Should Brands Opt For In-house Digital Department or Outsource via an Agency

It is always a debatable topic when it comes to having in-house staff v/s an outsourced agency for digital marketing; I have seen both sides of the coin. Having  worked for an agency in the past, and now working at Baggit, everything changes and mostly a choice has to be made between the two depending on the need. In the current competitive scenario, an in-house team who practically breathes the brand in & out is the best solution for strategy planning, whereas an outsourced agency has specialised teams that are pulled in during busy periods & major campaigns.

However, Google has certainly made the life of a digital marketer easy by offering them the tools that have improved tremendously, including: Google Adwords, Google Display, Mailers etc. But, to run any twitter campaign, it is quite essential to route it through an agency. During large campaigns, it is good to have an agency working for you as you get additional support and inputs that include creative & strategy advice from an external party, along with in-house department's assistance, who seeds these ideas by writing the brief for the agency.

Niche Agencies are agile, lean & have specific digital expertise. As mentioned above, the one clear advantage of hiring an agency is the diversity of experience they have to offer. Having worked across multiple accounts, in multiple industries & geographies makes all this useful for the brand. It is recommended that the in-house team stays well acquainted with current trends of the market, follow industry leaders and read widely. One of the biggest obstacles of in-sourcing is people fear what they don’t know. This needs to be addressed sooner because this is a cultural issue, which will require people breaking their comfort zones.

Some people find it tough to acknowledge the need to up-skill, making them feel like they have failed. This philosophy relies on the ability to get things delivered fast, track the results and adapt. But does this sound more like your campaigns today?

The limitation of the in house team is that they may not always be ready with fresh ideas, however if they get a pitch done every time at short notice, it does not serve the purpose either. Hastily put together campaigns do not deliver results.

It is absolutely fine to get Agency, freelancers or specialists on board for one-off or specialist task/campaign. But let them take the time required so that the gestation of campaign comes with the desired result. Often there is an argument that companies can’t afford to have additional headcount,
because it counts as operational expenditure. But this is often a wrong way to think about in-sourcing. It is more about up-skilling existing staff, or hiring people with multiple skills, which will eventually reduce the headcount, not increase it.

We prefer to have an in-house team that works towards effective digital marketing. For that, the company must provide the necessary support by various means such as processes, training, buddy-system etc. so that the team can enhance their existing skills. The company must also makes it possible for to interact with industry experts by sending its teams to conferences and also inviting experts from other brands to talk.