Mackenzie | December 01, 2020 | Digital Marketing
Whether you're a manufacturer, an e-commerce retailer, a housing developer, or a dentist, marketing is important. It's what gets your company's name out there, and it's what brings in the leads you need to grow.
So, it's not a big surprise to hear that you need marketing.
How you implement marketing is the tougher choice.
Depending on your industry and your business size, you're probably looking at either in-house marketing support or hiring a marketing agency.
Whether you've just started your search, or aren't sure which direction to go, this blog breaks down the in-house vs agency marketing comparison, so you can make an educated decision based on your company's marketing needs.
The two most popular ways to effectively market your company are to hire someone in-house or to hire a marketing agency. The most basic difference between the two options is who you hire.
When you choose to hire in-house for your marketing team, you find and hire a new employee who works in your office, and whose sole responsibility is marketing your company.
When you hire a marketing agency, you're working with a team of marketing experts to develop marketing strategies that will help your company reach your goals.
If you're just here for a quick assessment, take a look at this chart.
Basically, an in-house marketing team is best for the company that wants constant, immediate contact with your marketing support.
It's good to know that this quick communication doesn't translate to fast turn-around time.
Remember, you just have one, maybe two people on staff. Though you can talk to them at the office, they might not be able to implement your plans instantly, because they probably have a lot on their plate.
A digital marketing agency is best for the company who wants a comprehensive marketing strategy and is looking for expert advice on every aspect of it.
Agencies have specialists on staff for everything from SEO to content strategy, social media, PPC, and even email campaigns.
With the added capacity, a marketing agency can typically implement a wider breadth of marketing campaigns faster than a one or two-person in-house team could. If agility is important to you, a digital marketing or inbound agency might be the better option for you.
Still stuck?
That's chill — I've got a complete breakdown just waiting for you. Let's go step by step through some of the most important points that could sway your decision between in house vs. agency marketing. We'll start with expertise, but feel free to use the menu below to navigate to whatever you're most interested in.
The In-House vs. Agency Marketing Breakdown
In-house vs. Agency Marketing: Where Did You End Up?
If you're investing in marketing, you want someone who knows what they're doing. In-house vs agency marketing each offer a different type of expertise.
In-house marketing: Your team
Marketing agency: A team of specialists
Another big consideration to make when evaluating the decision between an in-house marketer vs. a marketing agency is how long it will take to onboard, and how long it'll take to see results. The process of hiring a marketing employee or hiring a marketing agency will take time, but after you've completed the process, a team of marketers is going to be able to get to work a bit faster than a single marketer would.
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
Communication is important to your marketing strategy's success. Your marketing team has to understand your brand, your company, your audience, and of course, your goals. Having a clear path of communication is essential to ensuring that your marketing team is implementing tactics that deliver the kind of success you're looking for.
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
How quickly your marketing team can get something done is important. If you want to implement a holiday campaign, you shouldn't have to bring it up in June to make sure it happens by November. Your marketing team's speed is directly related to its capacity. Scalability matters here too — if your company has a degree of seasonality, you'll likely want to scale marketing services up or down depending on your current needs.
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
Life moves pretty fast. Especially when you're working in digital marketing. You want marketing support that is on top of industry trends, so your company is always following marketing best practices that put you ahead of the competition.
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
The biggest sticking point when it comes to choosing between in-house vs. agency marketing is cost. No matter what, you'll pay a salary and benefits for an employee, and a retainer fee for your marketing agency. Which costs more? Let's take a look:
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
If the cost section didn't exactly answer your question about how much it costs to hire someone in-house vs. a marketing agency, that's because it depends. You might spend between $50,000-$70,000 to hire a marketing manager, and an equal or even greater yearly spend on a marketing agency.
It can be hard to judge what the actual cost of your marketing support will be until you look at the returns.
In-house marketing:
Marketing agency:
At this point, you might have a clear picture of what your company needs, or you might still be stuck.
Either option is fine.
Every company functions a little differently and has slightly different marketing needs. Obviously, the Evenbound team is a fan of marketing agencies, because that's what we are. But, you should know that a lot of our clients have in-house marketing pros, and they still work with us to support that in-house team.
If you're having trouble deciding whether in-house or agency marketing is right for you, it's possible that both might be a better fit. The benefit of working with an agency is that we scale our services to accommodate your business needs.
If you've got a kick-ass social media person on-staff, they might benefit from support in SEO or PPC, so they can focus more of their time on what they do really well, and what's delivering serious results for your company.
In the end, the choice comes down to what your company needs, and the method that will help fill that need in the most productive and efficient way. If you can't figure out what you need, or you know that an agency can help support your already busy team, Evenbound is here to help.
Decided a digital marketing agency is right for you? Here are 8 Questions to Ask a Digital Marketing Agency before you sign with them.
At Evenbound, we're all about helping our clients grow. We use inbound and outbound marketing strategies to deliver you the qualified traffic and leads you need for serious growth. And we have a lot of fun doing it.
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