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Writer's pictureShohreh R Aftahi, PhD

When to Outsource vs. Keeping it In-House



The common notion that hiring an agency to do your marketing is much more expensive than handling it internally is not accurate. The fact about marketing is that it's not a one-man job that you're paying someone to do. There are many tasks and responsibilities that require a variety of skill-sets. The salary of all the individuals who can do all of those things effectively maybe much higher than a monthly agency retainer fee.

‘Marketing’ comprises a lot of components and gears and creative production. Some of my clients do not have the capacity in time, resources, or ability and are simply unable to drive their marketing strategies on their own. Others have some capacity and experience with different aspects of marketing that they can take care of, and outsource the rest.

This is an important topic for my clients and we work diligently to assess and decide what is the best course of action for them. So, when I’m asked the question by the client if they should hire or outsource marketing, my first recommendation is to assess which parts they can successfully do internally and what needs to be outsourced to yield better ROI.

Marketing Responsibilities include: Strategy, Blog and Premium Content Generation, SEO, Social Media, Platforms, Lead Generation and Nurturing, Analytics and Reporting. Each of these components require focus, resources, and ability develop, design, and implement.

I recommend to consider these signs and decide if you should consider outsourcing marketing efforts or have an in-house team to do the work:

  • The salary of an in-house marketing team would cost more than hiring an agency.

  • If it's going to cost you more to do marketing internally, you'll want to consider outsourcing the job. Marketing service packages can be more affordable than hiring all the full-time employees that you need to do the work.

  • You don't have the resources to implement a full marketing strategy.

  • Developing, designing, and implement marketing strategy is a full time job and requires full-time focus. Whether you lack the time or the manpower, hiring an agency could be great solution.

  • Do you know all the dos and don’ts, best practices, modern techniques, and disaster avoidance foresight to optimize all the components of marketing?

  • Do you understand all the latest, complex, and sometimes experimental marketing Technics or technology that would allow you to maximize on all your marketing opportunities?

  • Would you benefit from the agency resources such as Google Partner that would mean consistent training, certification, and best practices for platforms like AdWords, Google Analytics, HubSpot partners

Each business is unique. I help my clients to assess and decide how much work they hand off to an agency, which depend on specific needs of the organization. Marketing costs money, however, it will be even more costly if your marketing efforts are inefficient, do not talk to your potential customers and you are not seeing the ROI. In such scenario, it’s time to reassess and change the strategy.

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