Tongayi Choto
Now more than ever, digital marketing is vital to the success of a company. If you are unfamiliar, digital marketing is advertising goods, services, and your brand through virtual channels such as social media, websites, and other platforms. It stands to reason that as a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. You may not have the time or energy to devote to handling your brand’s digital marketing on your own, so you should look into outsourcing. However, should you go with a digital marketing agency or a freelancer? While an agency with all its resources may be enticing, a freelancer can get the job done for you for much less.
For one, hiring a freelancer tends to be much more cost-effective than enlisting an agency. A freelancer will be much more inexpensive than an agency and can deliver quality work. With a freelancer, your requirements should be specific and detailed for the best outcome. This is especially true for short-term projects. When going with an agency, you are paying for a team of people that must be taken care of instead of a single freelancer. Enlisting an agency for your digital marketing will probably come with a much higher price tag than a freelancer, and the lower-budget option is always preferred to save you money.
A freelancer also offers you more flexibility with your digital marketing practices. An agency more than likely has multiple projects on its slate, and it must allocate time for each. That means that they are more rigid on the time they can spend working for you. If you have any alterations to your projects, such as a new marketing budget or plan midway through your project, an agency can flat-out refuse to accommodate you. Freelancers are much more flexible. There is a good chance that you are your freelancer’s only obligation or one of a few at most. If you have any adjustments, a freelancer is more likely to change things up on the fly without any issues.
Building on the flexibility aspect, a freelancer will be more available to focus on your project than an agency. The bigger the agency, the more clients they have to serve, which means less time to delegate to your needs. You will still get quality work, but you will have less say, and communication will be limited. A freelancer has more time to dedicate to your project and will be more available to talk to, should you need to communicate anything. Customer feedback is the lifeblood of freelancing, but they’re well-equipped to take the lead on the project. The communication lines can be as open or closed as you’d like.
Finally, though this may be hard to believe, freelancers tend to have more expertise in digital marketing than an agency. When you go with an agency, you have no control over which team members to work on your digital marketing. You have no idea how well-versed the assigned team members have in advertising, marketing, SEO, etc. When you choose a freelancer, you pick one based on their advertised areas of expertise, which can be more extensive than what the agency offers.
