When companies decide to invest in growth, they need to choose between hiring an agency to do the marketing work for them or building an in-house team to do it.

You෴ want to grow your business and drive revenue, and you know there’s a lot of marketing work to b𝕴e done. You need to build your brand and increase leads and sales, and you need a partner that can help you get there as soon as possible.

You want to make the choice that helps your business get the best ROI possible. 

In this article, we’re going to explain how to 𓂃choos✅e the right marketing option for your business, be it an agency or hiring and training an int🎉ernal t💯eam.

Now, weཧ know that the "best" option depends on your needs, but we promise to help you make the best decisio🌠n possible. 

Building an in-house marketing team: Pros and cons

Hiring an in-house marketi𒀰ng team can seem like a huge undertaking — especially if you're starting from scratch. However, the benefits can be massive. There are drawbacks to consider as well. Let's dive in, starting with the Pros.

Pros of building an internal marketing team

Pro #1: More control over your marketing

When you bring marketing operations in-house you have more control. This includes your tools and staff, butဣ mos♓t importantly your strategy. 

What goals are you prioritizing?

What activities are you going to engage in?

What will the publication cadence be? 

When marketing is internal, your team can be 𓆏more hands-on with the details of your plan. Plus, they ꦉwill also arguably be more invested in the outcome of marketing strategies, as your business is their sole focus. 

Pro #2: Get things done faster

When your entire marketing efforts are done in-house, you're also more likely to get things done quickly. As th💧e team's "only client," you get their full attention.

You don't have to worry about waiting for projects as they work for different clients or the constraints of a contract like you❀ would with a third party.

Y🐻ou also have more flexibility to pivot, request edits, and have them turned around quickly, without going through layers of red tape. 

Pro #3: Truly capture the voice of your brand

While agencies can be incredibly talented and may have experience in your industry, they will never have t🌞he same brand or operational-level understanding of your business as the people who are in it every day.

I🐻n-house talent will be the ultimate source of the most honest, helpful, and transparent marketing available, anywhere.

Their institutional knowledge is reflected in every marketing strategy they develop and that authentic voice is what's needed to 168极速赛车平台:build trust with your audience.

Cons of building an internal marketing team

Along with the favorable outcomes ofꦜ hirꦉing an in-house marketing team, there are also a few drawbacks to consider. 

Con #1: Potentially higher initial costs

If you do decide to build an internal marketing team for the first time, you will need to make a few additional hires, such as a content manager or videographer. 

Finding and onboarding new team members takes time,🔯 and once you do, the൩y do come with their price tag. 

A 168极速赛车平台:content manager who has the knowledge and experience to lead your internal marketing team 🌱will require an average salary of $75,672 ().

And PayScale reports that , and these numbers can increase depending on your company size, location, or the candi🥃date’s leve𒆙l of experience. 

You m🔥ay be thinking you already have people on your team who can fill these roles. That's great! But marketing will ne🦂ed to be their full-time job and focus.

Their original joꦐbs may need to be filled by a new hires, if their workload can't be distributed to others. 

If you're going to build a team internally, these addition🧸al salaries are something you need to be ready and equipped to take on🍷.

Additional staff members also require paperwork, onboarding, one-on-ones, up-to-date job descriptions, performance reviews, raises, career-pꦇath conversations, supplies, tools, and much more.

Con #2: Need for organizational buy-in

Insourc📖ing your marketing requires all parties from e🦋xecutives to sales to be bought in and aligned on the vision and activities.

Achieving stellar results with marketing requires that eac🧸h person must have a shared understanding of the value, what it takes to be successful, and be committed to making it happen.&💧nbsp;

This can certainly be a challenge.

For our clients, we recommend conducting 168极速赛车平台:a workshop as a critical first step.

You don't have to do it alone

Even if you decide to hire an in-house marketing ꦰteam, you don't have to go it alone.

There are training companies to help you go through the hiring process and train your talent. At IMPACT, for example, we offer 168极速赛车平台:marketing training for your in-house staff.

We help you to build your team and teach them to cr𒀰eat♒e great content. Once they're up to speed, we phase out our services, so the cost of working with us is temporary. 

Our m♊ain objective is t𝓰o help businesses learn to generate so many leads and sales on their own they won't need an agency. 

Hiring a marketing agency: Pros and cons

Now that you understand the pros and cons of hiring in-house, here’s what to consider w💛hen hiring a mark꧋eting agency.

Pros of hiring a marketing agency

⛦For businesses that do not want to bring their marketing🐟 initiative in-house, here are the pros of hiring an agency.

