A constant debate for business owners is whether to outsource marketing or keep it in-house. Taking your company’s marketing in-house is a big commitment, but outsourcing requires trust and a strong partnership. When deciding which direction to go, it’s important to consider your team, budget, and capacity.
Why Outsource
Marketing agencies have the expertise – they know what they are doing, work fast, and usually have many connections. They also offer a wide variety of skills, which offer many unique perspectives to each problem. They will have a specialized team that can provide services a DIY team could never offer. Agencies aim to please, so if you are unhappy with what they produce for you the first time, they will work with you to fix it until it’s perfect. They are also always on top of the latest trends and technology. When you have an agency that you trust to create your marketing strategy and materials, it will provide your employees with more time to focus on the business.
Why Keep It In-House
Having your marketers in the office every day at only an arms reach away is convenient. Communication is vital to running a smooth business, so keeping marketing in-house will make communication relatively easy. It can be time-consuming to find the right agency for your brand, so hiring your own marketers can save you that hassle. In-house marketing can immerse your whole brand into the marketing process, it will be more personal and involved.
What to Consider
Both options have considerable advantages, it’s a decision of what is best for your company. Consult your team to see what they think, it’s expensive to hire a marketing team if you want experts. Do you have the capacity in your office space for a marketing department? If not, then outsourcing might be your best bet. Define your organization’s marketing goals with your team and weigh your strengths and weaknesses. This can help you decide which route would maximize your brand’s marketing potential.
If your business does decide to outsource, make sure to pick an agency whose values align with your own. Here at Burkhart Marketing, we value creativity, family, transparency, respect, and open-minded acceptance. We also try to work with companies who value the same to ensure we are on the same page when making business decisions. If your business and agency have differing values, cultures, or visions, you might run into issues down the road. Although it might take some time to find the right agency match for your business, it also takes time to build your DIY in-house team with the right expertise and qualifications you need.
The biggest downside to consider of hiring your marketing team is that creativity can begin to dwindle over time. Working on the same marketing content every day makes it harder to think of fresh ideas. An agency is working with a variety of clients and continuously stimulating itself with different ideas, industries, and marketing techniques. If you go the DIY route, make sure to let your creative team take risks and grow, so they don’t become stagnant.
Best of Both Worlds: Outsource and DIY
An alternate route would be to hire both an in-house marketing team and an agency. The agency would tackle projects that are not in your team’s wheelhouse, and the in-house team could handle day-to-day tasks. This is a great option if you cannot choose between one or the other and you have the funds to do it. This option would be expensive, but also very efficient.
Choosing whether to outsource from a marketing agency or DIY your own in-house team is all dependent on what would fit better with your company. Sometimes both options are best, or you might need to test the waters with each before deciding. Both routes have significant pros and cons. If you need help deciding which route is best for you, Burkhart Marketing would love to discuss your marketing future with you.
