Quick start guide: What to offshore in B2B marketing and what to keep in-house

Marketing leaders are under pressure from every direction: to reduce costs, protect strategy, increase campaign velocity, and stretch lean teams to cover more ground. The idea of offshoring marketing work isn’t new. But the way it’s being applied today is changing fast. 

The most forward-thinking GTM leaders aren’t just outsourcing execution. They’re redesigning the operating model to unlock scale without sacrificing quality or strategic control. That means using offshoring as a lever for growth, not just savings. 

If you’re evaluating what to keep in-house, what to hybridize, and what to offshore entirely, this guide will help you make those decisions with clarity, not compromise. 

The upside: More scale, less strain

Done well, offshoring can reduce execution costs by 30 to 40 percent while accelerating campaign velocity and increasing overall output. According to Avasant, B2B teams that adopt hybrid operating models see measurable gains in both efficiency and revenue impact. 

But not every function is a good fit for offshoring. The key is knowing where to draw the line based on complexity, context, and your team’s maturity. 

The goal goes beyond savings, it’s smarter allocation of effort. Offshore the right tasks, and your internal team can finally focus on what drives real business value. 

Use a strategic filter, not a cost-first lens 

Too often, outsourcing decisions are driven by line items. But the better question is: what work is distracting your best people from doing what they do best? 

Before you send anything offshore, ask: 

• Where are we experiencing friction or bottlenecks today? 
• What are we overpaying for that doesn’t require in-house judgment? 
• What internal capabilities are underutilized or overextended? 

This lens is about focus. Strategic offshoring does more than offload work. You’re working on redesigning your execution model so your top talent can drive growth, not just throughput 

What to offshore completely

Execution-heavy, rules-based, well-documented work is the best candidate for offshoring. These activities don’t require deep company context and benefit from consistency, process, and scale. 

Common examples include: 

• Campaign production and asset building 
• QA and testing cycles 
• Data enrichment and normalization 
• MarTech operations such as platform configuration, list pulls, and tagging 

These are foundational functions. But they don’t need to be performed in-house. Offshoring these tasks frees your team to focus on higher-leverage work without adding headcount or burning out executional leads

What to co-own or hybridize

Some areas can’t be fully offshored, but they benefit from shared ownership. These functions carry strategic nuance but also contain repeatable execution that can be handled offshore with the right guardrails. Here are a few examples: 

Field marketing 

Often overbuilt and inconsistently leveraged, field marketing is ripe for restructuring. Local sales teams want dedicated support, but much of the actual execution (e.g., webinars, campaign delivery, asset customization) can be centralized or offshored. Keep the strategic relationship management in-house and move the logistics where scale can pay off. 

Junior talent development

Offshoring low-level work doesn’t mean abandoning talent development. It means evolving it. Offshore junior talent can be trained and upskilled, just like internal hires. What’s shifting is the path: from rote execution to managing systems, collaborating cross-functionally, and using AI tools to work smarter and faster. 

MarTech management 

Many organizations have over-invested in tools they barely use. Offshoring parts of MarTech execution such as campaign setups, data pulls, integration testing, can reduce cost while improving utilization. Internal leaders stay focused on enablement and optimization, not admin and maintenance.  

What to keep in-house 

If a function defines how your company wins in the market, it should stay in-house. These are high-context, high-impact roles that require alignment across functions, executive access, and brand stewardship. 

Keep control of: 

• Brand and messaging strategy 
• Go-to-market planning and revenue alignment 
• Executive stakeholder engagement 
• Creative leadership and buyer insight synthesis 

These are not functions that benefit from scale. They benefit from clarity, context, and consistency. Offshoring them introduces risk that outweighs any cost savings. 

Why offshoring fails and how to get ahead of it 

Even smart offshoring strategies can fail if execution is sloppy. The most common failure points are structural, not strategic: 

• No documentation of tasks or workflows 
• Poor integration between internal and offshore teams 
• Misaligned expectations and unclear SLAs 
• Treating offshore talent as vendors instead of embedded team members 

Success depends on building offshore execution into your operating model, not bolting it on as an afterthought. That means: 

• Embedding talent in meetings, systems, and rituals 
• Aligning on KPIs and ownership 
• Ensuring a culture of collaboration, not outsourcing 
• Assigning named leads on both sides to manage the relationship 

Offshoring works when people are integrated, not isolated. It works when expectations are explicit, not assumed. It works when leadership treats it as a growth lever rather than just a cost fix. 

The shift is happening. Are you ready? 

More B2B teams are adopting hybrid operating models to solve for scale, speed, and efficiency. The upside is clear. The decision now is whether your team is ready to step into it with intention or risk being left behind by those who do. 

If you’re ready to explore what a modern execution model could look like, take the 2X Execution Readiness Assessment and see where your team stands.