The cost of outsourcing your digital marketing team vs. not

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The decision on whether to outsource digital marketing activity for your tech business versus build or expand on your inhouse team can be a difficult one to make. Whether you’ve recently experienced a lot of growth; you’re looking for a revised go-to market strategy; or you’re looking for an experienced hand to support your already established marketing team, there is a lot to consider and in the technology sector specifically, it’s easy to draw an equal level of pros and cons for both.

For example, if you run an inhouse digital marketing team its focus can revolve solely on your business which comes with plenty of advantages:

• You’ll have more control and input over the entire marketing process and outcome
• You can spend more time educating your team on the nuances of your technology solution(s)

On the other hand, if you outsource your digital marketing needs to the likes of an agency, you’ll not only receive a broader spectrum of skills but you’ll:

• Get more time to focus on profitable business activity
• Gain a faster ROI at a reduced cost
• Access the latest tools, technology, and marketing research

While both offer clear advantages, at the end of the day (like any business decision), it comes down to value. So, what is the cost of outsourcing your tech business’s digital marketing versus not?

What does a high-performing digital marketing team consist of?

Before we even get into the cost comparison of an outsourced digital marketing team versus an inhouse digital marketing team, it’s important to understand what skills are required of a high-performance digital marketing team regardless of where its resources are being drawn from.

In any high-performance digital marketing team you need a broad level of skills to ensure your tactics are not only engaging but technically equipped to attract and engage your audience. Most high-performance marketing teams are generally composed of marketing managers or strategists, marketing coordinators or specialists, and subject matter experts. Find a quick breakdown of each below:

• Marketing managers and strategists – a fundamental role to any successful digital marketing team, marketing managers and strategists will build and drive the marketing strategy of your business to ensure the right marketing tactics and activities are employed by the right people. They’re focused on how the digital marketing team can achieve your goals.
• Marketing coordinators and specialists - they have a good comprehensive understanding of all digital marketing channels and are responsible for the execution of approved activity. They ensure the right marketing tactics are employed at the right time.
• Subject matter experts –The backbone of specific marketing activities, subject matter experts are the hyper-specialised folk that will deliver one specific activity whether that be website development, content creation or SEO. They’re responsible for processing specific jobs to an expert standard.

As each position is hyper-focused on specific marketing activities whether that be strategy, delivery, or creation, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a single person capable of doing each to the necessary industry standard. That’s why it’s so important to outline what you want to achieve and what you need to get there from the get-go or you risk incurring unnecessary expenses.

What does it cost to hire an inhouse full-time digital marketer?

Now you know what skills are required from a high-performance digital marketing team, what does it cost? According to payscale.com, the median cost of a digital marketing manager in New Zealand is NZD $76k with top earners reporting a salary of up to NZD $110k.

However, as many employers know, that’s not the only cost you’ll acquire when hiring a full-time employee. On top of salary there will be the position’s cost-to-hire, onboarding, and training as well as workstation costs – and that’s just for one position. The rule of thumb for total employee cost being 1.25 times the base salary.

If we add in the costs of hiring at least two more people to meet the other two necessary positions:

• Digital marketing coordinator – NZD $58k (Glassdoor)
• Digital marketing specialist – NZD $59k (payscale.com)

You’re looking at over NZD $200k in annual salaries just to get your digital marketing team off the ground, and that’s not even factoring in the list of specialists you’ll need to get specific activities to a competitive standard.

The cost of outsourcing your digital marketing team

On top of the other positive benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing team such as more marketing expertise, reduced resource costs and more time to focus on business development, digital marketing agencies are growing in popularity for their cost-benefit.

Yes, you read that right. Despite the many expensive and flashy stereotypes surrounding marketing and advertising agencies, most agencies run a pricing model that can accommodate the most stringent of budgets.

In fact, many agencies run multiple pricing models to appeal to a wider audience. As an example, at Concentrate we offer project-based, per-hour and retainer-based pricing models to accommodate the many sized tech companies that knock on our door. Each obviously comes with its own benefits and all unsurprisingly cost less, or about the same, as it would be to hire a sole digital marketing manager.

Is outsourcing digital marketing activity the right choice for your business?

Digital marketing agencies are highly specialised and cost a lot less overall. However, that’s not all there is to it, and we get that. To answer whether you should outsource your digital marketing activity or not, really comes down to personal preference, what you’re willing to spend and how much control you’re ready to hand over. However, with that said, there is no right or wrong, be-all or end-all answer; you can have both.

If you’re currently in a pinch trying to decide if a digital marketing agency is the right move for your tech business, try our tech marketing benchmark quiz. It will help you identify if you need one or ten more people, or if outsourcing to a digital marketing agency is the right choice for your business.