It can often be difficult deciding how much of your marketing should be done in-house or whether you should hire an agency to do all of the work for you. In 2022, more companies are taking advantage of an internal marketing team, but still use the help of agencies. There are many benefits of in house marketing, as well as disadvantages, so continue reading to discover more.
What is in house marketing?
In-house marketing means that marketing activities of an organisation are handled by employees of that company. Alongside the internal team, there are only a few external individuals or companies involved in the marketing process. Companies occasionally decide to build an in-house marketing team and want to replicate the agency model.
The structure of an in-house advertising agency is like a traditional agency but the only client is their own parent company. Occasionally, the parent company will work with other agencies, but it often focuses on specific advertising areas.
Examples of in-house agencies are Content Factory by Coca-Cola, BBC Creative by BBC or Yellow Tag Productions by Best Buy.
Benefits of in house marketing
So, what are the benefits of in house marketing? There are quite a few, especially if you combine it with help from an experienced external in an agency.
Here are a list of advantages of in-housing your marketing team within your company:
- Cost
- Control
- Productivity
- Communication
- Company values
- No conflict of interest
- Attracting talent
Cost
The first benefit of in house marketing is most definitely the cost. Hiring an external company to take control of your marketing processes requires a cost because you’re paying for their staff, their experience, their overheads and then a mark-up so they can turn a profit.
If your marketing team is all internal, the general cost is lower. The mark-up you’d pay to an agency can instead be invested in talent and advertising spend.
Having said that, costs of running an internal team can spiral whereas agreeing a set fee with an agency can be advantageous.
Control
When marketing activities are spread out over multiple departments or being controlled by an external agency, it can be difficult to gain any sort of control of what’s happening. A weekly catch-up with your agency can provide some answers but you’re not aware of the day-to-day behind the scenes most of the time.
With an in house marketing team, you’re in complete control of every aspect. The ability to get your hands on the processes allows you to control spend, strategy and campaigns.
Productivity
Agency staff will likely have a catalogue of clients that they have to juggle their time with. If you were to take your marketing in-house, your internal team can focus solely on your company.
The entire team is dedicated and focused toward the same goal, and this laser-targeted focus can create increased productivity.
Communication
Despite the advancements in technology allowing you to contact an agency quickly, it can sometimes be difficult to nail down a confirmed time to talk, either in person, over the phone or via video call.
With an in house marketing team, you’re able to communicate easily and effectively with your team at any time of the working day. Have a question about a campaign? Speak directly to the team. If you’re with an agency, there’s a chance you may not get to speak to them until your weekly catch-up meeting.
It must be said, though, that some agencies provide constant communication with their clients, so it may not be too difficult to get in touch.
Company values
Hiring an in house marketing team means having a team of people who are fully embedded within the company and who understand company values, culture and philosophy. An agency can get a good understanding of it too, but it may not produce the same results as a team living and breathing the company every day.
No conflict of interest
When outsourcing marketing work to an agency, they may already have a relationship, either presently or in the past, with one of your competitors. This may produce difficulties when trying to gain results for both companies.
The agency’s aim for company X is to get them the best results possible through marketing streams, which means getting them to the top of search engine ranking pages (SERPs). However, that is also their goal for you, so it would create a conflict of interest.
Similarly to our company values point, an in house marketing team would shoot for glory for your company and nobody else.
Attracting talent
The final point of our list of benefits of in house marketing is attracting talent. There are a lot of agencies around in 2022, and there has been a move towards talent moving more in-house recently. If you are a well-known company with good ethics and a positive philosophy and atmosphere, you can attract very talented individuals to your in house marketing team.
Disadvantages of in house marketing
Of course, in house marketing isn’t all plain sailing with only advantages. There are disadvantages of taking your marketing in-house, and they are:
- Economies of scale
- Problems with HR
- Limited skill sets
- No shared learning
Economies of scale
Large advertising and marketing agencies benefit from economies of scale, including lower costs for industry tools, advertising costs and business overheads. Savings of this manner can sometimes mean that working with an agency is actually more cost-effective than taking the services in house.
Problems with HR
While attracting talent is one of the benefits of in house marketing, it can also be a slight disadvantage. When it comes to hiring your own staff, employee retention, struggling with a shortage of talent and even candidate screening, it can create HR headaches.
Each employee will require resources for management and benefits too. However, when working with an agency, all of those problems become theirs. You don’t need to find talented individuals, and possibly train them, or provide a benefits package, resources like a computer or laptop, and so much more.
It takes a load off your shoulders and relieves you from HR stress in the process.
Limited skill sets
Even if you employ some of the best individuals in your industry, you’re still unlikely to be able to match the depth of talents, skills, resources and experience that an agency possesses, especially a large one. The benefit of an agency partner is in the sum of their parts; the range of disciplines they’re able to bring to the table as part of their service.
When hiring for your in house marketing team, you should carefully consider what skills and experience you’re likely to be missing out on that you could get from an agency.
No shared learning
While in-house marketing teams solely working on your company can produce excellent productivity levels, it can often result in tunnel vision. It can also lead to your team becoming isolated from industry developments, whereas an agency will continue to develop strategy and improve talent.
At an agency, there is always a lot of shared learning and responsibility, whether that’s via industry updates or case studies. Successful campaigns and strategies are shared across the business, benefiting everyone within the agency. This experience and development is then used to work on your company.
If you do decide to take your marketing in-house, ensure that learning and development are at the heart of everything they do.
Why should you go in-house?
There are a couple of reasons as to why you should take your marketing in-house. The first is that you want to keep and grow expertise within the company and you’re willing to spend time on building a team of experts.
You can’t just hire 10 people and your marketing team shoots up to great levels. It takes time to develop a team of experts, carefully blending their talents and experience together. If you’re willing to take the time to build from within, this is the best route for you.
Why should you go with an agency?
If you’re looking for results immediately and have a low budget (so are unable to hire a full team, providing full resources and benefits) then signing up with an agency is probably the best for you.
Which is best for your business?
Ultimately, when considering whether to take your marketing in-house, or hiring an agency, there is no one-size-fits-all approach or solution. Both in house and agencies have positives and negatives. When planning to take the next step with marketing your business, strongly consider all of the variables, such as cost, budgets, talent, HR headaches, and learning and development. Many companies can flourish when taking their marketing in-house, while others prefer to let experienced teams from agencies take care of their needs.
Best of both worlds
There is a solution that provides the best of both worlds, though. Have an in house marketing team but also work alongside an agency, who will provide you with the experience and depth of resources and tools that you’re lacking in.
At House Digital, you can enjoy the best of both worlds. We are a digital marketing agency that has created a content marketing platform delivering high-quality optimised content, ranking positions and organic traffic. Our clients wanted more so we extended into SEO, paid advertising, website development and email marketing.
