Working With a Digital Advertising Company Vs. Lease in the home

If you want to expand your marketing, you need talented people who can adopt and execute your strategy.

But should you build your own in-house marketing team or hire an agency partner?

There are compelling reasons for both, and it will mainly depend on your situation.

Read on to find out which decision is better for you.

The benefits of working with a digital marketing agency

Digital agencies are companies that help other companies perform a specific function such as marketing, development, or design.

They act as a substitute for an internal team that performs the same work function, but outside the organization.

They usually specialize in certain areas depending on the size of their team and what expertise they have.

Other ways to think about digital agencies are with an outsourced team or, in some cases, a group of freelancers working together.

Here are the benefits of working with a digital marketing agency:

Deeper expertise

Digital marketing agencies are more likely to have deeper expertise when it comes to a specific role or industry. This is because they most likely specialize in a particular area or have already worked with clients in your area.

Specialty – Most agencies specialize in a thing or two, like content marketing or performance advertising. Combined with the fact that they provide these services to multiple clients, it is likely that a particular agency has a high level of competence and expertise in their field.
Industry insights – Agencies can work with dozens of clients at the same time. They may have worked with a company in a similar situation or industry to your own.

Diverse skills

When you hire an agency, you're not just hiring one person. You hire an entire team and its network, which can sometimes consist of ten or more people.

Although you may hire an agency to help you with search engine optimization, you may find that they have team members who can advise you on content creation, or even designers who can help improve your user experience.

This offers advantages such as:

More perspective – A varied team can help solve problems faster. The diversity allows teams to look at things from different perspectives and find creative solutions.
Flexibility – There may be times when you need to expand into a different marketing channel or adapt your strategy to a changing environment. Agencies offer you more flexibility in your strategy. When social media isn't working, you can easily switch to something else.

Scalable

Scaling a company is not easy. Two of the most important challenges in scaling are getting the right talent and enough new customers.

Using the right digital marketing agency can help solve these two key scaling problems.

On the talent side, you don't need to think about finding and hiring high-level marketing people. You don't have to build a management structure for this department either.

Scaling your growth is all about doubling what is already working with your agency and taking full advantage of that marketing channel. If at some point the marketing channel stops working, you can simply use the diversity of your agency to test new channels.

Transparent review

When hiring in-house, it can be difficult to accurately verify the quality of the hiring. At first, it can be difficult to verify the accuracy of the information on your resume.

References can be useful, but employers usually stay on the safe side and provide a positive reference to avoid potential legal issues.

However, agencies are a little different and customers are very transparent and vocal when an agency is underperforming.

You can easily find and read customer reviews for a specific agency on sites like Trustpilot before deciding to work with an agency.

Dedicated partner

The dynamic between working with an agency and hiring an employee is very different.

An employee understands that they are part of a chain of command. This means that they are unlikely to think strategically unless they are part of the executive team.

A digital marketing agency differs in that it works with you as a partner. In many ways, you're not paying for an extra team of people, but rather a marketing partner or even a co-founder.

This enables the following advantages:

Result-oriented – Your agency partner knows that if they don't deliver results, you won't have a long working relationship. This means that the incentives are right and that something needs to be done urgently.
Strategic insight – Your digital marketing agency will have an outside perspective. This is a great way to spot problems that you didn't even know existed. You will also think on a much higher level about how to really grow your business.

The advantages of going in house

Building an internal team makes sense in some cases and offers some advantages. Typically, in-house teams provide better control with a tighter, more focused team.

You believe in the mission

When hiring in-house, your success largely depends on how you attract and select potential employees. Finding the right solution for your business is critical.

Ideally, provided you have the right hiring process in place, you will work with people who truly believe in your company and your mission.

The right employee is invested more emotionally than any other agency partner because they are fully immersed in the journey of your company.

Engagement – Highly engaged employees can be one of the most powerful tools in a company. A high level of commitment means that your employees are likely to do whatever it takes to make the business a success, whether it be by working extra hours or solving difficult problems.
Talent Promotion – There are no guarantees that you will keep your employees, but if you get it right, you can build your own all-star team. This of course requires many years of active investment, but you could potentially organically build a strong team.

The employees are more focused

If you work with an agency, chances are the people assigned to your project are likely to work with other clients as well.

Juggling multiple responsibilities means that the agency you are working with may not be able to give you the full brain power it would with an employee working exclusively in your company.

