A report by the American Marketing Association shows that marketing outsourcing increased by 5.5 percent in 2019. Here’s why that is Important…
Given the potential benefits of marketing agencies, more businesses are opting to outsource their marketing needs, which explains the steady growth.
One of the constant debates on matters marketing is hiring a marketing agency vs. an in-house team. There are several factors to consider when making this decision. However, the financial benefits of a marketing agency take the trophy.
Your eCommerce business requires a well-thought-out and effective marketing plan. When you hire a marketing agency, you don’t have to fret over the marketing strategy.
Here are the financial benefits of hiring a marketing agency over an in-house team to guide you:
Hiring a Marketing Agency Is Cost-Effective
Did you know that the average annual salary of the head of marketing is $118,719 in the United States?
Other than the head of marketing, you’ll need other top talents to make your marketing department functional. Here are some of the in-house hires needed and their national midpoint salaries as per the American Marketing Association survey;
- Digital marketing coordinator- $54,500
- Content strategist-$73,000
- Digital marketing manager-$79,500
- Marketing analytics manager- $93,250
- Marketing analytics specialist-$68,000
- Market researcher-$60,750
- Marketing director-$108,000
- Email marketing specialist-$53,750
- Social media manager-$57,750
- SEO/SEM specialist-$62,500
- Event or trade show coordinator-$41,500
Having a marketing team in your company might seem like a good idea until you realize the cost-implications involved! You need to have a budget for hiring and training people. What’s more, you have to create systems and acquire facilities to have a running marketing department.
When you hire a marketing agency, you’ll only pay a fixed amount. You will save the money that you’d otherwise spend on salaries and other benefits. With a marketing agency, you don’t have to think about research and development or what you might need to stay on top of the market trends.
A marketing agency takes up all the roles in the marketing department. They have top talents, which you won’t need to pay, as hiring a marketing agency is all-inclusive. If you want to save costs, an in-house team might not be an ideal option.
You’ll Get More Time to Focus on Profitable Business Activities
Entrepreneurs tend to take the jack-of-all-trades approach when running their businesses. It’s not surprising to find an entrepreneur heading the marketing department, accounts, and human resources. At first, it might seem tenable, but it will be daunting as your business scales.
A successful marketing strategy is all about engaging. You need to delve into advertising, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. If you’re carrying out all these tasks, will you have time for other business activities?
Not unless you’re a savvy marketer, creating and completing a marketing strategy will take time. You’ll need several hours to maneuver around the necessary marketing elements. This process will be at the expense of your business.
You won’t manage to keep up! Some aspects of your business, such as product development, might suffer, leading to immense losses. Hiring a marketing agency is the ideal option.
A professional marketing agency has a team that will relieve you of any marketing-related tasks. You can redirect your focus and resources to other equally essential business operations. You’ll increase your profits without compromising your marketing vision.
Gain from the Marketing Expertise
As it stands, American employers have several unfilled jobs hovering around 6.9 million. One of the attributing factors is skill gaps. You’d be surprised to realize that the people in a given marketing department don’t have the skills needed in marketing.
Working with in-house marketing teams means risking having inadequately skilled marketers. They won’t impact your revenue in any way. If anything, you risk losses as a seemingly insignificant mistake can jeopardize an entire marketing campaign.
Well, you might choose to have in-house training for digital marketers. Be ready to break a bank! Given the changing landscape of digital marketing, one-off training might not get you the results you desire.
You can save yourself the frustration by hiring a marketing agency. When looking for a marketing agency, you have an opportunity to choose the most experienced company. You can vet the agency’s team to establish that you’ll get the skills you’re looking for.
Typically, agencies have all the digital marketing skills on board. A marketing agency is specific to the skills when hiring. With the right team, you’ll get the return on investment in no time.
Access the Latest Technology
The evolution of digital marketing is bringing with it a host of technologies. An in-house marketing department can hardly keep up with the technology that keeps on advancing. In some cases, an in-house team will have a range of incompatible marketing technologies.
A marketing agency often has an IT department that is knowledgeable about the ideal technologies. They know what to use and when for maximum benefits. They have access to several tools that include;
- Search engine marketing tools such as SEMRush, Wordstream, and Raven
- Keyword research tools such as Keyword Planner and SEMRush
- Social media marketing tools, such as Buffer, OptinMonster, and Tailwind
- Reporting tools like Supermetrics and Cyfe
- Email marketing, which can include ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp
Agencies find it cost-effective to subscribe to these robust tools as they can use them with different clients. Your company might find such subscriptions financially draining. As such, outsourcing your digital marketing will allow you to benefit from the tools without a subscription cost.
While some of these tools are free or cheap, the results produced will be minimal. Agencies invest in premium level software, analytical data reports, and services that can guarantee you unmatched results. Ultimately, you’ll have increased efficiency, performance, and productivity that will reflect on your finances.
