Determining how much of your marketing should be handled internally versus if you should engage an agency to handle everything for you may frequently be challenging. In 2022, more businesses will benefit from internal marketing teams, although agencies will still be used. Continue reading to learn more about the advantages and cons of internal marketing.
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In-house marketing: What is it?
When a corporation uses in-house marketing, it indicates that its own staff handle all marketing-related tasks. Only a few outside people or organisations, in addition to the inside team, are involved in the marketing process. Occasionally, businesses opt to create an internal marketing team and attempt to imitate the agency model.
An in-house advertising agency has a similar organisational structure to a standard agency, however its only client is their own parent firm. The main company occasionally collaborates with other agencies, but it frequently focuses on particular advertising niches.
Coca-Content Cola’s Factory, the BBC’s BBC Creative, and Best Buy’s Yellow Tag Productions are a few examples of in-house agency.
advantages of internal marketing
What are the advantages of internal marketing, then? There are several, particularly if you combine it with assistance from a knowledgeable outsider at an agency.
The following are benefits of having your marketing staff work only for your business:
- Cost management, productivity, and company values
- No overlapping interests
- Cost of recruiting talent
Cost-effectiveness is unquestionably the first advantage of in-house marketing. You must pay for the employees, the experience, the overhead, and a markup so they can make a profit when you hire an outside company to take over your marketing procedures.
The overall cost is lower if all of your marketing personnel are internal. Instead than paying an agency a markup, you may invest it in hiring people and advertising.
However, maintaining an internal team might be expensive, whereas working out a predetermined fee with an agency can be beneficial.
Control
It can be challenging to exert any kind of control over marketing operations when they are dispersed across several departments or are managed by an outside firm. You can get some answers from a weekly check-in with your agency, but you rarely know what goes on behind the scenes every day.
With an internal marketing staff, you have total control over every detail. You can control spending, strategy, and campaigns if you have control over the processes.
The employees of the Productivity Agency probably have a long list of clients that they must divide their time between. If you brought marketing in-house, your internal team could concentrate entirely on your business.
Since everyone in the team is committed to achieving the same objective, their productivity may increase as a result of their laser-focused attention.
Communication
Despite the fact that technology improvements make it possible for you to get in touch with an agency fast, it can occasionally be challenging to arrange a specific time to speak, whether in person, on the phone, or by video call.
You can communicate with your team at any moment during the working day if you have an internal marketing team. Do you have a query regarding a campaign? Speak with the group directly. It’s possible that you won’t get to speak with them until your weekly catch-up meeting if you work for an agency.
However, it must be noted that some agencies maintain ongoing contact with their clients, so getting in touch might not be too difficult.
Enterprise values
Hiring an internal marketing team entails having a group of individuals who are completely integrated within the organisation and are aware of its values, culture, and philosophy. Although an agency can gain a thorough grasp of it, it could not produce the same outcomes as a team that works closely with the organisation every day.
No overlapping interests
When outsourcing marketing tasks to an agency, it’s possible that they already have a connection with one of your rivals, either now or in the past. This could make it challenging to get results for both businesses.
Company X’s goal with the agency is to achieve the best outcomes through marketing channels, which entails moving them to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs). However, that would lead to a conflict of interest because that is also their objective for you.
An internal marketing team would aim for success for your business and no one else, similar to the statement we made about our company values.
securing talent
Attracting talent is the last item on our list of advantages of in-house marketing. In 2022, there will be many agencies, and there has recently been a shift towards talent migrating more in-house. You can entice highly competent individuals to join your internal marketing team if you are a well-known company with solid ethics and a great attitude and atmosphere.
The drawbacks of internal marketing
Obviously, there are drawbacks to internal marketing as well as benefits. Bringing your marketing in-house has some drawbacks, including:
- the benefits of scale
- HR challenges Limited skill sets
- No joint learning
- the benefits of scale
Large marketing and advertising firms profit from economies of scale, which result in lower costs for instruments used in the sector, for advertising, and for administrative expenses. Savings in this way sometimes make working with an agency more affordable than bringing the services in-house.
issues with HR
While one of the advantages of in-house marketing is the ability to recruit talent, it can also be a little drawback. It can cause HR issues when it comes to employing your own employees, employee retention, battling a talent shortage, and even candidate screening.
There will be resources needed for management and benefits for each employee. However, if you work with an agency, all of those issues become your responsibility. You don’t need to hire brilliant people, train them, offer benefits packages, or supply them with tools like computers or laptops.
It relieves you of a burden and helps you deal with your HR stress.
limited sets of skills
Even if you hire some of the top experts in your field, you probably won’t be able to match the breadth of abilities, skills, resources, and expertise that an agency, especially a big one, possesses. The value of an agency partner is found in the totality of their contributions, or the variety of disciplines they may offer as part of their service.
You should carefully assess what abilities and expertise you’re going to be losing out on by employing for your in-house marketing team vs what you may obtain from an agency.
No joint learning
While internal marketing teams focused completely on your business can achieve outstanding productivity levels, it frequently leads to tunnel vision. In contrast to an agency, which will continue to grow strategy and talent, it might also result in your team becoming separated from industry advancements.
Whether it be through case studies or industry updates, there is always a lot of shared learning and accountability at an agency. Successful campaigns and concepts are disseminated throughout the company, which is advantageous to everyone at the agency. Then, your firm benefits from this experience and growth.
Make sure learning and growth are at the centre of all they do if you decide to bring your marketing in-house.
optimal combination
But there is a method that offers the best of both worlds. Have an internal marketing staff. But also collaborate with a company that can offer you the expertise, breadth of resources, and tools you lack.
You can have the best of both worlds at House Digital. As a digital marketing business. We developed a platform for content marketing that generates organic traffic, high-quality optimized content, and ranking positions. We expanded into SEO, paid advertising, website construction, and email marketing because our clients demanded more from us.