Startup Marketing: Agency vs In-House vs Freelance

As a founder or early-stage leader in a startup, one of the most critical decisions you'll make is how to build your marketing team. Having worked with lots of startups and witnessed many successes and failures, I've seen firsthand the challenges and benefits associated with both hiring in-house and outsourcing.

‍Marketing is a tricky beast, and let’s be honest, can be a bit of a dirty word. Partly because the process can be murky, confusing, and composed of constantly moving parts - ads, brands, websites, activations, SEO, PPC, PR, etc. Where do you start?

Plus, the financial stakes are high, especially for startups.

It’s no joke when I say that making the wrong marketing decisions can cost you years and tens of thousands of pounds, eating into your two most precious resources: time and budget. One B2B SaaS company I knew spent three years battling poor marketing hires and agencies. They lost their first-mover advantage and the jury is out on whether they’ll be synonymous with the category as was first predicted.

‍Momentum is everything for early stage companies; you have a finite window of opportunity to exploit your USPs and unfair advantages. You need to be able to make an impact and sustain that trajectory in order to fulfil your potential (and shareholder expectations). You need the right people, at the right time.

In this article, I'll explore the three primary options available to startups when it comes to assembling a marketing team, and introduce a fourth option that addresses the unique needs of growing companies.

‍Hiring In-House: The Double-Edged Sword

Building an in-house marketing team can seem like the ideal route for many startups. It offers a dedicated resource focused solely on your business, with the potential for deep integration into your company culture.

Hiring a marketing manager is usually the first step. 

‍Marketing managers that are creative, truly invested in your business, and great communicators are like gold dust for a startup - but they are one person, and will always need the support of a team around them to deliver on your business's marketing needs.

So where do you start? What skills do you need to hire for, and in what order? If this is your first time managing a marketing department, it can be a minefield.

‍In-house Pros:

• Full focus on your business
• Flexibility to change direction quickly
• Potential for team members to take equity, aligning their interests with the company's success
• Direct control over the team's priorities and workload

In-house Cons:

• There is a Jack-of-All-Trades dilemma. Expecting a single hire or small team to excel across all marketing disciplines (strategy, copywriting, design, analytics, etc.) is often unrealistic and can lead to subpar results.
• Financial risk as full-time hires are a substantial, long-term financial commitment, which can be challenging for startups with unpredictable cash flows.
• Opportunity cost as time spent on recruiting, training, and managing an in-house marketing team could potentially be better spent on core business or product development activities.
• Scalability issues – as your startup grows, the marketing needs often outpace the capabilities of initial hires, necessitating constant team expansion or upskilling.

‍Freelancers and Consultants: Flexibility at a Cost

Many startups turn to freelancers or consultants as a flexible, cost-effective option for their marketing needs. But a lack of long-term commitment goes both ways, as quickly as you can end the relationship, so can they, leaving you without resources at the last minute.

It’s important to remember that freelancers still need clear direction and management to be effective, which can be time-consuming. They also work on their own schedule and are often unavailable for emergencies or short deadlines as they have a roster of clients to support. 

‍Freelance Pros:

• Lower initial costs compared to full-time hires
• Flexibility to engage specialists for specific projects
• Easy to scale up or down based on needs (assuming they have the availability)
• Access to diverse experiences from different industries

Freelance Cons:

• Potential for inconsistent availability and "stop-start" progress, for example a one-day per week engagement model can cause bottlenecks in work
• Difficulty in coordinating multiple freelancers for cohesive strategies
• Quality control can be an issue, with risk of engaging individuals who overstate their expertise and leave you vulnerable to blind spots
• Time and effort is required to build rapport and creative trust between individuals to work well as a team
• Where to start? How do you find one? Who’s good? What skills? 

Traditional Agencies: Experience vs. Agility

Established marketing agencies offer a wealth of experience and resources, but they may not always align with the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of startup operations. 

Also, their size means they carry a lot of excess weight - you might not need their in-house video production facilities, or ever go to their fancy serviced offices in Sea Containers, but in a roundabout way, you’ll be paying for it. 

Agency Pros:

• Access to a wide range of specialised skills and creative excellence
• Established processes and team dynamics mean that work is efficient and effective 
• Ability to leverage insights from work with other clients
• Easier to disengage if the partnership isn't working out (assuming the contract isn’t too lengthy)

Agency Cons:

• Many rely on a playbook to get results, which doesn’t always work for category creators or disruptive market entrants 
• Typically expensive and lack transparency
• Many lack the agility required for startup environments, and struggle to change tack or adapt to new learnings quickly 
• Risk of misalignment if the agency specialises in only one area of marketing i.e. a digital ad agency will recommend more ad spend even if it’s strategically a poor decision for the business 

A New Startup Agency: Blending the Best of All Worlds

Having observed the short and long term impact of these options over several years, I realised there was a need for a solution that combines the best aspects of each while mitigating their drawbacks. As a founder and a marketeer, I was increasingly frustrated by the time and resources I could see being wasted, which was slowing down progress and sometimes stalling it altogether. 

Fuelled by frustration and opportunity, I set up BRICK, a specialised agency designed to support the unique needs of startups and scale-ups. We’re a strategic, creative bunch of industry experts that act like your out-of-house marketing team, or fractional marketing team, that is dedicated and available to you every day. 

We’re structured to give you:

• Instant value with immediate kick-off and strategic insights on day one
• Budget consistency with a predictable monthly retainer (you can cancel anytime or commit to a longer partnership for a reduced fee)
• Comprehensive support across the full funnel of demand generation
• Access to a diverse team of marketing, branding and startup experts
• The ability to build a productive, long-term relationship with a team that truly understands your business
• Flexibility to adapt to changing needs while maintaining a strategic focus
• Exploration of creative opportunities and proactive idea generation
• Peace of mind in handling last-minute changes and curveballs

Over the past few years, we’ve launched exciting new brands, created new revenue streams, increased revenue, launched clever, low-cost brand campaigns, helped startups raise their series A and got their founders on TV and in the papers. 

We don’t believe that throwing money at something gives you the best results, creativity does. This means we’re masters at getting the most out of your budget, and getting you closer to your next milestone, as quickly as possible. 

We’re also quite a nice bunch of people too, which always helps. 

If you’d like to chat about your business, just drop us a email Hey@wearebrick.com 

We’d love to hear from you. 

Frankie x