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The advantages include:
- No biase to any particular marketing medium if it is in fact a true marketing company
- More investment in learning and development of the latest in marketing techniques
- They can look at your marketing with an "extra set of eyes" usually ensuring that gaps can be found
- They are independent and can work out where money is well spent, and where it should in some cases go elsewhere
- If you marketing manager has been there for a while, they may still be invested in tradtional marketing, forgeting where their customers really are and how targeted they can be through digital marketing
- A fresh look at your marketing is always an advantage
- Cost-savings with head count, and flexibility to get rid of your agency should they not be performing at a level required
- If you are fortunate to only have one agency with all skills in-house, you will find that the collaborative approach will enhance your marketing capabilities ten-fold
- Creativity is often best outside the office, not inside
- Marketing agencies are kept on their toes, if they are not, you are not doing your job as a client.
The disadvantages of having an outsourced marketing agency:
- If you inherit them; that could mean you end up with same-old, same-old
- They are usually contracted so until that contract period is up, you are stuck
- Your account manager will change over time as marketing is a fickle industry and people love to chip and change jobs
- The cost on the out-set is higher, but long-term and if results driven, can be lower
- The skills stay with your agency; trying getting them back after they leave the fold (impossible!)
- Ultimately you want to develop your team and grow their capabilities - you need an agency prepared to do that with you.
Upskilling internal teams is our specialty. Keeping all the skills and secret sauces for ourselves just means that there is a lot of bad marketing going on in the world and we don't want to be tarred with the same brush.
When choosing an agency, choose one smarter than you. It's no different to being a leader. A good leader surrounds themselves with people that are better than they are.
Enough said!
