- A marketing agency provides services designed to deliver brand awareness & sales leads from a variety of marketing platforms .
- An in-house marketing team performs marketing work within an organization through its employees, rather than by outside individuals or contractors.
- When choosing between a marketing agency or an in-house marketer, you should focus on abilities, scope of projects, and costs.
As a founder or business leader, one of the key decisions you face is why choose a marketing agency or build an in-house team. Both options come with their advantages and disadvantages. The best choice depends on several factors, including your business objectives, budget, and available resources. In the most competitive era ever for brands, the debate between hiring an in-house marketer and or a marketing agency persists, so it’s important to know the differences between the two options.
Hiring An In-House Marketing Team Or Person
In-house marketing refers to the management of a company’s marketing activities by its own employees. This approach includes developing, implementing, and monitoring marketing strategies using the organization’s own resources. Before hiring an in-house marketing team, consider the pros and cons on the table.
The Pros Of An In-House Marketer Or Team
Many businesses, particularly those of a certain size, find it advantageous to have an in-house marketing team. Having an internal team to manage your marketing needs offers several benefits including increased control, improved communication, and greater alignment.
Increased Control Of A Project & Employees
The purpose of having an increased amount of control is to establish policies and a culture that supports your company in reaching its goals. In many scenarios, it can be challenging when authority is handed over to people outside of your inner circle. In-house marketing teams have complete control over budgets, methodologies, and branding, which makes it much easier to adjust to specific goals.
Better Communication
Clear and consistent communication helps avoid misunderstandings, minimizes conflicts, and improves overall project efficiency. It is the foundation that leads to successful outcomes of every marketing project. With an in-house marketing team, communication is quicker and more straightforward. This is because the team is more accessible and operates from within the organization.
Better Brand Alignment
In-house employees generally possess a deeper understanding of the business’s core motivations, as well as its products and services. They will also have greater insight into the company’s short and long-term goals. This leads to an easier ability to seamlessly integrate these goals into company marketing projects. Brand alignment helps maintain the brand of your business in its best form. It safeguards against inconsistencies that can undermine customer trust and reduce employee engagement.
Aligns With Company Culture
By hiring in-house, you can recruit individuals who align with your company’s values and culture. They tend to possess a deeper understanding of your brand, goals, and culture, resulting in marketing materials that feel more authentic and in line with your brand identity. If a strong corporate culture is in place, it can serve as a difference maker in the success of your marketing.
The Cons Of An In-House Marketer Or Team
The drawbacks of hiring an in-house marketing team narrow down to costs and resources. You’ll need to hire more employees, you won’t have as much access to industry resources, and chances are you won’t be reaching your customer potential.
More Employees
When hiring employees, you must account for their salaries, benefits, and training expenses. A lot of time and resources are invested into hiring, onboarding, and managing your team, all without any guarantee of success. Also, turnover is expensive. Losing one of your employees means you’ll need to find replacements, which can be a significant expense of loss of time and output.
Not As Much Access To Industry Resources
In-house marketers may find it challenging to access the latest marketing tools and technologies due to budget limitations. The costs of marketing automation platforms can vary significantly, with initial setup fees usually between $2,000 and $10,000 and monthly fees ranging from $200 to over $2,000. Even if your budget can accommodate these resources, many in-house marketers are restricted to the experience and creativity of their team, or lack thereof.
Limited Ideas & Perspectives
At times, in-house marketing can restrict ideas to the organization itself. Since your marketing plans and strategies are not shared with any external parties, the effectiveness of these ideas is confined to the perspectives within your internal team. This means in-house teams typically don’t think outside the box of the company culture and the marketing as a whole can become stale real quick.
Less Scalability
A limiting scalability factor for in-house marketing teams is that projects can grow beyond their capabilities. Without increased resources and education being brought in-house, you may find it challenging to align your team’s workload and skill set with your business’s evolving needs and demands.
Hiring A Marketing Agency
A marketing agency is a team of skilled professionals who collaborate to assist clients in attracting customers and improving the user experience. They employ specialists who understand how to effectively reach customers across different platforms, ensuring that your message reaches the right audience at the right moment. Before hiring a marketing agency, consider the pros and cons on the table.
The Pros Of Hiring A Marketing Agency
Many businesses are excited in recruiting the expertise of a marketing agency, and why not? Having an external team to manage your marketing brings advice from specialists, results-driven goals, new perspectives, and the ability to take on a range of projects.
Dedicated Teams With Specialized Skills
Marketing agencies employ specialists from various fields, including marketing strategy, graphic design, copywriting, social media, search engine optimization, and more. In most cases, these professionals bring together decades of marketing experience, giving you access to their expertise. A strong agency can offer the knowledge and skills necessary to run different types of marketing campaigns from start to finish.
