Businesses are always looking for new and smarter ways to attract customers. Marketing automation is the best solution to this problem, it is a system that streamlines repetitive marketing tasks like social media posts, lead nurturing, email campaigns, and many more.

As companies know more about the values of automation, a simple question arises like Should we hire a marketing automation consultant or build an in-house team? If we are looking for the answer it totally depends on your resources, goals, and long-term strategies.

In this article, we will break down both options to help companies to make the right decision for their business success.

What Is a Marketing Automation Consultant?

A marketing automation consultant is an external expert who helps businesses in their plans, implementation, and to optimize their marketing automation strategies. They are experienced in using every popular tool like Marketo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or ActiveCampaign.

Their role is to:

• Analyze and mark your current marketing processes
• Choosing tools or strategies according to your goals 
• Create automated workflows (CRM syncing, lead scoring, emails)
• Training In-house team or manage campaigns on your behalf

Consultants also offer to work on contract base or per project base according to your facility. You don’t need to pay the cost of hiring a full-time employee if you hire a marketing consultant.

What Does an In-House Marketing Automation Team Look Like?

If we are talking about the In-house marketing automation team then we talk about the full-time employees who manage the automation tools and campaigns regularly.

The team depends on your business size, might include:

• Marketing Automation Specialist manage tools and builds workflows
• CRM Manager ensures that the customers data is clean and connected
• Content or Email Marketer creates content for automation process
• Analytics Expert tracks campaign performance and optimized it accordingly

In-house team means companies own team who can fit with business culture, allowing for long-term alignment and strategy development.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Marketing Automation Consultant

There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of hiring a marketing automation consultant, some of them are listed below:

Pros:

• Expertise: Consultants bring a bundle of experience across multiple niches and platforms.
• Quicker Implementation: They are quick in their work like finding the problems and launch campaigns accordingly.
• Less cost: You don’t need to pay full-time salaries 
• Objective perspective: They offer an outsider’s point of view, often spot technical issues that you may miss.

Cons:

• Limited Time: They might be handling multiple clients at once and not available all the time for your answers.
• Short-term engagement: They may not fully align with long-term business goals.
• Decision control: Decision might take longer because the consultants are not part of your team.

Pros and Cons of Building an In-House Team

The pros and cons of building an In-house team are listed below:

Pros:

• Full authority:  Manage all of your marketing automation process under your nose
• Long-term strategies: Build strategies according to your brand because team knows brand very well 
• Communication: Communicate easily with each other or with departments
• Consistent Growth: In-house team benefits in scaling your brand and consistent automation

Cons:

• High Cost: Employees salaries, training, and benefits can be expensive 
• Face Hiring Challenges: High skilled experts can be hard to find
• Slower setup: It’s hard to train a team, time taking process
• Limited knowledge: Team may have less knowledge or experience using different tools   

Cost Comparison: Consultant vs. In-House team

When choosing between an In-house marketing team or a consultant, the decision often comes down to cost and time to achieve your targets. Let’s explore the cost estimation of both options:

Cost to hire a Consultant:

• Charges between $70-$200 per hour or project based fees
• Best for niche specific campaigns
• You don’t need to pay full-time charges or for benefits 

In-House team Costs:

• Full-time employee have salaries around $4000 to $10000 per month
• You have to buy tools for employees that comes in additional charges 
• It is best for long-term projects, large-scale operations

In my opinion, hiring a marketing automation consultant is more affordable in the short term project. On the other hand, if you’re handling a long-term project focused on consistent growth, it is better to build an In-house marketing team that can handle the process under your supervision.

When Should You Choose a Consultant?

Hiring a consultant is a clever decision when you focus on quick results, such as launching a product or starting a marketing campaign. When you hire a marketing consultant, you are not only hiring an external help, you also hire in-depth expertise that will benefit you quickly or save you the cost of hiring a full time employee.

If you are new to marketing automation, a marketing consultant can benefit you in many ways like help you to understand the set-up workflow, tools, and avoid common mistakes.

Hiring a marketing automation consultant is very helpful for small businesses with limited resources or budget, as you only have to pay for the services you need.

When Is an In-House Team the Better Option?

If your company is growing fastly and requires continuous marketing automation then building an In-house team is a better choice. In-house teams can dedicatedly handle a large volume of campaigns and data because they know deeply about the brand.

Having a full-time marketing team means you can control the automation process better and focus on your business goals more clearly. This is perfect for the companies having complex and long-term marketing strategies that demand continuous scaling.

In-house marketing teams are a better choice for large businesses that have a good budget and resources to support a team. It is ideal for those who are seeking long-term progress and automation success.

Final Words

If you want to choose between marketing automation consultant vs In-house team then it totally depends on your budget and goals.

A consultant is ideal if you want quick results or professional help without long-term commitment. But if your target is to achieve long-term results and ongoing automation then building an In-house team is best because it gives you more control and long-term support.

First, look at your current needs and future goals then decide which option is more suitable for your business to achieve targets.