In-House vs. Outsource Your Marketing?

While most businesses offer great products and services, creating and executing marketing plans may not be their strong suit. So, many turn to agencies for these skills. Others take the leap and build their own internal marketing teams.

Before deciding which is best for your company, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each.

Outsourcing to an agency: The Pros

Diversity of Skills
Marketing agencies deploy a variety of professionals. They can include graphic designers, photographers, videographers, content writers, web and social media specialists and more.
Having all those skills available to your company has a lot of advantages.

Fresh Perspective
Marketing agencies work with a variety of clients and/or industries. This breadth of experience gives them the ability to see things from a different point of view, a perspective your team may have not considered.

Technical Expertise
Many agencies employee professionals that are experts at the tools of the craft. They incur the expense to purchase and maintain tools and subscriptions to operate effective marketing campaigns.

Costs
While many people think hiring an agency is too costly for their business, this may not be the case. By outsourcing, you are able to customize the services you need. Therefore, you can be much more strategic about your marketing budget.

Outsourcing to an agency: The Cons

You Are Not Their Only Client
This means you will not have their undivided attention and focus.

You Don’t Control Their Process
The where and how they do business are not things you can control. For instance, if you hire an agency in another time zone, you will need to either wait for or plan ahead to communicate with them. You have no say over their staff and other assets.

Vision Alignment
Getting on the same page on the vision or tactics does not always happen. They may have different ideas, ones that you may not like. Vision alignment takes time – sometimes it does not ever happen at all.

In-House Marketing: The Pros

Focus
Your marketing team is all in on the strategies your company sets forth. They can more deeply focus on the brand, strategies and measurements.

Brand Ambassadors
Your marketing team is your brand ambassador. The staff live it every day. They talk with your sales and support teams as well as interact with you and other managers. They understand the company’s strengths better than an outside agency might.

Faster Communication
Whether it’s a campaign strategy question, understanding deadlines, or revising content, you have a direct line to getting the answers you need about your marketing efforts.

Your Data is Yours
Because your team is working directly on lead generation and campaign measurement statistics, you have full control and understanding over the data generated from those operations.

In-house Marketing: The Cons

Hiring and On-boarding
These are consuming tasks for your company. It takes time and money to develop an internal team. There is an HR expense and it may be months before members of your team have grasped everything they need to be productive.

Stale Perspective
There is a risk of an echo chamber among your staff, as an in-house team is working solely within the confines of your company.

Acquisition Costs
Marketing tools can be costly. Many have subscription costs to them, which can add up, depending upon how many tools your team needs to build, execute and monitor your marketing campaigns.

A Hybrid Approach
Hybrid marketing is a combination of using an outsourced agency to support your in-house teams. Internal teams can put the plans into motion, then use specific outsourced specialists, freelancers, or consultants to provide expert support.

The internal team is freed up from completing every little marketing tactic and can monitor the success of the campaigns and overall strategies. This type of collaboration takes time to gel, as it requires clear division of labor and good communication.

The best course of action for your company depends on your goals and budget. It is best to do as much research as possible before making a decision.

With our years of experience, diverse skills and knowledge in data and marketing technologies, First Impressions Marketing is well suited to discuss with you the best options for your company.

Contact us today to get started on fueling your marketing efforts.