Businesses are always looking for new and smarter ways to attract customers. Marketing automation is an effective solution that streamlines repetitive marketing tasks like social media posts, lead nurturing, email campaigns, and many more. As companies become more aware of the value of automation, a simple question arises: Should we hire a marketing automation consultant or build an in-house team? The answer depends on your resources, goals, and long-term strategy.

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

What Is a Marketing Automation Consultant?

A marketing automation consultant is an external expert who provides marketing automation services, including planning, implementation, and optimization. They are experienced in using popular marketing automation tools such as Marketo, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and ActiveCampaign.

Their role is to:

• Analyze and evaluate your current marketing processes
• Choose the right tools and strategies based on your goals
• Create automated workflows (CRM syncing, lead scoring, email automation)
• Train your in-house team or manage the campaigns on your behalf

Consultants can work with you on a contract or project basis, depending on what suits you best. By hiring a marketing consultant, you don’t need to pay the cost of hiring a full-time employee.

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

When we talk about an in-house marketing automation team, we mean full-time employees who manage automation tools and workflows daily.

The size of your In-house marketing team depends on your business needs, but it may include roles such as:

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

An in-house team means a company’s 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 several pros and cons to hiring a marketing automation consultant. Some of the key ones are listed below:

Pros:

• Expertise: Consultants bring a bundle of experience across different niches and platforms.
• Quicker Implementation: They work quickly, identify problems quickly and launch campaigns accordingly.
• Lower 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 always available to respond immediately.
• Short-term engagement: They may not fully align with long-term business goals.
• Decision control: Decisions 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 processes under your nose
• Long-term strategies: An in-house team allows businesses to build a long-term marketing automation strategy that align closely with brand goals and internal processes.
• 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: Employee salaries, training, and benefits can be expensive
• Face Hiring Challenges: Highly skilled experts can be hard to find
• Slower setup: It’s hard to train a team, time-consuming process
• Limited knowledge: Team may have less knowledge or experience using different tools

Marketing Automation Consultant vs In-House team: Quick Comparison

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

Hiring a marketing automation consultant is more affordable for 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.

From our experience working with SaaS and B2B companies, businesses often start with a consultant to build strong automation foundations before gradually transitioning to an in-house team.

When Should You Choose a Consultant?

A marketing automation consultant is best suited for short-term goals, such as launching a marketing campaign, system setup or process optimization. When you hire a marketing consultant, you are not only hiring 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.

Small and mid-sized businesses often prefer consultants due to limited budget and immediate needs, while larger organizations benefit more from in-house teams that support long-term automation and scalability.

When Is an In-House Team the Better Option?

If your company is growing rapidly and requires continuous marketing automation then building an In-house team is a better choice. In-house teams can dedicate resources to handling 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 a B2B company that has complex, 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

Marketing automation consultant vs In-house team, What’s best for your business? To make the right choice, evaluate your budget, internal expertise, and the level of control your business requires.

If you need speed, expertise, and flexibility, a marketing automation consultant is the best suited option. However, if your goal is long-term growth and ongoing automation, building an in-house team is the better option, as it gives you full control over your marketing automation strategy.

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