Almost every business, large or small, has had to ask the following question:

“Should we hire an in-house marketer or should we work with a marketing agency?”

If this is a question you’re asking yourself too, worry not! In this article we’ll be discussing the benefits of each option, as well as the disadvantages, to help you make a more informed decision since not every business is the same.

Here are some factors to consider when making your decision:

• Skill Set
• Creativity
• Company Culture and Values
• Adaptability
• Cost

Skill Set

Different companies have different marketing strategies and based on these needs, there could be a high demand for a long list of skills. Let’s say a company needs to find a website developer, a social media marketing specialist, an email marketing specialist, and an SEO specialist. These are just a few of the positions they might need but even with just these four roles, building an in-house team that is able to fulfill everything listed is no easy task. However, this is a huge strength of a marketing agency since they’re already equipped with a professional team who specializes in all these branches of digital marketing. The one downside of hiring an agency is that they would need to be brought up to speed with your business and it may take some time to find an agency that works best for your needs.

• If you’re looking to have an overall marketing strategy developed, an agency may make more sense. 
• If you’re able to afford hiring several employees with different skills or just need to hire a couple for managing one aspect of your business, in-house would be your best bet.

Creativity

Having in-house employees  may actually limit their creativity since they’re really only working and focused on projects for your company. The benefit is that they will have a deeper understanding of your business and the competitors you may have. Agencies work with so many different businesses that they likely won’t have this level of understanding when it comes to who you’re competing against. Agencies do work with several clients which exposes them to a variety of industries and could potentially help them implement some of what they’ve seen into your marketing strategy.

• If your in-house team is having difficulty coming up with new ideas or if your desired campaign requires skills beyond your current team, then an agency might be something you want to consider.

Company Culture and Values

Most businesses prefer to work with marketers who share the same vision as the rest of their company and it’s easier to do this by hiring an in-house employee since they are more closely invested in the company’s success. A marketing agency will be working with several companies and for them to know the exact company culture for each business would be extremely difficult.

• If you prioritize company culture, hiring employees to work in-house would be better.
• If you’re more concerned with just getting the work done, then hiring an agency would still be a viable option.

Adaptability

A team of hired employees can be easily reached since they work in-house and high-profile tasks can quickly be pushed to the top of their to-do list. Though in-house teams could be weighed down if there are too many high-profile tasks to finish at the same time, their timelines can be flexible. Agencies may be slower depending on their workload and how many clients they need to tend to but communication with them is usually quick and fluid.

• If you’re looking to have constant hourly communication with your marketing team then keeping a team in-house would be the direction you want to go.
• If you’re primarily focused on the work being done without having to manage every detail, it may be best to work with an agency.

Cost

Depending on the marketing needs, costs of each campaign may vary. If you’re planning on having a team in-house, keep in mind the annual salary of each team member assuming you need to hire several people to cover the set of skills you require. Hiring an in-house team also involves office space, benefits, employment taxes, hardware, software, and the time it takes to train them. With an agency, the cost is negotiable and the agency handles the cost for the software, hardware, and training which cuts costs for the hiring business.

• In the long run, an agency could be the cheaper option depending on what goals you want to achieve.

Summary

So which option is the one for you? It’s definitely an option to have a mixture of both but it’ll be helpful for you to evaluate what factors you would want to prioritize.