When you’re considering whether you want to build and develop your own in-house team or hire a marketing agency, there’s a lot to consider.
As is the case with all decisions reserved for the C-Suite, there’s a lot riding on your decision. When I reflect on the hundreds of client marketing plans I’ve put my hands on over the years, most middle-market B2B companies need the following nine core marketing specialists to handle an optimum marketing strategy:
- Marketing director (team leader)
- Leadership and team management skills
- Strategic planning and market research
- Brand management and campaign planning
- Budget management and resource allocation
- Data analysis and performance metrics evaluation
- Copywriter
- Excellent writing and editing skills
- Creative thinking and concept development
- Understanding of target audience and brand voice
- SEO and digital content optimization
- Ability to work under deadlines and adapt to various content formats
- Art director (graphic designer)
- Graphic design and visual communication
- Proficiency in design software
- Creative concepting and art direction
- Brand identity and visual strategy development
- Team collaboration and project management
- PPC specialist
- Understanding of SEM
- PPC campaign management and optimization
- Keyword research and selection
- Budget management and MROI analysis
- Data analysis and A/B testing
- SEO specialist
- SEO strategies and best practices
- Keyword research and content optimization
- Technical SEO and website analysis
- Link building and online presence management
- Performance tracking and reporting
- Front-end developer
- Proficiency in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Responsive and mobile-first design principles
- Familiarity with front-end frameworks
- Cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility
- Website performance optimization
- Social media specialist
- Social media strategy and content creation
- Understanding of social media advertising and platforms
- Audience engagement and community management
- Analytics and social media metrics
- Trend monitoring and brand representation
- Digital media buyer
- Media planning and buying strategies
- Negotiation and partnership development
- Performance analysis and KPI tracking
- Budget management and cost optimization
- Understanding of various media channels and their audiences
- PR coordinator
- Public relations and communications skills
- Press release writing
- Event planning and coordination
- Crisis management and brand reputation
- Relationship building with media and stakeholders
- Media pitching (sales) skills
Your payroll for a team of this size—assuming they are all full-time employees for simplicity’s sake—will run approximately $630,000, depending on where you are. When you add in benefits, you’re looking at roughly $750,000. This doesn’t include expenses such as media/advertising, photography/videography costs, your platforms, etc. For a company that needs each of these specialties full time, an internal team has a lot of advantages, namely control and easy collaboration.
A full-service marketing agency presents a more flexible option for companies that need less than a full-time equivalent of a variety of specialties. Instead of fixed overheads, you can tailor your investment based on your requirements.
If in Q1 you need more web development work but that need tapers off from Q2 to Q4 when you need more SEO and digital media-buying experience, an agency can allocate only the resources you need in the months you need them, reducing waste.
While you pay more per hour than with internal labor, the agency model can adapt seamlessly and often offers a far more cost-effective solution in the end. It also provides the ability to change strategy and the corresponding skills needed for that new strategy without notice or employee ramp. For example, if you hire a team and then realize mid-year that you need to pivot your strategy to take advantage of an opening in the market, you might very well need staffing changes, whereas an agency can quickly and easily make that pivot.
In-house teams may provide greater collaboration and control, if you have the resources to build out a full-time team with all the specialists you need. If you’re looking for a more agile and cost-effective model, partnering with a marketing agency may be a better fit for you. When hiring an agency, make sure they have the same commitment to the bottom line that you would demand of your own in-house team.
By Lori Turner-Wilson, RedRover CEO/Founder, Internationally Best-Selling Author of The B2B Marketing RevolutionTM: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes
Taking Action
Analyzing whether an in-house team or marketing agency is better for your business is one of hundreds of best practices found in The B2B Marketing RevolutionTM: A Battle Plan for Guaranteed Outcomes — the playbook that middle-market B2B CEOs and marketing leaders lean on to scale. Backed by a groundbreaking research study, this book offers time-tested best practices, indispensable KPIs for benchmarking, insights on where your dollars are best spent, and, above all, the proven 12 BattlesTM Framework for generating guaranteed marketing outcomes. The B2B Marketing RevolutionTM is a battle-hardened approach to becoming an outcomes-first leader who’s ready to shake up the status quo, invest in high-payoff market research and optimization, and — yes — even torch what’s not serving your endgame. Download more than 50 templates, scripts and tools from the book on the Battle Reader Hub.
If you’d like to talk about how to build a marketing engine that delivers predictable results — whether you want to build it yourself or tag in our team to lead the way — we’d be delighted to help you get started. Just book a call with Jee Vahn Knight, our VP of Strategy.
