Marketing agency or in-house team?

13 February

In the fast-paced world of digital communication, making the right decision between investing in an in-house marketing team or partnering with a specialized agency can be the game to win. But how do you know which option is best for your business? Don’t worry! You are about to find out.

In this article we will give you our point of view on the main aspects to consider when undertaking the challenge of creating an internal marketing team, or hiring an agency.

At the end of the article we will give you our final conclusion on the best way to mitigate risks and take advantage of the potential of adding a strategic partner such as a Growth Marketing Agency.

Why is this decision so important?

Choosing between an in-house team or a marketing agency is not just a question of cost. It’s about aligning your digital marketing needs with your long-term business objectives.

The point is, you have to do the right thing for the stage your company is currently in. The decision will be one if you are building your business and have 2 employees, and another if you are an established company looking to exponentially scale customer acquisition in the digital world.

Similarly, the decision will be one if your company has a high profile of digitization and innovation, and another if you feel you are just starting on the road to digital transformation.

Let’s look at the most critical aspects below.

The price of hiring an agency vs. having an in-house team

Most companies find it cheaper to hire an in-house team. But be very careful with this, as this comparison is often made in the wrong way.

The first thing to consider is whether you have the ability to understand the skills required in your area of Marketing. Who should you hire on your team to achieve the results you need?

Pay close attention to who within your company will define what talent, tools and capabilities will add up as a company. Do you think that by hiring a “graphic designer”, a copywriter, and someone who knows how to advertise on Google and Facebook, you will have formed a Marketing area? You would be very lucky if you can consolidate in those three people the skills needed to grow your business today.

In fact, if you hire those three people, and depending on the country where you are, considering taxes and social charges, that cost will be at least 5 to 10 thousand dollars per month, and to that you must add the risks of rotation, loss of talent, training costs and benefits.

Later we will see the basic skills that a digital marketing team must have today, the price of this in the market and compare it against the costs of an agency.

Opportunity cost of hiring an agency vs. having an in-house team

Staff costs are one thing; the cost you pay for not achieving your goals is quite another.

In general, companies measure the cost of their marketing investments as a percentage of their turnover or cash flow. This can be a very simple way for the finance team to control the distribution of the company’s costs, but it can also be a trap.

The problem is, if you have a marketing team that somehow fails to take advantage of all the growth opportunities for your business, you will be in a vicious cycle that will keep you within a reality of self-perceived limitation as to your company’s possibilities. As your team does not achieve good results, you do not invoice enough, and as you do not invoice, you cannot invest in the necessary skills. This may even make shareholders think the business is not viable, as your marketing team fails to generate market interest in the company’s offering.

Timing: Hire a marketing agency or build an in-house team?

Another key factor in making this decision is time. Nowadays, many businesses need to achieve objectives in a very short period of time or receive funding that must be made profitable as soon as possible. The risks of not having the necessary skills in time are very high.

Building a marketing team from scratch can be a complex, time-consuming and time-consuming task that will jeopardize the achievement of objectives. Can you make it? Of course, the question is: when? at what cost?

By hiring an agency, you avoid this problem since the main business of a Growth Marketing Agency should be just to have high performance teams ready with all the necessary skills for your marketing area.

You can even oversize the agency’s contracted capabilities a bit and ensure that a critical area of your business has what you will need to meet your objectives. This decision often has an impact on the viability or continuity of a project, since we have to show results to shareholders, and therefore we cannot skimp on efforts and resources.

Alignment of interests and objectives: hire an agency or in-house team?

Hiring an in-house marketing team decreases the risk of experiencing a conflict of interest among the team, as they share a common goal and interest in effectively building the company. This is not to say that agencies have different objectives. We simply say that to harness the power of adding an agency, make sure their objectives are aligned with those of your company. Generate aligned incentives for both parties.

This can be achieved in several ways, and one of the fundamental ones is the pricing model you choose, which should always encourage the agency to go further.

Avoid buying services in the form of “deliverables”: number of designs, number of campaigns, number of videos. Buy flexible services that adapt to each stage of your business, since every week, every month, every year you will have different needs.

