Why You Should Consider Using an Agency Not an In-house Team

When you’re running a business it’s important to consider who will be handling your public relations and marketing. You may want to weigh up the pros and cons of employing someone to work in house and hiring an agency.    

One of the first factors to be considered when it comes to most business decisions is money – not only cost but value too. 

Cost

Hiring a senior communications and marketing specialist in the East Midlands could set you back between £40,000 and £50,000 a year. 

In contrast, even the most expensive agencies would cost less than half that.

Therefore, choosing to go with an agency could save you up to £25,000 a year. And I doubt you’d need any help deciding where else in your business that extra money could be invested…!   

Value

Not only does hiring an agency tend to be the cheaper option after crunching the numbers, it’s often better value too.

With an agency you’ll have access to a team of people, each with their own expertise and specialisms, allowing your business to benefit from the experience of several people for a fraction of the price of employing one in-house officer.  

Commitment

Employing a full-time member of staff is quite the commitment; having an employee on salary locks you in to paying for their contracted hours, and there’s PAYE, sick leave, holidays and National Insurance to consider too.

With any decent agency, on the other hand, you’ll be given flexibility within a contract, so you can adapt the monthly hours you’ll be charged for depending on your business needs.

Finding the right agency for you

It’s easy to find the agency that will meet the needs of your company, but make sure you book meetings with at least two different companies. That way you’ll get a feel for which one will gel best with you.

It’s important that you get along well with your agency as you’ll be spending a lot of time communicating with them.

Contacts

Agency staff are often well connected and can help to secure opportunities for their clients that in-house staff may not come across. 

For example, colleagues from Shooting Star can be found at media and networking events in the East Midlands to build relationships that could benefit our clients as well as our agency.

Location, location, location…

When it comes to hiring an in-house member of staff, you are limited much more by logistics than when choosing an agency to work with. Is your perfect candidate willing to commute or relocate to work for you, while there are agencies that could work for you remotely? 

Extras

You might be surprised to learn what other services agencies have to offer. For example, did you know that we provide event management, media training and website building?

Reports

Another benefit to opting for an agency is the feedback you’ll receive.

It’s commonly thought that PR and marketing services can be difficult to measure, so business owners can be reluctant to spend money on them for fear that they won’t see any results.  

That’s why agency staff are keen to prove their worth where possible. For example, for each of our clients we create monthly tailor-made reports to show how we’re working towards achieving their specific KPIs and objectives. This helps our clients to understand how their money is being spent and the benefits of the work we’re doing.

A part of the team

If an agency is anything like Shooting Star, then the colleagues you’re working with will want to feel as much a part of your team as any in-house member of staff would. 

At Shooting Star, we like to get stuck in to our collaborations with clients, getting to know all the ins and outs of their products and services, which allows us to be just as knowledgeable as in-house staff when we’re writing about your business.

For more on the benefits of working with an agency, check out the blog post I published last year.

See how we’re performing for our clients or get in touch to find out how we could help your business. 

ZL