3 Reasons You Should Hire a Marketing Agency

Part of being a successful business owner is making tough decisions as your business begins to grow and scale. Typically, you must choose the right path for your business among several “good” choices. In fact, rarely are these types of decisions that clearly dichotomous. Most of the time, there are two — or more — great options that could both massively benefit your organization, and you wouldn’t be disappointed if you chose either. But, the fact remains that there is usually a “best” option for your business. 

In terms of marketing, one of the top decisions you’ll have to consider is: “Should I hire an in-house marketer or partner with a marketing agency?”

This is a truly difficult decision, and either one might be the right choice for you based on your business and goals or your vision and mission. As an agency, we may be a bit biased, but we believe there are a number of benefits to outsourcing your marketing team. Disclaimer aside, this article’s goal is to highlight some of the top reasons you might consider hiring an agency over bringing your marketing in-house.  

Consider These 3 Benefits 

1. A More Diverse Set of Skills

You can search every job listing, spend hours interviewing qualified candidates, hire the best marketing professional in the market, and add a truly impressive marketer to your staff. But, marketing is an ever-changing industry and landscape. What made someone a truly spectacular marketer last year may not even matter next year. Time is limited, and so are people. Even the best marketers in the industry have areas where they are weak, outdated, or inexperienced. 

This is not always the case when you hire a marketing agency. While most agencies will assign you an account manager, and they will be the person you correspond with the most, they aren’t the only person you have access to. Across the US, the average marketing agency has between 6-12 people working for it. Each one of these people has their own set of skills and strength areas that can be accessed to support your business’s marketing strategy. 

For example, when you hire an in-house marketer, they may be the Tom Brady of social media but don’t know the first thing about ad buying. As such, you’ll be paying them while they learn the latter — if this is a part of your marketing strategy — and learning doesn’t come without its share of mistakes. 

In short, we don’t live in a bubble. Hiring a marketing agency gives you access to several different marketers and marketing-adjacent professionals who are there to support your business’s goals and strategy. If there are areas where your account manager is weak, you can rest assured that they have someone sitting just across the room who isn’t and can help direct them to a solution that best serves your business.

2. Access to the Top Marketing Tools and Practices

In the last couple of decades or so, marketing has gone from a profession that was rather clearly defined to one that is in a constant state of change and growth. The advent of online advertising, social media, search engines, and digital nativism has altered the landscape of marketing and continues to do so regularly. To stay relevant, marketers today need to spend hours on professional development and invest in the top tools in the industry. 

Training and tools aren’t cheap, and when you hire an agency, you get access to their suite of tools and can trust that their employees will be regularly trained and educated to stay on the cutting edge of marketing. When you hire an in-house marketer, as the business owner, you will be solely responsible for investing in your employee’s growth and access to the newest technology — something that could end up costing you thousands of dollars per year. 

As an agency, these costs are baked into your contract, and while the cost may be passed along, you share that cost with every one of the agency’s clients. This frees you from the burden of purchasing, testing, and learning the most up-to-date tools and educational curriculum that your marketing partner needs to help grow your business in the current market.

3. A Buffer Against the Headaches of HR Management 

You love the people you work with. You enjoy investing in their growth and development. You truly want to bless them and their families. If you are an attentive business owner, I’m sure you can affirm all of these statements, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that managing people is difficult. There are office politics, inconvenient time-off requests, awkward personal or work habits, and a slew of other items we need to navigate when hiring and retaining top employees. 

When you hire a marketing agency, HR is not your responsibility. Someone else is accountable for resolving conflicts, addressing distractions, and having a hard conversation with someone when they clip their nails at their desk. In other words, hiring an outside marketing team allows you to focus more of your time and energy on your business and less time in it.

Is Hiring a Marketing Agency in Your Company’s Best Interest?

Ultimately, the answer to the question “Should I hire an in-house marketer or partner with a marketing agency?” depends on your business’s unique goals and situation. Hiring an in-house marketer may be the perfect solution for your business in its current season, but if any of the above points are connected with you on an individual level, it may indicate that you are ready to hire a marketing agency. 

If that’s you, we’d love to chat. Knowing where you are is a great starting point, but we’d love to discuss how a marketing agency can best serve your business long-term. At PHOS Creative, you don’t just hire a marketer, you get an entire marketing agency that is full of digital marketing professionals, graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, and more — all with diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and tools dedicated to helping you and your business attain your goals.