There are some general differences between the typical size of a business that would hire a marketing agency compared to one that would hire a single in-house marketing employee:
Businesses that Hire Marketing Agencies:
- Tend to be larger companies that have very broad marketing needs across various channels.
- Often mid-sized to large corporations, high growth startups that need an entire team’s worth of marketing expertise.
- May have national/global presence, complex marketing objectives, focus on rapid growth – hence benefit more from the expansive capabilities of a full service agency.
- Have substantial marketing budgets available – hiring marketing agencies provides access to a diverse skill set at optimized costs.
Businesses that Hire a Single Marketing Employee:
- Usually small or early stage businesses with limited budgets and narrower marketing needs.
- Have simpler marketing goals – typically centered around local marketing, basic social media marketing, SEO etc. which a single employee can handle.
- Often have under $1 million in annual revenues. A single employee is more affordable and their salary is manageable.
- Includes most small businesses like local stores, restaurants, professional service providers etc.
- A single employee can provide a customized, dedicated approach not possible with an agency handling multiple clients.
So in summary – larger, high growth companies benefit more from expansive expertise of marketing agencies while smaller main street businesses are better served by focused efforts of an single in-house marketer.