Mastering B2B Marketing Operations: Outsourcing, In-house, or Hybrid?

In the industrial sector, where markets are constantly shifting and competition is fierce, B2B companies need solid marketing operations to stay ahead of the competition. Whether you’re aiming to build brand awareness or drive growth, having the right operational structure in place is essential.

With 15 years working client side in marketing teams before running marketing agencies for the last 20 years, I’ve seen the pros and cons of each approach. But with so many options for managing your marketing, the question isn’t about whether to invest in it, but how.

Should you outsource to a specialised B2B marketing agency, hire your own in-house team, or strike a balance with a hybrid approach? Some companies are even taking the step of bringing an external agency in-house. Each of these choices impacts key areas of your business, such as cost, expertise, control, and, most importantly, efficiency and effectiveness. The size of your business will influence which option is most viable. Smaller companies might prioritise cost and scalability, while larger enterprises could focus on control and strategic alignment.

In a B2B industrial company, the key choices for managing marketing operations fall into four categories:

This article covers my thoughts and will help you think about your own marketing operations, exploring 12 key areas to determine the best fit for your business.

If you’re short on time, I’ve added anchor links so you can review the most important areas for you:

1. Expertise & Experience
2. Cost & Return on Investment (ROI)
3. Focus on Core Activities
4. Scalability & Flexibility
5. Speed & Efficiency
6. Technology & Tools
7. Data & Reporting
8. Quality Control & Consistency
9. Confidentiality & Security
10. Innovation & Creativity
11. Long-Term Strategic Alignment
12. Accountability & Ownership

Expertise and experience in marketing, especially in the B2B context where buying cycles are complex, makes a huge impact on the efficiency and return on marketing investment. As a B2B marketing agency, we’ve confidently provided expertise and experience to our clients, but this is outweighed by costs when priorities change for a business. Although this cost factor is I’d say the most common, I believe there’s more layers.

Outsourcing marketing to an agency provides access to specialised knowledge and a wealth of experience. We work with a diverse range of clients across various industries, offering a broad perspective on market trends and innovative strategies. This diversity is our significant asset, as we’re able to bring fresh ideas and creative approaches that might not be readily available in-house. However, I appreciate working with some agencies may lack a deep understanding of your company’s specific market, products, or internal culture. It leads to potential misalignment in strategies and messaging. So, it’s important that you choose the right agency that’s well adapted to your industry. For example, if you’re a manufacturer or construction company, then I’d naturally highly recommend myself.

The great thing about in-house marketing teams is that they possess a deep understanding of the company’s products, culture, and sometimes, the market. This knowledge allows a highly tailored and cohesive marketing strategy that aligns closely with the businesses aims and objectives, but I often find this benefit becomes jaded by internal politics. Additionally, in-house teams often lack the broad expertise that agencies can bring, potentially leading to less innovative strategies and output. True the tide can turn by hiring experienced professionals with a track record of achieving results, but marketing is constantly evolving, and you’ll need to encourage continuous learning and development.

A hybrid approach leverages the strengths of both in-house teams and external agencies. You can develop a core marketing team in-house that understands the brand and manages day-to-day activities while outsourcing key strategic marketing tasks to agencies. In my experience this often includes areas where internal expertise may be low, such as SEO, PPC, creative campaigns, and exhibition marketing. I find that this approach allows the company to benefit from both internal knowledge and external expertise with the ability to be agile.

An alternative approach is bringing an agency in-house, as exemplified by Oliver Agency. This model involves integrating an external agency within the company to work exclusively with you. This approach allows you to combine the benefits of outsourcing and in-house, while maintaining close alignment with your goals and culture. WARNING: Bringing an agency in-house comes with a hefty price tag.

I imagine that this section will be the most popular, and let’s be honest, it’s the age-old question when it comes to outsource vs in-house – What is the cost, and what will I get back? Well, depending on your businesses structure, size, and your goals, you may have a different perspective, so let’s look at the pros and cons of each and make sure to consider my cost-comparison calculation.

