These days, cost reductions are often an unfortunate necessity, and tasking internal teams with some marketing activities may be the best course of action. Here we’ll explore some best practices for leveraging in-house and external agency partners to make the most of your marketing spend.
Campaign and Design Consistency
Look to your external agency to standardize templates for campaigns, landing pages, and other design elements. These might include email frameworks with flexible content areas, landing page templates for different campaign types, or social media post formats. Once they’re rock solid, you can turn them over to internal teams to customize with appropriate messaging and offers. This approach reduces both turnaround time and costs while maintaining professional design standards. Be sure to establish clear guidelines about when to use templates versus when more complex creative work requires agency involvement.
Use Employees as Talent
For social campaigns and other initiatives where talent is needed, look to your employees to be the stars. With a strategy in place from your external agency, you can tap into authentic voices that audiences trust while also reducing costs. This tactic works particularly well for behind-the-scenes content, product demonstrations, company culture posts, or customer success stories where associates can share their genuine experiences and expertise.
Leverage Agency Expertise, Execute Internally
Start with your external agency to nail down the big creative concept and overall campaign strategy. They bring fresh perspective, industry expertise, and the kind of breakthrough thinking that comes from working across multiple brands and categories. Once that foundation is solid, your internal team can take the reins on execution.
Encourage and Promote Collaboration
The key to making these partnerships work is fostering open dialogue between all parties. Establish clear communication channels and regular check-ins to ensure the seamless sharing of assets, files, and brand guidelines. When everyone is aligned and collaborating effectively, you maintain brand integrity across every touchpoint while maximizing the unique strengths each brings to the table.
Done right, this strategic combination helps stretch budgets and elevates your entire marketing operation. You get the big ideas that move the needle, executed with the nimbleness and efficiency that keeps campaigns on time and on budget.
Ready to elevate your agency mix? Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you develop a strategic partnership approach that optimizes both creativity and budget efficiency.
