Most businesses will try to manage their marketing in-house at the beginning, mainly to save themselves some money but this can actually end up costing a lot in terms of time and resources instead.
As well as factoring time and money into your decision, it is also important to understand the complexities of inbound marketing. This may sway you on whether you have the capacity to develop these skills in-house, or need to rely on external marketing professionals.
Pros & Cons of In-House Marketing
The main advantage of carrying out your marketing in-house is the level of control you will have over every design, post, and tone of voice. So if you decide last minute that the direction of the marketing campaign needs to change, you can implement those changes quickly due to the short communication chain.
The other benefit of running your marketing in-house is that you have access to every piece of your marketing. For example, you will know exactly the best tools to use, and you will own all of the designs.
Moving onto the disadvantages of running your marketing campaigns in-house. The main issue that businesses come across is that a marketing campaign can only be as effective as the person’s knowledge and experience who is running it. In order to train someone up in marketing, you may find yourself neglecting other key areas of the business.
Results often tend to be slower when running your own marketing campaigns too. Marketing agencies are not only more knowledgeable, they also have a bigger team on hand to spend optimising your campaigns.
Pros & Cons of Using a Marketing Agency
Let’s start with the disadvantages of using a marketing agency: they are costly (but worth it when the ROI generated is positive), they aren’t as agile (the communication chain is longer), and you don’t have as much control over the marketing process. That being said, delegating your marketing activities to an agency means that you have a specialist team of experts working for your business. No wasted hours spent hiring & training an internal marketer, just for them to leave at an inconvenient time.
Digital marketing agencies like DBS bring a wealth of marketing experience to the table and have the skills required to help your business scale up. With an external pair of eyes looking at your campaigns, a marketing agency will be able to identify any gaps in your strategy and create fresh ideas to help your business stand out.
A strong marketing team has a huge range of skills from SEO to Pay Per Click, social media marketing and content creation. Training one person up in-house will never give you this broad range of expertise that a marketing agency can provide.
Questions To Ask A Marketing Agency
There are lots of digital marketing agencies out there who will be able to help so it is important that you find the right one for your business. Here are a few questions you should ask to see if the agency is a good fit:
- What processes do you use?
- What marketing strategies have you found best for your business?
- How do you measure the success of your marketing campaigns?
- When can I expect to start seeing results?
Of course, getting a rough idea of prices is always important too. Lots of marketing agencies will say they can do absolutely everything (and they probably can!) but at an extortionate cost.
Tips For Hiring A Marketing Agency
There is also some background research you can carry out to find out which marketing agency is the best for your business.
- Ask other customers (both past and present) about their experience working with the agency.
- Look at reviews and testimonials that the agency has received, as this will give you an insight into what they are like to work with.
- Review the company’s website – are they carrying out their own marketing well?
- Ask for a trial run. Sometimes business relationships just don’t work, so ask if you can sign a short-term contract to begin with before signing your life away.
Set Clear Expectations & Goals
Once you have found the right digital marketing agency to work with, make sure they are clear of your expectations. You should create SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) so that once your campaigns have been running for a month or so, you can see if they are generating results.
If you would like to know more about how a digital marketing agency can help your business, get in touch with the experts at DBS Digital today.
