Agency vs Freelancer: Which One Should You Choose?
As a customer, you have a dilemma when it comes to getting help from a third party. Agency vs. freelancer? In fact, this is a question we hear a lot that you cannot get a ready-made answer to.
The choice of one or the other depends on your needs. There is no right or wrong choice. It’s just two different ways of working.
Let’s summarize the benefits of each of the two options here:
An Agency
An agency brings together the service providers you need
The agency will save you time by choosing the right profiles to support your project. In fact, you have the advantage of having all the necessary jobs in the company to look after you. You no longer have to search continuously to find a “great profile” for your company.
The agency knows what skills is necessary to meet your needs and avoids wrong decisions, as it inevitably has a team of experts in different areas of digital marketing.
The agency has multiple profiles in one place that allow them to assign projects based on the required level of experience. For example, large projects that require special technical knowledge are assigned more senior experienced profiles.
In projects that require interaction, audacity but little expertise will be assigned to junior profiles (interns or operational).
The organization already exists
Multiple profiles will likely work together to meet the best needs of your project. The more people there are, the harder it is to manage them all. You run the risk of overloading yourself and not having time for other tasks that your position requires.
A digital marketing consultant works like this: There is a “project manager” who guides everyone and is your main contact. His job will be to distribute the tasks, ensure that the project runs smoothly and give you regular feedback.
Additionally, the project leader is responsible for sending your instructions to team members and ensuring that deadlines and instructions are met. This ensures a very high level of reliability.
Consistency in strategy
In an agency, all experts meet with one another to determine the best strategy for your company. Various profiles meet regularly to discuss the progress of the marketing program.
Working in a team ensures the consistency of the deployment strategy. Everyone knows where they want to go and what to do. This avoids duplication of work and increases the quality of service.
Agency has the ability to manage Contingencies
Due to the personal and business situation, the agency is able to cope with the absence of service providers, for example due to a grieving family or a vacation.
In fact, the agency needs to define a set of rules and procedures that must be followed in order for the project to run smoothly. Even if the person responsible changes during the project, the new employee can immediately know where the project is.
These measures should enable newcomers to the project to understand the facts, to find useful data and thus to resume the unexpectedly cut off workplace (customer coordinates, access signs, project documents, etc.).
It’s a long term commitment
Thanks to its multidisciplinary resources and skills, the agency ensures that your project can be completed without any problems, while a freelancer, who by definition only manages all assignments, can face more problems in the long run.
Additionally, if you think all you need is an SEO expert, an email expert might also be welcome to help design your campaigns. This profile can be made available to you by any agency, while a freelance SEO expert is unlikely to present himself as an improvising email expert.
A Freelancer
Freelancers take care of their customers
It is well known that working with a freelancer is often more risky. For example, it is difficult to assess their level of competence or to ensure their participation in a project. However, the self-employed only advertise through word of mouth.
That means they try to be as efficient as possible as long as you talk about it and they will get work. The freelancer is not very interested in not being involved in your project.
Freelancers are more flexible and react faster to deadlines
Working with an employment agency is more expensive than working with a freelancer. In fact, the agency has to bear the structural costs (rent and salary) from which the freelancer is exempt. That is why the agencies are not so willing to negotiate. On the other hand, self-employed people are more flexible due to their independence.
Freelancers Produce Work That Is Qualitatively Equivalent to That of an Agency
Did you know that many freelancers work as subcontractors in an agency? In other words, the freelancer can be responsible for the project that you have outsourced to your agency. However, the project manager is still remains under contract with the agency.
Some freelancers even offer a job that is qualitatively superior to that of an agency. They have successfully made a name for themselves and working for themselves is no longer difficult.
Freelancers work as much as an agency, if not more
Many freelancers are active entrepreneurs who sometimes answer the phone overnight. They often work much longer hours than employees. Freelancers are hardworking people who take your project seriously and professionally.
In Conclusion: agency vs freelancer
There is no right or wrong choice when working with a agency vs freelancer
It all depends on your needs.
Freelance jobs are very suitable for startups or companies under the following conditions:
- With a small budget
- Small scale web marketing strategies are needed
- With specific needs in a short time
- With little prospect of short-term strategy development
In other cases, it seems that using an agency is more appropriate. Its mode of operation, its organization and its long-term commitment is more in line with the aspirations of a larger company.