Outsourcing marketing can be a cost-effective solution, especially for smaller businesses or those without the resources to build a full-fledged in-house team. As a B2B marketing agency, we provide predictable costs, so budgeting is made easier. By outsourcing, you can avoid the overhead expenses like salaries, benefits, and training costs associated with hiring employees. However, outsourcing to some agencies can sometimes involve hidden costs, such as service fees, additional charges for specialised services, and potential markups. Rest assured that when you work with Beach, there’s none of that. But if you ask for something that’s outside of our arrangement, then of course there’s additional costs. The ROI from outsourcing depends on the agency’s effectiveness, your budget, and what you’re looking to achieve. We often outline a plan for our new clients to get them where they want to be, with options of costs that determine how quickly they can get there. Whatever your budget, we deliver impact, growth, and ROI, and I can proudly say we have delivered compelling results for our clients.

Building an in-house marketing team involves significant initial investment, including recruitment, training, and technology setup. However, over time, an efficient in-house team can lead to cost savings through better resource management and control over spending. This way you can avoid the recurring fees associated with agencies and instead invest in their personnel and infrastructure. The ROI from in-housing solely relies on them and how they’re managed. For larger companies with resources a plenty, the long-term savings and control can outweigh the initial costs.

A hybrid approach can provide a balanced cost structure. While your team handle everyday marketing tasks in-house such as social media or email newsletters, you can manage costs effectively and still benefit from the specialised expertise an agency brings on strategic and creative activities. This, in my view, is a more flexible and scalable option, allowing you to adjust spending based on project needs without committing to full-scale costs. I have found that the ROI from a hybrid arrangement can be maximised if the strengths of both teams are coordinated with optimal resource allocation, which leads to high quality output.

Bringing an agency in-house involves a unique cost structure. While it may require significant initial investment to integrate the agency, the ongoing costs can be more predictable. This model can lead to cost savings in the long term, as the in-house agency becomes more integrated and efficient within the company. How well the agency is integrated with your company, and the effectiveness of their strategies in achieving your business objectives, will have a contributing factor to the ROI you can expect.

Let’s compare the costs

For the purposes of illustrating the costs I’ve made the following assumptions: A typical in-house marketing team will consist of a marketing manager (£40k), content/digital executive (£32k), a graphic designer (£28k), and an entry level assistant (£22k). Each have a salary, benefits, and cost to recruit and train.

Additional In-housing Considerations:

• Software and Tools: Marketing teams require software for social media management, graphic design (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud), project management, and SEO tools. These can add another £10,000 to £20,000 per year.
• Office Overhead: Workspace, computer equipment, and utilities for the team. While harder to calculate, this could add a significant cost depending on the size and location of your office.
• Team Limitations: The in-house team has finite resources (four people in this case). If extra campaigns, social platforms, or specialisations (e.g., video, SEO) are required, you’d either need to hire more or outsource part of the work.
• Training and Professional Development: Ongoing marketing training can add £1,000-£2,000 annually per person, particularly if you’re aiming to stay competitive. For this illustration I’ve allowed for £500 per team member.
• Holidays & Sickness: I’ve added in the costs of holidays and sickness to illustrate that these need to be factored into the equation. Whilst they don’t actually cost you in monetary terms there is the drop in efficiency whilst they are out of the business.
• Recruitment costs: I’ve also assumed that two of your staff will leave each year and would need to be replaced.

When outsourcing to a marketing agency, costs can vary based on the size of the agency, scope of work, retainer fees, and level of service required. However, we can compare the following:

Retainers: Most agencies charge on a retainer basis, with typical monthly retainers ranging from £3,000 to £10,000 depending on the scope and the agency’s reputation. Assuming a moderate retainer of £5,000/month, the annual cost would be £60,000.

Project-based work: If your agency operates on a project basis (e.g., £2,000 per project), you might expect several projects a year, adding another £10,000 to £20,000 annually depending on volume and scope of campaigns.

Given these variables, outsourcing could range from £60,000 to £80,000 annually depending on your marketing needs and volume of work.

Agency management: The agency will need to be managed to oversee the agency’s work, manage approvals, coordinate timelines, and ensure alignment with company goals. You will need to consider who would do that in your organisation? That could be a marketing manager, but in our experience, where there is no marketing team this is often undertaken by a sales manager or the C-suite who have little marketing knowledge and/or skills.

