It’s a dilemma that many businesses and organizations find themselves trying to answer quite often.
Let’s get the easiest comparison out of the way… cost! Hiring an outside marketing agency is definitely going to be more cost effective for you. Why? An in-house employee not only brings with him or her a salary, but then you’ve got to consider benefits and vacation days (and any other benefits they may be entitled to). You pay a marketing agency for their time spent on your project. With an employee, you pay for their time spent in your building, which is not necessarily the same amount of time spent on your marketing endeavors.
Another fun one… expertise! An outside marketing agency has a collection of people that each have their own knowledge niches and your organization gets to capitalize on that. That collective comes together to give you the best product that’s hitting all the right channels at the end of the day. To get that same collaborative vibe with in-house personnel, you’d have to hire multiple persons with knowledge specific for each niche or hire someone that has adequate knowledge of each that will be able to just get you through. Do you really want to spend your money on someone that is going to just get you through? I’m guessing the answer is no.
Now, the most important… creative direction! Yes, your employees have the most knowledge of your products or services, but that doesn’t mean that they are the best fit for your marketing plan. In order to develop an effective marketing plan, it’s important to understand how those on the outside see your business and the last people that will be able to do that are the people that work in your business. Why is it important to understand how people view your business? Because those are the people you are marketing to. Those are the people you are trying to reach. A marketing agency will give you that outside vision of your company that can help to better identify how to reach your target and meet your goals.