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Choose Your Marketing Team: Inhouse or Agency?

By Ella Paine

Content Specialist

March 2025

Marketing for your business might have started out with Canva templates and a dream, but those days might be well behind you. Now marketing requires a schedule, a budget, and comes with a growing list of demands. So, it’s time to delegate – but to whom?

If you’re tossing up between hiring an agency or expanding inhouse, read on to learn what benefits each can provide.

 

 

Am I Ready For a New Marketing Approach?

Marketing a business of any kind is a challenge – it’s a constant process of testing and measurement, with success depending upon a huge array of different factors. As demand for a service, product, or brand grows, so too does the time and scope of marketing activities.

If you’re reaching this point, you might be starting to feel the pinch. There’s only so much one person, or even a team, can achieve on any given day. Priority-wise, marketing often loses when competing with sales, operations, financing and other essential parts of a business.

The solution? Hire some professional marketers to take on the workload. Professional marketers come in a few shapes and sizes, but in general, you have two options: engage a marketing agency or build an inhouse team.

Understanding the merits, expense, and capacity of each alternative can help inform the best choice for your situation.

Marketing team collaborating on a project using sticky notes

Range: Marketing Skills and Services

 

Inhouse – If you’re planning to build an inhouse team, consider what’s in the budget. A comprehensive marketing workload will include most if not all of the following responsibilities:

  • Marketing Strategy Development 

  • Social Media Management 

  • Email Marketing

  • Content Creation

  • Media Buying and Management 

  • Advertising (Traditional and Digital) 

  • Event Support 

  • Website Updates 

  • Graphic Design 

  • Public Relations 

  • Merchandise Management 

  • Stakeholder Engagement 

  • Comprehensive Reporting

    It’s a hefty job and one that requires a vast knowledge of different systems, strategies, and technical skills – it’s simply too much to ask of a single person. Inhouse teams can also be limited or isolated by their internal position, creating a blinkered approach to the work they produce. You may not be satisfied to leave the strategy and execution of your marketing in the hands of a few individuals with a cap on time and resources. 

     

    Agency – Partnering with a marketing agency like CoBright provides access to a broad spectrum of specialised services, as listed above. 

    With an agency’s diverse range of trained, experienced specialists, your business will be supported by an artillery of different skillsets and niches of expertise.

    Beyond professional capabilities, CoBright’s position as a service provider gives us a competitive edge. We work with a huge variety of businesses across the agricultural industry, which keeps us actively engaged in trends, challenges, and opportunities for our clients.

    CoBright also maintains active relationships with media franchises, commercial platforms, and suppliers, offering your business better deals and more timely access to the coverage you need. We are able to deliver ultra targeted campaigns through direct to farm digital TV ads, alongside broader ad platforms like Google and Meta.

    Our agency team of professionals, diverse portfolio and broad industry networks offer our clients incredible leverage. This ensures a holistic approach is taken toward marketing your business, with the capacity to tailor our work to fulfil your goals.

    Digital illustration of budget and finance for a business

    Cost: Hiring or Buying Your Marketing Team

     

    Inhouse – Establishing an inhouse marketing team goes far beyond the salaries. This team will be a significant financial commitment for you: they’ll need office space, training, subscriptions, annual leave, superannuation, and, to attract quality talent, you’ll have to make a standout offer as an employer. 

    According to Indeed, in 2025 a full-time marketing coordinator is earning approximately $74,200p.a. in salary pay. Including super and on costs, you are now looking at $96,460. This expense might make inhouse staff out of the question from a financial perspective.

    While an inhouse team may be more accessible purely by proximity, this convenience may not outweigh the funding, equipping, and maintenance of the entire operation. Importantly, it can be a painful and timely process to find the right people.

     

    Agency – The alternative option of a marketing agency can provide a more attainable and predictable cost structure. CoBright provides quotes tailored to each client’s specific needs and required workload, with all costs disclosed to the client before engaging in a partnership. 

    Looking beyond payroll, the costs expand far beyond actual hours worked. Fortunately, agencies don't need you to provide holiday pay, coffee breaks or sick leave. We're here to provide a service, and the hours worked are the only item we charge clients for. For a business wanting to conserve their time and money, outsourcing your marketing to a team that works to a set budget can be the safest bet on the table.

    If it’s your first venture into consistent marketing, hiring an agency for short term periods or fluctuating needs can be a viable solution for a growing business. CoBright’s structure of service offers you transparency, a clear blueprint of expectations, and the flexibility to choose what you need to achieve your marketing goals.

    Marketing team collaborating around a wooden table

    Scale: Matching Changing Conditions

     

    Inhouse – Once up and running, even the best teams aren’t immune to changing seasons and trends outside of the business. Peak periods (depending on the time of year or industry calendars) can create challenges in scaling. Lulls may result in underutilised staff or resources, and growth can land your team out of their depth, with no means to increase their capacity. 

    The fixed nature of full time employment means that you will most likely have to weather the storm with your marketing team. This is a challenge faced by many businesses and can create difficulties in retaining the staff you need to keep hitting your marketing targets.

     

    Agency – Marketing agencies offer inherent scalability. With an array of specialists on hand, they can quickly adjust resources to meet campaign demands. It’s feasible for CoBright’s team to launch new initiatives or pivot strategies as market conditions evolve. 

    With access to a wide network of service providers, marketing platforms, and professional resources, an agency opens doors for your business that would otherwise be overlooked or out of reach. You can focus on other aspects of your business, with the knowledge that your marketing efforts are responsive and agile.

    Marketing team collaborating in an office

    Final Thoughts

     

    Now you know what to expect – which one will you choose? Inhouse marketing teams can offer direct control and brand immersion, which may suit your business. Agencies offer a stable, results-driven partnership that meets your business where it’s at, and provides the tools to take it to the next level. 

    The deciding factors: access to skills, predictable costs, and scalable resources are important to consider. Both can provide enhanced marketing outcomes. Partnering with a marketing agency can provide a more cost-effective and flexible solution. 

    Determining which route to take is a pivotal decision, and ultimately you want to choose what will optimise your marketing efforts. Based on what we’ve discussed above, your business can survive with an inhouse team, but with the support of an agency, your business has every opportunity to thrive.

    If you’re reading this, you probably already know it’s time to make a change to your marketing approach. CoBright can help you weigh up all the options, and paint a clearer picture for what marketing approach will best suit your business. From our point of view, it’s well worth considering an agency before you take a leap in any direction.

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