The Outsourced Marketing Department for Small Businesses

Patrick McFadden • May 30, 2017

Employing external resources to gain the greatest leverage possible is how you compete today, pure and simple.

Recently my company outsourced two creative projects for our client to a strategic partner. The turnaround time was less than 48 hours for both pieces of content, and the work was perfect. The agency my company worked with was cordial, prompt, and had 13 other glowing reviews of their work.

So, where is small business marketing going?

I know this much, I own a strategic marketing firm and haven’t even considered hiring someone on staff in graphic design, branding, or website design. I will partner and outsource on creative projects (with people I already know and trust) so I can focus on the real differentiator in my industry, driving bottom line revenue for my clients.

Marketing has changed a lot in the past few years, and it’s changed for the better. Marketing is much more data driven, and the data is coming out of analytics software along with marketing automation tools. Rather than needing a graphic designer, you need an expert in running Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, etc. Instead of needing an in-house web designer, you need a conversion rate optimization expert to A/B test exactly what is working on your site. Most importantly, you no longer need these individuals on staff, utilizing contract workers, consultants or agencies instead.

The Small Business Marketing Outsource Problem

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be a place for marketing research, strategy, and direction, thus the reason my company Indispensable Marketing exist. The strategic marketing direction comes from the Chief Marketing Officer in most businesses which is still an incredibly important role.

However, your CMO no longer needs a staff of 25 plus, instead they need great software, great software administrators, and a sizable budget. For  small businesses  that strategic marketing direction needs to come from the owner, sales or a trusted strategic marketing firm. The marketing budget should be reflective of the fact that the marketing group is lean on headcount and heavy on outsourcing.

We regularly talk with clients who haven’t made the transition from traditional corporate marketing to more of an outsourced or contract type engagement. For the most part, management isn’t putting a big enough emphasis, or spending enough money, on results-based marketing. They hire a graphic designer or marketing generalist, pay them $30-40k per year, and expect that they know everything about marketing (like strategic partnerships, differentiation, referral systems, timing triggers, ideal customer profiles, positioning, thought leadership, etc.) and can help affect the bottom line. Generally, a creative agency or graphic designer doesn’t have the systems, processes, and tools to engage clients in a strategic way for lead generation, online marketing, or marketing strategy.

Small Business Marketing Outsource Process

Below you will find the most effective way to start outsourcing your marketing in a practical, strategic and process way.

Develop and Define Your Strategy

Without strategy, how do you know who to target? What resources they read offline and online? What your competitors are saying? This should be the first step in any marketing process, regardless if you are interested in outsourcing or not. These key elements should be common knowledge for every single person in your organization. When you outsource, they should also be included in the education phase of the conversation. Hopefully, you understand the importance, so how can you outsource these elements of strategy?

Customer Research

Whenever Indispensable Marketing works with clients, regardless the type of engagement, we start with conducting customer research in the form of client interviews. We engage a handful of their best clients, and try to learn as much information as possible during a phone call. Questions ranging from what resources do they read offline and online to where do they do their research when considering a purchase to what types of words would they type into Google to find our clients in search. This is a great element to outsource to an outside company because it is a lot easier to pick up on themes with an outside perspective vs when you are living and breathing in the company on a daily basis.

Competitive Research

Knowing what your competitors are saying, what they are excelling with, where they are online – are all essential elements of a strategy. Without this, how will you set your company apart from your competitors? How will you have an attractive difference? This is another really great strategy element to outsource. You could spend hours and hours looking at each of your competitors websites, social media profiles, content, the list goes on. You should always keep tabs on your competitors with your own prospect interactions, but there are also a ton of great competitive research tools that can drastically speed up the process.

The Move To Trusted Partners

As software programs and outsourcing platforms continue to advance, so will outsourcing of the marketing department. There will be no such thing as a marketing generalist or a big marketing department. The Chief Marketing Officer, Owner or Strategic Marketing Firm will have a bunch of trusted partners for everything marketing, and a handful of administrators and project managers to move the projects along.

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
More Posts