Struggling to decide between building an in-house marketing team or outsourcing to multiple suppliers? While external agencies and freelancers offer flexibility, they can also lead to fragmented messaging and slower execution. On the other hand, an internal team ensures consistency, collaboration, and a deeper understanding of your business. But which approach is right for you?
Marketing is the engine that drives business growth, but how you structure your marketing efforts can make or break your success. As a business owner, you’ve likely faced the dilemma: should you build a full-service internal marketing team or rely on external suppliers for different marketing needs?
Many businesses - especially start-ups and small enterprises - turn to agencies, freelancers, or contractors to handle their marketing efforts. This approach can work in the short term, but as your business grows, you may find yourself struggling with fragmented messaging, slow turnaround times, and a lack of strategic cohesion.
On the other hand, a dedicated in-house marketing team can offer brand consistency, better collaboration, and a deeper understanding of your business goals. But is it the right investment for every business?
In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits and challenges of having a full-service internal marketing team versus working with siloed suppliers, helping you decide which approach best suits your business needs.
What Is a Full-Service Internal Marketing Team?
A full-service internal marketing team is a dedicated group of professionals within your business responsible for planning and executing all marketing activities. Instead of outsourcing to multiple agencies or freelancers, this team works collaboratively to create a unified marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals.
Key Roles in an Internal Marketing Team
The structure of an in-house marketing team varies based on business size and needs, but typically includes:
Marketing Manager/Director: Oversees strategy and ensures marketing efforts align with business goals.
Content Marketer/Copywriter: Creates blog posts, emails, and website content.
Social Media Manager: Manages social media presence, engagement, and paid promotions.
SEO Specialist: Optimises content to improve search rankings and drive organic traffic.
Graphic Designer: Develops branding assets, social media graphics, and marketing materials.
Email Marketing Specialist: Handles campaigns, automation, and customer engagement.
Paid Ads Manager: Manages and optimises paid advertising campaigns.
Marketing Analyst: Tracks performance data and refines strategies for better ROI.
How an Internal Team Works
Unlike external suppliers who may work in isolation, an in-house marketing team operates as a single, cohesive unit. This means:
Consistent Branding & Messaging: A unified approach across all marketing channels.
Faster Turnaround Times: Quick decision-making and execution without agency delays.
Stronger Collaboration: Marketing works closely with sales, product, and leadership teams.
Full Control Over Strategy: No dependency on external agencies to pivot or implement changes.
A well-structured internal marketing team ensures that all marketing efforts are aligned, efficient, and tailored to your business - something that can at times be difficult to achieve with external suppliers.
What Are Siloed External Marketing Suppliers?
Many businesses, especially those in the early stages, choose to outsource their marketing efforts to multiple agencies, freelancers, or contractors. This approach - where different suppliers handle separate aspects of marketing - is known as siloed marketing. While outsourcing can provide access to specialised expertise, it often creates challenges in coordination, communication, and consistency.
How Siloed Suppliers Work
Instead of a unified team managing all marketing efforts, businesses hire different providers for different tasks. For example:
A freelance copywriter might handle blog posts.
A social media agency manages Facebook and Instagram accounts.
A paid ads consultant runs Meta and Google Ads.
A design agency creates branding and marketing materials.
An SEO specialist optimises website content separately.
Each supplier works independently, often with little interaction between them. Some businesses opt for this approach because they need specialised expertise, they prefer flexibility - hiring experts only when needed and they want to save costs by outsourcing rather than employing full-time staff.
Which approach is best?
When comparing both approaches, there are advantages and drawbacks of each. For instance, a full-service internal marketing team offers consistency and control, while siloed external suppliers provide flexibility and niche expertise. To help you decide the best approach for you, we’ve broken down the top benefits and challenges of each.
