27 Mar The Real Costs of In-House Marketing

It feels like it has been a lifelong debate: hire in-house marketing professionals or work with a third-party agency? There are several factors that influence how your marketing dollars will be best spent. Social Spice Media presents the real costs associated with in-house marketing departments and how you can determine which strategy is optimal for your business.  

Take a look at the numbers

Depending on the size of your company, you may have to do some number crunching to figure out what you can truly afford. Smaller businesses may not be able to build an entire marketing department as quickly as larger businesses, but this does not mean smaller companies are closed off to marketing initiatives. You have to determine how much you can afford to spend on marketing, what you need, why you need it, and how long you need it for. Is this a short-term endeavor or long-term plan you want to implement? Do some research to see how much similar companies are spending on marketing. Also, be aware of what your competitors are doing and how much you will have to spend to continue competing with them.  

Salaries and savings

Let’s say you are starting from the ground up with your marketing efforts. You’ve heard the term “digital marketing” thrown around and know you need to implement a plan to compete. Some companies post vague job titles, such as “Marketing Coordinator” or “Digital Marketing Specialist,” but these titles can be misleading. One person cannot do the job of an entire marketing agency. (If they can, they won’t be cheap!) Depending on the individual and level of experience, you could be looking at costs from $30-70,000 a year to hire one marketing expert. If they cannot perform all the duties you need, then you will have to spend more money to cover those inefficiencies as well.   Business2Community provides an infographic listing all salaries of in-house marketing employees. Again, these numbers depend on experience, quality, and title. You can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars developing an in-house marketing team, especially because additional employees can quickly rack up extra expenses for your business. You will spend even more to cover employee benefits, paid leave, and insurance costs. Working with agencies does not cost nearly as much, especially if your agency devises a custom strategy with the right pieces of marketing to bring you success. You could save more money by consulting with a marketing agency, coming up with a plan, and determining what works for your business.  

Marketing 101

Businesses may not be informed on all things marketing because, as a professional, your focus is running a successful company. Marketing agencies understand this and have the staff, internal resources, and time to get what you need done. Marketing agencies have a full staff of writers, content creators, social media experts, graphic designers, web developers, SEO geniuses, and more. They have all the experts you need instead of taking the time to determine a budget, post job titles, conduct interviews, and hope you hire the right candidate to do the job.   How can one person have the time to handle all your company’s marketing? It takes more than one or two people working 40 hours a week to execute an effective digital marketing plan. How could they have time to create content for all your social media profiles and manage them daily? Or develop, plan, and execute your email marketing campaigns? What about getting your business on the first page of Google and keeping you there? Would they know all the SEO tricks to do that? Can they develop advertisements for social media and other platforms? Write engaging copy and design something sleek and professional? Oh…and we can’t forget about developing your company website to ensure it is always updated according to design trends and Google’s changing algorithms?   As skilled as some professionals are, even the best don’t know how to do everything that an entire company can easily handle. Instead of looking for one or two super humans (who probably don’t exist), your business has a greater advantage of working with a digital marketing company.  

The Social Spice Saving and Success Method

We aren’t interested in “nickel and diming” our customers. We live and breathe digital marketing and want to make your business successful with these tools. We offer various packages and flexible pricing based on your specific needs. Our cohesive digital marketing plans include services that work for your goals. If we find that something isn’t working or need to adjust your marketing strategy, we reevaluate to ensure you are always getting the best solution and the best price.   Spice up your digital marketing strategy today by adding some Social Spice! Get in touch with us to learn more about our custom digital marketing solutions that are designed to increase sales and make a lasting impact.