One of the frequently asked questions we get at HIP from business owners is if they should completely outsource their Inbound Marketing or manage their marketing in-house. This decision can rely on multiple factors; cost, employees, and capabilities. The majority of the time the biggest factor in this decision is based on cost.

When a business owner looks at the expense of hiring an agency versus using his own team, the in-house option looks more attractive at first glance. While it may cost less to hire an in-house team now, long term, it is going to cost a lot more. If a company pays just a little more, they can bring on an agency with a small team of specialist – rather than one or two generalists.

While Inbound Marketing can be implemented in-house, you must consider key in-house capabilities such as:

  • strategy development
  • content creation
  • social media monitoring
  • keyword research
  • copywriting
  • graphic design
  • video marketing
  • photography
  • website development

We’ve found it is very tough to hire a generalist who can bring the quality needed to compete with an agency at this day in age. However, having a marketing manager in-house can help all strategies move efficiently and provide a better collaboration relationship.

The main guiding point in any Inbound Marketing campaign is a goal-focused strategy. Inbound marketing is more than just a simple list of actions; it’s a well thought out strategy that focuses on attracting key customers and utilizing content and automation to trigger actions. When initiated by an inexperienced team without a well-planned and researched strategy, it often leads to less than desirable results that ultimately leaves the business owner doubting that Inbound Marketing even works.

To get the most out of your Inbound Marketing within your business you may need an experienced agency that specializes in inbound marketing to help create a “Marketing Blueprint” to help reach your goals. We start the Marketing Blueprint off with an audit of your current website traffic & layout, analysis of your existing content, deep dive into your marketing assets, your sales process and look at your industry trends and competitors to give us a snapshot of your business as it currently stands.

This snapshot will allow our senior marketing consultants to discover intelligence on who your ideal potential customers are and establish a Marketing Blueprint to turn goals into real revenue.

In summary, unless you want to build an in-house team, and you are willing to invest in that team for the long haul, it is probably best to start a relationship with an Inbound Marketing Agency.