Marketing Agency vs. In-House Team: Which is Right For You?
The decision has been made that it’s time to get serious about your digital marketing efforts. Now, the big question is, should you hire an external digital marketing agency, or should you keep it all in-house with your own internal team?
While each has pros and cons, at the end of the day, there is a clear advantage to hiring a marketing agency.
Decision-Making Considerations
There are many factors to consider when determining whether to hire a marketing agency or set up an in-house team.
These factors include:
- Expertise
- Perspective
- Capacity
- Cost
- Relevance
- Stability
- Results
Below, we’ll take a closer look at each of these elements as they relate to a digital marketing agency versus building your own in-house team.
Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency vs. Building an In-House Team
Expertise
✔ Marketing Agency
Hiring a marketing agency gives your business access to a team of skilled, knowledgeable digital marketing experts who can assist you with all aspects of your marketing:
- Email Marketing
- Pay-per-click Campaigns
- Digital Strategy
- Data Analytics
- SEO
- Much more
In-house Team
Building your own team means you have to hire for all these skills.
Perspective
✔ Marketing Agency
A good digital marketing partner will bring a new and necessary additional set of eyes to your marketing plan.
The agency you work with should enhance and elevate your great ideas and not be afraid to challenge your not-so-great ideas.
In-house Team
An in-house team provides an introspective view of your business and customer needs, but sometimes, that closer perspective can cause you to miss new opportunities.
Capacity
✔ Marketing Agency
Hiring an agency to spearhead your digital marketing efforts frees up your team’s capacity and allows them to focus on what they do best.
In-house Team
Creating an in-house team requires creating a team of specialists in various marketing disciplines. This is not to mention interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new people every time someone leaves.
A marketing agency removes this hassle.
Cost
✔ Marketing Agency
At first glance, hiring a marketing agency might seem expensive. However, it’s important to remember that you’re not just paying for the service.
Outside agencies will provide you with a breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise that could take you years to develop in-house.
In-house Team
Hiring an in-house team will result in significantly higher costs due to having to hire and pay employees. A marketing agency will only charge for the products and services you actually utilize.
Relevance
✔ Marketing Agency
An agency partner will be ahead of and anticipate digital marketing trends and the evolving digital marketing landscape to ensure your business is always meeting industry standards.
In-house Team
Someone on your team will have to maintain in-depth industry knowledge and, importantly, the capacity to keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape and trends.
Stability
✔ Marketing Agency
With an agency relationship, you gain access to multiple team members who are well-versed in the various aspects of digital marketing, so your campaign never misses a beat, even if an employee leaves the agency.
In-house Team
Even if you build out a great team of experts for an in-house agency, what happens when an employee leaves?
- Do you have the capacity to continue that work without that individual?
- How long will it take to hire someone to fill in the skill and knowledge gaps?
Results
✔ Marketing Agency
A marketing agency will report on performance and, importantly, results. They can even show proof of results with current and previous clients, boosting your confidence in your design ahead of signing a contract.
And if you happen to hire a company that isn’t a great fit, your options are open to look elsewhere.
In-house Team
The point of revamping your marketing is to drive results, but what happens if you’re not getting what you want?
If your in-house agency isn’t performing, do you invest in more training? Do you delay your marketing efforts while you focus on restructuring the team internally? Either way, you are faced with a business disruption you would not be experiencing if you hired a marketing agency.
Hire a Marketing Agency You Can Trust
Choosing whether to hire a digital marketing agency or to handle things in-house is a large and important decision.
A great first step in determining which option is right for your business is to have a conversation about your goals.
Contact the Timmermann Group team to learn more about how we can help your business succeed.