For any business owner, you face a series of challenges when it comes to maximizing your digital marketing approach. You are faced with two primary options – forming an in-house team or hiring outsourced work for your company. To help you figure out how to maximize your marketing effort for your business, here is the essential guide on the pros and cons of each approach.
In-House Team
An in-house team is comprised of individuals who are hired by an organization to fulfill the needs of the business, mainly on a full-time basis. Whether they be designers, project managers, digital ad specialists or marketing gurus, professionals who fall under this category are often stationed at the workplace itself. The following are the main pros/cons for an in-house team.
Pros
- Can control expenses and budgets easily
- Members have a deeper understanding of the company (your products/services, values, goals, etc.)
- Management can better monitor progress and activities
- Can troubleshoot platform issues on-site when needed.
- Control of quality and activities of the team at all times as well as full control of marketing budgets. Furthermore, staff members could solve your eCommerce platform issues on-site when needed.
- More room to experiment
Cons
- Individuals can be difficult to find
- Qualified candidates might be over your budget
- Inexperienced employees are prone to make more mistakes that can harm your business
- Initial adjustment period can make or break your marketing strategy
- Useful mainly for long-term ongoing work (which can be costly)
- Liability concerns
Outsourcing
Outsourcing your marketing strategy allows you to invest in your business and yourself. There are plenty of capable agencies and digital marketing specialists who can deliver the results you need to grow your business. Here are the pros/cons that you should consider when outsourcing your marketing work.
Pros
- Inexpensive and less risk (for smaller projects)
- Can target a wider pool of candidates/agencies
- Can stay focused on core business
- Can work with different marketing channels faster and more effectively
- No overhead cost for hardware or software for outsourced work to operate
- Save time (individuals are aligned to do their job at the start)
- Get access to tools and technology
Cons
- Can be expensive for large-scale projects (useful mainly for short-term projects with pressing deadlines)
- Saturated market pool of candidates (hard to select the best fit)
- Selected teams may not fully understand business values and needs
Which Strategy Is The Best For You?
Understanding the scope, deadline, and budget for any project is the critical first step when deciding which avenue to move towards in your digital marketing strategy.
A hybrid solution may be one alternative, which consists of elements from both in-house and outsourced resources. An advantage in working this way is the ability to organize your dream workflow. For example, you can hire an agency to bring expertise to specific channels or clients you wish to target, and free up your internal team to focus on your core business.
You can also invite other marketing experts to train your in-house employees and develop their knowledge on the latest tools and technologies to enhance your campaigns. The primary disadvantages of this solution are your time and money spent on such tasks.
Whichever model you choose, be sure to weigh out your options and have a clear understanding of what it is you want, and what you want to achieve with your team.
