It surprises no one that this subject gets way too opinionated – and that’s because there are lots of ways to look at it, and every business is different.
So we’ve put together some highlights to make it nice and easy to keep the discussion value vs return focussed.
If you want great marketing team in-house, you’re going to need quite a few quid.
There is the marketing manager, content writer, SEO and Analytics Expert, Social Media Manager, Paid Ads specialist, CRO-focused designer, and developer – to name just a few.
A team like that is expensive. In most situations, the need for each skill set is ad hoc, here and there – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
Agency’s have many of these skillsets across the table from each other, bouncing situations off each other daily – most clients do not.
Do you already have a team like that?
And, of course, a blend of both in house and agency is entirely possible – and often really valuable – it helps keep your own teams skills fresh and have an outsiders view to help prevent your team from getting too one-sided and pro-your-company.
It is exceptionally rare to find an in-house marketer who is adept at all aspects of digital marketing.
Many list multiple skills on their CV to get your attention and even if they are multi-skilled, it may be too much work for one person, or one small group of people to handle.
As good as someone might be in one area of digital advertising, online marketing is simply too complex for a single person to be an expert at everything (and still have human social skills).
On the flip side, picking someone who is great at one or two things can land you in situations that aren’t so fluid to change – i.e. where you have a fantastic landing page designer, but your ads are struggling and bringing in the wrong traffic. Or worse – your competitors start smashing your PPC, but your in-house hire is great at design.
Marketers are naturally creative and are attracted to diversity, so if they are alone doing in-house roles – a supporting agency can change their whole outlook.
It’s easy for creative minds to get bored & they are hot property to outsiders.
Having an in-house team solely devoted to you may stagnate creativity, given that they are focused on one project, rather than multiple.
They will get offers. Many will leave. Agencies have people to pick up the slack. A long-term partner who understands you, can make a situation like that, go away real quick.
It can also be harder to recruit and retain marketing talent if you’re not an agency – because agencies are sexy.
For example, many individuals who want to build careers in marketing prefer agencies, believing that they’ll be more challenged, work with more companies, in multiple industries and have greater opportunities to grow.
The agency marketer has several unique client accounts that they work with daily.
Their minds are fresh and always moving, given that they are exposed to a wide variety of businesses and industries.
It also means that your business benefits from knowledge and successful techniques that have been used elsewhere by the agency marketer – without the need for your business to test and trial or invest in R&D. Win. Win.
Don’t be fooled by thinking that an in-house hire is better for the costs.
It may seem less expensive to hire a single, on-hand employee for your marketing strategy, however the true costs can be a killer:
- A long hiring process, training, and guaranteeing that a person fits properly over a set period of time. What happens when they leave, before they’ve even gotten started? People leave companies often – it’s pretty unheard of for an agency to leave a customer.
- One marketing manager has a median annual salary of £35,000 – Take this number into consideration when hiring one manager, or multiple marketing specialists full time. You can obviously spend less, but remember that if it doesn’t work out – you knew that when you read it here.
- Aside from salary, you will be budgeting for office space, benefits (if you choose to offer them), computers, and programs if they need.
Hopefully that’s given some key anchor points to guide your next conversation on the subject – but if we’ve missed something, and you want to get a steer – we’re always happy to help out, so give us a shout, or introduce yourself to our award-winning agency Co-founder: Tanesha Austen on Linked In.