Additional Outsourcing Considerations:

Agency management: The agency will need to be managed to oversee the agency’s work, meetings and communication, reviewing and approving work, coordinating timelines, and ensuring alignment with company goals. There’s also agency onboarding to consider as well as managing performance.

You will need to consider who would do that in your organisation? That could be a marketing manager but, in our experience, where there is no marketing team this is often undertaken by a sales manager or a member of the C-suite who have little marketing knowledge and/or skills.

Agency Specialisations: Some agencies offer specialised services that an in-house team might not have expertise in, such as advanced PPC, SEO, or social media advertising. These can be included in the retainer or charged separately.

Flexibility: Agencies can scale up or down based on your needs. You’re not locked into fixed employee salaries, which makes outsourcing more flexible during slow periods.

Efficiency: Agencies already have tools and subscriptions in place (e.g., HubSpot, SEMrush, or Hootsuite), so you save on software and training costs. They often work across multiple clients, allowing them to benchmark performance and apply insights from various industries.

Let me summarise

Whether you in-house or outsource, the strategy for each and the costs involved are different. You need to consider the Costs and balance against the benefits for both options.

Cost savings: Outsourcing can be considerably cheaper at the lower end of the scale, but costs could rise depending on the complexity and number of services you need.

Flexibility: In-housing gives you more flexibility and control over daily operations, but outsourcing may provide broader expertise at a lower cost without the management responsibilities.

The costs are for illustration only and service to pen your mind to the options available, and clearly there’s lots to think about. I haven’t included the hybrid approach or in house agency approach in this cost comparison for simplicity, but you may want to run your own comparison. Let me know how you get on.

In my experience, businesses who currently have little or no marketing bodies within the business tend to want to focus on their core activities, rather than worry about marketing. They sometimes have a large sales team, but struggle to close sales leads often on being outperformed by competitors who spend on brand awareness and effective marketing activities.

If you’re looking to focus on the core business operations such as product development, or customer service, and you want to increase your sales turnover, outsourcing your marketing activities is a no brainer. Outsourcing to a B2B marketing agency means your internal resources are no longer stretched, and now you can effectively challenge your competitors and increase sales revenue without being distracted from what matters to you most.

Alternatively, you might have a marketing team, but their resources are often focused on the day-to-day marketing activities, and organising event, or dealing with internal challenges. I appreciate that in-house marketing fosters a more cohesive approach to marketing, as the team works closely with other departments to execute a unified strategy. But like I said, the downside is that managing all these marketing activities internally is likely to stretch resources and divert attention from other essential marketing objectives.

Again, if you’ve got an in-house team, but your core business activities are stretching their resources, a helping hand from an agency is the solution. While you and your team focus on the day-to-day, a B2B agency like Beach, provides the expertise in specialist and creative marketing. This way, your team aren’t overwhelmed, allowing them to concentrate on what matters most to you, while the agency help you achieve your goals with complex and large-scale projects.

Let’s go back to the businesses without any marketing bodies. In the context of aiming to focus on core business activities, bringing an agency in-house is the alternative to outsourcing. This method ensures your company retains control over its marketing efforts while benefiting from the agency’s expertise. It fosters close collaboration between the agency and the company, but there’s a risk that the agency gets caught up solely focusing on those core activities, without being properly utilised to their full potential.

It’s rare that I come across clients who aren’t looking to scale-up their business. Otherwise, why would they come to us? But it’s not just scalability they’re looking for. Sometimes, for them, it’s a flexible partnership that helps them scale when the time is right.

That’s the thing about working with a B2B marketing agency. We offer scalability and flexibility, allowing you to adjust services based on needs, market conditions, and budget constraints. This flexibility has helped our clients who have fluctuating demands or seasonal campaigns and allows quick adaption to changes. The only downside to this for you, is that this approach can make it difficult to forecast costs depending on how flexible the arrangement is.

Now, if you’ve got an in-house team, you’ve got more control over resources, but you can’t just turn on and off someone’s salary, unless your team consists of temporary staff, and with the cost of hiring temps it doesn’t make commercial sense. You can, however, make frequent changes to your budget according to your specific needs. This control allows for a more precise adjustment to changes but the speed at which your team can react is limited by a lack of time to plan.

