Marketing is an important ingredient for the success of a staffing firm. It doesn’t only inform people about the services your company offers, but it also distinguishes your firm from your competitors. Whether you go all-in or outsource your marketing strategy, it remains an important tool to create content that can attract both potential clients and candidates.
All-In or Outsource: Two Marketing Routes You Can Take
As mentioned, there are two strategies you can use to successfully market your services. Neither of the two is better than the other. How exactly can you decide which one is the best to use?
The answer is simple. You just need to consider your company’s goals as well as its resources allocated for marketing. Once you have those, the next step is to understand each strategy fully so that you can decide which one fits best.
To help you understand the two marketing routes available, we at Allied Insight listed their definitions along with their advantages and disadvantages below.
Outsourcing a Marketing Agency
This strategy makes use of external companies to handle the marketing activities of your firm. Usually, these external agencies offer a range of services and plans that can successfully attract top talent and promising clients.
Advantages of Outsourcing
- Cost-effective: When comparing the two strategies, outsourcing your marketing team is more affordable. You do not need to spend money on hiring and training marketing employees yourself. If there are any tools or websites needed, good marketing agencies already have them. You don’t need to allocate a budget for software development or any necessary purchases just to effectively market your services.
- Ensured expertise: Marketing agencies have experienced and skilled professionals in their arsenal that they can deploy when needed. When you pay an agency, they provide their best experts in different fields. This means that outsourcing the marketing aspect of your organization ensures effective promotions and positive results for your company.
- Unique views and tactics: Marketing companies employ a variety of experts. Aside from the fields they’ve mastered, these professionals also come from diverse backgrounds with many different experiences. This ensures that your company will receive fresh content ideas and unique tactics based on varying viewpoints. Outsourcing a market agency can help your firm think “out of the box” and use the best possible techniques to attract clients and candidates.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing
- Decisions are made for you: Since you are working with experts, you can expect that they will make decisions for your company based entirely on your needs. Even if you have opinions about what strategy you want to use or you are against their marketing plan, your outsourced team will still have the final say. This can cause some frustration or tension within the office.
- Limited real-time reactionary measures: Marketing agencies usually handle more than one account at a time, from small businesses to huge corporations. This implies that they are not always available to provide immediate service or real-time reactionary measures. For companies that need a response quickly to time-sensitive issues or changes, this is definitely a disadvantage of outsourcing since it usually takes a bit of time to establish communication for solution development.
- Choosing incorrectly leads to a waste of resources: Although outsourcing is more affordable than creating your own marketing team, it can still be a waste of resources if you choose to work with an incompetent marketing agency. This is specifically true for companies that enter long-term contracts with an outsourcing company that cannot deliver substantial results. Resources may also be wasted if outside agencies force strategies and campaigns that prove to be ineffective.
Building an In-house Marketing Team
Instead of outsourcing, you can choose to create your own in-house marketing team. This strategy gives you the opportunity to personally build a quality group you can trust to handle the marketing aspect of your business. Their tasks may include creating marketing strategies, managing social media accounts, and the like.
Advantages of In-house Marketing
- Full-time access to marketers: Having an in-house marketing team allows you the benefit of direct and constant communication when needed. Being able to check in frequently and quickly inform them of your goals can lead to more efficient marketing and project management. You can also ensure a more customized and detailed marketing approach as long as you collaborate well with your team.
- The staff is fully immersed in the brand: Marketing agencies usually have more than one client so it’s difficult for them to fully understand your company. In contrast to this, an in-house marketing team only needs to focus on your organization. This means they can dedicate their time and effort to deeply understand your company’s branding. From the values you uphold to the mission and vision you’ve set, in-house marketing can lead to more accurate and comprehensive messaging for the consumption of potential clients and candidates.
- Greater flexibility and faster turnaround time: Since the marketers are already part of your company, they already have better knowledge and training about your brand, goals, and even your target audience when compared to outsourcing agencies. This extensive mastery enables your in-house marketing team to be more agile when choosing tactics or adjusting them to solve sudden issues. Aside from this, in-house marketers also have access to other people within the company which makes collaboration and execution of plans much faster.
Disadvantages of In-house Marketing
- Expensive investment: Creating an in-house team from scratch is expensive. Companies need to invest in attracting, hiring, and training potential marketers while maintaining their provision for competitive pay and benefits. Your organization will also need to allocate a budget for purchasing the necessary equipment and software for the team. For example, desks and chairs for their office and software programs for tasks like graphic design and content generation.
- Lack of varying expertise: When paying a marketing agency, your money goes to hiring the best people your company needs. For example, if you need an expert in media management, you can expect that someone in the external team has mastery there. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case for an in-house marketing team. Depending on the budget or investment, in-house teams are more prone to having gaps in skills and work-related experiences. This can lead to fewer creative ideas and poor project delivery.
- Difficulty in seeing the bigger picture: Yes, an in-house team has deeper knowledge and understanding about your brand but this can also be detrimental to a certain extent. A marketing team that is immersed in the company culture can have difficulty seeing a bird’s eye view of the situation surrounding their marketing choices. For example, they might create campaigns based more on what you want rather than what can catch the attention of your target audience. Other examples are marketing tactics that focus only on one goal instead of thinking long-term.
Choose the best route for your company.
Now that you know some of the advantages and disadvantages of both marketing strategies, you are now better equipped to make the best decision for your company.
When choosing which route to take, first consider the financial capabilities of your organization. Are you able to invest in creating an in-house team or is it financially smarter for you to invest in outsourcing services?
Second, think about the long-term goals and branding of your company. Choosing a marketing strategy must not be based only on your finances. It must also consider your organization’s needs, identity, and values. You have to decide which of the two strategies would fit the future of your company the best.
Read More: Pros and Cons – Marketing Agency vs In-house Marketing Team
MAKE THE BEST DECISIONS BY RECEIVING HELP FROM THE EXPERTS.
As a full-stack marketing agency, Allied Insight can guide you in choosing the best marketing strategy your company needs! Together, we can discuss your long-term goals and create the best course of action. Reach out today to get started!
References:
Vardon, Eric. “Weighing The Pros And Cons of In-House Vs. Outsourced Marketing” Forbes, 23 Jan 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/01/23/weighing-the-pros-and-cons-of-in-house-vs-outsourced-marketing/?sh=87321be1f15e
