High-performing marketers
from Latin America

During the last three years, dozens of US-based organizations have gone nearshore with Julius.

These organizations have discovered an empowering model delivered by high-performing individuals and enabled by processes that have been perfected over time. Of course, it was all made possible by the shift in the remote-work paradigm, which occurred during the pandemic. 

Companies that have embraced hybrid or fully remote work can quickly adopt a nearshore model for their marketing operations.  Organizations with all their marketing teams working onsite in the same office could face more difficulties applying the model.

Either with dedicated teams or through managed services, organizations can achieve much more with their budgets, increase their profitability, and reduce hiring periods and turnover.

Nearshoring is a subsegment of offshoring, which consists of outsourcing some work to individuals in other countries, generally at lower costs. Nearshore means these countries are located within a similar time zone. For example, Mexico shares the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones with the United States. Colombia is divided between Central Time and Eastern Time. All of northern Latin America is within the time zones of the United States, while Argentina is split between Eastern time and one hour ahead (during the summer).

Nearshore digital marketing thus means to outsource some or all of an organization’s digital marketing activities to an individual or team in Latin America, assuming you are in the US or Canada.

Each digital marketing team & organization is unique, and each leader has their point of view. But all agree that hiring and retaining skilled digital marketers is getting more complex. As digital marketing jobs in the US are increasingly in demand, finding competent talent “onshore” gets more complicated.

Regardless of what is happening in the broader labor market, the pool of talented individuals skilled in digital marketing seems smaller than the demand for it. Larger companies and agencies can solve the problem by offering higher wages and benefits. But sometimes, this is not a viable option for organizations on tight budgets.

There is no single or simple solution to this problem, and all the options have pros and cons. Going nearshore with your digital marketing is one of the best-balanced solutions, but you must do it right to achieve your desired benefits and goals. 

To get this right, you must carefully scout and vet every candidate, have robust onboarding processes, and, during the first weeks, get plenty of feedback and conduct frequent assessments. These steps will increase your chances of successfully offshoring one or more digital marketing positions. Before we discuss the details, let’s ensure we understand why nearshoring is key in digital marketing.

American companies have worked with many of India’s software developers for decades. Software can be made asynchronously.  In some cases, the time difference can even be advantageous.

That’s not the case when it comes to digital marketing. Real-time collaboration is critical for most digital marketing operations. In our experience, the average digital marketer has four to eight meetings daily, including plenty of huddles, especially when following an agile methodology. You must make such collaboration possible whether your team works on-site or remotely.

Many people have embraced remote work, and some employees don’t want to work in an office. However, many leaders seek to know colleagues and have at least some in-person interactions per year.

For example, some organizations have annual or semiannual off-sites. At least a few in-person interactions with clients and colleagues can help foster an otherwise virtual relationship.

Being able to take short, inexpensive trips is one advantage of having any offshore members of the team in a nearby country. 

Hundreds of daily flights between Mexico and the US, many lasting less than two hours. Most of North America can be reached in two relatively short flights by making connections in hubs like Houston or Atlanta.

Colombia’s most important cities, Bogotá and Medellín, also have direct flights to many important cities in the United States.

If the benefits are huge, why are so few companies doing this? 

Some organizations have either unsuccessfully tried nearshore or not traid it at all, mainly because they think it won’t work for them.

Dozens of clients each day confirm the model can be very successful, but it has to be done right.  To make it work, here are a few key considerations.

A company should find a partner that helps it achieve its goals by successfully integrating nearshore talent into its operational structure. There is no single way to do this, as it depends on every company’s specific needs. 

For example, filling one job opening with a nearshore marketer would begin by understanding the job description. Entry-level digital marketing jobs are more accessible to fill, but most companies require more advanced positions, which require more intense recruitment processes.

And robust and carefully executed recruitment process can maximize the chances of success, and it is something Julius always aims to do.

Still, there is a percentage of cases were things don’t work as planned.  Detecting these cases as early as possible and executing fast corrective measures, including substitutions, is a key element for the long-run success of the nearshore model.

Nearshore digital marketing is still relatively new but very promising. In an age of globalization, companies are trying to be as competitive as possible, and leveraging international talent in markets with talented individuals and lower-cost structures could be a winning move. 

Make sure you find the right partner for your nearshore digital marketing initiatives, and don’t hesitate to contact Julius to learn more about how we could be the right partner for you.