It’s a common question in conversations, which is why we thought “let’s lay it all out for you.” Because: what are the advantages and disadvantages of a marketing agency? Will I still have the overview this way? No worries, lots of great questions… But we come with enlightening answers!
Cost, Knowledge, Time and Communication
Under these four criteria, we will explain the distinction between a marketing agency and an in-house marketing team.
Costare often a big point of discussion within both startups and larger companies. Because we don’t want to overspend and it shouldn’t affect profitability. In addition, we don’t want to spend more on a marketing agency when it might be possible to do it in-house more cheaply.
Knowledge is something that time costs to build up. Like cost expressed in money, time is just as costly; both resources are finite. As a result, we want to spend this in the most effective way possible.
Time we have already briefly explained above in connection with knowledge. But building knowledge is not the only thing that takes time, we will explain this further in this blog.
Communication is something we will return to later in this blog, so keep on reading!
What does a marketing agency have to offer?
Many agencies have full teams of three to 30 people and sometimes more who focus on executing online marketing campaigns for multiple clients. This gives a brand access to teams of professionals who have extensive experience in various marketing tactics and can execute them flawlessly.
They often have a number of clients in the same industry. As a result, they not only know how to use digital marketing effectively, but they also know the best practices within that industry. Marketing agencies, therefore, already have many knowledge accumulated and spend their time Daily to learning new trends and strategies. In addition, these teams have a synergy, as they spend five days a week creating and optimizing campaigns. Finally, agencies often attract the highest quality marketers given that they intrinsically find it more challenging to work on multiple clients.
Marketing agencies have access to many capital-intensive tools and then here I’m not talking about Facebook and Google. I’m talking about tools, which they use to collect valuable data. They make this data clear and can use it to optimize many campaigns for clients.
Yes but, ho a minute! Surely I can take this in-house!
Where there is a will, there is a way! But this path can have logistical, time-related and financial snags for many companies.
Taking a marketing team in-house brings several costs with it. First of all, people need to be hired, both recruiting and hiring them costs money. In addition, online marketing is very broad. To have a specialist on every expertise means you need quite a few people. And when you have finally hired a group of people, this eventually has to become a team, and this costs time.
Then, in addition to people, you need materials, such as: computers; software; office supplies and so on. These, of course, are not free and will cost money cost.
Now you have a place for the new in-house marketing team and the people to fill the chairs. Now marketing strategies must be developed! This is a lot of trial and error and optimization, for this you have time needed and you will need a skipper who will manage the marketing vessel. The advantage of an in-house team is that there is a lot of brand knowledge, but knowledge about best practices must be built by the company itself by, like strategy, optimizing campaigns.
So how do I keep track? I can’t see what happens there anyway….
See, now we come to the bit about communication! This can be a pain point for many companies because: “How can I have a grip on something that happens outside my company?” Communication with an in-house marketing team can be almost instantaneous because a company is close to this.
But a good marketing agency is as transparent as glass!
Marketing agencies often have portals, which they use to keep you informed. This is because you can always access this portal. In addition, there will be weekly or monthly calls with current status and future plans.
This piece is largely in your control with a marketing agency. Make sure you have this in writing and there will never be any surprises!
Isn’t a marketing agency more expensive than that!
Starting an in-house marketing team has many speed bumps. It’s not a pop-up tent from the Decathlon. It costs money, a lot of time, and you can’t speed up a second. This makes this your biggest enemy, because you want to grow as fast as possible in a controlled way.
A marketing agency has already set up this entire framework and have already spent the time and no longer have these speed bumps, this allows a marketing team to go full throttle with your brand. You step into a warm home with a team full of dedicated specialists ready to serve you five days a week!
Our approach and vision
At CroudX, we have our own vision and hold this vision close to our hearts. We are creating the largest online shopping boulevard with a focus on: beauty, fashion and lifestyle. Why? So that we can use the best practices cross-client. We do this in cooperation with specialists in each expertise within our field, this allows us to divide the hours among these specialists. This creates a unique situation, allowing us to serve multiple clients. A company cannot replicate this in-house because you would have to fill a huge number of FTEs which directly affects profitability.
Transparency we make a profession in itself, we have the cleanest windows in Amsterdam! Not literally, of course (I think…). We speak to clients on a structured regular basis via videocalls, and in addition we have our own dashboards. These dashboards bring together data from all the channels being used and calculations are made on them. This allows clients to see the current state of affairs in real time, and these dashboards provide innovative insights that work back into strategy.
The result? Many satisfied customers, where we achieve more growth every period. Our secret? Time, cost, knowledge and communication!