Be aware, however, that there may not be enough focus to get results. Even if an agency works with multiple clients, they may have the experience to achieve your business goals.

Brand awareness

The advantage of building an internal team is that your employees are fully immersed in your brand.

This means that they naturally have a higher level of brand awareness and understand why you exist on a more visceral level compared to an agency.

A digital marketing agency will of course get used to your brand over time, but it will take longer than someone in-house.

Customer information – Better brand awareness means better customer knowledge. Your in-house team will have a better idea of what your customers' vulnerabilities are, what messages they are getting, and how you can better serve their needs.
Skills – Your employees will also get a more realistic assessment of your company's marketing and product development capabilities. For example, they can make better use of the different teams in your company to improve marketing activities, e.g. B. Providing content to sales reps.

Better control

By hiring in-house, you have better control over the execution of your marketing strategy.

While it's generally not a good idea to micromanage (why are you hiring in the first place?), Having your own team means you have a better view of what's going on.

Many agencies don't offer such close collaboration and usually have their own processes and ideas on how best to get things done.

Accessibility – Your internal team is always there during working hours. If you are in a physical office, you will benefit from a much closer collaboration compared to an outside agency. But even when working remotely, you can easily jump into a meeting with your team if necessary.
Flexibility – As a rule, you agree on the scope of work with agencies and anchor it in a contract. It is difficult to deviate from this scope without incurring additional costs and renegotiating. With an in-house team, you have more flexibility to change direction, even if you may be limited by a lack of skills.

When should you build an in-house team?

Developments in the modern economy have opened up new ways of structuring the way we work.

The traditional model of employee necessity is challenged by more flexible agreements with agencies and freelancers.

But it's not one size fits all. Depending on your company and the current situation, it can still make sense to set up an internal marketing team.

Here are three scenarios where building an internal team can make sense.

Scenario 1: Venture Funded

If you've just received a large injection of capital, you have the money to attract and build the best team possible.

This applies all the more to early-stage start-ups that can provide potential employees with equity in order to actively woo top talent from other companies.

Venture-funded companies are also expected to build their own in-house team as part of the scaling process. This is an essential reason for preserving the capital.

Scenario 2: Access to Talent

If you live in an area where you have access to the best talent, it may make sense for you to build an in-house team.

A robust network or good visibility through your personal brand or line of thought is also a scenario where it would make sense to use this to build a great team.

Having access to the right people is one of the main reasons you would use a digital marketing agency. So, if you could include her on your team, it makes sense.

Scenario 3: Difficult market

Some products and markets can do better with an in-house team. This is especially true for very niche or demanding markets.

Innovative products – If you are working with a very innovative product that is being sold at the company level, for example, you will likely need very technical staff to help you with the sales process. This cannot be delegated to a digital marketing agency.
Dark Market – Some markets may rely on very specific marketing channels that cannot be scaled linearly and predictably. For example, if you rely on government contracts or seasonal cycles. In these cases, it is probably better to find domestic workers who can adapt to your particular circumstances.

The real cost of hiring in home

People often have the misconception that hiring an agency is more expensive than hiring in-house.

It depends on the agency you are hiring and the scope of work, of course, but there are many hidden costs of in-house hiring that many people fail to consider.

When hiring the best talent, the cost of building an in-house team quickly adds up.

Recruiting costs – First of all, you need to budget to actually find the right person. This includes costs like advertisements, networking events, recruiting, etc. There are also costs associated with a role being vacant, which can take months.
Training and onboarding – Every new employee also has a ramp-up time before he reaches full productivity. At the beginning, each new hiring represents a cost that needs to be considered.
New software – Also consider the cost of tools your team may need to do their job, such as: B. Analysis, communication and HR tools.
Wages – The greatest cost to employees is in the form of their salaries. The better the talent, the higher the cost.
Storage – Bad attitude can really set you back. In the worst case, they can damage your brand and bring your marketing activities to a standstill. But even if it just doesn't fit, you've already spent a lot of money getting it and you will lose money if you fail to fill the role.
Legal – Employees have legal consequences. If someone has proven bad after their probationary period, it can be difficult to get them released.

Conclusion

Whether you go inside or build your own team depends on your individual situation.

You need to take into account all of the variables like cost, your market, and even your ability to build a great team.

Also, keep in mind that it may not have to be a binary decision.

The best way forward can be a combination of a few in-house employees complemented by a digital marketing agency.