You’ve got some big projects coming down the pipe in your marketing department, and you don’t want to be left lacking the support you need.
You know you’re going to need all hands on deck – and actually, you’re thinking you need extra hands.
So what do you do?
Do you contract hire marketing contractors or hire employees?
Your answer will come down to what do you need, but in order to know the best solution to what you need, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of both your options.
In this post, we’ll discuss five areas that will help you evaluate what path will get you where you want to go most efficiently.
And it may be a mixture of both – you may find that you BOTH need new employees AND to start a partnership with an external marketing agency or contractor.
Overhead Costs
Of course, hiring an employee is going to increase your overhead costs more long-term than a one-off contracting relationship with a contractor.
But, if you continually don’t plan and thus end up using the contractor or outside agency as a fire-fighting tool when you have problem projects, you’ll soon find the costs creeping up or even exceeding what you would have spent on an employee.
However, if you plan and know the scope of work needed for your projects, you can more accurately estimate what kind of overhead you can support and for how long.
Will you only have one or a handful of extra projects in a given accounting year?
Then it might make sense to gear up and send all your extra work or any overflow to an external marketing agency or contractor.
Will you need help multiple times on multiple projects over the coming years?
And on track to majorly expand your department?
Then it’s probably worth it to make the investment into a set increase in overhead with an employee that you can bring on and use to help grow with the department as you take on more and more work.
What about a mixture of both?
You’re on track for growth in your department, but you know you’ll have at least a few massive projects coming down the pipe soon.
In that case, you may want to look at expanding your team of employees and also establishing a relationship with an external marketing agency or contractor, to best utilize the extension of your overhead.
Level of Supervision
What about the level of supervision?
Of course, with an employee, you are directly supervising their progress and work.
In some instances, this may be the best option.
When you have a project that requires a lot of cooperation between departments in the company, it is often best to have direct supervision over your employee.
For instance, let’s say you are launching a new product and you’re working right alongside other departments to do so.
Due to the complexity in interdepartmental communications and planning, direct supervision over the work of your employee is optimal to make sure everything goes according to plan in a quick and efficient manner.
On the other hand, when it comes to simpler tasks that stay within your department, it may be better to contract an external marketing agency or even outside contractor rather than hire a full-time employee.
This often works out better for you because you can hire the agency for a specific project and while you provide guidance, your resources are not spent trying to monitor them and their work constantly.
You simply check in at your predetermined milestones, and then you receive the work when the project is complete.
For these kinds of tasks, contractors provide a great benefit to you – but you must have the processes in place to measure performance in a way that doesn’t take up a lot of your time.
Administrative Considerations
From an administrative standpoint, regardless of whether you hire a new employee or start a new contractor relationship, you will have to undergo an onboarding process and have some admin boxes to check.
Onboarding a new marketing department employee should be a process that is carefully planned out long before you even start interviews.
The first thing you’ll need is to identify what role this new employee will fill, what will be expected of them, and how they will integrate with the team.
This includes examining the current team structure, job duties, skill sets, and goals of the role.
Once these details are determined, it is essential to create a job description, and start the interview process.
This could take weeks or even months.
You’ll also need to work with HR to set up your administrative onboarding processes, and make sure all your t’s are crossed and your i’s are dotted.
And, of course, once you bring on the employee, it’ll be up to you to provide the necessary entry-training to ensure that the new hire is successful.
When onboarding contractors or agencies, your starting point is similar: you’ll want to define the role you need filled, and then you’ll create an agreement and contract that outlines the scope of work, deliverables, timeline, payment schedule, etc.
Additionally, you’ll want to clarify expectations such as communication channels and process, who is responsible for what, and other administrative requirements.
We call this defining lanes.
It also helps to create a project timeline so that both parties are on the same page with expectations.
Once again, you’ll need to work with HR to make sure your compensation of the contractor or outside agency is managed correctly.
The administrative cycle of an outside party is similar to that of a new employee – you’ll just have quicker repetitions of it.
You’ll need to do this for every new job or project you decide to contract help with.
Level of Experience
When you bring in a new hire, depending on their background, they will come with their own set of skills and experiences that will be beneficial to your team – something you’ll assess as you go through the hiring process.
However, there is also the learning curve to consider.
You’re going to have that adjustment period as they learn how things are done at your company.
The degree of this learning curve will vary of course, but you should see a constant and steady climb up, the longer the person is with your department and the more comfortable they become with your internal processes.
It may be that, because of budget constraints, you can’t hire a professional with 10+ years of experience.
And that means, if you’re bringing in someone fresh out of college or just starting out in their marketing career path, then you’ll definitely need to expect more time for them to become familiar with industry standards and processes specific to your department before they can really make an impactful contribution.
On the other hand, if you contract with a creative agency or contractor, that learning curve and turnaround time goes way down.
The high-proficiency of the contractor can bring a great deal of professional experience and skill to your team in a much quicker time frame than with a brand new hire.
With contractors, you’ll know upfront what you’re getting – someone who already has the specialized knowledge and expertise you need to complete the task at hand.
Having this level of professional experience quickly can be invaluable for marketing projects that require a high degree of precision and technical know-how.
And, since contracting is typically done on a project basis, you don’t have to worry about the long-term commitments and financial costs that you would if you had to hire someone else on full-time.
You can rest assured knowing you’re getting the best in the field with a short acclimation time to your project processes, and you can access the high level of experience at any time.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s important to take the time to sit down and evaluate your situation before deciding whether to hire on a new employee or contract an external marketing agency or contractor.
In the end, the decision will depend on your specific financial situation and budget, based on your own internal evaluation.
By considering all the areas above as you make your decision – from overhead costs to level of expertise – you’ll be able to find a solution that works for both you and your business.
Which may very well include both hiring a new member and supplementing with contracting work out to an agency.
Good luck!
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