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Get an Unbiased Outside Perspective
When you’re part of an entity, your view of the bigger picture is likely to be biased. An in-house marketer might conclude that their marketing strategy is top-notch, only to face disappointments when results fail totally. Besides, a marketing manager might feel intimidated trying to point out things within the company that are costing the business.
In-house marketers are quite close to the business. Consequently, one might not see the strategy or products from a customer’s view. How you understand the company will be limited to your perspective.
Hiring a marketing agency allows you to get professional perspectives. An agency that has previous experience can provide insights to help attract new clients. You’ll gain knowledge from the customer’s outlook, which is indispensable.
You can check out an agency’s portfolio to know the areas that you’re likely to benefit from. The more services a company provides, the more likely you’re to enjoy unbiased insights. A reputable marketing agency will offer consultation on areas that can affect your profitability.
If you want to have a grip on your business finances, getting an outside perspective on what would work and what wouldn’t be the first step. You’ll save yourself from investing in areas that will only cause you losses. With time, you’ll understand how to judge situations, especially when making investment decisions.
Better Scalability
Unlike an in-house marketing team, a marketing agency will scale as your business continues to grow. An agency will encourage an increase in paid advertising when the season is busy. You can also request changes in an ad campaign without destabilizing the rest of the activities.
Agencies have cross-functional experts that can still meet your objectives seamlessly. However, you might need to hire more workers for your in-house marketing department if you want to increase your business output.
With an in-house team, responding to needs as they come is quite challenging. It becomes harder if you want to scale downwards. Some of the marketing professionals will be left without jobs, and rehiring can be costly.
When you’re facing financial constraints, you can decide to sacrifice the marketing expense for a while. It is easier to suspend services when working with a marketing agency as opposed to an in-house team. You can revive the marketing later when things stabilize.
Given the unpredictability of businesses, you’d be better with an external marketing agency. The good thing about agencies is that they are flexible. You can scale up or down without worrying that you’ll incur losses.
Increased Staff Efficiency
A recent study showed that 23 percent of workers experience burnouts in their job. About a third of employees between 18 and 24 often change jobs due to a lack of job flexibility and burnout. If you have been thinking of adding some marketing roles to your current employees, the losses might outdo the gains.
Expecting your HR to deal with content writing might not accrue well with them. The resultant burnout might make some workers quit. Others will have decreased productivity as they will be working on areas that they are not skilled.
You’ll probably start using your resources to address dwindling productivity. In the case of turnovers, you have to spend on hiring other top talents. If you value your employees’ efficiency, consider outsourcing your company’s marketing needs.
By outsourcing, you’ll be sure that your marketing will be a priority in a marketing agency. Hiring a marketing agency will guarantee your critical projects the right momentum throughout the contract. You won’t worry about inefficiencies in other areas.
Besides, an employee who resigns due to burnout and job dissatisfaction leaves with a project’s resources, which is in the form of knowledge. If they decide to establish a competing business, they will likely have more leverage as they will know the course of actions you’re taking. With a marketing agency, resigning employees won’t have direct impacts on you.
Modernize Your Marketing Strategy
Have you embraced the modern way of marketing? Given the rise of internet searches, it would be absurd to imagine that you can compete favorably without taking advantage of the digital spaces.
You need to know how to use inbound marketing to experience unmatched growth. If you’re unsure of how to go about it, seek the services of a marketing agency. The modern consumer has unlimited access to the internet, and marketing agencies know how to appeal to these consumers.
The first step in having a modern strategy is ensuring that you have a well-designed website. These sites should have appropriate messages to convert their website visitors into leads. A marketing agency can work with you from the point of website development, all the way to running campaigns.
Website development and design have many facets. From paid advertising to content development, a modern digital marketing strategy is all-inclusive. The technologies keep evolving, and partnering with a marketing agency saves you from investing in obsolete technologies.
Hiring a Marketing Agency Vs. an In-House Team
With an in-house team, some of the main advantages are ease of accessibility, brand familiarity, and control. However, the shortcomings of the in-house approach to marketing nullify the benefits. Hiring a marketing agency has a variety of benefits that can’t compare with in-house hiring.
You might want to invest in thorough research to get the best marketing agency. The last thing you want is partnering with a greener company than you when it comes to digital marketing. Once you identify potential agencies, vet each individually to get the best.
While at it, work on learning some of the marketing basics. Research on what’s trending to know what to expect from the marketing agency. When you’re informed, making the right marketing decisions will be almost a guarantee.
Hiring a Marketing Agency Is the Best Thing You Can Do for Your Company
Businesses tend to assume that outsourcing marketing activities are expensive. Well, you’ll have to spend for you to benefit from marketing. Yet, you can’t compare the financial benefits of hiring a marketing agency with the cost you’ll incur in the process.
A marketing agency has the skills, experience, and knowledge necessary to save you money in the long run. From increased productivity to benefits from the latest technology, you stand to enjoy unmatched financial benefits when working with a marketing company.
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