For most companies and industries, marketing is necessary to succeed. Marketing drives sales, market share gain, branding, customer acquisition, repeat orders, new projects, opportunities, value, and so much more. The question most businesses and business owners’ debate is how to go about it. In-house versus outsource marketing. What are the differences and the right choice?
Regardless of which option a company chooses, it is worse to not have marketing campaigns in place. Without the momentum marketing creates for a business, the company can experience a much harder time generating sales, acquiring customers, and profitability. Marketing is important for most type of companies. A company should carefully review their options and decide to hire in-house or to contract it out to a professional marketing agency.
Marketing services such as Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Content Marketing (videos, articles and text, images and Infographics, …), and Paid Advertising drive traffic to websites, potential customers, sales, and search engine rankings. These services have to be properly managed in order for the results. If you as a company desire to achieve marketing results, the question is how to go about it. Hire an agency for these services or hire people that are marketing professionals to get the job done.
In-house marketing is the act of hiring employees who work inside your company. You get to hire them, manage them, set milestones, and objectives to meet. Outsource marketing is when you hire an agency to work with as a company or entrepreneur. A team of specialists that already has the required experience and knowledge gets to work. There are also hybrid strategies. A mix of doing some work such as social media in-house, while other services such as SEO and content are contracted out to an agency. Here are some of the main differences between in-house and outsourcing marketing.
In-House Marketing
The main difference with in-house marketing strategies is the cost, liability, and management requirements. There is overtime rates, sick leave, training, equipment requirement, software needed, holiday paid leave, and much more. The cost is significantly hire for in-house employees vs. contracting out marketing services. There is also the time requirement to find the right people, interview them, do due diligence on them, all very time consuming. This is especially true when hiring multiple individuals for marketing.
Outsource Marketing
Marketing agencies and/or digital agencies are the marketing experts. They are the professionals who companies and entrepreneurs contract out a multitude of marketing services. Marketing agencies provide marketing consulting services as well to clients to educate them more on the marketing landscape and requirements. To get the most value, a business should give an agency enough time to achieve results and deliver value. Marketing agencies already have best practices and the required technology for the job. There is no learning curve. They deliver a new objective perspective, are more flexible, provide expertise, and can get started right away.
Hybrid Marketing Solution
Another option is a type of hybrid marketing solution. This is where a company hires for example a marketing director or manager to oversee efforts but contracts out the majority of the marketing work to an agency. Or they may have an in-house social media marketer but contract out SEO and content marketing. Any combination that makes sense for the business. The hybrid marketing solution consists of utilizing both in-house and outsourcing.
The Conclusion
There are benefits with any of the types. In-house, outsourcing, and hybrid solutions. In-house gives more control, can build a team, and create a culture within the business. Outsourcing is certainly very cost effective, service provider already have all the tools necessary, objective perspective, flexibility, and expertise.
Any company looking to put marketing strategies to work should talk to experts to gain a better understanding. Marketing consulting services are available for this for example. Decide what type of marketing efforts is most fitting for your business and industry. Marketing services drive momentum and are a critical part of growing a business.