Make sure your agency has a results-oriented culture. You can even perceive this from the agency’s website.

Ask the agency you are considering how they are going to get the people involved in the project to maximize efforts in the right direction for your business.

Controlling the marketing strategy: hire an agency or create an in-house team?

in-house?

One of the most direct advantages of keeping your team 100% in-house is the degree of control you will gain in your Growth Marketing activities. In that sense, an agency can be seen as an outsider, outside the culture, and with a lesser degree of involvement than your company’s internal employees.

This can have consequences first from the human side, since we know that teams work better when they know each other and generate links, but it can also lead to an increase in the error rate that an agency can make in its work if it does not have enough information.

At Boomit we believe that this is one of the aspects that we must take care of the most, and perhaps one of those that we achieve the most as a differentiating element in the operation of our services.

The teams that work with our clients have a very high degree of dedication, and an ideal degree of involvement to maintain efficiency in the management of information, but also to develop links and deep knowledge of our clients’ business.

In fact, many times we are a partner that, because of the knowledge we have in your industry, is not only reactive, but proactive in the development of your offer, product improvements, and best practices that go beyond even the task of Marketing.

Capacities and skills in the decision to hire an agency or create an in-house team.

In an in-house team, skills and experience depend on the number of people you are willing to hire. When hiring internal teams, you will need to prioritize the skills and experience you want in it. The size of your first marketing team will likely be smaller than that of an agency, so you’ll have to compromise on some of the skills you expect to hire. These skills and experience are really important when it comes to boosting a business.

But most challenging of all, the skills required are mutating. The people you need at one stage of the company are not the same as those you need at the next.

For example, there are phases of the marketing strategy that require much more knowledge in Data Science and Tracking, others that require mostly creative skills and audiovisual production, and some stages where you may want to scale your advertising reach with innovative technologies.

How will you always have an in-house team migrating these capabilities?

Regarding this difficulty, I recommend hiring an agency that offers a flexible service. that adapts to the needs of your company at all times. You may need a software development resource to develop a new Landing Page, or a Data Analytics resource to solve a tracking issue of your advertising investments… Imagine having to hire someone every time you have a problem! And we have problems every week, and very different ones!

The marketing agency gives you agility, ensures fast and cost-efficient problem solving.

Training and certifications in the challenge of having a marketing team

Let’s not forget another fundamental factor. Digital Marketing is one of the fastest changing business areas and where more investment in training and innovation is required.

As an internal team you should ensure continuous training and certification processes, which represents a significant cost and risk to your operation.

An agency solves that in a much more efficient way, and therefore you will not feel it in its price and you will avoid running those risks of outdated staff.

Conclusions and recommendations when choosing which path to take: agency or in-house team.

At Boomit we have years of experience working with companies of the most varied profiles. And after more than 8 years of testing different work methodologies, we are clear about the path that maximizes the efficiency of the system and the possibilities of achieving excellent results.

What we recommend is the following:

• As part of your internal team and most trusted point, make sure you have preferably 1 or 2 people who have a clear vision of the product or service you sell, understand digital marketing and can make a good management of a Growth Marketing service provider agency. These individuals will be the point of contact with the agency and will ensure that the objectives are met.
• Engage the services of a flexible agency that functions as an extension arm of your company’s capabilities, ensuring that it includes these capabilities in a dynamic way:

• • Data Science, tracking and attribution.
  • Results-oriented digital communication.
  • Performance-oriented digital advertising.
  • Audiovisual design and animation.
  • Real-time analytical systems.

Such a team possesses the basic skills to be competitive today. I assure you that none of these skills is dispensable, but on the contrary, they are the minimum you should have in a digital marketing area to scale a business profitably. The agency will give you a level of technicality and agility that is irreplaceable with an in-house team.

From Boomit we have managed to merge two worlds that seemed to have no point of contact:

• The world of creativity, communication and marketing.
• And the world of algorithms, mathematics, statistics and artificial intelligence.

This is the perfect combo to stand out in a world saturated with digital business, in a world where we must be able to measure everything, control everything and generate efficiencies in every part of the process.

We invite you to learn more about Boomit if this article piqued your curiosity.