Price!
Naturally, the first go to answer we hear you all shouting is the main difference between an agency and a freelance is the price. This might be true, but there are reasons why an agency will charge more than a freelancer and in subtle ways you will see the effects.
Although it may seem like the obvious choice to work with an individual who charges half the price of the tariff an agency quoted you, we will try to explain why there is such a difference in price and why an agency might actually be the more prudent choice and vice versa.
The latest training
An agency is a workplace, and workplaces generally offer development and training for all their employees. When using a good agency, you can be sure that all individuals are highly trained and will have attended all the latest courses and conferences and they will be itching to try out new ideas.
When looking at this from a freelance side, it is unlikely that a freelancer is going to have the budget to attend the pricier training courses throughout the year in the same way that an agency employee would.
Tools
Using an agency for your digital marketing means that your chosen agency will likely be using the latest tools in the industry, and again these cost monies to subscribe to, budget that a freelancer may simply not have and they may be restricted to making do with free trials that may be available.
By not being able to constantly use the same tools your digital strategy may become disrupted and suffer as a consequence, information might be missed and key aspects of your digital market may become blurred.
Expertise
There are many kinds of agencies offering different services and packages. If you should choose to work with a full-service digital agency for digital marketing, there are a whole variety of skills at your disposal.
An agency will have a team of digital marketers and marketers, and everyone naturally has their own specific skillset, like a professional fingerprint. Everyone is an expert in their own field and are therefore more likely to be able to offer expertise in specialist areas. A freelancer will need to be a bit of a ‘jack of all trades’, which can sometimes have slightly diluted and lower quality results.
Here at Studio 24 we have a team of digital marketers, marketers, front-end web developers, PHP specialists and Drupal experts. Although it may not be obvious, these individuals will be contributing to your account when they need to. Using a ‘one-man-band’ may leave you somewhat stranded if a technical issue arises and you may need to pay out to get these issues fixed.
Training for your staff
An agency will be able to offer you additional services like CMS training or social media training for example, should you require it. Due to the wide variety of skills, in this way an agency will contribute to your business and your own employees’ development.
There is a fantastic amount of flexibility available to you when working with an agency, you can have a whole team of developers, marketers, project managers and digital marketing experts at the end of the phone when you need them.
You!
You, the client, are most important of all. What kind of organisation are you? As you and your business are the deciding factor, you need to be realistic with you needs. A smaller start up business may well benefit from a freelancer because it is the budget option, whereas a larger business with ideas and ambition to drive forward in their sector may be more suited to a full-service digital agency.