A recent #SEO411 twitter chat spurred a side conversation about the pros and cons of working as an in house internet marketer vs. working for an agency. The participants were all search marketers and the split was pretty even down the middle between people who were in house or contract/agency.
I myself have recently made the switch, going from a technology manager with a focus on web to specializing here at Alter Imaging almost exclusively on new media marketing. It has been a huge adjustment to say the least. I hope I can document my experiences effectively to aid both new media marketers in their carrer arch (aim high, friends) and the companies that employ us make informed personel decisions.
Two months ago I left my comfy hobbit hole of internet technology program manager…a title that I created upon hire and held for four years. I built websites for the company, agents, and properties and marketed them on the web. We did heavy post-click marketing in that we incubated online leads and identified agents who were successful at managing them. Training played a critical role.
I count myself extremely lucky. I stepped from one well oiled machine to another. My current position is the internet marketing strategist here at Alter Imaging and the team here is amazing. I literally feel like I walked up, kicked the plane’s chocks out the way, and we took off.
OK, enough warm fuzzy about my previous and current employers. I’m going to break down my evaluation between the two positions with the weighted value in parentheses and all areas being evaluated on a 10 point scale:
- Motivation (5) – Do I really want to do this today? Do they believe in what I’m doing? Do I believe in them?
- Empowerment (5) – Can I do this? Will they respect my budget decisions? How much disclosure?
- Alignment (5) – Are we on the same page? Do we all want to do this for the same reasons?
- Education (3) – Does the position provide room for growth? Access to experienced mentors?
- Fun (1) – We all want this to be a 10, right?
Agency Score = 154
Motivation – 9 (x 5) = 45
If I don’t perform for my clients they leave. Clients have zero loyalty for an agency that doesn’t deliver results. Frequently they feel the results will sustain themselves and wind down years of hard work. Agency marketers havet to figure out new channels and hustle for each client. The variety makes it a challenge but also keeps my job interesting. Plus, working for an agency allows me to leverage solutions across a wide client base. New ideas sprout from individual client interactions and mutate into new solutions that benefit other clients.
Empowerment – 6 (x 5) =30
This is the lowest score for agency marketing. Within the company, I’m 100% vested. I feel that my boss will back me to the hilt and respects my judgement. If my requests aren’t approved, there is a valid reason backed with data and experience.
The clients, however, are already spending money. They spend it on creating and marketing their sites. If I come up with a banner advertisement or radio spot or microsite campaign, I have to package up the proposal and sell it to them.
Alignment – 9 (x5) = 45
Everyone at Alter Imaging sees the value in new media marketing. Many of the developers and designers were working on marketing projects before I even started. We are all students of design and strive for great work.
The clients are the same way and I count myself lucky. They recognize that we’re partners and working towards the same goal.
Education – 8 (x3) = 24
I learn something new everyday. I’m now a specialist removed from doing excessive web design or development. I get to attend incredible educational events that inspire me to learn more about my field. Working for an agency, I can see myself one day going back to grad school and hopefully one day I’ll get to be like Steve Knox, running Tremor and dropping mass pyschnology knowledge on a crowd of hipsters.
Fun – 10 (x1) = 10
Fish, foosball, stocked fridge, Summer hours, a beach trip, and SXSWi. Nuff said
In-house Score = 120
Motivation – 8 (x 5) = 40
It didn’t matter whether I wanted to do it that day or not. Nobody else would. The number of leads that came in from the company, agent, and property sites were my only justification for being there. I enjoyed finding new ways of capturing leads.
Empowerment – 8 (x 5) =40
If I rattled my sabre enough, everyone would listen. Sometimes this meant I had to get pissy and call people I shouldn’t call and later I got lectured. But they did it. We did it. We all liked the results so I must have been right to act like a brat back there, right? Right?
Alignment – 4 (x5) = 20
The one true weak spot with my in house experience. I always found myself justifying what I wanted to do. I was basing my decisions on the web usage patterns because my only concern was hauling in leads. Management decisions could negatively impact the user experience. For example, agents wanted forced registration thinking they’d get more leads. They did, but they were mostly Mickey Mouse and Mr. Fu. Bounce rate went up and overall traffic started going down.
Education – 5 (x3) = 15
I learned everything I know about lead collection and incubation from my experiences in house. Early on, I got the chance to go to some incredible conferences and listen to marketers from Carat and other top-tier agencies. But in between those brief bursts I was on my own. Nobody else in the company built or marketing web sites. Because nobody else had my skill set, I had very little work interactions that were about *work*. The lack of conversations lead to a feeling of intellectual isolationism.
Fun – 5 (x1) = 5
The people were great. They had great heart and we did good philanthropy. But when I achieved something that I felt was kickass, nobody noticed. I felt boastful trumpeting my own achievements and, if I dared to self-promote, I felt like I was boring my audience with overly technical details.
Advice to Marketers
I think it is no surprise that I scored the agency higher. I did, after all, decide to change careers and I’ve got zero regret. I am very appreciative for the perspective that working as an in-house SEO has given me. I treat my clients like I work at their company. I visit them. I swap stories. I ask them all the time, “How is the job I am doing?”
The flip side of this is that I tend to do too much. I’m used to working on a project until it was perfect. I didn’t have to worry so much about time management because I was setting my agenda and priorities in house. I’m still getting used to the others’ schedules.
When working as a in-house marketer, your compensation is usually tied to the results your efforts generate. If you increase sales, you get a bonus. This is typically not the case with agency marketers. Your clients are paying you ahead of time anticipating success.
Advice to Employers
Whether you are contracting an agency or hiring an employee, you have to be committed stepping out of your comfort zone. But this is no surprise either, if you were comfortable with the concepts of new media marketing, you wouldn’t be looking to hire experts to do the job for you.
When hiring an internet marketer, look for a track record of proven results and ask for references. Remember to fashion the vision and strategy before a single ad or site is wire framed. Look for candidates who understand your business model, can clearly outline their strategy, and believe in your vision.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn