The debate of hiring for an in-house marketing team versus sourcing an agency is at an all time high. There are many pros and cons to support and deter for both, but that’s why we’re here.
Deciding which is best for your business is a unique decision for each company. Each business has its own needs and has its own way of working, so having all the information is crucial to you determining the correct judgement.
So, without further ado, let's look at some facts…
In-house marketing team: Pros
- Company knowledge
This is a massive pro for in-house marketing teams. They’re working for your company solely, so they’ll have an extensive knowledge of what your company sells, produces and stands for. From this they’ll know exactly what sort of direction they should be going within your marketing. If your employee(s) are unaware of your company to begin with, it’s not a worry as they’ll learn more and more on a daily basis.
- Full-time
Like I said, an in-house marketing team will be working for you and you alone. This means they’ll be able to focus all their time on your company and not have other businesses attempting to pry away their attention. Agencies can rarely fully immerse themselves in one client.
- Passion
With an in-house marketing team, you’ll find they can show more passion towards their work. They’ve been hired to work for one specific business rather than an agency with many clients. You’ll be able to assemble a group of people who are passionate about your business or brand right from the offset.
- Communications
Communications are a lot faster with in-house marketing teams, you’ll be able to talk or contact them within seconds. Meetings can be called quickly and major decisions can be made faster. There wouldn’t be a calendar of other clients that you would have to fit into.
Agency: Pros
- Lower costs
Agencies on the whole are cheaper than in-house marketing teams. If you were to hire an in-house team then you would need at least 2 or 3 people to cover all the basics. That’s 2 or 3 extra salaries. With an agency, you’ll be paying a set fee rather than wages and you’d have access to their entire team and resources.
- Perspective
Working internally within a business can limit your perspective and make it difficult to look at things from a different viewpoint. This can make it troublesome when it comes to trying to reach new audiences and in starting new campaigns. An agency, however, will be able to look at your business with an unbiased opinion which will benefit you in the creation of new campaigns, reaching the right audience and even just thinking up new ideas.
- Saves time
A very important pro for agencies. Hiring an external marketing team means you don't have to do it. I think I can safely say that we all wish there were more hours in the day. With an agency, that can almost be true. If you or your employees are spending time working on your marketing over and above your actual duties, by hiring an agency you’ll be able to get that valuable time back.
- Varied specialties
As I said earlier, employing an agency means you’ll have access to their full team. This team will have people of all different specialties in marketing including SEO, PPC, social media, content creation, graphic design and web development. When it comes to hiring an in-house team you won’t get that sort of expertise unless you can afford a large team.
In-house marketing team: Cons
- Time spread thinly
With in-house teams, they tend to be smaller and marketing is a lot of work when done right. There are only so many days in the week for them to focus on creating campaigns etc., while also monitoring and reporting. For 2 or 3 people this may be a case of time spread too thinly.
- Higher costs
As said earlier, with in-house you’re paying wages, not fees. Wages as well as benefits, holidays and sick days can add up, even for a small team. This, accompanied with all the software and kit you’ll need to fork out for, will add up to a scary amount of cash.
- Talent
It can be more difficult to create a team of high talent within an in-house team. Lots of designers and web developers enjoy the variation and freedom of working on multiple projects with different people and outcomes.
- Resources
Obtaining resources can be timely and costly for in-house teams. With an agency it’s all already taken care of. This also links back to ‘Talent’. To create high quality marketing you need the experts and the experts are the best resource of all.
Agency: Cons
- Familiarisation
Agencies work with and for multiple clients on a day to day basis which means they’ll likely not to be familiar with your business. Building on this knowledge is a process that will take time and probably involve a few meetings for you to fully explain who you are and what you do.
- Multiple clients
Again, agencies work with multiple companies. This means they’re not solely dedicated to work on your marketing. This is a large reason why they’re cheaper than an in-house team. Be sure when hiring an agency that they will provide you with sufficient time and effort.
- Giving up control
With an agency you’ll be giving up some level of control, which can be understandably scary. There will be a whole aspect of your business that you won’t have a hold over. Just make sure when hiring an agency that you have full transparency in what they do and what you’ll have access to should you wish to change or check anything.
- Communications
Communications will not be immediate with an agency. They won’t be as available to you to converse with as an in-house team, and you’ll likely have to set up meeting dates for issues or discussions that can’t be as easily resolved with a phone call.
So that's us! Everything you need to know to make your decision between an in-house marketing team and an agency.
If you’ve decided that you want to pursue hiring an agency but want more information, why not book in for a quick 15 minute strategy call with a member of our team?
