Marcus Sheridan

Great culture is built on great communication. But guess what managers and leaders almost never get trained on how to effectively do? Yep, communicate. In case you don't believe me, ask any manager you know, "Have you ever been trained on the right steps and questions for an effective 1-on-1 with one of your team members?" 9 out of 10 will say "no." Therefore, the solution to building any great culture is by starting with leadership communication training. That's ground zero.

Ultimately, you need to ask yourself a question: 3 years from now, if I want to write an article, create a video, analyze a tool like HubSpot, etc.-- Do I want to call my agency and have them do it for me? Or do I want to have the freedom and skills to easily do these things, at scale, in-house? Honestly answer this question and that will quickly settle your insourcing vs outsourcing debate.

I don't agree with the above paragraph. Let's look at it this way: Imagine you want to embrace video and you have a goal to create 100 educational videos this year (a very viable goal) that answer questions about your product/service-- questions you often hear in the sales process. These videos could EASILY be achieved by a full-time videographer at, let's say, 70k annual salary (could be higher/lower depending on the area). Or, you could outsource these videos to an agency. Do you know what it would cost to hire an agency to produce 100 educational videos for your company?? Just get some quotes and you'll start to see that insourcing can be MUCH more economical, especially if you're serious about your content approach.

In other words, if an agency is truly going to "match" your brand, they need to embed themselves in your company and culture. They need to meet your people. They need to really understand your product, your service, and your ideal customer. So you have to ask yourself: If it's going to take that much effort to bring an agency up to speed, why would we not just hire someone in-house??

Let's speak frankly: Name ONE world-class inbound marketing case study where a company became the online leader of their industry by outsourcing their work... I've been in the Inbound space for about 14 years now and have NEVER seen one, especially in 2023 where the internet is more saturated than ever with companies trying to stand out online. Fact is, it's incredibly difficult to reach your potential with Inbound Marketing by outsourcing to an agency. You won't produce as much content as you should. You won't learn the essential skills you should. You won't learn the tools you should (like HubSpot for example). As the saying goes: "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

Remember what's at the core of all this Inbound, Social, Content, Etc: TRUST That's why we do what we do. So ALWAYS ask yourself a simple question: "If we do this, will it induce more trust?" If the answer is "yes," then it's time to live in the solution and figure out "how" to address the thing. No matter what happens to the internet and technology, "trust" will always be the one thing that binds all businesses together.