by Eliza Spain on Feb 22, 2023
If you own a business, digital marketing is one of the best strategies to fuel your business’s growth, reach a wider audience, and boost your revenue.
But, there seems to be a common question among many businesses about digital marketing….
This article will help you understand the distinction between marketing training and marketing agencies for your business.
We will give you all the essential information to confidently choose the option that aligns with your needs.
Let’s take a look at what we’ll cover:
The difference between marketing training and agencies for businesses essentially boils down to who is responsible for carrying out the marketing strategy and activities.
Marketing training and coaching are designed to help teams learn the skills and strategies they need to do the work themselves.
In other words, coaches don’t write blog articles and content for their clients; they teach the clients how to write for themselves with guidance on improving.
Traditional inbound marketing agencies do the work for you.
They guide you through the tasks that should be done and then complete those tasks. They then deliver the completed work to the client for feedback and approval.
Related: What Makes a Good Sales and Marketing Coach?
Marketing Training:
The marketing coach or trainer has the role of being a trusted advisor and educator.
They focus on helping your business develop the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in their market.
They offer guidance and feedback as the client does the work for themselves. You can think of this as “in-sourcing.”
The marketing coach holds clients accountable and helps them reach their business goals.
Agency:
An agency helps clients achieve their business goals by executing a marketing plan.
Agencies strategize with the client and complete the work with the client's approval. This is known as “outsourcing.”
Marketing Training:
When hiring a marketing trainer, the internal marketing team will be responsible for applying what they learn and implementing their new sales, marketing, and customer service strategies themselves.
The client is responsible for executing work with guidance and advice from their coach along the way. The quality of the work depends on a team's willingness to learn and apply that knowledge.
Agency:
When hiring a marketing agency, the client does not do the work themselves. They give the agency the direction and budget to strategize efforts to reach business goals.
The client’s responsibility is to provide the agency with feedback and approval.
Marketing Training:
A marketing training relationship is typically finite. Once a client learns the trainer's skills and strategies, the trainer becomes a business coach.
The training portion of the relationship usually lasts 12-24 months. The coaching portion will depend on how long the internal teams can apply and maintain what they’ve learned.
Agency:
An agency relationship depends on the marketing strategies and projects the agency was hired to execute.
This could be a project-based approach, like building a website implementing a new CRM or an ongoing retainer with quarterly objectives and projects.
When this relationship ends, however, the client will need to hire another agency to continue the work rather than be able to continue marketing efforts on their own.
The difference in the length of a relationship, in turn, affects the costs associated with each option.
Marketing Training:
Marketing training and coaching may have high upfront costs as the coach works closely with the client for a finite time.
The relationship and financial costs end once the internal client teams are trained and can execute work independently.
The client becomes self-sufficient and doesn’t have to rely on outsourcing their marketing.
Agency:
Traditional marketing agency costs depend on the project they’re hired to do or if they’re hired as a retainer. If the agency is hired to do a one-off project, the cost will depend on the time and materials spent to complete it.
Suppose they’re hired as retainers to complete ongoing projects such as blog publishing or social media posting. In that case, the client will continue to pay a monthly expense for as long as the relationship lasts.
Related: Sales & Marketing Training Costs in 2024: What to Expect
Marketing Training:
A marketing trainer-client relationship is similar to a teacher-student relationship.
The trainer teaches the client new skills and how to apply them while giving constructive feedback.
Agency:
An agency-client relationship is more of a transactional relationship. The client owns the relationship and sets the direction and budget. The agency delivers the work to meet the client’s approval.
The client doesn’t necessarily know how the work is being done; they see the final product.
So, how do these differences affect who you choose to work with?
It depends on what you’re hoping to accomplish and what involvement you want in actually doing the work.
Marketing training can be a great option for businesses that are just starting out and don't have much marketing experience.
It can also benefit businesses with a good understanding of marketing but want to take their efforts to the next level by acquiring new skills or refining existing ones.
Investing in marketing training can help businesses improve their sales and marketing strategies, stay competitive, better engage with customers, and boost revenue, all while being self-sufficient.
On the other hand, marketing agency services allow businesses to outsource their marketing efforts.
They work with clients to understand their goals and execute projects based on the direction provided by the client.
You might consider hiring a marketing agency if…
Depending on your near and long-term goals, you may hire both partners for your business’s lifetime.
Marketing training may help you achieve your long-term goal of becoming self-sufficient and training the right internal marketing and sales team members.
An agency may help you execute a short-term goal, like building a website or deploying a custom solution.
It may not be about who to hire but when to hire them.
"People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it."
– Simon Sinek
As a business owner, you know your business and its needs better than anyone else.
When choosing marketing training or agency service (or both), it's important to consider what will work best for your business regarding budget, goals, and resources.
It's important to research and compare different options and to remember that the best approach may involve a combination of different strategies and services.
Ultimately, the key is finding a solution that empowers your team and drives business growth and success.
Have questions?
Are you interested in more information on sales & marketing training and coaching for your business?
We would love to hear from you!
Schedule some time to talk with a member of our team today!