Building an online presence for your business requires a specialist that is knowledgeable on how marketing on the Internet works. However, with a lot of marketing specialists online, which one is the best? Well, to clear your mind, we have made this article on digital marketing comparison that differentiates a freelancer, a specialized agency, and a full digital marketing agency!
Digital Marketing

Technology makes life easier. With the newest form of human innovation, people all around the globe have made their lives easier. For this reason, businesses of all sizes used technology to introduce their products and services to the whole world.
This is where digital marketing comes in. It is any form of marketing strategies with the use of electronic devices.
With this in mind, there are various digital marketing strategies that marketers use. These include content marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, online advertising, and social media marketing.
However, as businesses like yours tend to use more strategies, you encounter more challenges with these. Your entire company might be swamped with the default jobs or you might not have the right number of employees to handle your website, social media platforms, and whatnot.
Accordingly, it would be a great idea to play your cards right by hiring experts in the field. Do not succumb to mediocrity when it comes to echoing your business, especially online. Besides, there are many complexities and intricacies that go with the craft of digital marketing, so it’s best to be able to get people with these skills on board with your team.
There is a great deal of reasons for you to outsource your digital marketing needs. By doing this, you don’t have to train your employees who are not meant for marketing to learn various digital marketing strategies because these people that you’ll hire already know what they are doing. This, in turn, will give you an opportunity to reduce the costs, risks, and time that would have been given to more important matters. Hence, with an outsourced team, you will be able to focus more on the core of your business.
Digital Marketing Specialists
Considering that you want to outsource a team that would market your products and services on the Internet, you need to choose the right digital marketing team for your business.
With this in mind, we have created this digital marketing comparison to freelancers, specialized companies, and a full digital marketing agency to help you decide where to invest your money!
Freelancers

Having an on-call freelancer to get your job done is a smart choice. Companies mostly have a fixed schedule wherein employees only work during weekdays, by shift, or other time limit. But with freelancers, you only hire them when you need them to work on certain tasks. Freelancers usually have their own rates depending on the time (usually per hour) and the task.
A freelancer is a broad category for someone who offers a service or works through non-specific company. They are those people who are self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a specific company or employer.
Moreover, freelancers are those who provide professional administrative, technical, or creative assistance to clients remotely. They mostly work remotely or can choose to work on-site depending on the type of service and your job requirements.
If you want to have a freelancer in your digital marketing team, you can find professional freelancers through online platforms like LinkedIn, Upwork, and OnlineJobs.ph. There is no problem when it comes to having full control over who you work with. You can select whoever you want to do a specific digital marketing service. Then, you can interview them yourself and if needed, train them on your own.
Furthermore, in hiring digital marketing freelancers, you work directly with them without an intermediate company. With this, the payment option usually depends on the agreement between you and the freelancer. You may agree on paying them by hour, day, week or per project.
Although searching for freelancers is easy because you can find them all over the Internet, choosing the right one is not.
To give you a better point of view of what it takes to hire freelancers, we have pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a freelance employee in this digital marketing comparison.
Advantages
- Less Cost

Freelancers cost less than your part-time employees. Unlike the employees of your company, you don’t have to pay other benefits except for the money they work for.
- Quality Output

Freelancing is a business for most freelancers. These people aim to have more companies to work with them. With these, they produce their best works every single time.
- Global Reach

You can find freelancers around the globe. There are a lot of websites online catering freelancers and whatever geographical areas you are in, there surely are freelancers who will be willing to work with you.
Disadvantages
- Not a Commitment

Freelancers are working not just with your business. So, you can’t expect them to do something unexpectedly as they might have been making other tasks for other clients.
- Disappearing Freelancers

Unlike your employees wherein you can still track them when they disappear suddenly, with freelancers, you can’t. Either they went out of town or they went AWOL (absence without leave) on you, you won’t be able to find them if you haven’t researched enough before hiring that person.
- Broken Promises
One of the common problems with freelancers is that they promise a lot when you hire them. However, when it comes to turning their output, they either didn’t deliver it on time or the project is such a waste of money.
- Unqualified Freelancers

Papers don’t say it all. Don’t be overwhelmed by the promises. There are a lot of freelancers that are good at introducing themselves through their CVs but cannot prove their success. Instead, research carefully and check the output, background, or reviews from that freelancer.
Moreover, hiring a freelancer is best when you only need one type of skill to get something done but when you need more skill set, a freelancer will not just be enough. Thereby, you need to invest in either of these two digital marketing agencies that we have included in this digital marketing comparison article.
Specialized Agency

Unlike freelancers who mainly work alone, specialized agencies work in team to provide a specific output. This kind of agency mainly offers one specialization which means they’ll only handle one aspect of your business.
Although, they only focus on one area of your business only, this also ensures you that you are provided with value. These people have an in-depth knowledge of their specialization. With this, they can see issues that you might miss and with their understanding on the specific aspect of your business, they can help you solve it in an efficient manner. Thereby, specialized agencies provide you with confidence in what they do to help you achieve your digital marketing goals.
If you aim to hire a specialized agency, just look for these agencies across the Internet. However, before choosing one, you should have a clear understanding on what these specialized agencies do and what are the things that you can achieve in hiring one. Hence, written below are the advantages and disadvantages of recruiting a specialized agency.
Advantages
- Better Output

