Are you weighing the pros and cons of hiring an agency and are still unable to make a choice? Here are five good reasons to hire an agency to help you make the right call.
1. Pay Less
Believe it or not, in many cases it less to hire a marketing agency than to do all the work in-house. There are exceptions: if you’re marketing team has knowledge of inbound marketing tactics and enough capacity to undertake a digital strategy without hiring more staff, you won’t incur the training and staffing costs that make online marketing more expensive in-house.
Of course, the costs of an employee are far more than his or her salary:
- Taxes
- Retirement benefits
- Medical and dental
- Other company benefits
- Training and administrative costs
- Equipment and software licenses
For the cost of an entry level employee or less, a full service agency opens up a lot of talent with a wide variety of skills and experience.
2. Get Experts With a Wide Skillset
Internet marketing continues to change rapidly. This means that the tools and methods that get the best results are also evolving just the same. According to Hubspot’s The State of Inbound 2016 report, there have been a number of major changes in inbound marketing over the last year. For example, in 2014 and 2015 the number one marketing priority for the majority of surveyed companies was to increase the number of contacts/leads. The top priority for marketers in 2016 is to convert contacts/leads into customers, which requires a different set of skills.
If you choose to do all the marketing in-house, you need to invest in your team’s development and keep them abreast of innovations in the field. When you retain a marketing agency, you get the benefit of a team of people who specialize in certain areas of online marketing. They are able to keep up with the latest developments and implement them on your campaigns. You’re not only outsourcing the marketing work itself but also the time and investment associated with the significant professional development needs of this specialty.
3. Save Time
Time is of the essence. The inbound marketing approach takes time to show results, so it’s important to start as soon as possible to catch up with the competition and ultimately get ahead. Before you delegate a new project to your in-house team, think about their current projects and obligations. Is there room for more on top of their current workload?
Too much workload will cause everyone to suffer, from your employees to projects and overall results. Also, an hour of agency’s time is an hour of effective work - you don’t need to handle agency employees’ vacation time or sick leave, but you do if it’s your own employees.
Another time-related issue is the learning curve for every new technology you implement. Even if you invest in a great CRM platform or other tools, you won’t be able to use it to its full potential until your employees learn how to use it. We’re not talking just basics but advanced features as well, and that’s something that takes time and hands-on experience. Sometimes it’s more efficient to retain an agency that already has significant experience with the desired technologies.
4. Risk Less
We outsource work in our everyday life without blinking an eye, but when it comes to business, we’re often reluctant to do it. Sure, you could try to fix a leaky faucet by yourself, but most people will call a plumber for more complicated issues. For the majority of people, it’s not a matter of money, but risk. Meddling with something you don’t know much about can make things worse and leave you with a flooded home, so why risk it?
The same goes for marketing. When you’re learning, things go wrong. This isn’t to say that an agency can’t make mistakes or that they aren’t testing out a unique set of tactics that comprise your inbound marketing strategy, but the responsibility for fixing it when things go wrong is on the agency’s shoulders not yours.
More importantly, consider the challenges of a bad hire. You’ve spent a substantial amount of money to find the employee in the first place, you’ve trained the person, and then determined that it wasn’t going to work. Depending upon your policies and other considerations, it takes time to show the bad fit the door. All in, you’ve investment a huge amount of time and money. Retaining an agency is often a year long contract and you’re getting effective work from the start without a training period. This is a far less expensive time commitment and financial investment than a hire gone wrong.
5. Get a Different Perspective
It might be that you’ve already tried to carry out a marketing strategy on your own, but the results aren’t what you expected. One of the most powerful ways to solve a problem you’re stuck on is to have someone else look at it. A change of perspective can help you identify the weak spots in your strategy and improve your approach.
Many companies fall into the trap of subjectiveness with their own marketing failing to tell their story in a way that would attract potential customers. Hiring an agency not only gives you a team of experts at your disposal, but also a chance to get an objective opinion and a valid critique of your current efforts.
Take the Quiz
If you’re considering an agency, take our short, four question quiz to see if you’re ready to take the plunge.
