Agency vs Freelancer for Digital Marketing: the Good, the Bad and SEO

With 1,000 ways to buy anything on the internet, it has become crucial to rely on digital marketing for your website to see traction. However, this isn’t an easy task due to the complexity, resilience, and knowledge that digital marketing requires.

Do You Hire a Freelancer or a Digital Marketing Agency?

Freelancers are self-employed individuals that often have experience in one or more in—house agencies. They will usually be exceptionally well-rounded and display a set of abilities that they have mastered.

Digital marketing agencies follow a traditional method to offer consistent quality with a team in each sector. An agency is obligated by contract to provide practical marketing strategies with outstanding results backed by analytics.

To ensure you make a well-informed choice, we’ve compiled some of the pros and cons that come with a freelancer and a digital marketing agency.

Access to Abilities and Skills

Both freelancers and agencies will have the abilities and skills required for digital marketing. But do they both have access to everything necessary to keep it going?

Freelancer:

Most freelancers will be experts in their specific craft. They can offer great marketing approaches and propose advice on how to maximise your business.

However, one person can only do so much. As the campaign grows, a freelancer can’t keep up with the heavy load a digital marketing campaign requires, which inevitably leads to spending more money (and time) on more freelancers.

Agency:

Digital Marketing is a machine that requires a lot of hands to operate, and that is why agencies hire those with experience and skills in every sector to form a cohesive team. This dedicated team work together to construct campaigns, communicate without barriers, and filter content.

Flexibility

With an ever-changing industry like digital marketing, flexibility is essential to keeping on top of trends, schedules, and deadlines. With this in mind, when deciding between freelancers and agencies, you should consider this skill.

Freelancer:

Individual freelancers are usually operating remotely without the conventional nine to five schedule. This freedom means that they can work at the times that best fit your needs; furthermore, you can hire them based on a limited time.

However, this also means that they could fall off the face of the earth without the fear of repercussions.

Agency:

When working with an agency, they will have full-time employees with schedules and deadlines every week. They will also be working with a few companies simultaneously, so a certain level of order is expected.

But, because of the vast amounts of work they do, they will always be five steps ahead, allowing for flexibility and wiggle room for any potential problems.

Consistent Quality

After your first campaign working with a freelancer or agency, another will most likely follow. For this to function correctly, you will need consistent quality content, ideas, and approaches.

Freelancer:

With freelancers being paid per hour or campaign, they can often have plans to work with another brand afterwards, so they might not be available.

You might not be working with the same freelancer as last time, which means the next person might not replicate the fantastic digital marketing approach that worked with the previous campaign.

Agency:

Agencies are well-known for being able to offer consistent content across all sectors. By working with an agency, you’re entitled to an allocated amount of work based on your package. The quality of said content will remain and improve once further data has been provided.

Also, agencies can analytically track data from your previous campaigns and then adjust existing content or strategies to fit better with your needs.

Investment

Cost and investment will play a vital part in your decision when deciding what route you want to go down.

Freelancer:

The benefits of working with a freelancer include paying them based on hourly work and a per campaign basis. You can then focus your money on one specific area that needs focusing and then discontinue that partnership.

However, this method can be pretty ineffective when thinking long-term. If something goes wrong with the freelancer’s work after being paid, they have no legal obligation to continue their support.

Agency:

When working with an agency, you both commit to a mutual contract that neither can break. The agency will continue to think short-term and long-term to maximise traffic and develop your digital presence. This method is a short-term monetary investment with a long-term benefit.

With every campaign, the agency will constantly be tracking and analysing, and you can live without the fear of being abandoned.

Proficiency and Planning

Digital marketing strategies can become highly complex when you bear SEO, PPC and Social Marketing in mind. To retain a proficient campaign that operates smoothly, a high level of planning is necessary.

Freelancers:

Freelancers can help with your strategies due to their flexibility and ability to work remotely. However, in regards to proficiency, freelancers might put your campaign on the back-burner if they’re working with multiple clients.

Freelancers are also unlikely to have enough specialities to work across multiple marketing disciplines – more specialist freelancers can lead to disjointed campaigns.

Agency:

With experience working with a wide range of clients, they have rigorous planning schedules to fulfil the needs of every client. For this system to work, multiple people are vital for the digital marketing strategy to operate effectively.

Freelancers and digital marketing agencies come with many benefits that can curate effective marketing strategies.

However, we might be biased to say that most agencies work around results-driven techniques rather than creative flair to amplify a company’s digital presence. So, to reach new heights with your digital presence, speak to us today.