The common question businesses have is if they should hire an in-house marketing team or a marketing agency. Each option provides distinct advantages that you should know before making the decision. You’ll find that making the right decision here can pay dividends when you are on the path to growing your company. The importance of what they can do for your business cannot be stressed enough.

Why Your Company Needs Marketing

Marketing is the way your business engages with the crowd. It allows you to stay relevant and visible to them. Many consumers decide on services and products based on how brands present themselves. Marketing is your way to even the playing field with big corporations and lets people know your capabilities.

The Ever-Evolving Marketing Landscape

Marketing has undergone drastic changes to reflect the times we are living in. The aspect of globalization through the digital space and new technology has changed marketing.

The focus of today’s marketing is truly about taking advantage of the digital space. With the internet, we have social media, applications, websites, blogs, and more. Now, people are on their phones and have easy access online. Those who fail to take advantage of these new platforms get lost in the crowd.

Websites

The website serves as a digital storefront of any company. It tells people who you are, what you do, and what you are offering them. Your website will gather the most traffic, and you need to invest in it if you want to grow. Most marketing efforts use the website as a way to drive leads and get conversions.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a series of techniques and strategies that aim to improve your rankings on websites like Google. Data shows that the top-ranking websites get the most traffic.

The more people visit you, the higher your chance of landing customers. It is why companies put a heavy focus on SEO as a part of their marketing campaigns.

Social Media Management

In this age, everyone is on social media. Certain crowds gravitate towards different platforms, and you can take advantage. The best part about social media is that it is free. You can create your account and begin marketing to people there at a minimal cost. Here are some interesting stats on popular social media websites:

• Over 2.79 billion people use Facebook, and 73% of US users log in daily.
• Over 1 billion people use Instagram, with around 140 million monthly active users.
• Over 740 million users are on LinkedIn, making it one of the largest platforms for businesses and corporations.
• Twitter is the sixth most active mobile app with over 68 million users from the US.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most successful types of marketing today. You create relevant and valuable content to build authority. Through continuous engagement, you create brand awareness and eventually bring in loyal consumers. Many people put content in high regard when it comes to deciding on a brand to choose from.

PPC

PPC stands for pay-per-click. It is a more direct and expensive form of advertising that many successful companies use. Apart from the organic reach of your SEO, PPC allows you to tap into a crowd that SEO may miss. It is an aggressive form of improving visibility and sales.

By investing in PPC, you appear as a priority in the various platforms you occupy. You show up more in searches, on social media, and other platforms. It can drive traffic and conversions fast with the right strategy.

Marketing Agency vs In House

All of these things are what a team of marketing specialists will bring to the table. The next thing you need to figure out is if an in-house team or a marketing agency is the better choice for your company. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each one.

Marketing Agency

Pros

• Access to a large pool of creatives with different expertise
• A different take on marketing depending on their style and experience
• An agency will handle the bulk of the work, and you won’t have to micromanage them
• An agency can scale up with your business as they have the staff to do so

Cons

• Added business costs, whether monthly or annually
• They may deal with multiple clients, lessening their dedicated time to your business

In-House

Pros

• A dedicated team to handle your tasks
• More control over the team’s schedule, actions, and focus
• No conflict of interest with any other companies or competitors

Cons

• Training and equipping an in-house team may take time you don’t have
• Scaling is challenging as you have to hire and train new team members
• You have a limit to the skills your team has
• Have to handle all the benefits and needs of the team outside of their marketing jobs

Costs of Marketing Agency vs In House

Choosing one or the other will incur some business costs you have to take care of. The question that we need to answer is which is the more affordable option? Let’s look at a brief breakdown of the costs of hiring each:

Marketing Agency

Hiring a marketing agency will likely cost you a fixed amount each month depending on the services you choose. Some work with an agency for a specific need like content marketing or SEO. Others strike a more comprehensive deal. Most agencies charge an average of $4000 for their services, and the highly reputed ones can go higher.

You are paying for the expertise and the immediacy of help. You’ll also have to factor in the fact that this amount is non-inclusive of the amount you need to spend for PPC and other paid channels. However, you do get what you pay for, and the costs often justify the amount of help you get with marketing. They wouldn’t be charging high if they didn’t know they can deliver more than what you pay them.

In-House

When you go on to hire an in-house team, you are hiring new employees. They are essentially monthly costs that scale up depending on how diverse you want your team to be. Here’s a breakdown of a typical small marketing team:

• Marketing manager
• Web designer
• Graphic designer
• Copywriter
• Social media manager

Hiring a full-time team like this can cost $25,000 a month if you factor in the average paycheck these jobs get across the country. However, the costs do not end there. You’ll have to pay for:

• Equipment
• Licenses
• Software
• Training
• On-boarding costs

Add to that the time you need to get them from being new to functioning independently without much supervision. Many companies don’t have the time and resources required to get an in-house team up and running.

5 Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency

A marketing agency provides so many more benefits compared to its perceived downsides. Here are some of them:

1. An agency will have niche specialists that are often hard to find in the open market.
2. There’s lower risk with an agency as you don’t have to keep them on the payroll.
3. It is an efficient cost. The agency can begin putting your money to work as soon as you hire them, and there is often no training required.
4. They have access to the latest technology and know the latest trends. Agencies have to keep up-to-date to get clients.
5. They’ll provide professional-level suggestions and feedback. They know what works and have the experience you need.

Conclusion

While it may seem like a hefty cost, a marketing agency is a better investment than an in-house team. It provides you with all the flexibility you need in a short time. When it comes to improving your bottom line, getting to work as soon as possible is what you need to achieve your goals. Consider hiring a marketing team and experience the benefits right away.