So, you’re looking to hire an internal marketing team.

First off, that’s great!

This means you recognise the value of digital marketing for your business and are looking to become an industry thought leader, generate demand and grow your business through various creative channels.

An effective marketing team can:

• conduct market, customer and competitor research for your brand
• create your marketing plan
• execute your marketing strategy
• analyse and monitor marketing performance
• and more

Sounds promising, right? But before that – there’s something I need to discuss with you first: do you know what the ACTUAL cost of hiring an internal marketing team is?

Not just the salary.

The TRUE cost.

While growing your internal team is an enticing idea, there are a lot of additional things that you need to consider when you hire new members of your team. After all, this is a business investment, and you want to make sure that you’re doing it right.

So, let me break it all down for you.

In this article, I’m going to discuss what hiring an internal marketing team really means for your business. And – spoiler alert – I’ll also share an alternative option that may just help you with all your marketing needs (it’s the one I use myself!).

So, let’s get started.

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How much does hiring an internal marketer cost? – here’s what you already know first

The upfront and most obvious costs of recruiting an internal marketing team are the salaries of every team member. Say you’re hiring one experienced marketer and two juniors to join your business to execute all the digital marketing strategies and monitor the results.

How much will this cost your business?

Well, the average annual salary for marketing managers in Australia is now at $110,000. An entry-level marketer, on the other hand, has an average annual salary of around $71,000.

It’s rising fast.

According to the Australian Financial Review, the median annual base salary for entry-level marketing and comms talent has risen by 15% going into 2023!

Whilst you may be looking at those salary figures above and start considering hiring only one or the other (ie one senior, or one junior), there are huge challenges in, either:

• Hiring a manager without the effective resources to execute - this is where you run the risk of “unicorn expectations”
• Hiring a junior without the appropriate management structures in place

So, you are realistically looking at around $181,000 per year to invest in a complete internal marketing team.

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What does this mean?

It means that the choice should not come down to hiring one or the other.

It is important to always break up the function strategically. It’s important to develop the right digital marketing strategy before deciding who you need to execute it. This way, you can hire the right people to do the right tasks using the right marketing tools every time.

If you want to do things properly, check out this blog where we tackle what comes first in digital marketing: the people or the plan?

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But here’s the REAL cost of hiring an internal marketing team that you probably don’t know about

On top of the salaries, there are additional expenses that you need to consider to make your marketing work. Let’s start with the basics.

Here are some things that you need to provide your team:

• comprehensive training on everything from business processes through to marketing
• computers and other devices
• access to marketing subscription platforms i.e. Canva, Adobe, Monday.com, HubSpot, CRMs, etc.
• transportation allowances
• holiday leave and social perks
• upskilling seminars

So, you have to add these to the cost of the salaries.

Oh, and that’s not even taking into account the marketing budget you have to spend on marketing strategies and executions.

Think about content creation, digital events or advertising costs.

Suddenly, that $180,000 figure may be doubled or even tripled.

Now… we’re only talking about the financial cost of hiring – but you know what else hiring internally costs your business? TIME… and lots of it.

Firstly, the recruitment process can take weeks of searching and interviews.

Then, once you’ve hired the right people and completed your marketing team, you are now looking at:

• a month to train and onboard them
• about two months of research and strategising
• roughly three months for the execution
• plus all the admin work involved with managing an internal marketing team

Of course, you can do all these in good faith – after all, marketing is a smart investment for any growing business.

However, recent statistics are not in the favour of employers like you. According to recent research, the average job tenure for Australian junior professionals is only 1 year and 8 months.

So, even if you do find the right team members, there is a great chance that they won’t stay with your team for a long time. This will bring you back to the beginning of the recruitment cycle again where you have to start the tedious hiring and training process all over again.

Now, the thing is, marketing is an investment and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get something that will work for your business and grow it exponentially. But you don’t have to settle for these arduous hiring processes.

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Because there is a better way to take care of your marketing function without going through all of these expenses and frustrations

Having discussed all these, it’s only natural to gravitate towards a more logical solution: hiring an external marketing team.

But there is an even better, more innovative option: Hiring An Ask Marketer.

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Introducing Marketing as a Managed Service

Through Hiring An Ask Marketer, you can outsource your marketing function and let the experts manage all of your marketing needs for you. With this, Ask Marketing manages your marketing function internally and takes on your digital strategy’s most important activities.

This solution completely eliminates the cost of

• deeply understanding what you need
• developing position descriptions
• headhunting and interviewing candidates
• negotiating with the hire
• training the new staff members
• additional costs such as devices and technology
• losing team members and having to recruit again
• and much more!

Ask Marketing can take care of all your marketing needs and save you hours of time and energy that you can use to focus on growing your business and growing your revenue.

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Are you looking for managed marketing services for your business?

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All you have to do is Ask!

At Ask Digital Marketing, we combine decisive digital strategy and managed marketing execution to help B2B service-based businesses build demand, establish thought leadership and own their industry through digital business marketing.

Stop waiting. Start building. Experience success.

Just get in touch with us and we can discuss your business to help you navigate the digital marketing landscape towards success.

Let’s harness the power of digital marketing today!

For more great marketing content, connect with our company leaders, Alexandra King and Stephanie King, or follow our Ask Marketing LinkedIn page.