Which is better: In-House or Agency Marketing?
Marketing and branding play very important roles in the process of setting up and growing your business. A great product won’t be as successful it’s not marketed properly. Especially as a small business, you want potential customers to immediately connect with your brand and recognize it in the future.
With this big, necessary emphasis on marketing, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Do you focus on long-form content, social media advertising, email marketing, SEO, or a combination? The list could go on and on. One big question that many companies face is whether they manage their marketing in-house or work with an agency.
In this article, we’ll take a critical look and both in-house marketing and agency marketing to help you understand which approach may be best for your company.
IN-HOUSE MARKETING
In-house marketing simply means that your marketing will be done by people who are hired and trained with your company. You don’t use a third party to manage your marketing efforts.
The in-house approach is more common among small to medium-sized companies because the marketing efforts can be managed by a relatively small team. The marketing team will be able to understand the company identity first-hand and help build the brand from the ground up.
Hiring an in-house marketing team can promote cohesive branding because, as employees, the team will be fully aligned with the company’s vision, mission, and goals. Communication will also be streamlined because the team will be working together regularly. This streamlined communication can allow for faster decision making, increased adaptability and a greater chance of taking some creative risk.
To run an effective in-house marketing team, you will need to hire the right people which can be a tedious process. This will require plenty of thought about what kind of skills you need to achieve your marketing goals and move the business forward. The desired size of your marketing team will guide the hires that you make.
Pros:
Cheaper. Most companies often find it cheaper to hire a small team and carry out marketing efforts internally. Especially for small companies, agencies can simply cost too much. Hiring an in-house team requires you to spend less money and gives you first-hand knowledge of the designs and adverts you intend to promote before you promote them. As a start-up, you do not need to spend your seed money carelessly. It is very important to save this money to further grow your business. That’s why hiring a marketing team gets the job done with less amount of money.
Less clash of interest. Hiring an in-house marketing team lowers the risk of experiencing a conflict of interest among the team because they share a common goal and a common interest in effectively building the company. Working with an agency can lead to opposing judgments and then take more time trying to solve the issue because of a long line of communication.
More creative control. In-house teams have more control over all of the content they generate in comparison to marketing agencies. They know what to design, when to design them, and can monitor the ads without agency reporting.
Cons:
Skills and experience are limited. While hiring in-house teams, you’ll have to prioritize the skills and experience that you want on your team. The size of your first marketing team will probably be smaller than that of an agency, so you’ll have to compromise on some of the expertise you’re hoping to hire. These skills and experiences are really important when trying to push a brand forward. But with the average skills and experience these individuals possess, the company can only grow to a certain extent.
AGENCY MARKETING
Agency marketing is an approach to marketing that involves hiring a third party to promote and handle all marketing affairs. There are marketing agencies set up around the world that handle all of their clients’ marketing efforts.
These companies have the setup, the strategies, and experience required to effectively create, plan, and promote your business through marketing and advertising. They have the ability to create and promote TV and radio commercials, YouTube commercials, online and offline ads, and every possible form of advertising and marketing.
Most agencies are well connected and have all the resources and team members necessary to provide value to their clients. However, there can be a large price to pay to use their services.
Most times agencies are hired by large multinational, established businesses, and are not particularly economically friendly for small and medium scale enterprises.
Although there are some small and medium scale enterprises that can readily afford their services, it is not advisable for small companies to start out by hiring marketing and advertising agencies. Leading companies around the world use advertising agencies because they can easily pay agency fees.
Once a solid relationship between the client and the agency is built, agencies can effectively take on the marketing projects for their clients. Through this relationship-building may take some time, it will help alleviate the mass of marketing tasks an in-house team would need to stay on top of.
Pros:
Equipped with adequate resources to perform effectively. Most marketing agencies are equipped with a lot of resources that they use to effectively perform their services. They have the tools, experience, and team members necessary to fulfill your marketing needs.
Get the job done on time. Marketing agencies help their clients execute marketing strategies on time by seeing projects through from planning to execution. They have years of experience and can use that experience to minimize any roadblocks in marketing processes.
Creative thinking. Marketing agencies are full of creative people and dynamic energy which helps them take on new projects with ease and revitalize recurring projects with fresh perspectives.
They are very exposed. Marketing agencies are acclimatized with industry standards and the advertising and marketing rules and regulations that govern the process of effectively sending out ads and commercials.
Cons:
They have too many clients. On a regular basis, they deal with a lot of clients which can make it difficult for them to ever put their full time and attention on your projects. For this reason, it is highly recommended that whenever you hire a marketing agency, you choose one that is dedicated to you and establishes a connection and open communication with you right from the start.
Takes time to get familiar with the brand. Most agencies won’t be fully aware of your industry, brand, and intended audience, so it may take a little longer to get them familiar with your brand and goals. This can result in incessant meetings for detailed information about your brand. Before hiring an agency, you have to make sure that they are prepared to properly familiarize themselves with your brand.
Less control of your content. When you decide to hire a marketing agency, you may have a little or very minimal right to the creative content that they create. Because they see projects through start to finish, it can cut down on your connection to and input in the end product.
WHICH ONE IS RECOMMENDED FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
It all depends on the amount of money you are willing to spare for your marketing purposes. You have to think about what you intend to achieve through the marketing process and how far you are willing to go.
For a startup or small business, we recommend trying to establish an in-house team before hiring an agency. This should be open to ideas and ready to put in the effort in order to take you to where you need to be in your business. There are also plenty of tools and help that they can use to help ease their many tasks. These decisions truly depend on your corporate goals and plans for your marketing.
Although, in-house teams aren’t always the way to go. If you have a small budget with one goal in mind, hiring an agency is most likely your best bet!