Marketing Agency vs. Marketing Freelancer: The Cost
There are several reasons why a business or business owner might find it beneficial to hire a marketing freelancer over contracting a marketing agency. For starters, contracting a marketing agency usually comes with a hefty price tag. Most agencies retainer contracts are anywhere from $2000-$4000 a month. Now, if you are looking for a team of people to completely take over all of your businesses marketing needs and you have that kind of budget (not including ad spend) then hiring a marketing agency makes sense.
If you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget or you just need a particular part of your marketing efforts to be done for your business, then hiring a marketing freelancer makes more sense.
Marketing Agency vs. Marketing Freelancer: The Connections
It makes sense to contract a marketing agency if you are looking for a team of people to take over all or your businesses marketing efforts, however there are some considerations to make before going this route.
Often times agencies will hire sales professionals to meet with you and do your “free consultation” or even the VP or agency owner will be the one on the call to give you the rundown of how the agency will work to meet your marketing needs. While the VP or knowledge sales person will have a great sounding pitch and even some fancy case studies to prove their effectiveness, often times those sales people or the VP of the agency are not the ones actually doing the marketing work for your business.
Most agencies utilize entry level marketers or even outsource the actual marketing work (most of the time to southeast Asia) which means you don’t have a direct connection to the people actually doing the work and sometimes that work may be getting done for pennies on the dollar while the agency you hired marks up the work to make a pretty profit.
If you are a business owner or entrepreneur that wants to have a more direct connection to the marketing work that is being done, then it often times makes more sense to hire a marketing freelancer.
Marketing Agency vs. Marketing Freelancer: The Concentration
Often times business are really just looking to off load a specific part of their marketing efforts or they just need a little guidance to more effective execute their own marketing efforts. Sometimes business just need to get started and need a plan that they can easily execute on their own. In these cases it makes more sense to hire a marketing freelancer to give guidance and to help execute their marketing plans to maximize their budget and increase their return on investment for the business.
Other times though a business might have a good grip on their marketing efforts but realize that they need more concentrated efforts with one particular area of their marketing. For instance, a business owner might know that they need to spend time optimizing their webpage to help increase their organic search traffic but their just don’t have the time to commit regular optimization strategy. This is another case where it makes sense to hire a marketing freelancer.
Other areas that business might consider hiring a marketing freelancer might included:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Management
- Web Design and Development
- Paid Search Advertising Management
- Paid Social Media Advertising
- Email Marketing Management
Marketing Agency vs. Marketing Freelancer: The Conclusion
To conclude, there are several instances that it makes sense to contract a marketing agency and several cases where it makes more sense to hire a marketing freelancer. Depending on your specific situation and marketing needs you will need to make the best decsion for your business and budget.
To recap, it would make more sense to hire a marketing agency if:
- You are looking to completely off load your entire marketing efforts and hire a team manage every aspect of your marketing.
- You monthly marketing budget is no less than $2000 a month (not including additional ad spend)
- You don’t mind not having a direct connection to the people doing the work.
You might consider hiring a marketing freelancer if:
- You want to have a deeper connection to your businesses digital marketing plan and implementation
- You want to work directly with the person doing the digital marketing work
- You only need one aspect of your marketing plan managed
- You need digital marketing guidance or consultation
- You don’t have the budget to contract a full marketing agency
Need more help deciding or help with your digital marketing goals? Let’s get in touch!
I would love to help you explore your digital marketing needs and I even help you decide if you would benefit from hiring a marketing freelancer of marketing agency (even if it’s not me!)
Click below to schedule a free consultation and we will discuss ways in which I can help with your businesses digital marketing goals!
