However, making such adjustments can be time-consuming and costly, especially when it entails hiring new staff and training them.

Now, the introduction of the marketing-as-a-service (MaaS) concept could take away the headache for businesses, leaving them to focus on other equally crucial matters.

In a nutshell, MaaS is a concept that sees businesses outsource their marketing rather than have an in-house department to take on the task.

This gives the business immediate access to the marketing talents it needs, enabling it to bypass the process of hiring and training people to meet its organisational needs.

This has been proven to bring about greater flexibility, cost reduction and greater efficiency, digital marketing agency 2X managing director and chief people officer Yong Siew Mee told FMT Business.

“The new model has transformed the way business-to-business (B2B) market leaders work,” Yong said.

The service has found a niche in helping US tech firms, particularly those that are experiencing a phase of high growth as well as enterprise clients, market their products and services.

“Companies in the high growth category require a lot of support and the right expertise to venture into new markets and segments. Hence, they may also need assistance in running specialist programmes in which they do not necessarily have the expertise,” she said.

“On the other hand, enterprise clients are always looking to optimise their budgets, deploy more programmes and tap into new innovations and ideas that will help them in a cut-throat market.”

Yong said the opportunity to tap into the offshore pool of talent through MaaS has helped US companies overcome a labour shortage while doubling the number of marketing programmes they are able to introduce.

“It has also enabled these companies to gain access to newer marketing technologies that require a higher level of expertise at a substantially lower cost compared with what is available to them back home,” she said.

Through MaaS, B2B market leaders have been able to adopt best practices and obtain the right talent and see 30% to 50% reduction in cost at the same time.

As one of the MaaS providers in the market, 2X has set up a consultancy arm to keep abreast of the latest developments and best industry practices.

Apart from targeting users of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, 2X  utilises more advanced platforms such as 6Sense and Bambora to zero in on the audience’s intent signal to identify ready buyers and to determine the items they are eyeing.

Overall, Yong said, the outlook for MaaS is positive.

Nonetheless, the outsourcing of marketing services is still at the infant stage in Malaysia. She estimated that only 5% of the potential market has been captured so far.

But at 2X, the outlook is that the company will be in hyper-growth stage. The agency has consistently doubled its growth since it was set up in 2017, and its staff strength is expected to hit 600 this year.

“We expect it to double again in 2023 with our annual recurring revenue projected to be in excess of RM100 million,” she said.