Looking at Cost - Should you hire a Marketing Agency or employ an Internal Marketing Team?
Being a South African, you may currently be experiencing tough financial times. Downgraded to junk status mere weeks ago, our economy may have reached rock bottom – as such business owners and other professionals are scaling down on expenses. And rightly so. Decision-makers have a responsibility to their staff, employers and colleagues.
Luckily, in the Digital Age, the best marketing channels available are cost effective and easy to set up and use. Never before have we had such an amount of marketing platforms within our reach and with today’s technology at our fingertips, our marketing efforts can be measured and analysed to the finest detail.
When considering marketing expenses, many business owners may feel that it is more cost effective (and convenient) to employ an internal team to run with marketing campaigns – but, tough economic times calls for smarter marketing. Whether you have one single person employed to take care of all your marketing or a whole team, the time and effort involved in finding the right employees, with the perfect skill-sets and capability to manage your marketing campaign’s conceptualisation, strategy, execution and optimisation might be time and effort you simply do not have available.
When looking at the current costs of an internal marketing team, you also have to consider other overheads such as:
- Work-stations, which may include scanners, printers and laptops
- Office supplies that may include ink cartridges, paper, a variety of stationary items
- Office Furniture
- Monthly subscriptions e.g. stock photo’s to cater for creatives
- Ongoing training (B-BBEE requirements)
- A variety of other costs such as internet access, telephone lines, coffee, tea etc.
When considering all these factors, it’s becoming clearer why more and more business owners and professionals are turning to Marketing Agencies such as The Media Clique to take care of their marketing needs. The individuals on an agency team are already pro’s at what they’re doing and have the much desired skills and training to best assist you with your strategy and desired outcomes. Hiring an agency also means you’re paying one fee per month for the expertise of several individuals including Social Media Marketers, SEO consultants, Professional Copywriters, Analysts and Graphic Designers (to name but a few). A Marketing Agency is quite literally your one-stop shop.
Other benefits include:
- You gain access to all the tools – content curation tools, tools that find backlink opportunities, tools that find audiences, tools that predict successes and tools that gives fantastic reporting;
- Individuals with their fingers on the pulse – a Marketing Agency employs individuals who never falls behind on technological trends and the latest advancements (from algorithms to social tactics) that will guarantee attention to detail when executing your campaign;
- An Agency already has the team, saving you the money you would have spent on an employment agency, ads, salaries and other HR functions. You acquire the best talent, with none of the risks involved in hiring employees;
- It’s a team of experts – instead of having one or two employees stretched too thin filling multiple positions, an Agency has the perfect people in the positions needed to get you the results you require;
It’s worth your while to consider the benefits of hiring a Marketing Agency not only to save costs and other logistics but also the benefits of building a relationship with a team of experts to achieve your campaign objectives.
