To have or not to have a marketing agency?

There’s a question that all companies, at a certain point, will consider: why do I need to hire an agency to do my marketing? Why not just do that work ourselves?

The truth is, yes, doing all your marketing work in-house has its advantages. For instance, it’s much easier to control matters like deadlines, it depends solely on the company’s internal resources and it can achieve better internal cooperation. However, this approach also presents three big disadvantages:

Due to the growing complexity and diversity of the digital landscape, an in-house team can hardly be an expert and in tune with all innovations and progress in all manners of communication, advertising and marketing.
Keeping a team dedicated to marketing, like copywriters, designers, artistic directors, strategists, planners and many other tasks, both for the offline landscape as well as the online – the latter of which involves even more talents and jobs –, is a huge investment that, if not impossible, will at least be extremely convoluted.
A marketing agency, by its nature, manages numerous clients, faces numerous challenges and discovers numerous opportunities in a variety of areas. This know-how and experience is very valuable, with the fact being that an in-house team, focused solely on its company and its projects, cannot compete with the innovation and creativity that comes with an agency that has a diversified client portfolio.

On the other hand, turning to a marketing agency presents advantages that an in-house team, despite how much commitment and experience it might have, cannot replace:

Strategic counseling. Having accumulated knowledge from various projects, the best agencies serve as trusted advisors to help companies create and implement strategies. Agency managers complement a company’s knowledge of the target market with their own experience dealing with various projects and their corresponding markets, therefore knowing strategies and best practices beyond the reach of an in-house team.
Objectivity and perspective. The perspective of an agency is, naturally, much different from that of an in-house team that is directly involved in the business and, consequently, will always be somewhat partial for its own brand and products. Taking into account the importance in marketing of understanding not only the strengths but also the weaknesses of the business, the objectivity of a marketing agency, allied with its experience, is an extremely important advantage, allowing you to upend those weak points and identify opportunities or threats that an in-house team can’t detect.
Professional experience. With years of experience in all kinds of projects, an agency’s team brings operational experience and know-how that an in-house team could only match after years of hard work, and never with the same reach and perspective that the agency brings with its team. Those years of work translate to finely-tuned processes, a greater level of efficiency and the practical capability of those who’ve already worked in all kinds of projects.
Creativity and innovation. A huge selling point of agencies is that they are true sources of innovation and creativity, given that, despite having an equal focus in the client’s results and objectives, they’re also storytellers with the ability to bring innovative ways to communicate with clients and create emotional links between brands and people. Even more important, thanks to their extensive tools and experience in the field, they can find creative solutions for marketing challenges.
Talent. The quality of an agency is measured by the talent of its team, which is why the best agencies, like BloomIdea, are always attracting more talented people and continuously developing their team’s already existing talent. Combined with the diversity of challenges that these professionals face in the variety of projects they’re involved in, this means that the talent level of a good agency is always well beyond an in-house team’s and, consequently, that their experience and results will be better.
Cost-efficiency. As mentioned, the hiring costs of a quality in-house team are far greater than those of hiring an agency to do the same work; in fact, an agency always presents a far more rewarding cost-benefit balance, since their talent level is much higher and the respective cost much lower, not to mention the respective results, than maintain a good in-house team.
Consumer advocacy. An agency not only has greater knowledge of consumers from various areas thanks to its portfolio, but also an approach more consumer-centric than an in-house team, since all its activities revolve around bringing value and creating a connection with consumers. The value proposition of an agency is essentially that of bridging the client and its consumers, bringing innovative solutions and putting communication with the consumer first. With their experience in interpreting the market and understanding users’ real needs, agencies are better suited to communicate directly with consumers and explain to them the advantages of their clients’ products and services.
Focus. Companies have various concerns to deal with beyond marketing, which leads to an in-house team, in reality, being always affected by internal factors and priorities. Meanwhile, an agency is 100% dedicated to serving its client’s needs in its area of expertise – bringing more focus and, consequently, higher speed in fulfilling the company’s goals. Besides that, agencies can answer various needs, focusing on each individually or as a whole depending on the client’s needs.

At the end of the day, the biggest contribute of an agency is the multiplier effect it has on its client: whereas an in-house team is essentially a component of the company, an agency allows its client to optimize their own resources whilst benefitting from the huge impact of an external team, with its added experience, talent and creativity. An investment in an agency, therefore, brings a much greater positive effect than the higher investment of hiring, training and applying an in-house marketing team, which will never have the built-up know-how of years serving various projects.

So, while betting on an in-house team isn’t a bad idea given the previously mentioned advantages, you can complement or outright replace it with an agency. You’ll see the effect that hiring professionals like our team will have on your business.

By Diogo Ferreira