Hiring a Marketing Agency VS In-House Marketing: The Pros and Cons
Updated: Feb 2, 2022
There is no debate that proper marketing is an essential part of your business growth. But, unfortunately, there is no one true and clear path to achieving your marketing goals.
The right marketing strategy for one business will not necessarily be suited to another.
Generally, there is no right or wrong way to do it, but this a right or wrong way for you!
One of the first things you need to decide is whether or not you will handle your marketing in-house or hire a marketing agency.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each and the path you choose will depend on your unique needs.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both options to help you decide which is best for you and your business!
Using A Marketing Agency
When it comes to marketing, many businesses feel out of their depth. Being an expert in your industry or field AND an expert in marketing tactics is often too much.
The decision to hire a professional marketing team will depend on your budget and your goals but here are a few pros and cons that can help determine if this is the right path for you.
Pros
1. A New Set of Eyes
Because a marketing agency is not part of your day to day operations, they can offer a unique perspective on your business.
You may know your clients and your target market but a marketing agency has the experience and the expertise to actually reach that base.
Choose a marketing agency that has had experience in your market niche. This prior experience will help them develop the perfect marketing strategy and help your business grow.
2. Consistency
As a business, your focus is on client and customer satisfaction. This means that if you are doing your marketing in-house, it is likely to be inconsistent at best. You might skip an email newsletter or two, forget to write/post a blog, and lack general consistency in your branding.
A marketing agency’s sole purpose is to make sure that your ad campaigns, newsletters, blogs, and lead magnets get produced and delivered to your audience when and where they should.
3. Specialized Skills
A truly successful marketing campaign is made up of a number of different components. You might be comfortable posting to your social media pages but do you have an understanding of content marketing or inbound marketing strategies? Do you understand search engine optimization? How are you with graphic design?
A marketing agency will have a capable team of experts that understand each specific task and knows how to position your brand to be most effective in each marketing channel.
4. Production Speed
Doing all of your marketing in-house can be time-consuming which means turning assets around in a timely manner can be a challenge.
If you are relaunching your website or creating an email drip campaign, it may take you weeks or months to complete when a marketing agency can turn it around much quicker. Again, you’re running your business AND trying to market your brand. A marketing agency’s only focus is marketing your brand.
Cons
1. Short Term Increase in Spending
When you sign up with a marketing agency, you are going to spend money before you see a return. But, when you find the right agency, that return more than makes up for the expense.
When looking at the costs, it is important to remember that you are not just paying for the product, you are paying for access to an entire team and their expertise.
2. Limited Communication
One of the biggest drawbacks of working with an outside agency is that you will not necessarily have easy daily access to the team working on your campaigns.
It is likely that your agency team is also working with other clients and so you may not be able to speak to them whenever you want. Having said that, after the initial discussions and meetings used to set up the project, it is unlikely that you will require constant access and communication.
Once all of your brand assets are shared and the strategy is completed, contact may be limited to updates or shifts in strategy.
Using In-House Marketing
Many small businesses want to keep full control of their marketing efforts and will hire a single person or team to do all of their marketing in-house. As with hiring a marketing agency, there are many pros and cons to this approach.
Pros
1. Deep Understanding of Your Business
A benefit of keeping your marketing in-house is that you know all materials and strategies will be developed with a deep understanding of your business.
They will be intimately familiar with your products or services and know exactly who your customers are. This means that more often than not, your marketing materials will strike the right chord and ring true with your target audience.
2. Easy Access
When you have your marketers in-house, it is easy to just pop into their workspace and chat about your strategy.
It can be beneficial to the marketing team to be around day to day operations and have access to the rest of your team when promoting company culture and values.
3. Focused Only on Your Brand
As mentioned above, a marketing agency is likely working with multiple brands. When using an in-house team, the only focus is you. All of their working hours are spent developing your brand strategy.
Cons
1. Salary Costs
It does not take long to realize that, over time, using in-house marketing is the more expensive way to go.
When working with an agency, the bulk of the initial costs will be devoted to getting your account set up and determining strategy. Over time, these costs will balance out. When working in-house, the salary costs remain high and will only increase if you decide to expand your marketing team.
If you hire an agency, you are not responsible for annual salaries for each contributor nor do you have to consider benefits packages or payroll taxes.
2. Lack of New Perspectives
In-house teams can develop tunnel vision. It can be very difficult to come up with new and fresh ideas when you do not have an outside perspective.
Agencies can provide multiple viewpoints from outside of your business that can lead to interesting and creative marketing ideas.
3. Lack of Specialized Training
Marketing agencies employ, well, marketers. They also often work with designers, web developers, and SEO experts. Maintaining these roles means staying up to date on industry trends and best practices while taking time to hone and improve one’s skillset.
It is likely that an in-house marketer, whether solo or as part of a team, will not have the time, resources, or networking opportunities to devote to professional development.
4. Potential Lack of Consistency
Unless you specifically hire a marketer to join your team (which will increase costs!), your in-house marketing will likely be handled by a member of your staff. This means that marketing is only part of their job and likely not the most important part of it.
Because of this, your marketing campaign will suffer. When marketing is just tacked on to a job description, it is easy to miss delivery timelines and to ignore the data and analytics that can be used to improve your reach and conversions.
Hiring a Marketing Agency vs In-House Marketing
Hiring a marketing agency or using an in-house team is a decision only you can make.
Take Away: hiring a marketing agency is the better solution for business growth.
This is especially true if you are in a niche industry, working as a contractor or manufacturer. In these cases, it makes sense to outsource your marketing so you can focus on conducting your skilled labor.
Kyber Digital
An agency like Kyber Digital understands how to reach your clients. With custom-built packages for commercial contractors and manufacturers, we can help you grow our audience and beat out your competitors for all of the best local contacts!
To learn more about what we can do for you, contact us today!
343 Harbor View
Forked River, NJ
08731
(215) 305-8769
