Many small businesses are faced with the decision of whether to hire an in-house marketing employee or hire a marketing agency. This is a difficult question that every company needs to answer for themselves, and there are many factors that go into this decision.
In this article, we will explore the pros and cons of both hiring options so you can make an educated choice based on your specific business goals.
In-house employees are more expensive over the long term. This is because in-house marketing staff needs to be paid a competitive salary, they must have benefits and other perks included such as company discounts on healthcare premiums, career development opportunities, 401k matching contributions, or retirement plans.
In addition, once you hire an employee for your business it's difficult (though not impossible) to let them go if their skills no longer align with what you need from that position; this can lead to high turnover rates which will contribute further cost into your budget.
When you choose to hire a marketing agency instead, you can save money in the long run by paying a retainer fee.
If you end up hiring a marketing agency, they can be let go at any time. This is because the retainer fee covers their services and if there's not an agreement in place for them to provide those services then they will no longer work with your company. This also comes into play when you are looking for recommendations on other agencies that might better suit your needs; this way you aren't stuck working with one specific agency forever even if it doesn't meet all of your requirements.
Many marketing agencies offer "no contract agreements", meaning you can cut them loose at any time for whatever reason.
A marketing agency provides many more skills than what's available in-house. This is because a single employee can only be trained for so many different things, whereas a marketing agency will offer services such as digital advertising and branding to name just two.
The expertise that this offers your company can make it much easier for you to grow over time; they also have the experience needed with traditional media forms like radio advertisements and direct mailings which are often overlooked by new companies who focus too heavily on web-based campaigns exclusively.
Marketing agencies are easier to hold accountable. This is because they will send you monthly reports on their findings and recommendations for your company - whereas an in-house employee would need constant supervision which can be more difficult than it sounds at first glance.
If a marketing agency does not provide the quality of work that's needed, then firing them is as simple as declaring this to be true; there would never be any unfinished projects or confusion over what needs to happen next with someone who works remotely from another office like a freelancer might do if hired instead.
Marketing agencies work much faster than in-house hires. This is because they have the skills and experience to make it happen, while someone without these things would be more hesitant or afraid of causing any mistakes that could come back to haunt them later on.
A marketing agency will know how best to utilize their time through various means such as reaching out directly with clients instead of waiting for leads from your company - which can lead to a better conversion rate overall since this type of relationship requires less effort on both ends.
This also comes into play when managing campaigns; if you need help coming up with new ideas then having an outside perspective really helps bring fresh ideas forward so that there's always something new going live within any given month no matter the difficulty.
Marketing agencies are more consistent. This is because they provide many services that your company could use right away - which means you can start seeing an impact in a much shorter amount of time as opposed to waiting for an in-house hire to learn what needs to be done and then take the appropriate steps accordingly.
A marketing agency will also have a better idea about how best to work with other third-party vendors like printers, website developers, or those who offer email campaigns; this way every aspect of their business has been accounted for ahead of time so there's no question on where things should go next when something changes unexpectedly.
The reality is that hiring someone from within your own office might not always make sense since they may lack experience working with a business like yours.
In-house employees provide the more transparent communication. This is because they already know your company's goals and objectives better than anyone else - so when it comes to discussing what needs to happen from a marketing standpoint, there would be no questions or confusion over any details in this area between these two parties.
However, hiring an external agency could lead you away from some of the things that need to get done on a regular basis by someone who has been with them for years; which means more time will have gone into training someone new whose only level of expertise might come as advice instead while not being able to make decisions themselves until learning how everything operates first hand.
In-house staff will see you on a regular basis, making communication a frequent benefit.
In-house employees are more available. This is because they work on-site and won't need to travel for any meetings or appointments that take place in your office's location; whereas a marketing agency will have people who live all around the world. This means someone would be needed to handle these trips instead of them being done by one person at a time like with an in-house hire.
Again, this comes down to consistency. If you're looking for something that has been tried and tested over many years with no mistakes made along the way, then hiring internally could be your best option since there wouldn't have been as much opportunity for anything untoward happening without it having come up sooner (or later) during their tenure.
In-house employees will focus more on your brand. This is because they'll be around the office and in contact with other staff members who are all working towards making sure that things run smoothly for you.
If someone isn't feeling like they're being as productive, then it's likely to come up sooner than later since there would be no need to worry about something else going wrong elsewhere without them noticing first.
This could lead to fewer people getting hired overall when what was initially needed might have been solved by one person instead of two or three from a marketing agency at an increased cost; which means spending time training new hires versus ensuring everything is done properly within your own company while also saving money right off the bat.
Hiring a marketing agency will allow for more growth. This is because they'll be able to work on several different aspects of your campaign in one go, allowing you to see results much faster than if you were paying someone from within the company who has multiple other responsibilities that may or not take priority over this task at hand.
If you're looking for an effective way to grow your business while also saving time and money overall, then hiring externally might be best as opposed to leaving everything up solely to those with knowledge about how things should operate internally.
I hope these points are helpful when deciding which option would suit both your needs and budget better by offering another perspective outside what's necessarily available with in-house employees alone.
Depending on your resources and goals, either choice will be suitable for your business. However, hiring a marketing agency far outweighs the complications of making an in-house selection. If you're convinced and would like to speak to a qualified marketing agency partner, then we'd love to help