Should You have In-house or Outsourced Digital Marketing Department?

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3 min read

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a startup or an enterprise doesn’t matter. If you want to build your brand presence, drive high-intent traffic or grow your business, digital strategy is your best bet.

Digital marketing is vast and intensive calling for the involvement of an expert team. But, ask anyone considering going this route—the first question likely to pop up during the consideration stage is whether to opt for “insourcing or outsourcing?”.

In this blog, I’ll discuss both approaches to help you determine the best decision for your business needs.

Pros of Insourcing

Easy accessibility
The beauty of putting together an in-house team is having them within a calling distance. You can sit down anytime for meetings and supervise the team in real-time without relying on communication channels all the time.

Wholehearted approach
When you have an in-house team, they will work on your brand exclusively for the assigned time. While that’s not to say that an external agency will not work dedicatedly on your brand, they’ll have other clients to juggle and divide their time accordingly.

Cultural assimilation
One significant upside of having an in-house digital marketing team is that they will have plenty of time to understand and imbibe your company values. This, in turn, will result in better brand familiarity and translate into more impactful communication and marketing strategies.

Cons of Insourcing

Talent acquisition
Finding and hiring the right people for your company is a time-intensive process. Not to forget, it’s a hefty investment. From conducting interviews to finally having the candidate on board, recruiting talent and maintaining it—takes patience and effort.

Expensive affair
Putting together a full-fledged in-house digital marketing team comes at a massive cost. The list is endless—salaries, taxes, electricity bills, equipment, training, etc. In addition, qualified professionals and specialists are hard to come by, especially within a limited budget bracket.

Limited scope
Given that digital marketing is constantly transforming, you might want to explore other avenues to support your marketing efforts. For example, tomorrow, if you want to try search engine marketing, it will be far easier to get it done from an external agency than hire someone new altogether.

Pros of Outsourcing

Diverse expertise
A digital marketing agency will have a multifaceted team specialising in multiple areas, including content writing, search engine optimisation, performance marketing, web development, etc. When you partner with an agency, you get to leverage the collective skill of an experienced team, allowing you to maximise your ROI and implement daring strategies.

Tools and tech
When you collaborate with a leading digital marketing agency, you also get access to a world of emerging tools and technologies. Moreover, many agencies have tie-ups with marketing and advertising platforms, opening up a vast stream of opportunities to boost your bottom line.

Effortless scalability
Whether you want to run brand awareness campaigns or host pan-India paid marketing activities, a digital marketing agency can handle it all. Moreover, you can test diverse revenue channels and switch to other platforms/services when things don’t work out.

Cons of Outsourcing

Location
There are many digital marketing agencies out there. But the one that ticks all your criteria may be in a different city. That’s not a problem unless you prefer in-person meetings with the agency every now and then. In that case, you go with the one based in your city.

Consistency in communication
The key marker for your online success lies in consistent brand identity and messaging. However, if you keep changing the digital marketing agency every few months, you might not see the desired results.

Control
A digital marketing agency will deliver you the numbers and engagement you expect, provided they are at liberty to do their job. However, if you want to be in charge of every minute decision of the process, an agency’s approach might not work for you.

Conclusion

There is no right or wrong answer regarding insourcing or outsourcing. It all boils down to your brand’s needs. But, if you are a startup or a company trying digital or social media marketing for the first time, I’d recommend going with an agency as it entails far less cost without overburdening you in the initial stages.

Moreover, you can always have the best of both worlds—build a small in-house team for everyday marketing activities and support it with the expertise of an experienced agency.

If you want to kick off your digital marketing journey with a trusted agency with over 20 years of experience, know that we are just a tap away. Call us at +91 88888 66110 or drop a line at sales@ikf.co.in.