In-House or Outsourced Marketing. What Are You Actually Paying For?
At some point, most growing businesses face the same marketing question.
Do we hire someone, or do we outsource it?
The obvious place to start is cost. Put a marketing salary next to an outsourced monthly fee and see which number looks better.
But that isn't really a like-for-like comparison.
Because you aren't simply choosing between two costs. You are choosing between two different ways of getting your marketing done.
An In-House Salary Isn't the Whole Cost
Hiring gives you something genuinely valuable: someone inside the business, close to the team, customers and day-to-day decisions.
But salary is only part of the cost.
There is recruitment, employer costs, software, training and the management time involved in supporting them. And depending on the role, there may still be specialist work to buy elsewhere.
Because one marketer rarely does everything.
Someone who is great at strategy and content may not also be an SEO specialist, designer, web developer, paid media expert and data analyst.
So the real question isn't simply “What does a marketing person cost?”
It is “What will we still need around them?”
What Are You Buying When You Outsource?
With outsourced marketing, the cost works differently.
Rather than relying on one person's skillset, you can access different expertise when the work requires it.
Strategy one week. Copywriting the next. Design, digital campaigns, SEO or website support when they're needed.
You are also buying capacity.
Marketing has a habit of slipping down the list when client work gets busy. An outsourced team gives someone clear responsibility for keeping it moving.
That doesn't make outsourcing automatically better. But it does mean the monthly fee shouldn't be compared with salary alone.
The better comparison is capability against capability.
Sometimes In-House Is the Right Answer
If there is enough consistent work to keep several marketing skills busy, someone needs to be immersed in the business every day, or marketing is central to daily operations, building an internal team may make complete sense.
Outsourcing can work well when you need a broader mix of skills without needing every specialist every day.
And sometimes the best answer is both: someone internally who knows the business deeply, supported by external specialists who fill the gaps.
There is no prize for choosing one model over the other.
The important thing is choosing the one that works for your business.
Compare What You Get, Not Just What You Spend
Before deciding, look beyond the headline number.
Ask:
What skills do we need to achieve what we're trying to do?
Do we need those skills every day, or at different points throughout the year?
Who will set the direction and make sure the work actually happens?
What else will we need to pay for whichever route we choose?
Those answers give you a much more useful comparison than salary versus monthly fee.
A lower cost isn't good value if important work is left undone. And paying for expertise you rarely need isn't particularly efficient either.
Choose the Model, Not the Cheapest Number
There isn't a universal answer to in-house versus outsourced marketing.
So instead of starting with:
“Which option costs less?”
Try:
“What do we need our marketing to do, and what skills will it take to do it well?”
Then compare the true cost of getting there.
That's a much better basis for deciding whether to hire, outsource or use a combination of both.
Build the marketing support that fits your business
At EWO, we provide outsourced marketing support for businesses that need access to experienced marketing skills without building every specialism in-house.
If you're weighing up your next marketing hire against outsourced support, let's work out what makes sense for your business.