Many business owners come to a point where they ask themselves, should I hire a marketing agency or hire someone in-house to handle our online marketing?
Online marketing can bring in leads, help with community awareness, show off your services, and grow your business. Many different strategies can help accomplish your goals. Outsourcing to a digital marketing agency and handling your marketing in-house have different pros and cons to keep in mind when making that decision.
If you want to accelerate your business with a quality, personalized marketing plan, AGI Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call (888) 269-5449 today to learn more.
In-House Marketing
In-house marketing means hiring and paying someone or a team within your company to take care of your marketing within your business. You hire them and pay their salaries.
In-House Marketing Pros
Brand & Industry Familiarity
Having someone at your company running your marketing means they know who you are as a company, your brand, and your target market. Hopefully!
Accessibility to the Employee (Quick Communication & Decision Making)
Sometimes, you want something posted immediately or need an answer to how a campaign is performing. It is easy when you have a direct line to the employee running your marketing or can walk up to their desk and ask them a question.
100% of Time Focused on Your Business
Hiring someone in-house means they are 100% focused on you. They don’t have other clients to attend to. Your company will always be their priority.
In-House Marketing Cons
Not Having Expertise in Multiple Digital Channels
Finding someone with experience in multiple types of digital marketing can be tough. Usually, they specialize in one or two platforms or strategies. Someone who knows how to perform SEO, generate reviews, run Google ads, and run a social strategy are few and far between.
Recruitment
With the issues above when it comes to having experience in multiple platforms – This also makes recruiting and hiring hard, especially if you don’t know what you want or need. If you know what you are looking for, let’s say, a social media expert and an SEO expert, you might get lucky with finding someone who knows both, or you may need to hire two people to fill those roles.
Employee Turnover
If you find an expert in multiple strategies, and they quit or don’t work out, this puts you back on the drawing board for hiring again.
Outsourced Marketing
Outsourced marketing means you are hiring an outside agency to take care of the marketing for your business. You usually pay them a monthly fee for certain services, which could be per project.
Outsourced Marketing Pros
Expertise
At a digital marketing agency, different departments handle each service. Everyone in each of these departments is an expert in that one strategy. There will be a content department, an online reviews department, a Google ads department, a social department, etc. They are constantly staying on top of new trends and trying to improve results.
Lower Cost
When outsourcing to an agency, average costs per year start around $20,000 and go up from there, depending on your needs, goals, the size of your company, etc. The cost to hire an in-house marketing professional can start around $50,000 and above, plus the cost of the budget you are putting behind your marketing campaign. If you have to hire multiple employees, that cost doubles.
Scalability
Increasing the workload doesn’t affect an agency. If you want to add on more services, start posting two blogs a month instead of one, or run multiple social campaigns at the same time, all of this can be done. With an in-house expert, they will have a capacity on what they can manage within a 40-hour work week.
Tools & Resources
Agencies have a set of the most up-to-date and helpful tools and resources to use when performing their strategies and services. There are keyword research tools, analytics platforms, competitor research tools, web results, etc.
Outsourced Marketing Cons
Location
An agency that is a right fit for you may not be located in your city. This can be a deal breaker for businesses who like to meet in person or have someone who understands the local market best. However, many agencies are set up to make sure everything runs smoothly and can accomplish needed conversations on the phone and through Zoom.
Multiple Clients
With an agency, you are not going to be their only client. They will not be focused on your business 100% of the time. Agencies usually sell their strategies as a monthly service. Each month will be focused on specific tasks that they need to accomplish to make sure you are successful.
Control
At an agency, when it comes to requesting edits, pausing campaigns, launching, researching, etc, you will email in, call in, or submit a ticket. Depending on the urgency of the request, it could be handled immediately, in a day, or a few days later.
How to Decide Which Option Is Better for Your Business
Every business is unique based on location, size, industry, services, and goals. All businesses can benefit from some type of strategy, and deciding which way to take it is ultimately up to you.
If you choose to go with a digital marketing agency, be sure to choose one that truly gets to know your business so they can properly put together a strategy focused on your goals. A marketing strategy is not one size fits all. It takes a lot of research, testing, improving and usually includes more than one strategy. To get started with a trusted agency today, call AGI Marketing at (888) 269-5449 today!
