When you find yourself in need of some marketing help for your business, you have two main options to consider: hire in-house staff or partner with a marketing agency. As with every decision, money is a huge factor – not only how much you’ll spend for your marketing team, but also how much you’ll get in return.
You’ll weigh the pros and cons of each and hopefully get to know some marketing agencies to understand their pricing and how they operate. But when it comes down to cold hard cash and your bottom line, hiring a marketing agency is likely to save you money. Here’s why.
Think About Your Needs
First, think about your goals for hiring a marketing team. What do you hope to achieve with the addition of marketing professionals?
In most cases, to effectively execute a successful marketing strategy, you’ll need a variety of experts. Those experts – if you hire them as staff – come at a price tag.
The cost of hiring in-house marketing staff
Consider the average yearly earnings of typical marketing staff according to Glassdoor:
- Social media manager - $64,865
- Digital advertising manager - $115,485
- Copywriter - $71,823
- Website developer - $97,224
- Graphic designer - $70,176
Even if you hired just two of these experts, you’re looking at a minimum of around $135,000 per year. Some companies will try to work around this and hire a single generalist rather than a team of experts. While you might be able to pinch pennies and pay a marketing generalist around $60,000, you’re unlikely to the get results you want. Your new marketing employee will be overworked, lack expertise in certain areas, and the result will be a scattered, sub-par marketing effort that yields little return.
The cost of hiring a marketing agency
On the other side of the coin, you could hire a marketing agency instead. The cost of hiring an agency of subject matter experts varies widely depending on your goals, your geographic location and the quality you expect. About 60 percent of marketing agencies have monthly retainers between $1,000 - $5,000. For every bell and whistle you could imagine, prices could go up to $15,000 a month. Even at the highest end, you’re still under $200,000 per year, with access to an entire team of experts instead of two to three employees. And we haven’t even discussed the other benefits of hiring a marketing agency yet.
Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency Over In-House Staff
No Overhead
When you hire a marketing agency, you’re only paying for the work. You don’t have to dish out for additional office space, salaries and benefits, and you don’t have to deal with HR or employee relations. Hiring a marketing agency means less effort for your organization and fewer overhead costs.
Maximum Efficiency from a Team of Professionals
Finding the right marketing agency is like building your dream team. You’ll have access to a variety of experts who are dedicated to their craft – from social media gurus to cutting-edge, custom website developers. They invest in training, stay up-to-date on the latest trends in their fields and bring this knowledge to your organization. With an integrated team of experts working together, your marketing will efficiently produce the greatest return on investment possible.
An Outside Perspective Can Go a Long Way
Often it takes an outside perspective to understand where you’re missing opportunities. If you’re experiencing barriers to growth but you’re not sure how to address them, the right marketing agency can evaluate your current game plan with a fresh lens and suggest changes that you might be blind to. With an outside perspective, you can save money by changing course sooner and avoiding repeat mistakes.
Access the Latest Tools and Technology – Without Paying for It
Every business wants to use the latest and greatest tools to improve its marketing, but they may not be cost-effective for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Marketing agencies invest in these tools – from website development software to automation platforms – to better serve their clients. This allows you to take advantage of these tools at a lower cost, without having to pay out-of-pocket for them yourself. With access to the best tools in the business, you can improve your marketing and save you money in the long run.
Consider Hiring a Marketing Agency
After you’ve decided on your marketing goals, consider what experts you’ll need to get the job done. If you’ll need more than two people, it’s worth seeing if hiring a marketing agency can get you better results for a better price.
At PRIME, we have a seasoned team of marketing professionals with expertise in web development and design, graphic design, social media, content marketing and copywriting, and digital marketing. If you decide a full-service marketing partner is right for you, let’s talk about how we can accelerate you toward your goals.
If you enjoyed this edition of PRIME Pulse, take a look at some of our other related articles:
- Tips for a Successful Partnership With a Marketing Agency
- The Ultimate Digital Marketing Dictionary
- 3 Questions to Ask When Courting a Marketing Agency
