Should You Hire In-House or Work with a Marketing Agency?

Over the last 10 years of working in an agency setting, I’ve come across a common question from business owners at every stage of their business—whether to partner with a marketing agency like Armada Digital or expand their in-house marketing team. 

While I want to emphasize that it does not necessarily need to be an either/or decision, I understand that budget can dictate that one often needs to come before the other. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this dilemma. Instead, I present to you a series of considerations that will help you avoid agency hopping every few months, or having a new Director of Marketing that is left to sink or swim.

Here are four considerations when you’re contemplating partnering with a marketing agency or hiring a marketing employee: 

1. Your budget

One of the advantages of partnering with a marketing agency is that your budget should grant you access to a number of professionals with varied backgrounds. At Armada Digital, we act as the marketing arm for many of our clients, and our prices range from $2,000 to $5,000/month (depending on point #2).  

A single full-time hire at the introductory level in the marketing realm should cost you at least $41,593 according to Salary.com, not including employer taxes and healthcare. While you could theoretically hire a series of part-time employees or contractors, this approach can often negatively impact your results if you’re missing the individual whose role it is to ensure everyone is running in the same direction.

If you find you are able to offer a competitive compensation package for a full-time employee, let’s look at consideration #2.

2. Your business’s growth goals

Your business’s growth goals should inform your marketing strategy, not the other way around. A hire typically indicates that sales and financials are up and to the right and that either delegation needs to occur or a plan of action needs to be devised for the trend to continue. The more aggressive your goal compared to historical data and industry norms, the more expert hands are needed. 

Whether you are bringing in a marketing partner or an internal hire, your business plan should already exist and detail the foundational aspects of your products or services—what makes your offering unique, who you serve, and where you see opportunities for growth. 

3. Your marketing strategy

It will then be the marketing professional’s job to distill this into marketing language and assess which methods are most likely to yield results. Building the strategy and executing on said strategy are typically multiple roles. 

There are certainly elements that a Digital Marketing Strategist could execute on depending on their background, but asking for an email marketer to also be an SEO specialist, graphic designer, copywriter, social media manager,  website developer, data analyst, publicist, ads expert, AND your big picture strategist is unfair to any individual—even with the existence of AI. 

Ideally, a CMO, Director of Marketing, or Digital Marketing Strategist leads the creation of the marketing strategy and then you’re able to build out the role of the future hire from there. If no such person exists, you can partner with an agency to build out the strategy as a one-time deliverable. 

This is something we offer through our Brand Audit and Go to Market service that has a 30-day deliverable timeline and helps you build your priorities according to your goals. Our partners at Zilker Media offer a similar service through their Brand Strategy.

4. Your Industry

The final consideration is for those in industries that are highly technical and have a significant learning curve. In these cases, I recommend either seeking out an agency that has prior experience in said industry (but isn’t engaged with a direct competitor) or hiring an internal marketer who has a personal interest in the field. Either way, there should be an intentional introductory phase to get the team or individual up to speed. While approaching it this way costs money, energy, and time, a series of failed agency partnerships or employees costs more.

Another consideration that may be specific to your industry is the level of “boots on the ground” support needed. While a local agency may conduct a monthly in-office visit, it’s certainly not the same as having someone you’re able to see in person on the daily. This can be especially key for businesses whose social media presence is a major part of the marketing strategy. For example, our team at Armada Digital is able to curate content provided to us and create things graphically for our clients, but we are not able to film daily on-site content. 

If the above thought exercises have led you to a conclusion—whether that be working with a marketing agency, hiring an internal marketing employee, or a combination of the two… continue on for a few more considerations that will help guarantee successful partnerships.

Considerations if you’ve decided to partner with a marketing agency:

I consider it a success if and when our clients scale to the point of needing to hire someone internal, and we are very upfront about this eventuality. In order to prepare for this and set everyone (current and future) up for success, we make a point to educate and empower our clients throughout the engagement rather than hamstringing them into feeling as if we are irreplaceable. 

With that in mind, during exploratory conversations with any marketing agency, be sure to do the following:

Confirm Ownership

Confirm you retain ownership and access to all of the following:

• Website, both hosting and backend
• Social media platforms
• Tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Looker Studio
• Ad account, including Google and META accounts

Choose an Agency Willing to Educate You

Choose an agency whose process includes explaining “how the sausage is made,” so that you can learn along the way. This not only helps build trust and strengthen the relationship, but it will also benefit you once you have scaled to a point to hire an internal marketing employee who may take over that aspect of the strategy.

Find a Partner That Plays Well with Others

Choose an agency that plays well with others. Hiring an internal marketing employee or bringing in other experts should not be viewed as a threat, especially when everyone is working toward the same goals. This may not be obvious and is something to go with your gut on.

Get the Right Expertise

Choose an agency that has specialized roles. Our team has spent years building knowledge in specific areas and cultivating a network of relationships with experts across marketing, sales, and operations. We welcome niche challenges from our clients and will be the first to say, “I don’t know, but I know someone who does!”

Opting for this type of partnership will certainly bring peace of mind (and potentially save the day) in the ever-changing marketing landscape.

Prioritize Flexibility

Choose an agency that allows you to pivot the engagement as your business needs shift. In order for a relationship to be win-win, both parties need to be able to walk away with goodwill.

While the agreement will detail what is needed to cancel the contract, it’s also good to understand how responsive they will be in the case that things need to scale up, down, or pivot entirely. 

Considerations if you’ve decided to hire an internal marketing employee:

1. Know the State of Your Business

Be clear on your business’s place in the market and growth goals before hiring. It’s during our Brand Audit and Go to Market Strategy process that we’ve learned some things the hard way—like the business looking to us to dictate what services are offered and how to price them. It’s one thing as a leader to ask a marketer, “Here is where we want to go, how can we get there?” and an entirely different thing to say, “Lead us!”

2. Set Realistic Expectations

Be realistic about the expectations around the breadth and depth of competencies. It’s common for someone without a marketing background to assume that a generalist can indeed do it because “it’s all more or less the same skill.” Rather than create an environment where someone is forced to say yes and figure it out after, get curious about what aspects of marketing they excel in, what they are excited to explore, and what they would happily delegate (and then follow up with consideration #3).

3. Set Them Up for Success

Be willing to set the individual up for success through continued education, specialized tools, or connecting them with relevant experts. If you are already partnered with an agency, inquire about what level of training they’d be willing to lead.

4. Know What Candidates Are Looking For

Marketing professionals who have previous experience working at an agency or freelancing will likely have the most varied expertise and can task-switch with ease. If an agency employee is facing burnout (see this Reddit discussion around that topic), they’re likely to look for a marketing position with a single company. And if they’ve worked their way up in an agency, you can bet they have a pretty impressive resume and skill set.

The same goes for freelancers, who are likely searching for consistency after having spent years juggling competing client timelines and schedules. 

As you can see, there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to deciding where your budget it spent. Whether you’ve decided to grow your internal team, partner with an agency, or a combination of the two, we hope you feel more confident in your decision after thinking through these considerations. If next steps do happen to involve an agency—reach out to discuss whether the team at Armada Digital would be a good fit.