Better for Business: Internal Team or A Digital Marketing Agency?

An internal or in-house team will always have an edge over any external digital marketing agency or a specialised social media marketing agency you hire. The main reasons being they are completely immersed in your brand, have direct access to customer and competition insights, available at every step from product creation to expansion- all this and more, daily! The downside is that their perspective is one-fold, meaning it’s only from the brand’s side and less from everything outside which may cause bias over time.

If you hire a social media marketing agency or a website or mobile app development agency or even a branding agency for that matter- their focus is purely results-driven as per the platforms. Any digital marketing agency you hire, though limited by your specific brand’s knowledge, will always have a fresher perspective to rev up your marketing strategy as per the changing trends. Moreover, having worked with multiple brands from many industries, digital marketing agencies bring along a huge exposure that a brand or product specific team will always lack.

While you have better control over an internal team in terms of accessibility, it won’t be hard to miss that the relationship is ultimately between an employer and an employee. An internal team understands hierarchy, and so, while it strives towards business growth, it won’t overstep boundaries to prove a point. This gives you leverage to steer the brand close to your vision, but it hampers the chance for better routes and different perspectives.

An external digital marketing agency works with you on your brand, even though it is a contract at the end of the day. What sets a digital marketing agency apart though is its ability to take chances and risks if they feel strongly for an idea or strategy. The goal of a digital marketing agency will always be results-oriented because that’s the term of the contract, hence overstepping your opinion may come from time to time. This may more often than not work positively over a hierarchy-driven internal team.

Just to remind you again, one is not better than the other in any of these cases; it purely depends on your needs at this moment. An internal team, as opposed to a digital marketing agency or even a social media marketing agency, essentially has an upper hand in all things related to your brand. But they are also handpicked by you. Their skills are a choice made by you as a business owner. This means you either shell out on experts or find versatile individuals who can manage multiple roles.

Now, an external digital marketing agency comes with lesser knowledge about your brand, but they’ll fill up on diversity in skills and a different perspective with what works in the market. As a business owner, you will be selecting a digital marketing agency based on past performance, client testimonials and the pitch they present for your brand, as opposed to just resumes of individuals. Read more on this in our article on 12 Points To Consider Before Selecting A Digital Marketing Agency For Your Business.

Skills and creativity go hand-in-hand during your decision marking. While an internal team knows your brand, they’re also tied to an operating system set by you. As a marketer, one always wants to innovate and reinvent but there may be a stagnation point especially with an internal team. In most places, either the team becomes complacent, or they get bored and leave because there’s nothing new to explore and learn. Hence, this arrangement works for a shorter term but gets tricky ahead unless the senior management keeps them motivated enough to sustain.

With an external digital marketing agency, diversity is the spice of their work-life! A digital marketing agency at any given time works on multiple brands so the chances of creative blocks are less. The same goes for boutique places- a social media marketing agency specialises in social media trends that keep changing hourly; advancing technological ideas keeps a website or mobile app development agency on their toes almost every month. A minor hiccup though is diversity may lead to overlooking some brands because of demands from multiple projects at the same time.

Everything considered it all comes down to money. With an internal team, you have more control over the output- from quality to content, you may even dictate the strategy! But while you run the show here, behind the scenes your cost will increase drastically. This includes training time, office space, software and tools, computers, varying salaries, etc. All this may rarely reap benefits in the long run due to high attrition rate at junior level as mentioned earlier.

Whereas with an external digital marketing agency, you may choose to opt for an integrated digital marketing agency or specialised boutiques like branding agency, social media marketing agency, website or mobile application development agency, etc. You can control your costs on what service(s) you choose, which experts would you like to work on your projects and easily request to change the resources you are not happy with. The whole headache of hiring, employee management, performance monitoring, exits, appraisals, PFs, Taxes and more is not your worry and you can focus on other important aspects of your business.

Digital Marketing is a field that is ever-changing and ever-evolving. Those who choose to make a career in this field have a constant need to stay updated with the latest. This makes an external team way more handy as compared to an internal team. The general tendency of internal teams, irrespective of any department in an organization, is to get into a comfort zone as they become a part of an industry-specific system with industry-focused colleagues.

Digital Marketing Agencies on the other hand have resources who learn from each other on a daily basis. They come across many learning opportunities on a daily basis and have many knowledge sharing sessions amongst experts from each field. This keeps them on their toes all-the-time and helps them stay updated with the latest, always.

While there are pros and cons to both, it will benefit your business growth ultimately. You can opt for an internal team if your long-term goals are well-defined. You can go for an integrated digital marketing agency for combined talents of experts in the domain. Or choose boutiques like just a social media marketing agency or a website or mobile app development agency depending on the key focus of your business. If you’re finding merit in all, you can try out a hybrid of an internal team and an external digital marketing agency, or an internal and social media marketing agency, where control is better distributed, and a channel of communication is streamlined.

Lastly, if you’re still confused, try to break down your vision and define goals for your business and then go about assigning which goes where- an internal team fits better or an external digital marketing agency. Find out what is best for your business and that can only be answered by you. You can read more on this is another helpful article we have for you – 10 Steps To Create The Right Digital Marketing Strategy For Your Organization.