect?

As a client, you should expect and demand honesty and clarity. If you’re hiring an agency or design studio, it’s reasonable to ask:

• Who will actually be doing the work?
• Is any part of the project outsourced or white labeled?
• If so, who are those providers and where are they located?

You’re not just buying a result. You’re buying a process.

Bottom line

Outsourcing isn’t the problem. Lack of transparency is. Some agencies do excellent work with distributed teams. Others are little more than middlemen collecting big profits at a client’s expense. Either way, you deserve to know who’s behind your website, how it’s being built, and where they’re located.