Should You Go In-house or Hire a Marketing Agency?

Hire a marketing agency or an in-house team? That is the #1 question regarding online marketing and can be a critically important decision.

Marketing is the foundation of any business. If you want to build a successful business, having a quality expert behind your marketing strategy is essential to make a great marketing campaign.

In this article, find out why it is wise to hire a marketing agency, and why it is one of the key allies in achieving better business results.

What is the meaning of a marketing agency?

The agency includes a team of professionals organized according to certain types of work. You will get well-established experts in marketing strategy, content creation, communication with users, SEO, website development, paid advertising (Facebook, Instagram, Google, or any other digital medium), and other essential areas of marketing.

First and essential, the agency will research your scope of business: your audience and stakeholders, relevant data, analytics, and your team. A clear understanding of your company’s goals will allow the agency to measure the success of a particular campaign.

With an agency comes a whole host of advantages. The main one is that you will benefit from an entire marketing team – project manager, graphic and website designer, social media content creator, content writer, copywriter, and more.

Hiring an agency will ensure fast and quality work, but it will be a bit pricey. The agency is initially a more expensive but undoubtedly the cheaper option in the long run.

The difference between the in-house team and hiring an agency

Before considering the best option for your business, it is essential to determine the difference between hiring an agency and an in-house marketing team.

Marketing agencies vary depending on the type of service, and they offer the broadest range of services and a consultative approach. According to the online portal for statistics, Statista, every company hires an agency at some point.

The main task of the digital marketing agency is to improve the ratio of obtained results and invested funds. If you hire an agency, you will spend less money in the end, and your company will run financially much more profitably.

The in-house team surely has easier coordination, information exchange, and resource sharing, but you have to invest much more time building your internal team. If you want to work on your marketing program actively, you will need more time to find new employees, which will slow down your work.

Hiring new employees can be risky. It is challenging to hire the right and quality employees because you will need some time to find genuinely passionate, reliable, and qualified people who will cover your marketing needs.

The internal marketing team may get stuck in a creative style and marketing strategy. The agency already has a well-established team, many successful projects, and visible results that assure you that your project will be implemented and completed.

An in-house team may guarantee lower monthly marketing costs, but this option is more expensive in the long term.

How to make the right choice for your business?

The decision of who to hire — a marketing agency or an in-house team — is all about price and maximum efficiency. Just because one option is more expensive than the other shouldn’t entirely dictate your decision.

To choose a trustful digital marketing agency, in the selection process, consider the following:

Ask for an offer

Offers will tell you a lot about the agency:

• Their strategic thinking
• Approach to your specific situation and needs
• Their passion and enthusiasm for the project

Ask for references 

See what projects they have done so far, what results they achieved, and how they collaborate with clients.

Digital portfolio 

The portfolio includes design and content and gives the best view of a digital marketing agency. It will help you learn the agency’s creative direction, style, and problem-solving process.

Digital presence (social networks, website)

See how an agency manages its marketing, how active it is online and what content the agency creates and posts, whether it writes blogs and publishes content that communicates with the audience.

Don’t let money decide first. Let it be the last! 

First, evaluate all the aspects, check which agency provides the best value for your business, and then choose the one you think can do an excellent job according to your criteria.

To be more successful and present in the “digital world”, check out eight reasons to take a digital marketing agency from our ebook 8 reasons to hire a marketing agency instead of an in-house team.

If you are looking for a partner to lead your marketing, you are in the right place. Whether you need help analyzing or deciding which way to go, don’t waste your time searching for the answers. Contact us today!