Lo and behold, , we are here to call a spade a spade and clarify once and for all the main differences between having your marketing handled in-house or else outsourced.

First and foremost, here’s the main difference. In-house marketing is having the whole marketing process from start to finish handled by a team / individual who is actually making part of the business. On the other hand, outsourcing the marketing aspect to an agency / consultancy means that you are ‘subcontracting’ the marketers to handle your marketing for you. The outsourcing can be of the whole marketing process, part of it or a combination of tasks.

The knee jerk reaction is simple, why would I engage someone outside my own business to handle such an important role? What do they know about what the business needs? When you delve in deep into the subject, it becomes clear that the advantages are endless.

  • Engaging an actual employee / team is expensive. A variety of skill sets are required for a 360 marketing approach, which means that one person might not have it all. It is true that someone can learn the ins and outs of a business and become an expert on the matter, but still, this takes time and there is always the risk of the individual to just move on.  Then what?

  • Engaging a consultancy team will cost less but you are benefiting from a wide range of skill sets and experiences.

  • Employees rightly so have a right to their vacation leave, they get sick and might look for a different opportunity.

  • A consultancy team is engaged for an established period of time and they are responsible to deliver the plan agreed.  Even if members of the team change, they are to deliver the agreed plan. No additional worries, just pure marketing juice.

The reality is not black or white sometimes grey is the best way forward.

‘The best way forward is the amalgamation of in-house personnel together with an outsourced marketing consultancy in order to offer guidance and expertise. The contribution towards the long term strategy implementation and execution will be tangible and rich thanks to such a collaboration.’