It’s hard to imagine a modern business without digital marketing. For business owners and managers, deciding how to allocate the budget across advertising channels and integrate activities into a unified communication strategy is a significant challenge.
But most importantly, who will implement everything with minimal risks?
Should you learn the skills yourself, form an in-house marketing department, or outsource? Use a hybrid model?
In this article, I’ll simplify the answers to these questions and ease the pain of choice using a proven method: SWOT analysis. I’ll lay out the pros and cons of each model according to your business’s goals, objectives, and current stage of development.
Contents:
1. What to Choose: Digital Marketing Implementation Models
Let’s focus on the most common options:
1. Freelancer
An external worker acting within specific agreements. Typically, this involves project-based work or tasks limited by time and scope.
Freelancers organize their workflow and planning, often being involved in multiple projects for different clients simultaneously.
2. In-House Team
A marketing team formed as a separate department within the company, integrated into the company’s operational and business culture.
3. Agency
A specialized marketing company with a focus on processes, expertise, and proven solutions.
Agencies have a clear structure and a wide range of digital services.
Their foundation is a community of experts, case studies, and data from projects of various scales and directions.
4. Hybrid Model
Here, different variations of collaboration with freelancers, in-house teams, and agencies are possible.
2. Why Choose: Goals for Digital Marketing
Of course, the list of goals with all their variations can be quite long. I’ll highlight five main ones:
Increasing online presence and brand visibility.
SEO, media campaigns, and content marketing aim to enhance brand visibility in search engines and social media.
Attracting the target audience and increasing conversion rates.
Advertising campaigns are designed to drive traffic and encourage the audience to perform specific target actions on the site.
Increasing sales volumes and revenue.
E-commerce strategies implemented through digital channels serve this goal.
Engaging with customers and maintaining their loyalty.
Content and communication strategies help build relationships with customers, provide information about new products and services, and foster loyalty.
Data analytics and analysis of marketing efforts’ effectiveness.
Implementing systems to measure and analyze the results of marketing campaigns allows for the further improvement of selected brand and product promotion methods.
3. How to Choose Executives for Website Management
I propose a reliable and proven decision-making method:
SWOT Analysis Table for Choosing Executives
| SWOT Factor | Parameter | Freelancer | In-House | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Expertise and Experience | Team of specialists with diverse expertise and project experience | Partially | Yes |
| Resources | Availability of a wide range of tools, technologies, and resources to improve marketing campaign results | No | Yes | Yes |
| Broad range of services and comprehensive approach | No | Partially | Yes | |
| Control | Managing the team and results | Partially | Yes | Partially |
| Transparency | Client involvement in processes and decision-making | No | Yes | Yes |
| Understanding of brand and business | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Flexibility | Selection of specialists on a project basis, quick replacement | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cost savings | Reduction of marketing service costs | Yes | No | No |
| Weaknesses | High costs | Total budget | No | Partially |
| Communication risks | Misunderstandings due to mismatched expectations, remote work, and/or many intermediaries | Yes | No | Partially |
| Limited resources | Yes | Partially | No | |
| Lack of ideas, perspective, experience | Yes | Partially | No | |
| Delays in work completion | Yes | No | No | |
| Quality risks | Non-conformity to expectations or unreliability | Yes | No | No |
| Opportunities | Wide access to expertise | Knowledge and experience of specialists in various fields | No | Partially |
| Global access to specialist selection | No | Partially | Yes | |
| Integration of marketing efforts with other company departments | No | Yes | Partially | |
| Quick adaptation to business and market needs | Partially | Yes | Yes | |
| Threats | Dependence on external service providers | Yes | ||
| Loss of key performers | Yes | Partially | No | |
| Risk of mismatched expectations | Yes | No | No | |
| Instability due to schedule changes | Yes | No | No | |
| Confidentiality issues | Yes | No | No |
4. Effective Hybrid Model
From experience, I see synergy between in-house and agency models as optimal in terms of results and execution time. Therefore, I will focus on this model.
Certain conditions must be met to ensure cooperation is as effective as possible:
- Understanding the overall goal — it should be clear, measurable, and specific.
- Clear role distribution — who is responsible for which processes, which party performs which type of tasks.
- Planning expectations from both sides and summarizing after the reporting period.
- Client contact person — there should be a “main” person who negotiates with both sides and resolves all important issues and agrees on goals.
- Absence of internal competition — the goal of the in-house team and the agency is to bring necessary benefits to the business. This is not a talent competition; work should be teamwork.
- Mutual respect and partnership relations — regular joint brainstorming sessions, exchanging opinions and ideas, and finding the “truth” together.
- Considering the strengths and opportunities of both teams — the agency has extensive experience working with different projects and themes, market vision, general market trends, and marketing tools flexibility. In-house has the ability to delve into details and deep expertise in their niche.
