Your business is growing, but you and your marketing team are breaking at the seams. You need to continue generating leads and close more sales to grow, but you don’t have the capacity.
You’ve thought about hiring a marketer, but it’s not easy. There are some serious challenges you have to face. For one, the hiring process and training are very expensive. And what about the time commitment in this process of hiring and training? A new person won’t be able to work at full capacity for months. And what if it doesn’t work? You went through all that trouble and lost $1,000s on someone who isn’t the right fit. Now you’re in a difficult situation needing to fire someone and start the process all over again.
And let’s not forget about the fact that one person can only know so much. What if they don't have enough experience for everything you need? If you’re marketer needs to wear a few hats, they might be great at social media but not have enough experience to run PPC campaigns, SEO, etc.
To save yourself from a hiring headache, you should consider going with an agency. And here is why:
Cost
Very often the cost of hiring an agency is lower than hiring in-house. Especially in the first years, the savings can be substantial because you get quality deliverables from day one. Thing about it, an agency has done the same work you’ve hired them for for someone else many times.
Time
The same goes with time. The process of hiring an agency vs the process of hiring in-house is much shorter. Having so much experience an agency can start to work for you right away so you save you money and time.
Failure
What’s great about hiring an agency is that you sign annual contracts or some other agreements with them. That allows you and your business to move on without having to go through the trouble of firing them. It also means that agencies constantly need to prove their value.
When an employee isn’t working out, chances are you need to document where the breakdown is over a period of time, consult with your human resources department and legal counsel, and still cross your fingers that the firing doesn’t result in a lawsuit
Experience
Even small agencies have experts in many areas of digital marketing. So you won't be just saving time and money, but with a team of experts, you’ll get better results.
Of course, there are still some good reasons to go through the process of hiring in-house. If you need complete control over your team, an agency isn’t the right fit. Agencies have their own processes, and if you have one that works for you, chances are an agency won’t be able to work within that framework.
There is also a case where you hire from within. That way you already know who you’re dealing with and how experienced that person is for the job. These are just a couple of the good reasons to hire in house despite the headache, so it’s important to evaluate what makes sense for you.
Still, keep in mind that there are serious challenges when hiring in-house and there there are alternatives. So when the difficulties outweigh the benefits, an agency could be the right fit for you.