This decision usually gets framed as a budget question, which is why it so often gets answered wrongly. The better question is how many different skills the plan requires in its first twelve months.
One hire is one skill set
A strong marketing generalist can plan, write and run campaigns. Very few can also design, build a website, shoot video and manage paid media. If the plan needs all of that, a single hire will end up subcontracting the rest, and managing those suppliers becomes their job rather than doing the work.
Write down everything the next twelve months requires, then mark which items one person could realistically produce at a standard you would be happy to publish. The unmarked list is what you are actually deciding about.
What each option really costs
A mid-level marketing manager in the Twin Cities costs a salary plus benefits, plus the software, plus the freelancers they will need for design and video. A retainer buys a strategist, a designer, a writer and a media buyer, none of them full-time, for a monthly fee with no notice period beyond the contract.
The hire is better value once the work is steady, repeatable and high enough in volume to fill a week. Below that, you are paying for availability you cannot use.
When the hire is clearly right
If the work is continuous, deeply specific to your industry, and needs somebody in your building every day, hire. Nobody outside the company will ever know your customers as well as a good internal marketer, and for businesses where marketing is the growth engine that knowledge compounds.
When an agency is clearly right
If you need several skills at once, need to start this month, or are not yet sure which channels will work, an agency is the lower-risk option. You can change the mix without changing anyone’s job, and the cost tracks the work rather than the headcount.
When it is neither
The common answer is a smaller internal presence with outside execution: someone accountable inside the business, with a team producing the work. That is what fractional CMO leadership is for, and it is usually the cheapest way to get senior judgement without a senior salary.
Three questions that settle it
How many disciplines does the plan need in year one? Can you describe the job well enough to hire for it? And if the first hire is wrong, how long will it take to find out and recover? Answer those honestly and the decision usually makes itself.
If you want the plan before you decide, talk to our team. One call names which skills the next quarter actually needs.