As said above, these agencies only focus on one specialization. With this, they can offer your various solution on your specific marketing problems. Because they are also focused in one field, this lets them focus on achieving the goals of your business. Hence, you can expect that they will provide output that meet or exceed your standards.
- Cheaper

These agencies cost less than hiring a full service digital marketing agency. You can either hire them full time or part time which means that you have more freedom as to how long your partnership will last. This also lets you save your money into important matters in your business.
Disadvantages
- No Wide Specialization

Specialized agencies only focus on one thing. If you want guidance and solution to other aspects of your business, this agency won’t be able to help you. This means that if you want other services for your digital marketing strategies, then you should hire another agency.
So, if you only need a team who will handle your social media platforms, then you should hire a team specifically knowledgeable in that field.
Full Digital Marketing Agency

Hiring a full digital marketing agency is surely the way to go for businesses who wants various specializations for their online marketing strategies.
Advantages
- 360° Service
These companies mainly focus on the overall or 360-degree aspect of digital marketing. With these kinds of agencies, you work with a pool of people with varying talents and skills. Since you’re working with a whole team and not only one person, you get immediate access to tasks as diverse as SEO, social media management, content marketing to PPC. Moreover, it is said that it is generally seen how employees from agencies are more committed to their clients as they are under the wings of their employers, having more accountability.
In addition, they also go the extra mile by helping you in competitor research, content writing, social media management, website maintenance and more! When starting on the outsourcing, with a little doubt up your head, these companies provide “free trials” as most agencies are into “personal assistance” wherein they give some kind of trial period for the client. The companies do this to ensure that the client gets to judge the services, without committing to any capital upfront.
- Beating Deadlines

This kind of agency more often than not have people on the job around the clock. Since they have so many teams handling numerous projects, they cover all the work as fast as possible.
One of the best things about hiring an agency is that they will have a virtual assistant on standby ready to do numerous tasks for you. This saves you the time from going on endless searches for virtual assistants. The agency does the scouting and hiring for you. You simply need to put in the request through the agency and the virtual assistant comes to you.
Disadvantages
- No Associate Choices

While all good things make us feel giddy, these agencies also has its downside. As they take charge of the pool of employees to assist you, you cannot choose who you’d like to be assigned to you. With this, there may be a risk of you not liking the outcome because you aren’t able to review their portfolio, or even their work ethics as you are not able to get to know them. So, if you’re a manager who takes joy in training and meeting virtual assistants first, and having full control over the hiring aspect of a virtual assistant, hiring through an agency might not be an ideal choice for you.
Conclusion

With these pros and cons narrowed down, you may now have an idea of which type digital marketing specialists you may need for your organization or business.
If you’re still skeptical about having to invest in a digital marketing specialist whether it be from an agency or individual freelancers, you need to put in mind that the benefits are endless.
At this age of everything being on the internet, it is important to keep a pretty face online. You might be missing out if your brand, organization, or company is not on the internet yet! So, it is best to cover all your grounds and create a lasting impression for your future customers through the power of the internet.
Your business can only be successful if you constantly get with the tide. Technology is a best friend that you’d love to have along the way, especially if you want to build and grow your presence online. Hence, putting in the extra budget for these factors in your business might actually go a long way for you, especially when you’re just starting to establish your brand image on the Internet.
Digital marketing agencies and professionals do just that, and on top of that, free you of all the little, yet necessary actions in building up the brand image you aspire to have. Besides, in hiring a digital marketing specialist, you are actually hiring those who are experts in their craft, which should be an important part in your business as they provide better options to connect with your audience, build your brand online, and increase the sales and revenue of your business!
A Full Digital Marketing Agency just for you!

So, if you have a low budget but still needs to achieve a specific output for just one time, the key is to hire a freelancer. Then, if you want one specific output for a project that might last for a short or long period of time, then choosing a specialized agency is the best choice. However, if you want an agency that will help you achieve your overall business goals, then you should definitely hire a full digital marketing agency.
As a business owner, we understand that you don’t have time to learn the latest digital marketing trends, strategies, and techniques in making your business an authority in the industry. This is why, we strongly prefer that you outsource your digital marketing needs to an internationally-awarded and recognized 360° Digital Marketing Agency whose major strength is delivering output that exceeds your need!
With all of these in mind, this article mainly covered and compared the top three digital marketing specialists your business should hire. So, what do you think is the best? Do you prefer freelancers who works remotely? Do you like to hire a specialized agency for your project-based needs? Or do you want a 360° Digital Marketing Agency to help you cover all of your marketing strategies online?