Should you outsource your marketing?
There are two approaches to marketing: in-house and agency.
In-house marketing is performed by you or people employed by you, while agency marketing is performed by a third party company.
Typically, marketing agencies focus on paid advertising. You can also hire consultants or freelancers to help with content, social media, email marketing, and SEO.
I’ve managed an in-house marketing team for a $7.5M company and I now own a marketing agency, so I have experience with both models. They each have their pros and cons, including time, cost, and flexibility.
If you’ve been doing your own marketing and you’re wondering whether or not you should outsource to an agency, here are some questions to consider.
What do I enjoy doing?
You should spend your time doing things that are meaningful. If you enjoy creating content and connecting with people on social media, great. If not, you should consider outsourcing so you can focus on doing what you want to be doing.
What’s my budget?
You get what you pay for, so if you have a tight budget (or no budget) for marketing, then I would recommend doing it yourself as long as you can. With that said, think about how much your time is worth. What could you be doing if you weren’t spending your time on marketing?
What are my goals?
If your practice is pretty full and you just need to book a few more clients, then you may not need to invest in marketing. But if you want to grow, and grow quickly, then you should consider investing in marketing. Ideally, you’ll see a positive return on investment (ROI).
I’m biased, but I agree with tech CEO Rand Fishkin’s argument in this article that you should hire agencies and consultants for everything you can.
If you want to keep doing your own marketing, then I’d recommend at least hiring a marketing consultant to perform an audit of your website and social media channels to identify “easy win” opportunities to improve. This is a service I offer. I also offer ongoing coaching if you want to go deeper.