A business is like an organism – it needs all of its vital organs to survive and thrive.
You have a winning product or service. You hire the best team. You optimize your business processes. Your supply chain is stable. You’re fully stocked and ready to cash in all your hard work.
But how are you going to reach the consumer? If nobody knows about your product, how do you expect to sell it?
This is the value of marketing – it is a link between your business and the consumer. In today’s world, the most important marketing happens online. The way to get people’s attention is through their smartphones.
Now that we’re clear on the importance of marketing, what’s the next step? Do you hire your own in-house team of marketing wizards to place your product on the market? Or do you hire a marketing agency stacked with veteran marketers and outsource this aspect of your business?
In this article, we will discuss what the better move is in which situation.
What are the differences between external and internal marketing?
An internal marketing team is a full time team dedicated to placing your product on the market.
External marketing teams are part time business associates who aren’t on your payroll. They make it their job to make sure your product reaches the consumer but don’t exclusively work for you.
Having an internal marketing team means you have complete control of their processes, commitment, strategies, workload, and key performance indicators. You can monitor their progress in real time and have a much more hands on approach to your marketing strategy.
An external marketing team means there is a level of opaqueness. You are not privy to every little detail of your marketing strategy, and the team has a higher level of autonomy.
Having said that, of course you will still be able to set goals and monitor results when you hire an external agency. You hiring them means that you are their client and are entitled to demanding a certain result.
Which is more cost effective?
Hiring a dedicated in-house team means keeping them on the payroll even when there are no active campaigns or projects. In addition to that, hiring top-notch industry experts full time is an expensive endeavor.
Hiring the services of a digital marketing agency means paying for the work that gets done. They are on their own company’s payroll. On top of that, the agencies usually employ marketers that have expert knowledge in specific industries, meaning that there will always be a person with a niche understanding of your business type leading your campaign.
The hiring process
Hiring an in-house team is a long, tedious, and effort consuming process. You’re competing with a lot of other companies that want to acquire talent. That means offering competitive wages and always being on the lookout for poachers trying to pick your staff apart.
Say a prospective marketer comes in for an interview. Their resume is spotless. They list all the necessary skills, and they’re proficient in the latest tools technology has to offer. How can you know for certain?
Finding a good marketing agency turns the tables. For starters, it’s you who’s attention they’re vying for. That makes the hiring process much easier and your position much more enviable.
Secondly, you can rest assured that a seasoned digital marketing agency employee has all the necessary skills and know-how to do the job right—no need to second guess or check references for singular employees. Just take a look at their portfolio and look up their reputation online.
On top of that, you have to consider the careers and salaries of an in-house team. As time goes on, your team will grow, and your employees will naturally seek to climb the corporate ladder. As time passes, you will probably need to hire a marketing manager as well.
Hiring an agency, however, is a one off thing – they have their own promotion system within their company. That’s their worry, not yours.
The marketing strategies
This is where having a dedicated in-house marketing team really excels over hiring an agency.
An in-house team devotes one hundred percent of their time, energy, focus, and motivation to tailoring a custom campaign made just for your product. Their job is to acquaint themselves with your product fully and devise a campaign with much more attention to detail.
An outsourced team works with multiple clients at the same time. That means their attention is often divided, and they won’t have the deep knowledge of your product, which is sometimes required to craft a specialized marketing campaign.
An agency will usually resort to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy for you and all their other clients. Now, that is not necessarily a bad thing – if it works, don’t change it. But a generic strategy may not always bring the best results for your company.
Building a team
A marketing team needs to be a well oiled machine, maybe even more than other sectors. Every team member’s contribution is valuable.
Building team cohesion can be very difficult at first, but it pays off big time in the long run. You will have a tight knit group of marketers that share a vision, goal, and passion.
This is another step you don’t need to worry about when hiring an agency – the team already comes pre-built. They don’t need an introductory period – they can jump straight into the action.
Communication
This is where investing the time and effort into building an in-house team pays off.
Communication between you and the team, the team members amongst themselves and the team and other sectors of your business is much easier, immediate and effective.
When dealing with an agency, you are not the only priority, communications wise. You may wait for emails for days. Your reports may come in late, your complaints will take longer to process, and if anything goes awry, you could be left hanging while the damage is being done.
That’s why it’s very important to keep an eye on the communication skills an agency has when choosing one. Do they respond to emails quickly? Do they make an effort to understand what you’re trying to say? Do they frequently update you and keep you in the loop?
Conclusion
Of course, in an ideal world, having a group of people dedicating their entire attention span only to your company is the more desirable set of affairs.
However, this is an expensive and difficult goal to attain. You may drain heaps of dollars into watering a plant that simply will not grow.
Hiring a marketing agency is quicker, easier and more cost effective. You will get instant access to a pre-built team of experts that know your industry already.
They may not dedicate as much attention to just you, but that isn’t always necessary. What’s necessary is that consumers get a chance to see your product and become acquainted with it.
If you’re not trying to build a one of a kind brand with a revolutionary marketing strategy, hiring a marketing agency will save you money, effort, and nerves. Bear in mind – nerves are easy to lose and impossible to get back.