Benefits | Challenges | |
|---|---|---|
Full-Service Internal Marketing Team | High brand consistency – unified messaging across all channels. | Requires training and strong leadership to maintain consistency. |
Fast execution – quick decision-making without external delays. | Can become overburdened with sudden workload spikes. | |
Strong collaboration – direct integration with other business departments. | This may lead to internal silos if not well-integrated with other teams. | |
Develops internal expertise – team members gain deep knowledge of the business. | Limited to the skill sets of in-house employees. | |
Full control over strategy – no reliance on external agencies for execution. | Higher upfront costs to recruit and retain top talent. | |
Long-term cost efficiency – investment in employees pays off over time. | Less adaptable to sudden shifts in marketing trends. | |
Siloed External Marketing Suppliers | Access to specialists – can hire niche experts for SEO, PPC, PR, etc. | Risk of inconsistent messaging across different providers. |
Scalable – can quickly add or replace suppliers based on needs. | Slower execution – delays due to coordination across multiple suppliers. | |
Lower short-term costs – pay only for what is needed, when needed. | Weaker communication – agencies and freelancers may not collaborate effectively. | |
Highly adaptable – can pivot strategies easily by changing suppliers. | Lack of deep brand understanding from external suppliers. | |
Less internal management required – agencies handle execution. | Higher costs in the long run – multiple vendors and project fees add up. | |
Fresh perspectives – external teams bring new creative ideas. | Dependency on external providers – less control over execution. |
A Smarter Way Forward: The Full-Service Outsourced Marketing Team
After weighing up the pros and cons of an internal team versus multiple external suppliers, it’s clear that neither option is perfect. In-house teams offer consistency but come with high costs and limitations in expertise. Siloed external suppliers provide flexibility and specialisation but often lead to inefficiencies and disjointed marketing.
What if you could have the best of both worlds - the structure and integration of an in-house marketing team, but with the flexibility and expertise of external specialists?
That’s exactly what a Full-Service Outsourced Marketing Team offers - a dedicated team of marketing professionals who function like an internal department but without the overheads, hiring headaches, or long-term contracts.
Instead of hiring and managing multiple marketing professionals in-house or dealing with disconnected freelancers, you gain access to a complete marketing team under one service.
At Save My Marketing this means:
Fixed costs: No hidden fees, just transparent pricing so you can plan your budget effectively.
No contracts: Scale up or down as needed, without being locked into long-term commitments.
Full-service expertise: Access to specialists across all areas of marketing, including strategy, content, social media, SEO, email marketing, paid ads, and design.
Seamless integration: Your outsourced team works as an extension of your business, aligned with your brand, goals, and internal processes.
This approach is perfect for:
Small businesses and start-ups that need a dedicated marketing team but don’t have the budget or time to build one in-house.
Scaling businesses looking for full-service marketing without long-term employment commitments.
Companies that are tired of managing multiple agencies or freelancers and want an integrated solution that feels like part of their team.
Choosing the right marketing structure is a big decision, and as we’ve explored, both in-house teams and external suppliers come with their own set of advantages and challenges. While an internal team offers consistency and deeper brand understanding, it can be costly and require broad expertise. On the other hand, outsourcing to multiple suppliers provides flexibility but can lead to fragmented messaging and inefficiencies.
That’s why more businesses are looking for a solution that combines the best of both worlds - the strategic alignment of an in-house team with the flexibility and expertise of an outsourced service.
A marketing approach that works seamlessly with your business, adapts as you grow, and provides all the expertise you need under one roof - without the complexities of hiring or managing multiple suppliers.
Save My Marketing now offers a Full-Service Outsourced Marketing Team - giving you the structure, expertise, and consistency of an in-house team, without the high costs or long-term commitments.
With this solution, you get access to a dedicated team of marketing specialists who integrate seamlessly into your business, ensuring your strategy, messaging, and execution all work together - for less than the cost of a Marketing Manager.
If you’re looking for a marketing solution that combines the best of in-house and outsourced expertise, let’s chat!