In-house Marketing vs Agency Marketing?
There are many career paths in the world of marketing, from design and development, to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Paid Media and all the paths in between. It takes an eclectic mix of talent to create award-winning marketing that really captures people's attention.
Multiple skills are needed to promote a brand and when it comes to your career choices there tends to be two main pathways, in-house and agency.
In-house digital marketing is where you work directly for one company, you learn the ins and outs. With this company, you will work across a variety of different projects, but these are all centralised to one sector.
Agency marketing is typically a more varied job, as you work for different clients. For example, you could be working on content for boats in the morning, and clothing in the afternoon! In a digital marketing agency, individuals tend to specialise in certain areas of marketing such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is the optimisation of websites so that they rank highly organically (without payment) on search results pages on sites such as Google or Bing.
Is the marketing world for you? Read on to find out!
Agency Career Benefits
Agencies are marketing-focused, and are often more fast-paced than in-house. This is exciting and if there's a client you enjoy working with, you can develop that relationship further and work more with that client.
Working in an agency gives you exposure to a wide range of businesses, this can help you discover who you enjoy working with. Working with diverse clients is a highly beneficial experience that's an asset to your CV, whether you decide to stay in marketing or not.
Working amongst a large team of marketing experts means that you always get the chance to learn more about what really interests you. Working alongside like-minded people with a passion for what they do means that you learn quickly from others, picking up terminology and techniques.
Here at Reflect Digital, we're an agency that works with a wide variety of clients. Find out more about our team’s skills and interests here.
Agency Skill Set
So, you’ve made it this far, you must be interested! If you think agency marketing is for you, we've outlined some of the key desirable skills that you can work on developing for agency work:
Ability to adapt
You'll be working for a wide range of clients who all have different goals and audiences, and you need to be able to adapt task-to-task. Finding examples of when you've had the ability to adapt through your education will help you with your applications, such as voluntary work or part-time roles.
Effective at communication
Being able to communicate effectively and confidently with others is key, whether it's your colleague or a client. In agencies, you can often find yourself working amongst large teams, and so communicating to a high standard is essential, especially when ensuring that everyone has the time and support they need to complete their tasks.
Ability to solve problems
Often when working in an agency, clients will approach you with various issues and queries. Being able to view the big picture and see problems from various perspectives to provide appropriate and effective solutions is crucial. Taking a creative approach to queries is always encouraged, ensure you're thinking one step ahead of the game.
In-house Career Benefits
When working in-house you get more ownership on your projects, as you have little to no restriction because you're not working to client requests. This gives you more scope to experiment with your strategy and approach to tasks.
In-house marketing involves working directly with one brand, so you can become an expert in your field. You’ve got to be passionate about your brand in order to find it interesting and rewarding, it's essential to you love what you do!
The team you'll be working with is typically smaller, in fact, some in-house marketing teams are led by just one person. This is good if you prefer more autonomy in your work. You'll often find yourself executing a project end-to-end, which can be a very rewarding task.
In-house Skill Set
In-house marketing seem up your street? Here are some key skills you will need to succeed:
Management
You may be managing yourself and as a result, it's important that you're self-motivated and able to manage your time effectively and prioritise your tasks. With this comes independence, as you could be a one-man team.
Independence
In-house marketing requires you to be independent and driven, as you will be working in a small team or sometimes you may be the only person in the marketing department. You need to be able to take the reins and drive results yourself. With this independence comes confidence, you'll be presenting your results create to your bosses to demonstrate campaign progress and pitch for more funding.
Dedication to the brand
When working in-house you'll be working day in day out with the same brand. You need to live and breathe the brand and its values to be successful. A genuine interest is essential, as you'll do your best when you enjoy your work.
Keep these in mind in your applications as you need to make sure to highlight these skills in your CV, cover letter, and interviews. Think of examples of when you've shown management and independence, whether from education or extracurricular volunteering and jobs.
Learn more at Aspirational Digital
Interested? Find out more about working in marketing at our Aspirational Digital event. Hear from agency and in-house marketers; their career background, stories, advice and experience.
We host a networking session at Aspirational Digital which provides you with the opportunity to speak one-to-one with our marketers and others in the industry. This is a great chance to get your marketing career started, with the opportunity to enquire about work experience, internships, apprenticeships and jobs!
What are you waiting for - register your interest today, we can’t wait to meet you.
