Every business is different, which means the choice between hiring an in-house
marketing team or contracting with a marketing agency will look different to everyone
making the decision. If you’re facing this dilemma, you may have already started a list of
pros and cons for each. We may have a few key points you haven’t yet considered.
Let’s take a look.
Hiring Your Own Team
The Pros
There are obvious pros to hiring your own in-house marketing team. First, you get the
team’s full, undivided attention on your business and your brand at all times. These
professionals will know your brand, voice, and messaging inside and out.
You’ll also have access to your marketing team during business hours. Just step into
their office or send them a Slack message, and you know that your request becomes
their priority. With no other companies or brands to plan or execute for during the day,
your marketing strategy will always come first.
Then, of course, there’s the full control that an in-house marketing team offers. If you
don’t want to share the responsibilities of your marketing strategy with an outside
marketing agency, then hiring an in-house team is the way to go.
The Cons
If you have hired anyone at all for your company, you know that attracting talent is an
expensive and time-consuming ordeal. Building an entire team of marketing
professionals multiplies the expense and time exponentially. That’s a drawback to
consider, especially if your marketing needs are pressing.
Once those employees are hired, you must consider the cost of keeping them
employed. That involves a salary, paid time off, insurance, taxes, retirement plans, and
other benefits. The average marketing employee—just one—is more than $70,000 per
year.
On top of employment costs, you must also invest in software and equipment, which
can run into the thousands each month. The larger your marketing efforts, the more
these tools will cost.
Hiring a Marketing Agency
The Pros
You don’t need to hire anyone beyond your agency, so you waste no time building a
team to get started. You get a full team at your disposal, at a fraction of the cost of hiring
your own in-house marketing. Agencies also have the software needed for SEO
research, marketing automation, and social post scheduling.
With one decision to hire an agency, you gain access to diverse specialties. Instead of
hiring a social media specialist, an email marketer, a paid advertising expert, an SEO
specialist, a web designer, a web developer, a copywriter… Well, you get the idea.
Could you afford to hire all of those to get the marketing you need?
You can also trust that each person working your account is an expert in what they do.
Not only do they have extensive marketing experience, they also work with various
industries that may inform their strategy in ways that specialists within your industry
never consider.
The Cons
You may need to develop some patience with strategy and execution as your agency digests and
assigns your requests. You can’t just step into their office to see where things are with
your latest campaigns. You’ll have to schedule meetings for updates and cede some
creative control to the experts to keep things moving.
With the right marketing agency, however, these cons shouldn’t be blockers to your
success. If you do discover that you’re encountering more roadblocks than victories,
that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time to start hiring in-house. You may just need to
interview new marketing agencies.
Only you’ll know which is right for your business. If you have questions along the way or
would like to interview us as a possible solution to your current needs, we’re here to
help. Contact us at info@jrsmarcom.com to learn if a Digital Marketing Agency can meet your needs.
