10 Crucial Benefits and Tips for In-House Marketing A look at the advantages of in-house marketing for brands, best practices and how to know if it's right for your business.
By Adam Chandler Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Have you considered an in-house marketing strategy for your brand? If so, you're not alone. Marketing is one of the biggest challenges for many businesses, and outsourcing often leads to disappointment and headaches.
Finding the right marketing firm to work with can be a time-consuming, expensive process. Not to mention the time and effort it takes to bring a new marketing firm up to speed regarding your company.
Other challenges may be pushing you toward the in-house direction too. After all, bringing your marketing in-house gives you complete control over your message and the process of getting that message out to the world.
Related: The 6 Online Marketing Strategies Every Entrepreneur Needs
Benefits of using in-house marketing for your brand
One of the best benefits of in-housing is that it gives you complete corporate control of the marketing process from A to Z, but that's not the only reason you might want to consider taking this approach. Some of the other advantages associated with internally managing your marketing efforts include the following:
- Brand compliance. When outsourcing marketing, you trust other teams with your brand's message. Typically, these teams work with several brands and must manage brand compliance in marketing campaigns for each. Members of these teams may periodically mix up your message, which could lead to client trust issues. In-housing gives you complete control over your brand's voice, message and marketing.
- Effectiveness. As mentioned above, marketing firms typically work with several companies. So, you don't have the full-time attention of the team working on your marketing campaigns. Bringing your brands in-house gives your marketing efforts the full-time attention they need to thrive and become more effective.
- Easier onboarding and better expectation management. If your marketing efforts are accurate, new clients know what to expect. That means your onboarding process is smoother and your client's expectations manageable.
All of the above ultimately leads to improved brand, product or franchisee adoption, resulting in better revenue for your company.
Related: 5 Reasons Your Business May Not Be Ready for a Marketing Agency
Tips to make in-house marketing successful
Bringing your marketing efforts in-house and ensuring effective results may be two completely different topics, but they don't have to be. Here are a few tips to make sure your in-house marketing efforts succeed:
- Hire the right team. It's crucial to put together the best in-house marketing team you can. Conduct several interviews and consider each candidate before adding them to your team.
- Focus on opt-in strategies. There are several ways to go about marketing, but opt-in strategies tend to be the most effective. These strategies focus on having users opt-in to your sales funnel, typically via email subscription. Once the customer opts in, you send regular messages to bring them deeper into your brand.
- Make it personal. Don't you hate emails that start with, "Dear valued customer…?" Well, your customers do too. Use names, send out happy birthday wishes and make an extra effort to let your customers know you put them first. Personalization goes a long way.
- Analyze your effectiveness. Check on the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns regularly. The more you do, the more you'll learn what works, what doesn't and what strategies you can employ to improve your marketing outcomes.
- Take advantage of technology. This topic wouldn't even be a topic if it weren't for technological innovation. Technology has made several aspects of life more accessible, and marketing is no exception. Take advantage of the various technologies available to you to improve your marketing effectiveness.
- Ask for referrals. Word-of-mouth is still as effective today as it has always been. There's no shame in asking for referrals to tap into this reliable stream of leads.
- Ask for reviews. Customers look at reviews online before making purchases more today than ever before. Ask for reviews to ensure that when someone searches for hints about client experiences with you, they find positive results.
Related: Thinking of Taking Your Marketing In-House? Think Again.
Take advantage of technology
The right technology can expand the effectiveness of your online advertising campaigns, especially if marketing has become part of your company-handled operations. You can even automate much of the marketing process to lighten the load on your team.
You're not alone if you're tired of working through the headaches of outsourced marketing. More and more companies are shifting to in-house marketing strategies because of all the advantages the concept brings to the table.
