Every business must decide which tasks should be handled by employees and which should be outsourced. When it comes to marketing, we’ve seen companies use every possible combination of employees and vendors over the years.
Several factors should influence this decision, but it often comes down to a management philosophy—some leaders prefer to keep everything in-house, while others are more comfortable working with one or more marketing partners. These scenarios are similar across various types of businesses, from non-profits and trade groups to retail and B2B. Ultimately, each organization should review how to best utilize their marketing budget to meet their goals.
Keep Marketing In-House
Control
– When working with one person or a team internally, you have complete control and can collaborate closely with them.
Relationships
– Marketing employees can build close relationships with your team, enabling them to better understand the details of your business operations and your customers.
Subject Matter Experts (SME)
– When you hire internally, you can work to find candidates with specific industry experience. This is especially helpful if you are in a unique niche market.
Outsource Marketing
Team of people for the price of one or two –
The primary benefit of outsourcing is gaining access to a wide range of specialized talent and experience that you couldn’t find in just one or even a few individuals. This makes sense for smaller organizations, but even larger companies outsource to fill gaps in their internal expertise.
Third-party objectivity
– You want marketing folks who understand your business but also need to think like your customers. You can find marketing partners with industry experience who are also separate enough from your business to provide a clear, objective approach to your marketing messages.
Fresh ideas
– Similarly, if creative people only focus on your business year after year, it becomes difficult for them to come up with new ideas and keep a clear view of competitors and emerging trends. An outside agency can more easily provide these essential elements of effective marketing.
Agility
– A major reason to outsource is that external relationships should be much more flexible than full-time employees. The engagement should be able to expand, contract, and change as your needs and priorities evolve.
The Marketing Sweet Spot
The right solution usually combines internal and external talent. We’ve seen companies with strong implementers in social media, web maintenance, PR, and video, but they often lack a strategic thinker to lead the marketing efforts. The owner might even say to us, “I really need a peer that I talk with about higher-level marketing issues.”
Conversely, some organizations hire a marketing director who can steer the ship, knowing they will always have one or several marketing partners to handle the actual work.
We’ve discussed key considerations when choosing a marketing partner—industry experience, flexibility, and strength from strategy to execution.
Another important factor is ensuring you match the agency’s size to your needs. You need creative horsepower, strategic insight, and broad expertise, but if the agency is too large and costly, the relationship may not be sustainable. On the other hand, small businesses often become frustrated trying to coordinate multiple freelancers when they really need a higher-level marketing strategy to guide their efforts.
