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Today’s fast-paced market requires businesses to compete with their marketing. Whether you are a startup or have long been established in your service region, every organization has one of two choices when it comes to marketing – build their own in-house digital marketing team or hire a specialized digital marketing agency. Each has unique advantages and potential drawbacks, with the argument that either may be the correct path for a company to take. In many cases, what it comes down to is a company’s budget, objectives, industry, and internal expectations as it relates to ROI and long-term scalability.
In this article, we delve into both models of marketing to assist business owners make an informed, results-driven decision.
It takes a tremendous amount of work to hire, train, and optimize your own dedicated marketing team.
In this, you will have employees fully integrated into your company culture. It requires you having to seek out, vet, and hire SEO specialists, content marketers, social media managers, and paid ad media experts. Be ready to dedicate time, resources, and ongoing attention to your marketing team.
Many startups go the route of using an in-house marketing team because they want maximum control over how their business is represented. The drawback is that if you’re a company that intends to scale, you may find it extremely limiting to use an in-house digital marketing team.
By comparison, digital marketing agencies are specialists in marketing. They are fully trained and certified in key marketing services, including SEO, PPC, content marketing, email campaigns, web design, and more.
Outsourcing to an agency brings a wealth of experience, tools, and strategic insight that provides a competitive advantage.
In terms of scaling, agencies allow companies to scale campaigns quickly and efficiently without you having to manage a team. Many digital marketing service companies also provide ongoing reporting, analytics, and campaign optimization as a part of their packages.
For companies requiring expertise without long-term internal commitments to hiring or for organizations wanting to scale, an agency is far and away your better choice.
An in-house team means higher salary costs upfront, in addition to what you have to pay to register marketing software, administrate training programs, and purchase additional hardware required.
Digital marketing agencies will charge either a monthly retainer or a project-based fee. Upfront, an agency is typically less expensive. That said, agencies vary in scope, expertise, and service levels. They’re often affordable but results can vary if you do not select an agency that’s experienced and effective.
Regarding long-term cost efficiency, in-house marketing may be more cost-effective. Fixed salaries may or may not be cheaper than sometimes-fluctuating agency fees. The advantage of a highly qualified marketing agency, however, is that they eliminate hiring costs and expenses tied to employee turnover.
Consider the volume of work you need and how your marketing strategy may shift in the near future.
Let’s talk scalability and growth potential. As a business owner, it’s understandable that you likely want to grow your company over time. With that, your marketing has to grow and campaigns have to scale. For that, an agency will almost always outperform an in-house marketing team.
A digital marketing agency has the talent pool to adjust and grow marketing campaigns quickly. They have pre-established processes for bringing in the workers you need to take your marketing to the next level.
The bottom line: SEO agencies can handle sudden increases in workload with no disruption to your core operations.
Should you opt for an in-house team, scaling may be a struggle. You likely won’t be able to hire the additional staff you need quickly enough, delaying execution and likely compromising campaign effectiveness. Companies likely to see rapid growth should tap into the supports of an agency which is far more adaptive than an in-house team.
Agencies often have a deep bench of talent of search engine optimization specialists, paid search experts, web designers, graphic designers, and more. Many agencies work on diverse campaigns and bring a wealth of experience that you’re unlikely to get with an in-house team.
It’s not enough to have expertise in marketing. That level of knowledge should take from familiarity with your brand, your industry, and your target audience. When you hire us as your agency, we take the time to thoroughly understand your brand to inform every marketing decision we make.
Our agency is not hard to get a hold of. We are always a call or email away and we answer quickly. If you ever have a question or a comment, getting in touch is easy and you’ll note how responsive we are no matter the day of the week or where we are in a campaign.
Equipped with skilled content specialists, image and graphic designers, and video producers, a digital marketing agency can offer a level of quality in content that most in-house teams struggle to match.
Agencies are ready to deploy tools and templates, launch campaigns quickly, and rapidly implement pivots when a strategy is not working. In-house marketing teams can work fast but depending on campaign complexity and potential internal bottlenecks, third-party digital marketers may be best.
Many agencies bring fresh, outside-the-box thinking forward. They have innovative, new ideas. In-house teams are sometimes creatively limited due to being stuck in routine tasks and brand restrictions.
Agencies are well read on the latest trends, strategies, and digital marketing techniques. When you hire a digital marketing team, you instantly plug in to this knowledge. Many agencies bring proprietary tools and access to advanced marketing software as well.
Depending on the agency, they operate with extremely clear expectations. They can outline performance targets, campaign deliverables, and provide a realistic view of what’s achievable and in what time frame.
If you rely on an internal marketing team and you lose one or more employees, this has real potential to disrupt a campaign. Agencies manage talent internally, reducing your exposure to the risk of a campaign going off-the-rails because of a loss of talent.
Looking at in-house vs agency marketing, agencies can provide briefings, timelines, detailed analytics, and reporting. See KPIs, dashboards, and insights. This keeps you informed on how strategies are performing and gives you full insight into whether your agency is meeting your standards or not.
Startup companies with a highly niche market or with specific branding can benefit from an in-house team who are kept up-to-date on information about your organization and the target audience it serves. An in-house team can work closely with founders and product teams. If your startup has budget constraints, you can opt to hire an in-house team and set the hours you need from your team members. That said, hiring skilled marketers for in-house roles can be difficult in the early stages. A phased approach may be preferable as it ensures those who are hired are fully vetted and trained, though this may slow down your ability to scale.
Any enterprise, company, or organization can benefit from hiring a digital marketing agency. Especially for large organizations, an agency offers all the knowledge, talent, and resources they need to mount specialized campaigns and reach your audience. Agencies have systems, tools, and cross-market insights that an in-house team will not. This frees you up to focus on strategy and running your business. Especially for complex marketing campaigns that you might be running across multiple regions, it’s much easier to execute when you have an agency whose able to run it on your behalf. A business owner can be as involved or as hands-off as they wish to be.
Are you ready to scale, accomplish big things, and maximize your marketing return? Contact Let’s Nurture.
No matter your industry, business size, or ambition, every business deserves the best marketing they can afford. Handling marketing in-house can prove challenging for a number of reasons. Keep it simple by partnering with our marketing team at Let’s Nurture.
When you reach out to hire us, the first thing we’ll do is sit down with you for a free consultation where we go over your growth goals. With us, you receive the control you want over your marketing with an agency that will work on your behalf to get the best results available.
We offer specialized expertise, scalability, and cost-effectiveness with all of our marketing packages.
Our digital marketing agency can provide the support and guidance you need to meet your company’s ambition, goals, and timelines. Work smart, not hard. Let’s Nurture is the partner that can take your organization’s marketing to the next level. All it takes is a call. Reach out to our expert marketers today.
