Need Outside Marketing Help? Should You Hire an Agency or a Freelancer

Both are valuable, but only one can scale alongside you.

Let’s get one thing straight: freelancers are super valuable for marketing. In fact, we work with many freelancers at the agency right now, and they bring tremendous value to our business.

And before joining Thrū Content, I was one myself.

With so much on-demand availability of highly skilled content and marketing talent, marketing executives have never had many options to selectively staff different initiatives and programs.

But how do you know when to hire whom?

The answer varies, of course, depending on your needs. As someone who’s been on both sides of the fence, let’s explore how to figure out which resource may be the right fit in common everyday scenarios.

Promise, no boring stuff.

You’re scaling your marketing efforts

Your business is poised for growth, and by some miracle, your marketing budget has finally stabilized after years of uncertainty and shrinking.

However much we wish it — time is not expandable.

One way or another, you’ll need external help.

Whether you hire a freelancer or a digital agency will depend on many factors. Scale is one of them. There’s only so much work freelancers can take before their calendars start fraying at the edges. Agencies, on the other hand, have a much bigger bandwidth and can tackle bigger projects for longer.

Another factor is the number of specialisms. Freelancers may specialize in one or two categories, whereas agencies can cover a broader and more diverse scope of work.

Neither is better over the other, though.

If you’re looking to scale your efforts and implement many new initiatives but have no budget to hire an in-house staff, then agencies are your pal. You could still opt to hire multiple freelancers, but then you’re stuck managing more personalities, work styles, timelines, and onboards. Kind of the opposite of the efficiency you’re looking for.

If, however, you need someone to handle an occasional project for you without any bigger, long-term commitments, then the freelancer route may be better for you.

Below, we explore both scenarios in more detail.

When Are You Better Off Hiring a Freelancer?

The freelancer market has exploded since COVID-19 as highly skilled professionals seek more flexibility, fulfillment, and better pay. Businesses, on the other hand, have embraced this wave of on-demand talent as they require less financial commitment and offer more talent flexibility.

Freelancers can bring many benefits to your business.

Here are some of the scenarios when you may need to hire a freelancer over an agency:

• You need ad-hoc support on small-volume projects;
• You have a big in-house team and need someone to take on the occasional spillover;
• You work in a very technical area that requires a senior subject matter expert in that field;
• You’re on a very tight budget;
• You’re testing things out before committing to a bigger strategy;
• You’re only looking for a short-term, fresh perspective;

Ultimately, you have to decide what’s best for your business and your team. A good freelancer will cost less than an in-house staff, yet it will give you all the benefits and flexibility of having an in-house employee.

When Do You Need an Agency?

If freelancers are great for short-term, small-scale projects, agencies are excellent for handling larger initiatives or projects that require a different portfolio of skillsets.

Let’s explore these in more detail.
You’re expanding your portfolio of assets
Here’s one use case where you may need an agency over a freelancer.

You’re building a diversified portfolio of assets.

You may be able to do it with a freelancer if you only want to grow the number of blogs you publish each month.

But what if you wanted to create an infographic?

Or generate a brand new report based on original research?

Your freelancer may be good, but they likely can’t handle all that work. Agencies can not only act as a one-stop shop for generating all types of content (video, audio, animation), but they can also offer advice on strategy design and new media you haven’t thought of.

Even if, by some stroke of luck, you did find that one freelancer who was a writer, designer, and researcher all in one, how do you know they aren’t taking time off exactly when you need them? Or aren’t already booked up with other client work (gasp!) for the next six months?

When you’re working with an individual, you face time and volume constraints.

Agencies, on the other hand, are able to better allocate resources around a planned time off.

Agencies who know your business can translate that knowledge across campaigns and deliverables, making sure that your brand voice always comes through. For instance, good agencies will allocate a main point of contact who can easily apply your brand voice across different formats and generate detailed briefs that keep the whole team on the same page.

You serve more industries
Here’s the real kick in the teeth for most freelancers. Large enterprises serve many industries. Unfortunately, individuals can only specialize in so many areas before their head starts spinning.

Freelancers may be able to write across all markets you serve, but they’d probably be knowledgeable in only a couple of these areas. The other topics may take them longer to complete and may not be to the same standard.

Agencies don’t have that problem. They work with experts and writers from across industries. If you serve both the automotive and manufacturing industries, it’s likely that your agency will be able to handle them both with the same level of confidence and precision.

How to Choose the Right Agency for You?

Even though agencies have more bandwidth than freelancers, not all are made equal.

Be careful who you partner with because, whoever you hire, you’d be entrusting them with creating the first impression prospects would have of your brand. Not a negligible task.

You want to choose an agency that has the following qualities:

• They don’t promise the Earth (never trust anyone who says they can do everything). Instead, they know their strengths and play on them. Perhaps they’re big on SEO or specialize in delivering kick-ass white papers. Those are your peeps.
• They have clients in your industry – sure, you can send an ebook or two to educate them on the latest trends, but you don’t want to be explaining that cloud computing has nothing to do with the weather.
• Finally, they behave like your business partner, not an underperforming employee. They not only deliver what you’ve asked of them, but they use the summative expertise of their people to advise you on best practices, the latest trends, and the best strategy for your business.

Feeling all amped up and ready to go? Want to learn how we help our clients deliver original content across video, audio, and written formats? You know where to find us. We’ll be waiting.