A hybrid approach provides a balance of scalability and control. In-house teams can manage routine tasks and day-to-day marketing needs, while agencies can be brought in for larger projects or when additional resources are required. This model allows you to scale marketing efforts efficiently without the constraints of solely relying on internal or external teams.

In the context of scalability and flexibility, I don’t believe that bringing an agency in-house is a likely viable option. For you yes, but for the agency, especially where the agency works exclusively for you, may not be an ideal financial arrangement. However, if flexibility can be arranged in this context, the agency can quickly adjust to your changing needs while maintaining close alignment with your goals. This approach should lead to scaling marketing efforts without the need for frequent contract negotiations.

If speed and efficiency is a deciding factor on whether you choose an agency or an in-house team for B2B marketing, then this really relies on making the right choice in what’s available. It all comes down to the two entities. Is the agency up to scratch? Is your in-house team up to par?

Agencies are often equipped with established processes and experienced teams, allowing for quick execution of marketing campaigns. I have been really impressed with my team on how agile they are and quick to produce impactful marketing campaigns. We understand that speed can be crucial for timely market entries and product launches, because these factors help capitalise on emerging opportunities. If you do decide to outsource, please consider that our speed relies on your communication. Poor communication and coordination often lead to potential delays in output and subsequently the results you can expect to receive.

In-house teams can respond quickly to market changes and internal demands, allowing for timely adjustments to marketing strategies. This agility is particularly valuable in dynamic industries where speed is a competitive advantage. The primary risk is that not every business has an efficient in-house marketing operation and developing one can take time.

With a hybrid approach, companies can enjoy the best of both worlds. In-house teams can quickly implement and adjust ongoing campaigns, while agencies can step in for more complex or urgent projects, ensuring that the company maintains a competitive edge without sacrificing efficiency.

An in-house agency model provides the efficiency of having a dedicated team focused solely on your business needs. This model can streamline processes, reduce delays, and ensure that marketing efforts are executed swiftly and effectively.

When it comes to technology and tools, it depends on the cost, and what technology you’re specifically looking for. Do you invest in the tech yourself? Does the agency have them already? If they do, are there additional costs that are passed on to you? Let’s find out.

Outsourcing provides access to the latest marketing technologies and tools without the need for additional investment. Agencies, like ours, have advanced analytics, CRM systems, and other technologies that can enhance campaign effectiveness. The potential downside is that the tools and technologies used by the agency may not fully align with your existing systems or be the ones for which you were hoping. Rest assured; we have a comprehensive tech-stack and using API technology, we’re 99.7% able to integrate these with your existing systems. But, if your marketing objectives require us to source a new license for the tech you require that comes with a cost, we will ask you to cover it. Alternatively, if you’re happy with the tech-stack you have, we also work with clients existing platforms.

In-house teams can choose and customise their technology stack to fit specific needs and integrate seamlessly with existing systems. This customisation allows for a more cohesive and efficient workflow. However, the cost of purchasing and maintaining advanced marketing tools can be significant. For more advanced marketing tools like marketing automation, in-house teams don’t always have the skills to utilise them to their full potential.

A hybrid approach allows you to invest in essential tools for in-house teams while leveraging the advanced technologies available through agencies on specific projects. This way you can benefits from state-of-the-art tools without bearing the full cost of ownership.

When you invest in marketing, you’re going to want to see the outcome. Having sufficient, accurate, and transparent data provides that outcome in different metrics depending on what your goals are and the objectives. Either your agency or in-house marketing team will report to you with how well your marketing is performing, so if data and reporting is a deciding factor, you’re going to want to know who’ll be more transparent.

B2B marketing agencies provide detailed analytics and reporting, offering insights into campaign performance and market trends. This data can inform strategic decisions and improve marketing efforts. The risk is that you may have limited access to raw data, making it difficult to verify results or conduct in-depth analyses independently. At Beach, we use an analytics tool called Agency Analytics, and it combines all your channels and marketing campaign results in one dashboard. We provide our clients with access to this analytics tool to allow full transparency of our performance.

