How to run your marketing, compared
In-house, an agency, a freelancer, or doing it yourself. Each of these pages argues both sides properly — including the cases where the honest answer costs us the work.
Pick the one you are actually weighing
We are an agency, so you should read these knowing that. They are written to be useful to someone who has not decided — which means every option gets a real case and a real set of drawbacks, ours included.
Three things worth settling first
Match the model to the work, not the revenue
The test for hiring in-house is whether there is a full week of genuine marketing work every week — not what you turn over. Plenty of businesses well into eight figures do not have that, and plenty of smaller ones with an active brand do.
Compare total scope, not headline rate
Three freelancers at $1,000 a month is $3,000, plus the tools, plus your own hours coordinating them. A salary is 25% to 40% more than the salary. The advertised number is rarely the number.
Fix the fundamentals before choosing anyone
If your listings are wrong, your site is slow and you have eleven reviews, no delivery model solves that quickly. Those are a few months of finite work, and a provider who takes a retainer without mentioning them is telling you something.
A strategist will tell you if the answer is not us
The free assessment looks at what your marketing is actually doing and says what to fix first. Sometimes that is a retainer. Fairly often it is a fortnight of work you can do yourself, and we would rather say so than sell around it.
Request a Free Consultation with a Marketing Expert
A strategist reviews how your business shows up in search today — your listings, your reviews and your site — then walks you through what is working, what is not, and what to fix first.
- No cost, no obligation
- Custom to your industry
- Delivered by a real strategist
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