Results Oriented
The relationship between a marketing agency and a business is primarily results-driven. If the agency fails to deliver on its promises, you can terminate the contract and seek one that can provide more. This creates a sense of urgency and focus in their work. Marketing agencies prioritize measurable outcomes and real-time campaign optimization. They employ data-driven strategies, precise targeting, and ongoing testing to ensure that every action results in a specific, trackable outcome.
New & Different Perspectives
Despite your best efforts, your marketing may eventually begin to feel stale. Many times, this comes down to not narrowing in on the focus of your brand and expanding the scope of your audiences. Marketing agencies can offer a fresh perspective and breathe new life into your campaigns. They are organized in a manner so that different team members have distinct and different backgrounds. This means that specialists from various backgrounds can bring unique skills, ideas, and perspectives to your business and enhance the overall marketing strategy and effectiveness.
Ability To Take On Complex Projects
Agencies provide significant flexibility in scaling marketing activities as your business grows, relieving you of the need to hire additional employees. If the company needs change over time, the agency can easily adjust its focus to prioritize what’s important using its existing talent pool and resources. Similarly, if marketing efforts need to be reduced, an agency can manage this more smoothly than an in-house team through a better ability to analyze data and make appropriate recommendations.
The Cons Of Hiring A Marketing Agency
While there are many benefits to hiring a digital marketing agency, there are also some drawbacks to consider. Before deciding to bring an agency on board, it’s important to evaluate both sides of the issue to ensure you’re making the best decision possible for your business.
Less Control Over The Process
Marketing agencies have their own processes for completing a marketing project. They have methods that have been tried and tested, so in a lot of cases, these agencies will stand by these methods. Some businesses who want to exert control over every aspect of a marketing program might find this to be frustrating.
Communication
In business, communication breaks down when information is not transmitted or understood as intended. Agencies will have questions for their clients, but in many scenarios, the point of contact might be too busy to answer at the moment. While many agencies are transparent about their capabilities, some of them only present their strengths. This can result in a misunderstanding of expectations due to a discrepancy between what is expected and what is being delivered.
Conflicts Of Interest
While you focus exclusively on your business, your marketing agency is juggling multiple clients. Recent studies indicate that SEO specialists in larger agencies can manage as many as 17 accounts. Sometimes, these accounts might actually be a competitor. Additionally, some clients may invest in more services, which can result in them receiving more attention and priority. However, a reputable agency will set realistic deadlines and effectively manage its priorities and types of clients, ensuring that no client feels less important than another.
Not Aligned With Company Culture
The culture of a company comes down to ideology, the concept of time, and the flow of work. Working in an organization that doesn’t align with these values can be difficult and even disheartening. The gap between your company’s beliefs and values and those of the marketing agency can lead to issues regarding ethical dilemmas. Some agencies do a good job of aligning with your values by listening to you and crafting outcomes that align with the company culture of your business.
Is A Marketing Agency Or An In-House Employee More Cost Effective?
Having an in-house marketing team isn’t the most cost-effective investment. In the United States, the average salary for a marketing specialist is $63,287. However, this number does not account for the additional expenses of maintaining an in-house team, such as taxes, insurance, retirement plans, and equipment. In addition to the costs of hiring and maintaining an in-house marketing team, you also need to consider expenses for marketing tools such as marketing & image editing software, hardware like cameras & audio production equipment, and much more. Marketing agencies can generally provide all of these resources and save you money as a result.
Why Choose A Marketing Agency v.s. An In-House Marketer?
In-house marketing does have some good qualities. The increase in control, communication, and brand alignment could make in-house marketing an enticing choice for businesses. However, the benefits that come from working with a marketing agency outweigh the benefits of in-house. Especially partnering with a marketing agency frequently sees a higher return on investment. This advantage stems from an agencies’ expertise in creating and executing marketing campaigns tailored to the specific needs and goals of each business. They can revamp your strategy, allow you to focus on running your business, and help manage payroll costs and other marketing expenses effectively.
Choose Boiling Point Media As Your Marketing Agency
If you are ready to work with a marketing agency, collaborate with Boiling Point Media. Our friendly and experienced marketing specialists have the expertise you need to create successful outcomes for your marketing goals. Get started today by getting to know who we are and what we do at Boiling Point Media. We look forward to helping you get the results you’re looking for!
Boiling Point Media is your one-stop destination for all things marketing! Along with marketing, we also have production services with our film production and visual effects studio. You can also view our thread of blog posts to explore everything we write about. Reach out by giving us a call, sending a message online, or seeing us in person. We guarantee we will answer any questions you have!
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