In-House Vs. Out of House Specialists
By Teamspirit on Wednesday, 12 June 2019
As automated marketing uptake increases with the transition to more efficient and digital technologies, there has been a drive for in-house marketing departments to increase their executional capabilities to improve their speed and agility.
Concurrently as some of these commoditised areas of the marketing and sales process are taken in-house, agencies have been diversifying their business models to meet changing client needs, with many now offering on-site/in-house support, seconded support or outsourced solutions. With clients now being less reliant on agency delivery teams to run basic processes and adapt creative, it has also highlighted the need for the highly skilled teams of specialists to deliver market-leading intellectual capital and digital expertise.
A 2018 CIM digital skills benchmark report, revealed that digital competency levels in marketing departments were on average less than 40% across all disciplines and at all levels. The result is that brands are now putting the emphasis on seeking agency specialists, for roles as creative strategists, creative technologists, category specialists, innovators and specialist content creators and delivery providers. The future need in 2019 and onwards is for high-quality external resource, where specialism has never been more vital.
• Most organisations need to invest heavily and upskill basic digital skills training across the whole marketing department.
• Spend time choosing your agency partners wisely, to ensure they have the specialist and strategic skills required to support your marketing efforts.
• Be rigorous in assessing your digital toolset. At present there are over 300 martech tools in the marketplace, most of which will not be appropriate for your needs.