In-house teams will have full access to all data, ensuring transparency and allowing for detailed analysis. This access enables you to make data-driven decisions and tailor strategies based on accurate information. However, effective data management requires skilled marketers who fully understand the complexity behind data analytics and the robust systems. A lot of which, are constantly evolving as platform like Google Analytics change their algorithms and platform navigation.

With a hybrid approach, you can maintain control over essential data and reporting processes while benefiting from the advanced analytics and insights provided by agencies for specific campaigns. This ensures a comprehensive understanding of performance metrics and strategic outcomes, but should these data sources not be connected won’t allow a full picture of your overall performance.

With a hybrid approach, you can maintain control over essential data and reporting processes while benefiting from the advanced analytics and insights provided by agencies for specific campaigns. This ensures a comprehensive understanding of performance metrics and strategic outcomes, but should these data sources not be connected won’t allow a full picture of your overall performance.

One of the biggest factors to consider when deciding whether to outsource your B2B marketing or use in-house marketing is the quality you get and keeping it consistent. So how does quality and consistency compare when it comes to outsourced and in-house marketing?

Agencies maintain high-quality standards and consistency in their deliverables, ensuring a highly professional and creative output. I’m confident that our B2B marketing agency fits that description very well. I’m also immensely proud of the work that we’ve produced over the years while maintaining a consistent brand image that in my experiences has never been matched by an in-house marketing team. Quality is what businesses come to us for, and it’s delivered every time.

In-house teams have direct oversight of marketing efforts, ensuring that all content and campaigns meet a standard of quality. This control allows for consistent messaging, and if the team are skilled, branding also. But I rarely find that in-house teams maintain a high-quality standard because that oversight is always ongoing, and standards tend to slip somewhere along the lines. For example, a client of ours was produced with an amazing new brand and a brand guidelines manual. After several years of being a client and hiring a new commercial director, they decided to bring their marketing in-house. Sadly, over time the standards of their marketing collateral began to slip with inconsistencies in messaging and a lack of applied branding principles.

A hybrid approach allows you to maintain control over core quality standards while relying on agencies for specialised tasks that require high levels of expertise. We often work with in-house teams to ensure consistency and provide quality across all marketing activities. In fact, most of our clients have some level of marketing within the business and have a varied number of bodies. Our experience in these circumstances encourage us to work collaboratively and leverage the strengths of both teams to produce high quality marketing on every project.

You might choose an in-house agency model, particularly if quality and consistency is a deciding factor. Opting for an in-house agency ensures that quality control and consistency are closely monitored. This integration has the potential for a high-quality output that meets your expectations and enhances brand reputation.

Understandably, your customers confidentiality and security are a top priority, which may be a concern when dealing with third-party agencies, especially as they are likely to handle your customers data.

Reputable agencies, likes ours, implement robust data protection measures and comply with GDPR practices, ensuring the security of sensitive information and assurance of best practices. I appreciate the risk is that outsourcing involves sharing proprietary information with external parties, posing a risk of data breaches or misuse. But such an event would be highly detrimental to the agency’s reputation and continuity. So, from one business owner to another, I can assure you our commitment to confidentiality and security are well aligned.

In-house teams handle all sensitive data internally, and although this reduces the risk of any breach and ensure that proprietary data information remains within your business, doesn’t guarantee that a breach won’t occur.

A hybrid model, however, enables you to keep sensitive data handling in-house while outsourcing non-sensitive tasks to agencies. This balance may ease any concerns of risks and provides a sense of security knowing that you’re solely responsible for the data.

An in-house agency can offer the security benefits of in-house data handling while providing the expertise of an external agency. This model ensures that sensitive information is protected within the company’s secure infrastructure.

I’m not going to compare agencies with in-house marketing teams on innovation and creativity. Much alike quality and consistency, innovation and creativity are a strength that in-house marketing teams cannot compete with. It’s what businesses come to us for.

Often, in-house marketing teams develop what I call ‘in-house fatigue’. It’s when a team of marketers have become complacent by doing the same thing they did last year, just because that’s what they’ve always done, or it simply worked last time. Which is fine, but in competitive markets, creative stagnation will eventually lead to declining sales and shrinking market share. That, you cannot afford.

