You have identified that you need help with your marketing. The question you are now asking is in-house marketers or marketing agency? Let’s discuss.
There are definitely a couple of things to consider when deciding who will do your marketing, and how effectively they will, not only execute your marketing but also keep it current. In the world of digital marketing, and marketing in general, just when you think you’re caught up on the latest trends, everything changes once again, and you’re back where you started.
As you start exploring your options, you may think that an agency is pricey, or that you have heard mixed results from other colleagues. You may think that hiring someone in-house may be a good option. Perhaps a marketing expert will be efficient, as they will market only for you, has your undivided attention, and most importantly of all, is always available when you need them.
Before you make your mind up. There are a few things to consider before you make a decision on in-house marketer or marketing agency.
Are you ready to pay a salary for something you could outsource?
When you have an in-house marketing team, you pay them as you would any other full-time employee of your clinic. To hire someone with competitive experience, who can quickly identify what your practice needs to do to jumpstart its marketing campaign, isn’t cheap, either. You’ll be paying their salary — plus benefits, vacation, and sick leave.
According to Payscale, the average salary of a Chief Marketing Officer—someone who is going to bring you knowledge comparable to that of an agency—is $169,761. That accounts for a $35,783 bonus, $14,569 in profit sharing, and $25,602 in commission. That’s not an insignificant number; while it’s important to have high goals, your revenue might not grow at a rate similar enough to increase your ROI.
With an agency, you are given a monthly price, most likely, and can cancel after a certain term.
Do you want your marketing manager to wear multiple hats?
If you are operating a small clinic, there is a good chance that your team is wearing multiple hats and taking on many different responsibilities to keep day-to-day operations moving smoothly. For many practices, it’s not uncommon to find a team member taking on marketing responsibilities in addition to their concrete set of duties.
If you add a marketing manager to your team, they will likely have to operate under a similar model — just marketing-specific. The multiple hats they’ll wear will be managing email marketing systems, managing social media, managing website content, managing paid ads, and analytics and tracking. That is a lot of hats for one person to wear and balance effectively. In fact, it’s rare to be able to give each aspect the attention it deserves if one person is doing all of those things themselves.
When you work with a marketing agency, you know that different areas of marketing for your practice are being watched closely and managed by multiple people who are bonafide experts in their fields. Not just one person juggling multiple tasks at once, trying to keep track of many moving parts.
Will an in-house marketing expert help you achieve your goals?
Marketing managers are building strategies that meet the goals and KPIs they deem the most important, and you have to be certain you see eye-to-eye on this before hiring them.
It’s absolutely crucial that you find a marketing manager who is interested in engaging with your current patients and doesn’t strictly look to acquire new patients. Of course, you should be looking to expand to new prospects whenever you can. But too often marketing specialists forget about existing patients, who are already your fans.
The reason why you should keep marketing to these patients is that they have already been acquired, so they are not as expensive to acquire as new prospects. Not just that, but you want a marketing manager who understands the value of building relationships with long-time patients.
Do you want someone who is reactive, or proactive, about your marketing initiatives?
One of the reasons you started looking for help with marketing was probably because you want someone else to take charge of your marketing initiatives and get them off the ground faster. You want someone who can foresee issues down the road, and resolve them before they create roadblocks. You want marketing strategies that are proactive, not reactive.
As mentioned earlier, finding an in-house marketer with the kind of knack for sales and project management accounts for a bigger price tag than you may expect.
The takeaway: Be honest with yourself about whether having access to an in-house marketing expert building marketing strategies just for your clinic is worth paying extra.
When to consider hiring an agency
A marketing agency understands how to attract new patients, how to keep them engaged and interested in your practice. Book a free consultation with an agency, see what they propose, ask tough questions, and discuss your budget and needs.
To work with us, we always have an application and consultation process. If you are interested in learning more, contact us.
