It’s not everybody’s favorite aspect of running a business, but it certainly is one of the most impactful: marketing. Whether you believe marketing is an art, a science, or a little of both, a good marketing campaign can take a company from average to long-standing success. But first, every business must answer this question—should I hire an agency or use in-house marketing?
Here’s an ancient riddle for you: is a business successful if no one hears of it? Okay, maybe that riddle isn’t exactly ancient, but it’s a question business owners have asked themselves since marketing began playing a major role in business.
Like never before, marketing campaigns can reach customers through a vast number of avenues in just one space—the digital space. Whether it’s email, ads, social media, or your own website, today, digital marketing is a crucial element to running a successful business.
Since marketing is such an important component in your business, you want to be sure to do it right. Using a marketing agency or keeping marketing in-house are both excellent ways to achieve a successful marketing campaign. You just have to figure out which one is best for your business.
Here’s what to know about choosing a marketing agency versus keeping your marketing in-house.
The Pros of In-House Marketing
In-house marketing isn’t the right answer for everyone, but it is the right answer for some. When it comes to keeping your marketing within your business, you’ll enjoy certain benefits such as:
- Brand familiarity: Who knows your brand better than your own business
- Communication time: When everything’s in-house, time zone troubles and other delays are less likely.
When choosing to keep your marketing in-house, these benefits can make a major difference to a business depending on where that business is at in its growth. However, every pro comes with a con.
The Cons of In-House Marketing
While many businesses can benefit from in-house marketing, some may be too affected by the downsides of this option. Keeping marketing in-house also means:
- Heavy time consumption: A marketing agency already has the staff hired, trained, and ready to work for your business. In-house marketing also means managing all the nitty-gritty details that a marketing agency would handle for you, such as staffing and training.
- Higher costs: When it comes to choosing in-house versus agency marketing, the initial lower cost can be attractive. However, that lower cost is tricky and starts to recede once you add up the expenses that aren’t so obvious, such as paying staff with salaries and benefits or relying on freelancers to make up the gaps in your staffing. You’ll also have to invest in the technology that marketing agencies already have, which drastically raises costs.
The Cons of Hiring a Marketing Agency
There are pros and cons to keeping your marketing in-house, but similarly, there are also pros and cons to hiring an agency. You might hesitate to hire an agency due to:
- Location: No doubt about it, in-house marketing is more convenient in the same way having your kitchen in your house is more convenient for eating—it’s right there! With an agency, you can’t simply walk over and discuss your marketing plan. However, great agencies like Connections Marketing make your business a priority to avoid the inconvenience of not being right under your own roof.
- Less control: With an agency, you’ll have to rescind a little control over your marketing plan to allow your agency to make smaller decisions on the fly in order to keep your marketing campaigns running smoothly and effectively. This can be a con for those who like full control over every aspect of their business, but it can also be a pro with the right agency as it frees you and your staff up to focus on the core of your business.
The Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency
There are just as many benefits to hiring a marketing agency as there are to keeping your marketing in-house—it just depends on what your business needs. Some of the key benefits are:
- Expertise: A marketing agency works with other clients across various industries, giving it vast experience that can translate into unique solutions for your business. In this regard, in-house versus agency is the difference between hiring an unseasoned marketing agency and an experienced agency. Rather than having to overcome a learning curb, hiring a marketing agency means hiring those who know the ins and outs of their industry and the technology required, such as collecting and interpreting data. If you want great results and don’t want to miss any details, a marketing agency will give you the expertise you need.
- Lower long-term costs: It might seem like DIY marketing saves you money, but once you add up the costs of hiring and training staff as well as investing in the technology necessary for peak performance, you won’t only have a higher cost at the start, but in-house marketing can open your business up to a variety of new and unexpected costs associated with any expansion of your business. A marketing agency takes on all those costs for you.
- Don’t miss the details: Agencies will always have an upper-hand when it comes to keeping track of every detail because they focus on one game—marketing. That means an agency doesn’t hire a small few to do it all, but has departments dedicated to each aspect of marketing. Since agencies are designed to work on multiple projects, they’re much less likely to let details slip through the cracks.
If you’re still unsure whether to keep marketing in-house or hire a marketing agency, we’re happy to share our expertise and answer your questions at Connections Marketing. And if you’re ready to take your business into the big leagues, we’re ready to dedicate ourselves to your success. Contact us today to talk.