Working with a proven B2B marketing agency brings fresh perspectives and creative ideas from working across different industries and markets. This diversity has led to our innovative marketing strategies.

I appreciate that sometimes there may be a disconnect between the agency’s creative, bold approach and your company’s strategic direction, in which case an agency/in-house hybrid may be the solution in this context. This ensures that campaigns are both innovative and aligned with your company’s identity.

When deciding whether to outsource your marketing, or use an in-house marketing team, long-term strategic direction is beyond any doubt the top consideration factor. Hiring or firing in-house marketing teams in this context even more so, because the recruitment process, infrastructure, training and development, strategy planning and the execution will take several months, and that’s before you start seeing any return on marketing investment (ROMI). But this is about strategic alignment, and yes, an in-house marketing team can certainly provide that when the dust is settled.

A strategic agency, like ours, provides strategic insights and align marketing efforts with broader industry trends and best practices. I’m not saying that agencies get it right all the time, but agencies tend to have a lot more experience and specialist marketing processes. We’ve been finetuning proven marketing strategies since 2008, developing them as markets evolve to enhance our clients market position and long-term success. Sometimes, an agency’s long-term vision may not align with what you had in mind, but you came to a B2B marketing agency for a reason, so consider their advice! Our responsibility is to listen to you, understand your business and market, and provide a solution to get you where you want to be.

As I’ve mentioned, in-house teams are inherently aligned with the company’s long-term vision and goals, so you’re in full control of cohesive and consistent strategic planning. However, limited exposure to external market trends often leads to narrow strategic focus.

Working collaboratively with your in-house marketing team allows us to bring strategic insights to the table, maintain alignment with your long-term goals and provide a robust route to achieve them. Leveraging the strengths of both teams means that your marketing still has that innovative wow factor and remains aligned with your goals.

This is probably the most prominent anxiety a business leader will have when deciding whether to outsource their marketing or use an in-house team. What happens if it doesn’t work out? Who’s responsible? What are the risks?

Clear contractual agreements hold agencies solely responsible for delivering specific results. This makes agencies like ours accountable to meet performance metrics. As an agency owner, not satisfying my clients is an anxiety that resides in the back of my mind, even after being in the business for 20 years. It’s my professional reputation on the line, and the reputation of my business. So naturally, I want my team to do the best. That niggling feeling, combined with the adoration of what we do motivates us to deliver impact, growth, and ROI for our clients. In any event a strategy or campaign doesn’t work, we’ll fix it.

In-house teams are directly accountable to your leadership, with that provides an opportunity to make it your own and commit yourself to achieving results – should you have the time. But the primary challenge of this is maintaining that accountability and productivity, especially if you oversee multiple departments. So, if you are considering in-house marketing, be realistic on how much you’re willing to put into it. Teams need strategic leadership and ongoing nurturing to effectively deliver results.

If you’re considering a hybrid approach, there’s probable cause for some ambiguities around who’s accountable for what. You know what it’s like dealing with separate sales and marketing teams, neither want to hold their hands up when the proverbial hits the fan. But they’re both quick to take the credit when things go well. In the context of a marketing agency / in-house arrangement, sometimes it’s not that different and either are likely to say something like ‘I told you so’. However, so far, our experience of working with in-house teams hasn’t put us in this predicament. In-house teams typically work on the day-to-day, and we focus on delivering the wow-factor campaigns. We work together to ensure consistent messaging and branding, but the separate activities are easily traceable.

An in-house agency model ensures close accountability and ownership of marketing efforts to them. Much alike outsourcing, this approach directly makes the agency responsible and committed to achieving results, as the integrated agency works exclusively for you and their goals are aligned with yours.

Each approach – outsourcing, in-house, hybrid, and in-house agencies – offer unique advantages but also come their challenges. Your choice depends on your business’s specific needs, resources, and strategic goals. If it’s expertise and scalability, costs and ROI, innovation and creativity, or quality and consistency that are your deciding factors then I highly recommend considering a B2B marketing agency. Carefully evaluate all the factors and make an informed decision that best supports your goals.