In-House Vs. Agency Marketing

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BLACK SHEEP DIGITAL MARKETING
In-House Vs. Agency Marketing
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WHAT DOES IN-HOUSE MEAN?
In-house
simply means hiring a full team of marketing
specialists to manage every aspect of your
companys digital marketing. This usually
includes a marketing manager, marketing
coordinator/project manager, paid advertising
specialist, SEO specialist, web designer and
developer, and a social media/PR Manager.
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WHAT IS A MARKETING AGENCY? WHAT DO THEY DO?
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Now Let's Dive Into The Important Matters
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1
If you asked any marketer about policy changes in
2019 they would go off like a drunk aunt at
thanksgiving dinner. This is important to note
because tactics and strategies that once worked
are not guaranteed to work in the future.  This
is the first question you need to ask yourself,
are you going to invest your time and money into
training your staff? If the answer is no, an
agency is the only feasible option for you.
Luckily for you, the relentless search for newer
and better digital practices are the pride and
joy of most digital agencies.
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Marketers are naturally creative individuals that
are rarely satisfied with the status quo.
However, if they arent around like-minded people
they will often feel isolated and bored which
will lead to complacency or them quitting. This
is one of the reasons why in-house marketing
roles have the highest turnover rate of any job
function at 17. Marketers are at home in
agencies. Happier people produce better results,
its as simple as that. Are you going to put in
the time to build a cohesive and effective team?
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Do you know what makes an effective marketing
team? An Achilles heel to most in-house teams is
the lack of diversity in team members. Within
marketing, there are roles that favor both
right-brained and left-brained individuals
(creative or analytical). Hiring someone in-house
who possesses all of these skills is possible,
but finding an individual who is proficient at
everything is very unlikely. It is highly advised
to push individuals to excel in one area over
being a jack of all trades, and so to create a
team of experts youll need more than a handful
of people.
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If you were to hire and build a very basic team
in-house it would cost (On average, in
Vancouver, BC as of December 29,
2019.) Marketing Manager  61,432  Marketing
Coordinator/Project Manager  44,022 SEO
Specialist  45,361 Paid Advertising
Specialist  47,186 Web Designer and
Developer  56,002 Social Media Manager 
50,231
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For salaries alone, this comes to a grand total
of about 304,234 per year. This does not include
other implicit costs including, utilities,
workspace expenses, bonuses, benefits, sick days,
vacations, etc. This also does not include the
cost of tools and software to work more
effectively. Most marketing vancouver teams spend
hundreds to thousands every month on software
alone. Another distinct advantage to agencies is
how cost-effective they are. You are only paying
for activities that move your revenue needle
forward and nothing else. Most agencies, ours
included, have a retainer fee and the advertising
spend (which is paid directly to Facebook/Google)
and that is it. No hidden costs. How much are
you willing to spend? Are you prepared for hidden
costs?
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Vetting individuals is a lot harder than vetting
a company. When trying to hire an individual,
its often hard to tell what results in their
portfolios were directly attributable to them as
opposed to their entire team. However, in an
agency, the results we achieve are ours alone.
This allows us the ability to create case
studies, gather testimonials, and provide more
transparency into our results and our
capabilities. This largely lowers the risk of
signing with an agency. Now lets say you put up
a posting for a marketer, interviewed them, hired
them, set them up in your building, you let them
get to work, only to realize they arent able to
pick up the slack? What then? Rinse and repeat
until you find a suitable candidate? How long
would that take?
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Finding people who directly align with your
companys values, vision, and culture is no
simple task. Generally speaking, this is easier
to hire internally. An internal staff member has
a much deeper understanding of how the company
works, how the staff interact, as well as the
businesss story. In this respect, we think
keeping the voice and social media inside the
business is the way to go. Who understands your
business the best?
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What We Believe Is The Recipe For Online Success
In todays world, authenticity and transparency
are reigning supreme. People like seeing the
nitty-gritty, the not-so-polished, and the behind
the scenes. People respond best to what cant be
scripted. In this respect, it is better to hire
someone internally to document the behind the
scenes, manage the brands voice and create
content. As for the amplification of the content
and voice, the most cost-efficient and effective
option is to hire an agency. With this
combination, you will be able to maintain your
brand without diluting the voice/feel while
allowing specialized professionals to optimize
all other avenues of your online presence.
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ARE YOU GOING TO INVEST YOUR TIME AND MONEY IN
TRAINING YOUR STAFF?
ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IN THE TIME TO BUILD A
COHESIVE AND EFFECTIVE TEAM?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING
TEAM?
To Summarize
When you are thinking about your online marketing
growth, you need to keep a few things in mind
HOW MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO SPEND? ARE YOU
PREPARED FOR HIDDEN COSTS?
HOW LONG ARE YOU WILLING TO WAIT BEFORE SEEING
RESULTS?
WHO UNDERSTANDS YOUR BUSINESS THE BEST?
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VISIT US AT
BLACKSHEEPDIGITAL.CA