Who doesn't love a good DIY or a juicy before and after? If you're HGTV, it's your bread and butter! And the COVID lockdown really gave people the motivation they needed to remodel, bake sourdough, and learn new skills.

But as someone who lives in a house where someone thought they could DIY an extra room onto the living room (think ceilings cracks, off kilter doors, poorly insulated windows), it's super important to know your limits.

For example, my Dad and I have DIYed tiling and flooring a guest bathroom, kitchen, nursery (7 months pregnant, thank you very much), and installed recessed lighting. BUT I refuse to DIY my new door installations, any sort of attempt at gardening, countertops, and phyllo dough.

The same goes for a business when you're trying to determine whether you can accomplish something in-house with your ag marketing or if you need to find an ag marketing agency to take on the task. 

Here are a few instances to consider when making that decision:

Where is your budget best spent?

When deciding to go in-house, you may think you're saving money by not paying an agency and that may be the case at times. But when hiring, there are things to consider outside of salary: vacation time, benefits, training, turnover, and continued education.

What is your priority?

I would like control over when something gets done and how it gets done VS I want someone who specializes in this platform, audience, or strategy and takes continuing education classes to stay top of my industry.

Where do you want to spend your time? OR Where is your time most valued?

I would like to have a smaller amount of tasks with more time to perfect them and not to feel guilty when I take time off vs I like to stay busy and want a full to-do list to tackle at all times.

All bias of running an ag marketing agency aside, I do think there are certain instances where you should take things in-house and even some projects or platforms that could benefit from something in-between going full agency or full in-house.

For example, I think most companies could benefit from having a social media expert consultant from an agency because the social rules and best practices change so often, it's hard to keep up unless you're steeped in it and measured by it. However, I think there should be someone in house running the account, creating most of the content, and grabbing local photos and videos to post. That combination of partners is a perfect marriage. 

Working with an agency is not to say you wouldn't be the best person for the job. I'm the best mom for the little girl I was gifted with, but I send my girl to school with teachers who specialize in how to educate her in order to set her up for success.

There are other people out there (say, maybe an ag marketing agency in Little Rock, AR) who can take care of the marketing side of your business as well as or better than you can and that's not a weakness. That's a blessing. 

However, I do understand not every agency has your best interests at their core and sometimes companies get burned. Follow along on our Questions To Ask Your Agency journey to feel more confident in your choice of partners.