Regardless of what your business does, digital marketing can be a huge help in making your business more successful. Digital marketing has quickly become one of the best ways to help your business grow, gain leads, and increase overall revenue from marketing. Whether you choose to use search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, or social media marketing, having a strong digital strategy and team is paramount.
For many companies looking to implement a digital marketing strategy, they often wonder whether it would be more beneficial to hire an in-house marketing professional, or to partner with a marketing agency. Let’s take a look at the benefits .
What’s The Difference Between In-House and a Marketing Agency
The main difference between the two is that an in-house marketer is hired by the company to join the internal marketing team where they work directly for the company they’re marketing. On the other hand, a marketing agency is hired by a company to act as the marketing team or be an addition to the team. The company hires the agency and pays them a retainer fee to keep them on board as their outsourced marketing team. Whether your business should hire an agency or an in-house team all depends on the different benefits each one offers.
Benefits of Hiring In-House
The benefits of hiring an in-house marketing team is that brand familiarity is always top of mind. Your employees will have a full understanding of your company’s voice, style, tone, and overall brand image. Additionally, your in-house team will be focused solely on your company, whereas an agency likely has multiple clients they market for.
Another benefit to hiring in-house is that they are always easily accessible to you and other departments within your company. In-house marketing teams also allow for a much greater sense of control in your marketing. When hiring an agency, you share the responsibility of your marketing with an outside source. For those who wish to have a higher level of control in how their marketing strategy is executed, building an in-house marketing department is likely a better move.
Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency
One of the key benefits to hiring a marketing agency is their overall expertise in the world of marketing. This allows you the opportunity to hire an agency that has a background in your industry, or uses a strategy that you like such as pay-per-click. By working with an experienced marketing agency, you can get great results from your marketing efforts and get a great return on your investment.
Another great reason to hire a marketing agency is their overall capabilities. Typically, marketing agencies have a full team of employees who specialize in SEO, PPC, social media, design, web development, copywriting, and more. Having a stable of specialized marketers on retainer can allow you different opportunities to try new strategies and reach more potential customers. Additionally, marketing agencies can be a greater relief on your budget. When hiring a full time in-house marketing team, you have to pay these employees individually for their work. Whereas with a marketing agency, you could pay the price of one person’s salary and get the work capacity of a full marketing team.
The Takeaway
The main takeaway is that choosing between an in-house marketing team or a marketing agency is all dependent on what your company needs. If you need to exercise more control over your marketing, in-house is the way to go. If you need a broader array of skills and technical abilities, an agency is likely your best bet.
Additionally, these two aren’t mutually exclusive. For a lot of companies around the world they use a combination of an in-house team and an agency. By using both options to build a marketing team, you can get the best of both worlds and ensure you are getting the best return on your marketing efforts.