If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're the marketing department. Also the sales team, the bookkeeper and the person who fixes the printer. [The printer always breaks at the worst possible moment. We don't make the rules.]
Hiring help is a real decision with real money behind it, so here's the honest version: what an agency gets you, what it costs next to your other options, and the times we'd tell you not to hire one. Us included.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Agency?
You get a team of skills for less than the cost of one full-time hire, and someone whose whole job is keeping your marketing moving. Here's what that looks like in practice:
- Several skills under one roof. Strategy, design, copywriting, website updates, email and SEO. One marketer is rarely great at all six. [Some are. We'd like to meet them and ask when they sleep.]
- Consistency. Your marketing happens on a schedule instead of in the gaps between everything else.
- An outside view. It's hard to see what makes you different when you're inside your business every day. Fresh eyes notice it faster.
- The tools. Design, email and SEO software an agency already pays for, so you don't have to.
- Your time back. Hours you can spend on the work you started the business to do.
Should You Hire a Marketing Agency or Someone In-House?
For most small businesses, an agency costs less than one full-time marketer and covers more skills. An in-house hire makes sense when you need someone in the building every day and have a full-time role's worth of work.
The math surprises people. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for marketing managers at $166,790 a year. That's before benefits, which make up 30% of what private employers spend on their people.
Put those together and one experienced marketer can cost around $238,000 a year, or close to $20,000 a month. That's our estimate from the two BLS figures, and it still covers one person, before software, training or the months it takes to find them. [Recruiting a marketer is its own marketing campaign. Ironic, we know.]
It isn't always either-or. Plenty of businesses grow into both: one person inside who knows the business cold, and an agency for the skills and extra hands they don't have.
When Should You Hire a Marketing Agency?
Hire one when you know what you sell, you have a goal you can count, and you can keep a monthly budget going long enough for the work to build. These are the signs we look for:
- Your marketing stops when you get busy. The posts, the emails and the website updates all wait until you have a free afternoon. [That afternoon is coming. Any year now.]
- You know what you sell and who buys it. An agency can sharpen how you say it, but it can't decide your business for you.
- You have a goal you can count. More calls, more booked consultations, more donors. Not just "more marketing."
- You can commit for about six months. Good marketing builds on itself, and SEO in particular takes months, not weeks.
- Something big is coming. A launch, a rebrand or a new website is a natural time to bring in a team.
Not sure which side of that list you're on? A 30-minute call with us is a good place to find out, and we'll tell you honestly if it's too early.
When Shouldn't You Hire a Marketing Agency?
Wait if you can't fund it for more than a month or two, if your offer is still changing, or if you only need one thing done. Hiring too early is the most common way people decide agencies "don't work."
- Your budget only covers a month or two. Most marketing needs time to build. Stopping at 60 days mostly proves that you stopped. [Harsh, but we'd rather say it now than send an invoice later.]
- You're still figuring out what you sell, or who it's for. Settle that first. Our post on brand strategy vs. marketing strategy is a good place to start.
- You need one thing done. A logo, a flyer or a single landing page fits a freelancer or a one-time project better than a monthly retainer.
- You need someone on-site every day. Running events or a storefront calls for a person in the building.
- You won't have time to answer questions. An agency can do a lot, but it can't guess what you want. Plan on a short check-in each week.
- You need results by next Tuesday. A good agency moves fast, but marketing isn't a light switch.
How Much Does a Marketing Agency Cost?
It depends on how much you hand over. Agencies charge an average of $3,209 a month for SEO alone, according to Ahrefs' survey of 439 SEO providers, and 78.2% of those providers bill by monthly retainer.
| How It's Priced | What You Pay For | Good For |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | A set fee each month for ongoing work | Marketing you need every month |
| One-time project | A price quoted once, up front | A new website, a brand identity, a launch |
| Hourly | Every hour worked, billed as it happens | Small, occasional changes, if the hours are capped |
Full-service retainers vary more than SEO alone, because they cover more: design, content, email, website updates and strategy together. One-time projects, like a new website or a brand identity, are usually quoted once.
We price our retainers and projects to the work involved, and we'll give you an honest range on a 30-minute call. One thing to watch anywhere you look: hourly fees for every change. They're easy to miss in a contract and hard to miss on an invoice.
How Do You Choose the Right Marketing Agency?
Ask who does the work, who owns what, and how you leave. The answers tell you more than any portfolio.
| Ask This | A Good Answer Sounds Like |
|---|---|
| Who will actually work on my account? | Names, not "the team." You should know who you're talking to. |
| Who owns the website, domain and accounts? | You do, from day one, whether you stay or go. |
| How do I cancel? | Plain notice by email. No automatic renewals that need a mailed letter. |
| Are changes included, or billed by the hour? | A clear list of what's included each month. |
| What will I see each month? | A short report in plain numbers, and a call to talk it through. |
| Have you ever told a client "not yet"? | Yes, with an example. An agency that thinks everyone is a fit isn't listening. |
Why we started The Greenhouse Studios
Before we started the studio, Perri spent eight years in marketing for clients, companies and nonprofits. The owners she worked with were excellent at their craft. They just didn't have the time to also be their own designer, copywriter, web developer and marketer.
So we built the partner we'd want to hire: a small, husband-and-wife team in Atlanta that takes on a limited number of clients and manages every account ourselves. It also means we sometimes say "not yet." If the budget isn't there or the offer isn't clear, we'll point you to a strategy session or another resource first.
Running a business is hard enough. If marketing has become the thing you never get to, that's usually the sign it's time for help. [And if it's not, you just read 1,800 words for free. Consider it our gift.]
Ready to hand over the day-to-day? That's exactly what our Monthly Creative & Marketing Retainers are for: design, content, email, website updates and strategy, managed by the two of us. You can also see everything we do.
