Why this idea means business : We explore your choices when you realise you need some marketing help. Learn the deciding factors between recruiting someone, appointing an agency and hiring a consultant.
How much is this idea worth?
Idea : To get the right type of expert help to improve the impact of your marketing activities. Based on our standard business case assumptions, the value of this idea is :-
- Source of business – More customers
- Skill area – Marketing
- Commercial hypothesis :-
- # customers = 1,000
- Spend/month = $100
- Est. new customers = +100 (+10%)
- Est. sales increase = +$10k (monthly) | +$120k (annual)
Help! I need somebody.
A classic Beatles lyric, yes, but it’s also a recognisable moment for anyone who runs a brand. It’s great when you can handle all your marketing activity yourself. But at some point that becomes too much. Or something crops up that you just don’t have the skills to do yourself.
You have 3 options when this happens :-
- recruit a marketer.
- appoint an agency.
- hire a consultant.
Recruit a marketer
Recruiting a marketer seems like the obvious way to go, right?
But it’s not that simple.
For a start, you have to decide whether to hire them on a permanent or temporary basis.
Recruiting a permanent employee means that you expect there to be enough ongoing marketing work to justify the cost of employing them.
This usually means brand management or market research, as these are the areas which usually have the most ongoing work.
However, recruiting a permanent employee means you’re making a long-term commitment. You’re committing time, effort and money to leading and managing them. You commit to helping their career progress and keeping them motivated and rewarded.
A temporary recruit, on the other hand, is obviously a more short-term commitment. You hire them to do a specific task, and when that’s done, the commitment ends. For example, leading a project team to launch a new product. But after it launches, it’s managed by someone else in your team. With this sort of marketing help, you don’t have so many leadership and management obligations. But there’s also likely to be less commitment from them too. They’ll do what’s agreed, but have no incentive to do more than that.
Temporary employees are often sought when there’s a need for specialist skills on a project, e.g. design work, copywriting, building a website.
The good thing about recruiting employees is that they become an integrated part of your business. But of course, you have to first check that they’ll be a good culture fit with the rest of your team.
However, this also means that they can’t give you an “outside” view of your business. And they’re less likely to challenge your thinking for fear that it’ll cost them their job.
When recruiting a marketer is the best marketing help choice
The Instinctive Izzy part of our brains had this to say about recruiting a marketer.
Recruiting a marketer is best when you know the marketing job to be done. You might not know the exact detail of it, but you’re clear on what’s needed.
Manage a brand. Lead the market research. Deliver a project. It’s nice and simple in that you’re only dealing with one person.
But you have to be prepared to take on all the obligations that go with employing someone. And be confident you can find the right person. Recruiting someone is a commitment.
Appoint a marketing agency
The next most common way to get marketing help is to hire a marketing agency.
There are many different types of agencies offering many different types of marketing help. For example, advertising, media buying and digital marketing.
The good thing about agencies is that they give you access to skills and tools that would be hard to find on your own.
For example, they can hire film crews when you need to make a new advert. Hire copywriters when your sales promotion needs a new tagline. They handle the sourcing, managing and payment of this extra expertise.
Of course, you have to pay for this help. That’s usually in the form of :-
- fees – regular monthly (retainer) payments for the core team on your business.
- project-specific costs – to deliver a specific piece of activity. e.g. a new advertising campaign.
However, managing agency relationships can be tricky. You’re often locked into a long-term contract, and it can take time to extricate yourself if they underperform. They may not always be able to keep the same people on your account, so consistent quality of delivery can be an issue. And many prefer you to work with their processes rather than adapting their processes to fit yours. (See our marketing agency evaluation article for more on this).
When appointing an agency is the best marketing help choice
The Emotional Eddy part of our brains had this to say about appointing an agency.
The great thing about working with agencies is that you build a relationship with them. They get to know you, you get to know them, and they’ll support you in what you need to do because that’s what they’re there for. They can also make life very easy if the marketing help you need is clear and obvious. Need a new sales leaflet? Look after your SEO? Easy.
But like any relationship, you have to work at it. And it’s no fun when it goes wrong. Plus, it’s hard for them not to be biased. Their future income depends on you buying their services, so their recommendations will always skew towards what they offer. And that may not be the type of marketing help you need.
Hiring a marketing consultant
Your final marketing help option is to hire a marketing consultant.
You get someone with the right expertise to help you solve your problem. However, you’re hiring them essentially as a business partner to deliver a specific service, rather than as an employee. So, there are fewer leadership and management requirements versus hiring an employee.
And unlike with an agency, you’re generally not locked into a long-term contract.
You give them a brief. They give you a proposal with costs and timings. If you both agree, you sign a contract, and then they do the work.
On the plus side, consultants are usually very experienced in their field of expertise. Usually (though not always) more so than agency teams who sometimes pad out their fees with junior and less experienced team members. Plus, because they tend to look more broadly at your business, they’re usually more objective in their recommendations. For example, there’s no incentive for them to point you towards a specific type of activation, because they won’t be the ones who deliver it.
However, it can be challenging to find the right type of consultant for your needs. Small consultancies might not be able to cover everything you want. Large consultancies can often over-complicate the process and be expensive. You want the consultancy to be big enough to help solve your problem, but not so big that they make it worse.
When hiring a consultant is the best marketing help choice
The Logical Lou part of our brains had this to say about appointing an agency.
Hiring a consultant is usually best when you don’t know exactly what you need. Because they’re experts in their field, they can help organise your thinking and work out what specific marketing help you need.
Of course, there are many different types of consultant. The key is to find one that gets what your problem is. Ideally, they can share examples of when they’ve solved similar problems to the one you need marketing help with.
When they’re done, they should leave you with a lot more knowledge in their area of expertise.
Conclusion - What sort of marketing help do you need?
In an ideal world, you’d be able to solve any marketing challenge that comes your way, without the need for external marketing help.
But clearly, there’s no such thing as an ideal world.
So, you’ve got 3 options.
Recruit a marketer. That gives you a specific person within your business to take on your marketing challenge. But it also gives you a new person to lead and manage.
Or appoint an agency. They’ll gladly take on tasks from you, and it’s in their interests to keep you happy. But they may not always give you the answers you need to hear, and you can end up stuck in a contractual relationship with them if you’re not careful.
Or hire a consultant. You’ll get expert advice and support to solve your marketing challenge. And when it’s solved, then you’re done with them. However, you’ll need to put time and effort into finding the right one to meet your needs.
Obviously, as marketing consultants ourselves, we have our own thoughts about which of these marketing help options works best. But don’t let that sway you. You’ve always got choices, and there’s no shortage of people offering to give you marketing help.
Check out our start here page and agency types article for more on this. Or get in touch if you’re unsure what type of marketing help you may need.
Photo credits
Conversation : Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash
Open plan office : Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Two men working together at a desk : Photo by Nik MacMillan on Unsplash
