In-House Vs. Agency Marketing

1. BLACK SHEEP DIGITAL MARKETING In-House Vs. Agency Marketing

2. WHAT DOES IN-HOUSE MEAN? In-house simply means hiring a full team of marketing specialists to manage every aspect of your company’s digital marketing. This usually includes a marketing manager, marketing coordinator/project manager, paid advertising specialist, SEO specialist, web designer and developer, and a social media/PR Manager.

3. WHAT IS A MARKETING AGENCY? WHAT DO THEY DO? Not all marketing agencies are created equal. Most agencies consist of a group of professionals for hire on a retainer, campaign, or project basis. The core competencies of these agencies can vary from front-facing content creation and visual identity all the way to back-end analytics and conversion rate optimization for paid advertising. Due to the varying skillsets available, you have the freedom to decide on what type of expert you need.

4. Now Let's Dive Into The Important Matters

5. 1 If you asked any marketer about policy changes in 2019 they would go off like a drunk aunt at thanksgiving dinner. This is important to note because tactics and strategies that once worked are not guaranteed to work in the future.  This is the first question you need to ask yourself, are you going to invest your time and money into training your staff? If the answer is no, an agency is the only feasible option for you. Luckily for you, the relentless search for newer and better digital practices are the pride and joy of most digital agencies. STAYING COMPETITIVE IN A RAPIDLY EVOLVING LANDSCAPE

6. 21 Marketers are naturally creative individuals that are rarely satisfied with the status quo. However, if they aren’t around like-minded people they will often feel isolated and bored which will lead to complacency or them quitting. This is one of the reasons why in-house marketing roles have the highest turnover rate of any job function at 17%. Marketers are at home in agencies. Happier people produce better results, it’s as simple as that. Are you going to put in the time to build a cohesive and effective team? CREATIVITY & TURNOVER

7. 3 Do you know what makes an effective marketing team? An Achilles heel to most in-house teams is the lack of diversity in team members. Within marketing, there are roles that favor both right-brained and left-brained individuals (creative or analytical). Hiring someone in-house who possesses all of these skills is possible, but finding an individual who is proficient at everything is very unlikely. It is highly advised to push individuals to excel in one area over being a jack of all trades, and so to create a team of experts you’ll need more than a handful of people. CREATING A TEAM OF EXPERTS

8. 4 If you were to hire and build a very basic team in-house it would cost: (On average, in Vancouver, BC as of December 29, 2019.) *Marketing Manager = $61,432  *Marketing Coordinator/Project Manager = $44,022 *SEO Specialist = $45,361 *Paid Advertising Specialist = $47,186 *Web Designer and Developer = $56,002 *Social Media Manager = $50,231 LET'S TALK $$$ - HOW MUCH DOES EACH OPTION COST?

9. For salaries alone, this comes to a grand total of about $304,234 per year. This does not include other implicit costs including, utilities, workspace expenses, bonuses, benefits, sick days, vacations, etc. This also does not include the cost of tools and software to work more effectively. Most marketing vancouver teams spend hundreds to thousands every month on software alone. Another distinct advantage to agencies is how cost-effective they are. You are only paying for activities that move your revenue needle forward and nothing else. Most agencies, ours included, have a retainer fee and the advertising spend (which is paid directly to Facebook/Google) and that is it. No hidden costs. How much are you willing to spend? Are you prepared for hidden costs?

10. 5 Vetting individuals is a lot harder than vetting a company. When trying to hire an individual, it’s often hard to tell what results in their portfolios were directly attributable to them as opposed to their entire team. However, in an agency, the results we achieve are ours alone. This allows us the ability to create case studies, gather testimonials, and provide more transparency into our results and our capabilities. This largely lowers the risk of signing with an agency. Now let’s say you put up a posting for a marketer, interviewed them, hired them, set them up in your building, you let them get to work, only to realize they aren’t able to pick up the slack? What then? Rinse and repeat until you find a suitable candidate? How long would that take? GETTING RESULTS

11. 6 Finding people who directly align with your company’s values, vision, and culture is no simple task. Generally speaking, this is easier to hire internally. An internal staff member has a much deeper understanding of how the company works, how the staff interact, as well as the business’s story. In this respect, we think keeping the voice and social media inside the business is the way to go. Who understands your business the best? BRANDING & VOICE

12. What We Believe Is The Recipe For Online Success In today’s world, authenticity and transparency are reigning supreme. People like seeing the nitty-gritty, the not-so-polished, and the behind the scenes. People respond best to what can’t be scripted. In this respect, it is better to hire someone internally to document the behind the scenes, manage the brand’s voice and create content. As for the amplification of the content and voice, the most cost-efficient and effective option is to hire an agency. With this combination, you will be able to maintain your brand without diluting the voice/feel while allowing specialized professionals to optimize all other avenues of your online presence.

13. ARE YOU GOING TO INVEST YOUR TIME AND MONEY IN TRAINING YOUR STAFF? ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IN THE TIME TO BUILD A COHESIVE AND EFFECTIVE TEAM? DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING TEAM? To Summarize When you are thinking about your online marketing growth, you need to keep a few things in mind: HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO SPEND? ARE YOU PREPARED FOR HIDDEN COSTS? HOW LONG ARE YOU WILLING TO WAIT BEFORE SEEING RESULTS? WHO UNDERSTANDS YOUR BUSINESS THE BEST?

14. VISIT US AT BLACKSHEEPDIGITAL.CA Remember, that there is no one size fits all solution for building your team. You have the option of fully in-house, fully outsourced to an agency, or anywhere in between.I f you are curious about what the best option for your business is, feel free to get in touch with us, and we would be happy to help point you in the right direction!