Should I hire a Marketing Director or a Marketing Agency?
If you’re asking yourself whether you should hire an in-house marketing employee or use that budget to hire a marketing agency – you’re already on the right path. You understand the value and impact marketing can have on your business and are ready to take your organization’s marketing to the next level.
There are pros and cons to each option but here’s why we think you should go with an agency – we may be biased, but we’ll leave it to you.
Tell us what you think! Take our poll at the end of this article.
Strategy
When you’re looking for a marketing partner, your first instinct may be to hire someone with experience in your company’s specific field. But there are many benefits to the fresh perspectives found in industries other than your own. Often, including strategies and creativity from industries outside of yours is what gives your marketing a differentiating competitive edge – this is easy to achieve at an agency full of experts with different backgrounds.
Skill-set
Saavy businesses are those that combine technical expertise with strategic thinking, and this is where we believe in-house marketing managers often struggle to deliver. They are only one person. They are often generalists. And much of their time is spent co-ordinating outside market services.
When you hire an agency, you get the best of both worlds: a team of experts with specific skill sets who can work together collaboratively to execute your vision. Marketing agencies provide professionals who specialize in everything from writing effective copy to designing beautiful graphics. We’re not just a group of creatives—we’re a group of strategic experts who understand how marketing works and the challenges that face it.
Low Maintenance
One of the main reasons companies choose to outsource their marketing is because it allows them to focus on their core business, while still having a marketing team in place.
With an agency, you have a dedicated team that’s focused on marketing and can advise you on best practices—but they’re not internal employees which means you don’t have to worry about hiring, managing and turn-over. You can spend more time focusing on the core business and less time managing overhead costs.
Let’s Talk Budget
Budget is often the clincher in this decision.
While agencies are thought to be more expensive than hiring a marketing lead, consider this: for the same cost of a single employee’s salary, you could have access to an entire team of marketing experts, not just one. In most cases, agencies simply give you more bang for your buck. Here’s how.
Let’s say a typical Marketing Director salary in Toronto is between $70-100,000.
The real cost of an employee doesn’t stop there. We need to add in taxes, CPP, business expenses, benefits – some analysts estimate that you should account for 1.2-1.4 times your employee’s salary when calculating the actual cost.
Your new Marketing Director could cost you up to $120,000/year or $10,000/month.
Now let’s take a look at how far that budget can go at a marketing agency. Prices naturally range but most digital marketing agencies can deliver a variety of services with this monthly budget. For example:
- $2500 Content Marketing
- $2500 Social Media Management
- $3000 PPC / Google AdWords Marketing
- $1500 Email Marketing
- $500 Website Maintenance
Not to mention, agencies are business expenses, tax deductible and usually have a 30 day out clause.
At the end of the day, your marketing solution can be as unique as your company. Just be sure your dollars are going the furthest they possibly can.
Want to talk marketing?
Let’s find the solution that would work best for you. Give us a call for a free, no-obligation consult.