Pro #1: Faster to get started

The faster you can🙈 get your marketing going, the sooner you’ll see the benefits of your efforts.

When you work with an agency, they have processes, talent, and re𒁃sources all lined up so you don't have to do any of the vetting or planning.

While there is always some initial setup when kicking off your marketing♐, with the experience of an agency, this stage should move quickly compared to doing it on your own.&nb𒉰sp;

Pro #2: You can be fairly hands-off

🐼De🔜pending on your needs, you may not be in a place to give your marketing much focus.

When꧟ you work with an agency, they are equipped to develop your strategy, produce your content, film your videos, and write your emails, among other things. You generally don’t have to worry about much, with the exception of sharing initial goals and business insights — as well as ongoing feedback. 

Pro #3: Large resource pool

With marke🐭ting as their focus, an agency ca🧔n provide you with an array of talent, including experts in strategy, website copy, social media, YouTube, email marketing, graphic design, and more.  

They also likely have a large𝓰 network of trustworthy talent outside their organization to pull in if needed.

Cons of hiring a marketing agency

Hiring anꦺ agency might appeal to you, but there are some cons to consider.

Con #1: Less experienced with your brand and voice

While ꦜthis model is a good fit for some companies, it’s our experience that many end up unhappy with the results because the work they get back “doesn’t sound like us” and lacks authenticity.

Yes, there are industry-specialized agencies available, but truth is they are unlikel🔴y to capture your true particulars or voice, and you might end up with content that sounds the same as everyone else in your industry.

This results in potentially slower production, labor-intensive editing, and constant b🍎ack-and-fo𒊎rth with your account manager.

Con #2: Lower flexibility

When you rely on an agency or any third party for that matter, you will be limited to the conditions of your contract. This means you're held to a certa🤡in number of deliverables and time spent o🍸n your company's needs.

Th⛦is makes it harder to pivot your strategy or🔜 make changes quickly if need be.

Con #3: You will always be depending on an outside source.

When 🍸you hire an agency to do the work for you, you will always depend on them for the work. This is perhaps the greatest drawback of leveraging an agency. 

Instead of building the expertise and proficiencies of your internal team, you’re investing in the growth and development of people outside your organiz𒆙ation.

Even if you find someone you like, if the platform, agency, or talent is no longer available, you’re left high and dry. Once you stop writing checks, the campaigns shut down and you lose access to agency𒅌 expertise.

Are there other options?

Hiring an in-house marketing team or an outside agency aren’t the only options for implementing 🅷a marketing strategy for your business.

You can also consider an independent contractor or freelancer. 

Hiring a freelancer

Independent contractors and freelaꦐncers can have a wealth of knowledge. 💫Many of them have left successful careers to start their own one-person operation and have a lot of talent.

It's common to hire them in a consultative nature whe♛n you need to complete one-off marketing activities and deliverables. 

Independent contractors are not treated as employees; therefore, they are not subject to payroll taxes or state and federal employment laws, which is a benefit over hiring an internal team, but many of the cons are similar to hiring an agency.

They can neve🍷r understand your brand like an in-house marketing team does and they are limited in their abil🌼ity to provide a full array of service offerings.

For example, they may have great ideas and a vision for how to help you reach your marketing objectives, but lack the techn♏ical expertise to execute it. This may cause you to need multiple independent contractors (strategists, content creators, designers, developers) to really get the job done.

In terms 🅷of cost, working with a freelancer or contraꦓctor can vary.

Someone who has a hiﷺgh level of expertise starts at around $200 per hour. If they’re providing you with 15 hours of service a week, that’s around $12,000 per month, which is more than what a typical agency would cost you. 

So which is the right choice for you?

The good news is there are a few questions you can ask yourself🎃 to help narrow down your thoughts on which marketing option is f🐼or your organization:

• Do you agree that marketing is vital to the future prosperity of your business? Does your executive team feel the same?
• How are your current marketing efforts going? Is growth stagnant or steady?
• What practices have been successful in the past?
• Do you already have someone on your team who could own marketing?
• Do you see your marketing efforts as a short-term or a long-term play?
• Do you favor speed and adaptability or a set-it-and-forget-it model that might cost more?

These questions can help you have the right discussions and determine what factors are more important in your decision between in-house marketing and an agency or third ꧒party.

Perhaps you just need a content marketing solution for a short period of time, or maybe you're a small organization that doesn't have th🐲e budget for a full-time hire yet.

That's fine — an agency will get you where you need ꧋to go to. 

Use the information we shared above to help you determine the best solution for your organization. However, should you realize insourcing your content is the way to go, 168极速赛车平台:we're happy to help you get started.