In-House or Outsource Marketing? Here are 5 Key Factors to Consider
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Are you unsure or confused whether to go for In-house or outsourced marketing team? Don’t worry, I’ll make the decision easier for you.
According to a 2017 report by eMarketer, 52% of respondents use a mix of outsourced and in-house marketing resources, 43% outsource their strategies and only 5% use in-house resources.
Before I get into pros and cons of both, let me define In-house and outsourced marketing.
In-house marketing is comprised of employees who work exclusively for your company. In this set-up, you bear the responsibility of hiring and building your own team. Generally, the team would include a marketing manager, social media manager, and SEO expert.
If the need arises, you’ll also have to upsize your team.
On the contrary, outsourced marketing or a marketing agency includes a group of experts with specialized knowledge and skills covering all areas such as digital, content, social media, PR and design. A company can hire the services of a marketing agency on a retainer basis.
The agency provides services for multiple clients at a given time.
There are some important considerations which you should consider before coming to a final decision.
So, let’s, dive into it.
1. Time
You have the luxury of brainstorming ideas and arranging meetings at short notice with your internal marketing team. Moreover, calling for an urgent meeting is much easier.
However, the downside is finding the right candidates for the role. The hiring and training process is time-taking. Moreover, the consequences of a bad hire can be detrimental to your organization as according to CareerBuilder’s survey, the average cost of one bad hire is almost US $15,000.
The negative aspect of an agency is that they might not work with full dedication as they’re working on multiple projects throughout the day.
2. Out-of-the-box thinking/ New and Creative Ideas
An in-house team is more likely to suffer from tunnel-vision after working with the organization for a period of time.
But with an out-sourced team, they can bring in new and creative ideas offering unique perspectives to clients.
In addition, a marketing agency has specialized experts and as they work with many different clients, bringing in more exposure and expertise to the table.
3. Cost
The cost shouldn’t be calculated only in terms of price but intangible costs like time and effort should also be weighed on when choosing between an in-house team or agency.
Additionally, companies need to consider costs such as recruitment, training, benefits, and compensation. With an in-house team, you either hire more members, each with a specialized skill or a team of generalists with a breadth of skills.
Either way, your cost would be higher than going for a marketing agency.
4. Access to the latest technology
Digital marketing is an ever-changing field. Google comes up algorithm updates time and again so you’ve to stay updated. This is difficult for an in-house team to adapt to the changes compared to their agency peers.
That’s because a significant amount of time and resources will be required for upskilling the team.
However, agencies are fully aware of the latest marketing techniques and software.
5. Understanding of company
The biggest positive of having an in-house team is familiarity with the company’s products or services, culture, vision, and mission.
The in-depth understanding of the organization, its competitors and the internal processes gives in-house marketing team an edge over the outsource team.
Marketing agencies may have better technical skills in implementing marketing campaigns, but they lack the sufficient contextual knowledge of the particular business your organization is involved in compared to an in-house team.
There you’ve it. We’ve discussed the benefits and shortcomings of both in-house and outsourcing team.
But is there a third option?
Yes, a hybrid strategy which involves the mixture of in-house marketers and marketing agency is the third alternative. This combination can be used to maximize performance and flexibility.
In this hybrid approach, the in-house marketing manager provides the strategy while content and execution are outsourced to the agency.
This type of strategy is a cost-effective option especially for startups and SMEs with limited resources.
The main advantage of co-sourcing is that your company retains control over the marketing assets. Moreover, you have a greater capacity to be flexible in order to adapt to the business’s evolving marketing needs.
However, it will be a challenge for the marketing manager to manage two separate teams.
Now, let’s ask you: which one would it be?
In-house, outsource or co-source?
There are pros and cons for each option. Whichever option suits your organization better, go for it.
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