What’s Best for Your Business: A Digital Marketing Agency Vs. In-House Manager?

To be fair, having a contract with a digital marketing agency is best for some types of businesses, indispensable at some point in business development. And hiring a digital marketing manager is best for some business types and at some point in business development. So, when should you hire a digital marketing manager? And when should you sign a contract with a digital marketing agency? What are the possibilities for having them both? Let’s dig deeper.

When to hire a digital marketing manager?

When you need to promote one project, or have a one time marketing job: designing a website, designing your visual identity, designing your brand identity, launching an ad campaign for one product, creating brand awareness, or you just need more digital presence on social media platforms.

When your marketing budget doesn’t allow you to work with an agency.
When you need internal marketing in your business also, meaning you need to work on the company’s image among employees and investors.
When you have a limited need for digital marketing. Some companies can use digital marketing within certain limits, but they rely much more on offline marketing.

When should you invest in a digital marketing agency?

When you need to focus on your main business activities and avoid the distraction of efforts and money in activities unrelated to your expertise.
When you don’t want to waste time and effort on attempts and you need assured results to save the situation, reposition your company, or increase sales.
When you need this agency to develop a long-term digital marketing strategy for your business, create a constant presence for your digital channel without abandoning a core channel, or spending too much effort on the wrong one.
When your need for digital marketing is constant, it is not one marketing mission. For example, if you have a real estate development business with a constant need to promote each project’s units, or you have something like a commercial website that requires non-stop digital marketing efforts.
When you have a large marketing budget, you need to invest it in quick access to your business’s digital marketing goals.
Also, when you have a marketing manager who wants to use the experience of a digital marketing agency with a professional team working in multiple fields and on many digital marketing channels. Many marketing managers prefer signing a contract with a digital marketing agency, instead of hiring freelancers, a complete internal digital marketing team, or doing all digital marketing tasks by themselves.

Benefits you only get with a digital marketing agency

Crisis management

This is some witnessed reality. When a business is going through some marketing crisis that negatively affects its reputation, a professional marketing agency becomes a priority. It’s common for the in-house marketing team to panic, react unwisely, and probably be in a defensive mode against the audience, losing the interest of a large number of them.

Yet, a digital marketing agency with an experienced team knows what to do, avoids your business as much harm as possible, and furthermore, might turn the situation against your business into a situation that promotes it.

The ROI analysis

Every business takes time to grow to success, but in the end, there is a difference between in-house management, to which you’re committed with a monthly budget, and an agency committed to giving you reports with the return on the ad budget you’ve invested.

There is also a difference between less cost and more effective cost. If you buy a liter pack of a specific product at a price of 5 dirhams, this cost is less compared to a pack of 5-liters of the same product that costs you 20 dirhams. You are buying the liter package at a cheaper price, and this is logical. Yet, when you buy the 5-liter bottle for 20 dirhams and save 5 dirhams, this is a more effective cost because the value you’re earning is much more.

A digital marketing agency uses too many tools and expensive software for long plans with heavy annual budget subscriptions. In the end, your company earns its share of benefits from these business tools without even paying any attention.

This is one of the most effective costs you’ll find with a digital marketing agency. Adding to that, the cost of hiring a design team, creative team, content team, SEO team, media buying team, etc. And this is how you can reach much further with a digital marketing agency.

Surfing the wave of digital marketing changes and trends

Take AI as an example; everybody exaggerated it to the point that creatives around the world expected to lose their jobs. After a while, it was clear that AI essentially relies on inputs from creative human minds, that it is still under development, has a lot of drawbacks, and although it’s a very advanced tool, it needs expertise to get the most out of it, and it can never be a replacement for creative professional human beings.

The balance between creativity, engagement, trends, actual sales, the long-term gains of your company, and building its identity and reputation

Such a balance may only be found with experts at a digital marketing agency that have been there for many years, across many industries, business sizes, and have been exposed to many different circumstances on a lot of marketing channels.

When to innovate, when to sell, when to build a reputation, when to increase awareness, when to work on all that in parallel, and when to reduce efforts because we’ve reached sufficiency and we have to stop investing more budget in this channel. A digital marketing agency doesn’t only perform marketing tasks; they also look at your business’s needs, create a base, and then start building to achieve the success you’re looking for.

Everyone wants to follow the trend, but which trend is relevant to your business? Which trend could harm your reputation? Which trend might destroy your customers’ trust? Things beyond just performing a marketing task.

Choosing a digital marketing agency avoids the one-man show and the more difficult scenario of creating a digital marketing agency inside your company.

Either way, you’ll hire one marketing manager responsible for digital marketing and all related activities, including designing, email marketing, launching ad campaigns, launching social media sponsors, and optimizing search engines.

Or this manager will coordinate all these tasks with a team of freelancers; or he must hire a graphic designer, a media buyer, SEO specialists, and content creators in a marketing department inside your company, with a new budget and new salaries. You must know that it’s an incredible effort and a heavy burden. Only a rehiring process for one person inappropriate for his mission is a great load. Add to all this a separate advertising budget with independent bills that you must pay for your platforms.

The best scenario: marketing director + digital marketing agency

Even if you sign a contract with a digital marketing agency, you will need at least an in-house marketing specialist to cooperate with the agency, send them the data, information, and materials they need, constantly communicate with them, and monitor the performance of marketing efforts compared to the budget.

Therefore, based on my experience, the best scenario for medium and large businesses is to hire a marketing specialist or manager who coordinates with a professional digital marketing agency. Thus, you give the task to the professional, and you don’t lose the in-house advantage.

Rosella Digital Marketing .. we take you beyond

For us, it’s never just a marketing mission but a digital marketing strategy that takes your company to a new level, integrating your digital appearance on all platforms, positioning your brand in the space it deserves among competitors, and ensuring that you reach your goals sooner.

We help you find the missing link in your marketing efforts. Contact the Rosella team now.