Digital marketing has become an imperative need for businesses targeting effective online presence.
While the in-house management of the digital marketing teams is a possibility for large-scale businesses, in the case of certain small-scale businesses, there are challenges for managing the in-house teams, and thus they often rely on the digital marketing agency.
Digital agencies in Malaysia are offering a distinct set of digital marketing services to SMBs in Malaysia and choosing the right digital marketing agency is important.
The scope of work in digital marketing is wide, and there are many aspects like social network marketing, blog management, email newsletters, search engine marketing (SEM), and social media marketing integral to handling digital marketing requirements more effectively.
The major question for businesses is about handling the services of digital marketing agencies using third-party service agencies or by using the professional services of freelancers offering the services of digital agencies.
In Malaysia, few small-scale digital marketing agencies are relying on the expertise and services of third-party freelance professionals for digital agency Malaysia.
The crux for hiring the services of a digital marketing agency or a professional freelancer offering digital agency services is to understand the capability models, and how good the service provider is in understanding the objectives, and goals of the business, and can deliver the right kind of services as per the planned schedules.
In this article, let us explore the key differences between hiring a freelancer or a digital marketing agency, and the key aspects that SMBs from Malaysia should consider in dealing with the challenges.
Team Capability
Firstly, in the case of the digital marketing agency, more often it could be a team of members with expertise in different skill sets related to the digital marketing agency.
As a result, even in the case of the business getting multiple project requirements, the digital marketing agency can handle the projects.
But in the case of freelance professionals, the scope of workload one can manage is limited, and thus, they might be handling fewer projects at a time.
Also, in the case of projects requiring multiple dimensions of digital marketing agency work, the digital agency can handle the requirements as a one-stop solution.
Whereas in the case of freelance professionals, if one professional does not have expertise in multiple aspects, it could be challenging for the business, and they might have to rely on multiple freelancers to support the services.
Thus, unless there is clarity for the SMBs in the scope of work and well-defined objectives for the execution of work, it could be challenging to decide whether they choose the digital agency Malaysia or to choose the freelance professionals offering digital agency works.
Service Costs
The other key difference issue between a freelancer digital agency and a full-scale digital marketing agency is the cost of services.
Considering the limited scale of work from the freelancers, the cost for the services could be competitive, but in the case of the digital marketing agency, there are a series of overhead costs integral to the process.
Therefore, the cost of operations is high, and essentially it could be evident in the professional charges, or the subscription packages offered for digital marketing.
However, in the recent past, the number of digital marketing agencies in Malaysia are increasing, and thus, there are competitive price offerings for digital marketing.
The businesses must focus on the requirements effectively and choose the right kind of digital marketing agency with the competence and necessary understanding of the business aspects for managing the digital marketing campaign.
On the other dimension, even in the case of the freelance professionals offering the services, the cost for the services might vary from one another, and the costs must align with the budgets planned by the business for its digital marketing agency.
Taking into consideration the metric of pricing as an important criterion, both in the case of the freelancers and the digital marketing agency, the scope of competitive pricing is available, and one must choose the right option suitable for business requirements.
Coordination and Management Issues
In the current scenario, unless the freelancers are referred from known sources, businesses must rely on virtual assistance and freelance job portals for engaging the services of the freelancer.
If the chosen professional freelancers can understand the requirement, then the process could be smooth. But more often, there could be challenges of too much communication, and extensive meetings to align to the project requirements.
More in the case of multiple freelancer professionals being hired for digital agency services, the communication and engagement complexities could compound.
The pro side of relying on freelancers for the digital agency process is about the scope of professional work taking place at a competitive price, once there is good sync on the expectations and deliverables.
Whereas in the case of a digital agency Malaysia offering digital marketing agency services, the practice is about one account manager handling the correspondence, requisite communication, and deliverables management for each client.
Thus, the business can have a scheduled meeting to discuss the developments with the customer relationship executive.
Creative Works
Creativity in planning the content, and digital agency campaigns is important, and in the case of freelance professionals, the scope for creativity is limited to one member’s ideas, whereas in the case of hiring a digital agency Malaysia offering digital marketing agency, the scope for brainstorming amongst the teams are high.
Thus, considering the emerging changes one must understand the need for a creative part, and accordingly choose the right kind of digital agency to support the projects.
The other upper edge in the case of the digital marketing agency is about the pool of resources available in the digital agency, and access to multiple resources to handle the jobs.
Thus, disturbances to the workflow can be managed by the other members of the team in the digital agency. But in the case of the freelancers, any contingent issues creeping up could impact the digital agency efforts.
Based on the above-mentioned factors, it is important for SMBs to choose a digital agency or a freelancer to execute their marketing campaigns.
To know more about the digital marketing requirements, reach out to the Exabytes Malaysia team for more input and assistance.
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