Marketing remains a top priority for businesses in today's highly competitive digital age. To reach their business needs, many brands have built their own in-house marketing teams to save time in executing marketing plans. However, opting for outsourced marketing services is still favored by many brands due to its professionalism and effectiveness.

Both Inhouse Marketing and Marketing Agency have their own benefits for businesses. However, which one is the optimal choice? Let's find out together with M&M Communications in the following article.

What are Inhouse Marketing and Marketing Agency?

• Inhouse Marketing means that all marketing activities of the business are carried out by the company's own team. They are responsible for everything from idea, content, design, even technical tasks such as running advertisements and writing SEO articles, with less reliance on external marketing agencies.

• Marketing Agency or Outsourced Marketing is a unit or company that provides marketing solutions for brands, businesses, and organizations. Marketing Agencies offer a full set of services such as Social Media Management, Performance Advertising, Booking, Branding, Production House, and more. Depending on the client's needs, a Marketing Agency will provide suitable solutions and accompany the business throughout the execution process.

Learn more: Dịch vụ Marketing trọn gói từ M&M Communications 

PROS AND CONS   

1. Marketing Inhouse 

1. PROS

• Inhouse team understanding the brand and having in-depth knowledge about the products and services: When a business builds a marketing team to execute projects, these team members will be the ones who understand the unique points of the products, services, and missions of the brand most thoroughly. The characteristic of an Inhouse Marketing team is that they will invest their intellect into their brand, understand what the brand needs, and what it wants to do to come up with the most concise and accurate plan possible.

• Easy to control, time-saving: Being the ones who understand the product and know the brand's demand, an Inhouse Marketing team can save you a lot of time, including reducing communications time and approval to accelerate the work progress. Moreover, when there are changes or unexpected issues, proposing solutions will also be quicker and more convenient.

2. CONS

• High operating costs: Costs are often the most headache-inducing issue for business owners, and only through experience can they realize that sometimes, "home grown, home made" are not necessarily good. Every month, superiors still have to pay salaries to employees, not to mention other associated costs such as training investment, human resources, etc.

• Creativity is limited: Creativity is an indispensable requirement in Marketing. However, working long-term in an Inhouse environment can sometimes hinder personnel from seeking novelty and diversity. It cannot be denied that Marketing personnel with extensive experience in a specific field will be very good. However, having a multidisciplinary perspective will help them stimulate the development of thinking and come up with more ideas to create countless unique things. 
  
  

2. Marketing Agency 

1. PROS

• Strong capability, high expertise: Perhaps this is one of the biggest reasons for businesses to answer the question of whether to hire an Agency or not. When partnering with an Agency, businesses will work with members who are essential in a campaign such as Planners, Account, Content Creators, Designers, etc. With their ability to work closely and strong marketing specialization, you will have an extremely detailed, meticulous, and professional marketing plan from the Agency.  

• Cost optimization: Projects that undertaken by an Agency typically involve pricing based on the project scope or business models. This means that businesses will pay for specific campaigns over a certain period of time. You will no longer have to worry about personnel issues, planning time, only need to focus on balance costs in company activities to avoid waste.

   

2. CONS

• Challenging to find a reputable agency: For businesses and agencies to collaborate effectively, there will always be issues revolving around costs, expertise, or how successful the project will be. Nowadays, there are many agencies in the market, and you won't know which one is the perfect fit for your business to start the collaboration process.

• Execution time might be longer than expected: Because they work in two different locations, there will be intervals between the business and the agency to fulfill their missions. For example, the agency will research, prepare reports, while the business will monitor progress and provide information. Some timeframes that may extend the timeline include briefing, approval time, idea selection, implementation, and editing time.

Which one should business choose?

1. When should businesses use internal resources?

• Firstly, when a business's marketing campaign is running stable, with an efficient management platform and attracting a significant number of potential customers, you won't need to spend too much time researching an agency to handle this. Additionally, building a strong in-house team will help the business keep up with new marketing trends, facilitating the business process smoothly without relying on external assistance
• Secondly, if you already possess knowledge and expertise in marketing, you will easily identify potential opportunities to guide staff and optimize solutions for your strategy.

2. When should a business need the support of outsourced marketing?

• Firstly, if you are a startup business, lacking the budget to establish an in-house marketing team and need to develop within a limited timeframe. Building an effective marketing strategy requires extensive research and experimentation. A marketing agency can handle all these needs and quickly devise an efficient strategy, optimizing it to help you achieve your goals. 

• Secondly, if your business's personnel may not have sufficient expertise and creativity to generate breakthrough ideas to attract customers. This is easily addressed by agencies, as they are required to have creative thinking and explosive ideas that align with the business's marketing strategy. If your business needs a significant breakthrough in launching products or services, considering assistance from marketing agencies is advisable.

• Thirdly, when a business needs quality that comes with reasonable pricing. This is understandable because agencies can provide comprehensive marketing solutions at a suitable cost, even lower than an in-house team, while still having a full core of   project members and delivering high efficiency.

Conclusion

As a Marketing Agency, we recognize that an outsource team is not always the suitable choice for every business. Therefore, the choice depends on your needs and goals. By carefully evaluating factors such as scale and project characteristics, you can build an in-house marketing team or collaborate with an external company to meet current needs and prepare for the successful future.