In-house marketing teams are useful, go-to people that will know your business very well. Hopefully they understand your brand values, how to maximise on your positioning in the market, how to promote your proposition and how to use your corporate identity for maximum effect. What they may not be able to do is offer a plethora of marketing knowledge, fresh ideas or specific experience in certain areas of marketing. Consider recruitment advertising for example, often brand guidelines will be restrictive for recruitment advertising where you are trying to say a lot in a small space or where there is a requirement to target the passive jobseeker through the right media channels. Would your in-house team know how to reach these candidates using the best channels?
Making good use of new media
Social media is a growing area of opportunity to engage with customers but with so many options how can you be sure you will get a good ROI? Specialist knowledge of Pay per Click, Content management, programmatic advertising is just for starters! Speaking to employees through an effective Employee Engagement Programme requires a different tone within your messages to the commercial tone required to speak to your customers. External creative teams will have a different viewpoint on a brief and will deliver up fresh ideas. They will also be familiar with the bigger picture of your market sector, as undoubtedly they will be working with other types of business that have used different techniques to engage with stakeholders that can be applied to your campaign. Sharing the knowledge has very deliverable benefits.
Sharing the knowledge
What we’re saying here is that outsourced marketing is the way to plug any gaps and support your in-house team – providing you find the right partner.
These days, a business will need a set of wide reaching skills that understand the many facetted aspects of marketing and this is best achieved by having a team of multi-skilled designers, social media experts, advertising, PR and digital experts. An internal marketing team with the full set of skills can come at quite a price – especially if you include web developers and creative directors who can command a decent salary. Add it all up and the cost of running an internal marketing team doesn’t come cheap.
Cost effective and fast
Project-based outsourcing with a good agency can deliver all elements of the marketing skill set with fresh ideas and copywriting sitting alongside the latest social and digital media knowledge to add power and impact to any campaign. The cost of commissioning these projects is generally far cheaper than employing these skills on a permanent basis and with an SLA in place and the desire for an agency to build their reputation for reliability and great creative work means you will get excellent value for money and the pressure of the workload taken away from your team.
So a sensible option for companies looking to reduce costs without compromising on quality.
Try before you buy
A good agency will offer free advice and will happily discuss a brief without obligation so there’s nothing to lose. They will have case studies to show what can be achieved and they will have the media and production contacts to buy services at good rates on your behalf. Using a locally based agency will also enable you to hold regular face to face meetings so it becomes very manageable and cost effective.
Depending on what your project requires, you should look for multi-channel agencies who can join up your campaigns and work on several projects at the same time to keep the message consistent and relevant. The relationship between agency and client can be very beneficial and will often last for many years if you choose the right partner. Find one that offers everything you require, trust their expertise and knowledge and you will grow to love them.
