Whether you’re a startup with zero sales, or a major business with many millions in annual revenue, here’s how Horsefly might be exactly the right answer for your marketing needs, seen through the lens of your three choices.

We’ve seen it time and again: businesses grow to a certain point, and think “I need a marketing manager!” That may be true, but unfortunately, many companies then decide that marketing manager must be the end-all and be-all of marketing, capable of strategy, writing, design, WordPress, media buying, social, analytics, search engine optimization, and more.

Take it from the experts: those at Horsefly who are certified in PPC media buying have zero desire to design, because they know they’d stink at it. And the obverse is even more true… the creatives are not the right people to rely on to analyze your web data! We have a team of specialists, because done right, marketing demands specialists to achieve maximum efficiency and ROI.

Let’s put it another way… would you rely on your family doctor to treat your arrhythmia and replace your knee, or would you have a cardiologist and orthopedic surgeon?

It’s not hyperbole to say that the health and strength of your business is at stake. A great marketing director is not unlike a great family doctor – they know enough about all marketing subjects to make smart decisions to partner with an agency led by strategists and full of specialists.

Why not just hire your own team of specialists, if you’re big enough? It’s situational myopia: an outside viewpoint can more easily see you as your customers see you, and thereby craft fresher, more creative messaging that’s on-point to move your customers to buy.

When a company gets frustrated with their beleaguered in-house person or cobbled-together freelancers, they decide “we need an agency!” If you choose wisely, this may be a great choice.

With a quality normal agency, you’ll get all the specialists you need, hopefully you’ll also get strategic thinking, but you will undoubtedly also get The Beast of overhead and layers.

That overhead is true for every traditional agency, but for many, there is a second silent budget-killer, which is team-stuffing. Agency leadership with a whole squadron of people on payroll to feed are always eager to expand their footprint in your budget. It’s a lot easier for us to be smart and ethical about any expansion of our workscope, because we don’t have The Beast to feed.

So how about a Goldilocks-inspired “just right” option? Horsefly is way more than freelance, because we’re a smoothly integrated team of specialists operating as a fully consolidated, strategy-first, agency for our clients. Yet, Horsefly is way less than an agency in that we don’t have The Beast to feed, so you’ll pay less than you normally would for top-flight talent. We can report to upper management, operating as your de facto marketing head, or work with your in-house director. We can fill a few holes you have, or provide the full range of specialist services. Whatever you need most is what we provide, and we report on results monthly, quarterly, annually, complete with insights and recommendations so you have a clear picture of the road behind and ahead.

All Horseflyers have real chops in their specialty: from Madison Avenue to global aviation accounts, to Google AdWords and Analytics certifications, to an embarrassing number of creative awards, Horsefly is the real deal. We just don’t cost a great deal because we work smarter.

Plus, you get to harness The Entrepreneurial Advantage™… because we are all contract labor, operating through Horsefly Group as a co-op, we are afflicted with endless entrepreneurial energy and a can-do attitude for your success. If a Horseflyer is on your account, it’s because they want to be on your account, not because their boss told them they had to be, which adds passion and reduces turnover on your account.