An emerging trend amongst small businesses and big brands alike is opting to work alongside a marketing agency rather than hire an in-house marketing manager, but why are so many people making this choice? In this blog we’re going to cover 5 major benefits of hiring a marketing agency to take care of the needs of your business or brand.
1. Varied Skillset
With an agency you’re not just hiring one person – you’re hiring a full team. You’ll get immediate access to a group of professionals with varied skills and a diverse history of experience, rather than relying on an in-house marketing manager to possess every skill imaginable.
Agencies can provide digital marketing and social media management, content creation and photography, as well as access to graphic designers, web designers and copywriters. They’re far better equipped to help you achieve your goals and meet your targets, rather than relying on one person trying to be a jack of all trades.
2. A track record of success
A successful marketing strategy needs to increase web traffic, maintain and grow a strong social presence, generate meaningful leads, create conversions that lead to sales, and much more. When you’re hiring an agency, you’re hiring a company that has already proven that they can do all this. Without it, they simply wouldn’t be a viable agency.
They already possess clients whose needs they continuously meet and exceed, and with such a wide range of clients, they’re exposed to more problems and issues your business might face. When you hire an agency, you’re hiring a team who already have the solutions to your problems.
3. Cost-effective
As we progress into an increasingly digital world, having a marketing strategy for your business or brand, particularly a digital marketing one, has never been more important. But as this service becomes more essential, the demand naturally rises as does the cost to provide it.
The average salary for a marketing manager in Ireland is roughly €40,000 per year, and has been rising every year. While this person will have their own unique strong points when it comes to marketing, so too will they have their weaknesses. The work of a web designer is very different from that of a copywriter or videographer for example, so you must ask yourself is it worthwhile to invest so much money in one person when realistically you may need a team of professionals to achieve your goals?
4. Access to latest tools, tech & trends
When you partner with an agency you’re not just hiring a qualified team, you’re also getting access to their premium equipment, software and insights. When hiring someone in-house you have to factor in costs for a laptop, Adobe subscriptions, and hardware like cameras and editing software.
When you’re just starting out, this can easily rack up thousands in cost, and requires annual upkeep. Any agency worth its salt will already have all these tools at their disposal. No business is exempt from the need for a website or a social media presence full of high quality images and video, and an agency will bring this directly to you, along with their own equipment, experience and expertise.
Wondering about the cost? These are some examples of commonly used digital marketing software and their average monthly feeds for SMBs:
Adobe Creative Suite: used for social media content creation, photo & video editing, graphic design and print, & much more. Average monthly cost for one user: €70 per month / €840 per year
Hootsuite: used for managing and scheduling various social media channels. Average monthly cost for three users: €109 per month / €1308 per year
Mailchimp: used for email marketing campaigns Average monthly cost: €15 per month / €180 per year
5. No training involved
Marketing agencies have a hands-on approach to helping you. From the get-go, you’ll be able to talk about goals with the team, and you’ll get a detailed plan on how you can work together to achieve them at a pace and a budget that suits you. There’s a training period when it comes to a marketing manager while they get to grips with the company. They just can’t hit the ground running like an agency can, when you’ll have someone taking care of your brand from day one.
There is also the future of your marketing to consider. While you can establish a healthy professional relationship with both an agency and a marketing manager, there’s nothing to stop someone wanting to change their career path after a few years. In this instance you would be left without a marketing manager if you went in-house, but because an agency is a team and business, your service will continue as normal.
The coming weeks offer an exciting opportunity for our clients and other businesses, letting us test our digital marketing strategies and learning from our customers. At Escalate, we’re experienced at helping our clients navigate the move from in-house to agency, implementing digital-first marketing strategies, and improving business resilience. If you have any questions, or if you want to discuss your plans, feel free to reach out. We’re using our COVID-19 downtime to maximise our marketing presence, and we’d love to chat to you about it. Join us on the journey!