Not every business is ready for a marketing agency, but when your team is stretched thin and marketing keeps falling to the bottom of the to-do list, it’s time to rethink your approach. Should you hire an agency? Are you ready for a marketing agency? Is your team currently at capacity with day-to-day goals? Are you marketing your business at all?
As a marketing agency ourselves, you might find it surprising that we say not every business needs to hire an agency, and many businesses aren’t ready to hire one. The size of your company, your budget, your team, and many other factors all play a role in whether you’re in the market to hire an agency or, truthfully, if you need one at all.
Whether you’re ready to hire an agency depends on reliability, availability, training, experience, cost, and the level at which your team operates versus an agency.
Allow us to explain.
Let’s say you’re a 10 to 20-person team in a healthcare setting. Your team consists of healthcare professionals working every day to serve community members. You know you need to attract and retain more patients, so you have one of your busy Schedulers begin creating and sharing social media posts.
They’ve never created content for a business before. They went to school for healthcare administration, but they know that more patients are better for business, so they perform the task. At first, it’s not so bad. A few photos here, a free Canva graphic there, but posts begin to become few and far between. So, you ask the Front Office Receptionist to fill in when the Scheduler’s busy with their job of, you guessed it, scheduling.
Let’s take stock of the problems in this scenario. The Scheduler is being asked to wear multiple hats and perform tasks outside of their primary responsibilities. The Receptionist is being pulled away from helping patients to take a quick photo for a social post and figure out how to run a $50 Facebook ad. Yet in the end, there is no reliability, availability, training, or experience for your team to manage social media. But hey, you’re saving money by not hiring an agency! (Right?)
And you’re exhausting your team. So, you might ask yourself, what does a marketing agency really cost?
Our Marketing Agency Readiness Assessment helps you assess your marketing needs, budget, and team to determine whether you’re ready to hire a marketing agency.
A few things to keep in mind if you’re considering an agency, utilizing untrained staff, or hiring a full in-house marketing team. Agencies typically charge $18,000–$60,000/year for their full list of services, including website management, social media, SEO & SEM, strategy, design, and content support. At the same time, untrained staff costs you time and efficiency, and a full in-house marketing team can cost upwards of $400,000 annually.
A full-service agency, such as LŪM Studio, functions as an extension of your team, with a full team of specialists in strategy, design, social media, website, content, and more working together consistently. This collaborative approach delivers stronger results and allows you to focus on your business, something untrained staff simply can’t match. On the other hand, hiring a full in-house marketing team is a great option if you can afford it.
So, where do you stand? Review the graph and answer the self-reflective questions to assess if your business is marketing agency-ready!
- Can I afford to hire a full in-house marketing team?
- Can I afford to hire an agency?
- Are marketing tasks overloading my current staff?
- Are my staff trained/educated/experienced enough in marketing tactics to be efficient and effective?
- What is the cost of taking my staff away from their official job duties?
- What is the ROI on my current marketing efforts?
If answering these questions has you rethinking marketing, it’s time to reach out to a marketing agency. Did we mention we are one easy contact form away to help?!