What is better? Hiring an in-house marketing agency or getting a digital marketing company to work on your brand? Both of these have their advantages which your business could benefit from. But how would you know which one to take?
Definition: Digital Marketing Agency
A digital marketing agency is a company you outsource to market your products and help expand your business growth. This could be located within a different city away from where you are conducting your business. They are run by people with different creative and technical specialization catering to various clients.
Definition: In-House
An in-house team is an internal team working to market your business. This is the team that you hire to work on your projects under the umbrella of your company. They are dedicated solely to your business. In addition, they usually work in the same area where your business operates.
Each of which has its pros and cons. But deciding on which one to get depends on your budget and the flexibility of time.
Why hire a digital marketing agency?
Areas of Expertise
A digital marketing agency is composed of skilled and professional experts across different fields. Ad agencies hire these people for their skills, experience, and educational background. The company is composed of talented individuals with diverse skills. This could be composed of:
- Season writers
- Graphic designers
- Web developers
- Videographers
- Social media specialist
- SEO Specialist
- Copywriters
- Email Marketing experts
- Marketing Director
- Front and Back-end Developer
- Demand Gen Specialist
You won’t have problems in terms of hiring. The agency already has the manpower to do the job. This saves you the time and energy to look for the right kind of people. Their wide area of specialization allows ad agencies to work on numerous clients from various industries.
Room for project expansion
Given the availability of people, you can expand your marketing campaign from just images to videos. Since there are people readily available to take on the job, it is easier to add additional projects. Scaling the campaign is easy although this entails revising the original contract agreed on.
Availability of software and familiarity with tools
Ad agencies have access to software and tools for their job. Given the specialization of the people working in the agency, they have a set of software and tools that they are familiar with. You don’t have to worry about paying for premium access. This area is already covered by the agency.
Drawback of a digital marketing team
Premium Rates Services
Compared to getting talent in-house, hiring a marketing agency is more costly. It can take you around $6,000-$8,000 per month to pay for the agency’s service. Although some in-house companies are also spending more when hiring contractors. Just make sure that they are worth the money spent.
No versatility in work scope
Unlike having an in-house marketing team where you can have more flexibility on the campaign, working with an agency is different. Before making any changes to the agreed marketing campaign, discussions and collective decisions from all stakeholders must be secured first.
Handling multiple clients
There are big agencies that handle multiple clients at the same time. There could be instances that this could cause some delay in your marketing campaign.
Credibility check
Working with an agency for the first time has its risks. You will just be relying either on word of the month, reviews, or feedback on their website. You don’t know yet how good they say they are. You could be paying too much for a service that should only be half the price.
If you decide to work with an agency, make sure to do some due diligence and check the company’s background. Make time to check their credentials and portfolio. Read what people say about them. Review the comments before hiring them.
Why hire an in-house marketing team?
Loyalty and familiarity to the brand
Hiring an internal marketing team means that you have a group of people dedicated solely to marketing the company’s services or products. This equates to stronger brand familiarity. These people know the ins and outs of the business and its products. In addition, they know the brand’s mission, tone, and overall process. This also means that the team has more focus on your brand.
Better Internal Control
Since the team is in-house, you have more control over what is being done on the marketing side. You easily ask your creative team to make changes if necessary. Unlike in an agency where it could require a long email exchange before something is changed.
Accessibility to the team
Having an in-house team means that they could be just sitting beside you. You will have more access to creative people when you need them. Compared this to hiring an agency that could be located in other parts of the world.
Drawbacks of internal marketing team
Hiring and other HR-related concerns
Getting the right people to work in-house could entail more time and work for you. You will have to schedule several interviews and get them onboard before starting the campaign.
Procurement of software and other tools
To have access to software and tools for marketing campaigns, you’ll have to pay the premium amount. This access is an investment to efficiently deliver the marketing campaigns.
Trial and Error on Capabilities
After hiring the candidates, you will still have to assess their capabilities. There could be hires who are only as good as what’s on their CV but fails to deliver in reality. This could cause a drawback to your marketing effort.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve laid out some of the advantages and disadvantages of hiring either a digital marketing agency or an in-house one, it’s really up to you to decide. Consider the factors stated above and think of how much you can spend, your target goals, and how much time you have. This will help you in coming up with a decision.
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