Digital marketing is one of the vital elements of any brand’s success – you may have an incredible product or service, but if no one knows about it, it will not do you any good. The product needs to be carefully marketed, and your brand skillfully promoted across digital channels to raise awareness about what you do. So, the choice of a team which will take care of your marketing strategy in the right way is a serious one. The thing that can help you make the decision about whether to hire an agency or to employ an in-house team is to think about your business’ priorities and values. With that in mind, here are a few things to consider prior to making that decision.
Corporate culture
As a business owner, you have built your brand out of an idea and your employees have come to learn what being a part of your company entails. Respecting the corporate culture established around your brand and business is essential for any department to function properly, especially one as creative as digital marketing. That culture is what gives your employees the feeling of unity, and it is what motivates them to give their best. If this is your main concern, then an in-house team would be more suitable, since they will accept and share your company values, which is something not to be expected from an outsourced team.
Preferred expertise
Your marketing team might need a plethora of skills, depending on your strategies. You might need someone specialized in, for example, pay-per-click advertising or email marketing. It is always better to have people who excel in a particular niche than to have employees who can cover more basis, but none of them fully. Such employees would always need help and supervision from either you or their more experienced colleagues. When it comes to your business needs, they might exceed the talent pool you are choosing from, so in that case, outsourcing might be the best solution since you can then have a greater source of talent to choose from.
Defined expectations
Deadlines, targets, formats are just some of the things that need to be straightforward. With the in-house team, usually a lot of things are orally agreed upon, so sometimes details get forgotten or misinterpreted. If you want to gather an in-house team, make sure you write everything project-related down. On the other hand, one of the benefits of outsourcing is that you can fairly simply set expectations from the beginning of the cooperation. In that case, it is wise to use customizable vendor contracts templates so as to present all the expectations in written form and secure transparency. So, contrary to popular belief, communication with an external team doesn’t have to be complicated.
Optimized expenditure
As already mentioned, having an in-house team with a combination of all skills that your marketing strategy might need is not easily achievable. Hiring an external agency, provided that you outsource your projects to a good agency, will resolve the problem of diversity of skills. Such agencies take great care of their customers’ needs, so they will not only listen to your demands, but they will make suggestions about improvements. Being a versatile team, they have more experience in different aspects of marketing, so it would be prudent to listen to their advice. From that perspective, comparing expenses on these two types of teams goes in favor of the outsourcing agency.
The choice between an outsourced team and an in-house one depends, to a large extent, on what you consider to be the priorities of your business. For example, if you value your company culture most, you would not want an external team since they will not relate to your business values as fervently as an internal team could. But if you wish your marketing strategy to aim for as many channels as possible, you would need a larger pool of experts containing different skill sets. Regardless of what type of team you choose, make sure it fits all your business and marketing needs.
Guest article written by: Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is currently working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies. He is also a coauthor on several technology websites and regular contributor to Technivorz.