Your operations team is swamped and you have neither the time nor the experience to handle your marketing efforts. So, you decide that you want to outsource these efforts only to reach the dilemma of working with a freelancer or a marketing agency.
Unfortunately in this fast-paced working environment, it’s almost impossible for a business owner to handle every single aspect of his business from communications, customer service and marketing. Luckily, there are a variety of solutions out there to help you get your business to where you want it to be.
One of which is outsourcing your marketing efforts.
Now, you must be thinking which is better: working with a freelancer or a digital marketing agency?
Read on for a very unbiased and objective guide to working with a freelancer vs engaging a digital agency.
What to Consider Before Working with a Freelancer and Digital Agency
1. Costs
In short, the reality is that freelancers tend to be less expensive overall.
All freelancers do not necessarily charge the same prices. For example, some freelancers may work with a freelance agency where the prices are pretty low. Then some freelancers may work independently without being associated with a freelance agency, which means they may take the liberty to charge higher prices.
The price per task could also depend on the freelancer’s experience and portfolio.
You will need to shop around to find a freelancer that is within the range of pricing that you are willing to pay, though they still usually are less expensive than a digital marketing agency.
Working with a freelancer might be cheaper upfront, but they are limited in various ways as well…
2. Tools
Digital tools are expensive, to say the least.
It’s quite rare to find a freelancer who would have access to cutting-edge tools like Moz and AHREFS.
Most established digital marketing agencies should have the financial resources to be able to invest in many different types of beneficial tools that will aid them in the more varied types of services that they can offer to their clients.
3. Urgent requests
Every business owners nightmare: “Error 404: The Page Cannot be Found”
When your website crashes or falls off the first page of Google, you need to troubleshoot immediately.
You may not be able to wait for an extended period of time for the work to be done. This is where having a freelancer jump in and fix the issue could help.
This is based on the reality that freelancers have a strong reputation of being more easily contactable than a digital marketing agency that can only be contacted within certain hours or that takes longer to answer emails.
The freelancer is also usually able to get the request fulfilled in a much quicker time frame for you in comparison to a digital marketing agency that usually takes longer to complete projects or that only completes projects during certain business hours.
Freelancers tend to be more flexible with the times that they work on projects in order to accommodate their clients.
That is not to say, however, than digital marketing agencies will take forever to attend to urgent requests. But bear in mind that most agencies have multiple clients on hand.
4. Turnaround time
When you have a project that is not deemed to be in the urgent category, you may want to opt to use the services of a digital marketing agency.
This is particularly true for when you need work done on a project that is complex that will require many detailed parts and various levels of expertise for the project. This is based on the fact that the digital marketing agency has a vast support team.
The members of the team of the digital agency, therefore, will likely be able to get complex jobs done in a quicker turnaround time in comparison to a freelancer who is just going solo.
Not only will they have the tools on hand, but agencies would have the experts with the knowledge and experience to handle the job.
5. Fresh Ideas
When you are in need of fresh ideas for your business or your endeavours, then you should strongly consider using the services of a freelancer.
This is based on the premise that freelancers are excellent sources in being able to provide you with new ideas. They tend to be creative and think outside the frame lines, which can be highly beneficial for you when you need a new and interesting approach to a particular situation or piece of content.
On the other hand, a digital marketing agency may be more corporate in its approach, which can provide stagnation in terms of generating new ideas. However, this also depends on the overall business strategy of the agency.
6. Results-proven Strategies
If you are looking for true results-proven strategies, you are better off going with an agency than a freelancer.
This is because of the reality that there are some digital marketing agencies that have been around for several years, which means that they likely do have much relevant experience to work on your various projects.
Agencies do indeed have real expertise to support their ideas and work that they perform for you, which will give you confidence and peace of mind that the work they do for you will be done with a high standard of excellence and will meet your objectives.
On the other hand, a freelancer can enter the workforce anytime. They might not have the wealth of knowledge or the experience a professional marketer of 10 years would have.
With this in mind, working with a freelancer might not work long-term. With an agency, you have backup support from the agency’s operations team as well as legal procedures to ensure you get what you paid for.
Who Should I Hire?
Ultimately, this depends on your business goals.
Before approaching an agency or a freelancer, take a step back and assess your business processes and budget. Find out where your business needs support and what kind of support your business needs. Think about your long terms goals and whether the vendor you are approaching can commit.
