Topics: Online marketing, marketing freelancer, marketing agency, project management
If you want to tackle marketing in your organisation, you quickly face a fundamental decision: Does it make sense to work with a marketing freelancer? Should you hire an agency? Or is it worth building your own in-house team? I know all perspectives from first-hand experience – from in-house specialist to agency work to my current role as an online marketing freelancer in Switzerland – and I’ll walk you through which setup makes sense when.
What distinguishes the different models?
First things first: there is no “one best model”. The right solution depends heavily on your requirements, goals and internal resources. And of course, not every freelancer or agency is the same. In general, though, you can think of the models like this:
- Marketing freelancer: Self-employed specialists with flexible collaboration models.
- Agency: Often a multidisciplinary team that manages projects end-to-end.
- In-house team: Employees who take on ongoing responsibility and are deeply embedded in the company.
Each model comes with its own strengths and limitations – and is sometimes a great fit, sometimes less so.
Marketing freelancer
Very well suited for: Project-based support, specific questions, long-term support of individual areas, short-term and straightforward engagements.
Less suited for: Cross-channel projects, large-scale projects, overall strategic leadership of all marketing activities.
Especially in Switzerland, marketing freelancers are often either experts in a specific area or sub-area (SEO freelancer, Google Ads freelancer, etc.) or generalists who focus on a certain client segment (e.g. B2B, SMEs or e-commerce). They usually work more flexibly than classic agencies, both in terms of scope of work and in coordination, speed and implementation.
Instead of fixed package models offered by many agencies (such as standardised SEO retainers), freelancers more often rely on individualised services in a boutique-style approach: your proposal is tailored to your specific situation and may include alternative or additional suggestions where they make sense from a professional point of view. This gives you highly targeted support for clearly defined goals.
One major advantage: you work directly with the person who prepared the proposal and led the initial call. In agencies, senior staff often manage the client relationship, while the operational work is handled by one or more juniors. A freelancer usually oversees the entire process personally.
At the same time, a freelancer remains a single individual, with all the limitations that come with that. Capacity is limited, short-term peaks are harder to absorb, and services outside their own specialisation can only be covered to a certain extent. Resilience is also more closely tied to one person.
Marketing agency
Very well suited for: Extensive and/or cross-channel campaigns, brand development, multidisciplinary projects.
Less suited for: Smaller or one-off projects, highly specific or highly individual tasks, situations where particularly fast and hands-on support is needed.
The classic counterpart to a marketing freelancer is the traditional marketing agency. It covers a broad range of competencies and can take on complex packages from strategy through to execution: teams often include everything from copy and social media to SEO, performance marketing and sometimes even web development or media production.
Processes and work packages are often standardised, scalable and easy to replicate. A classic four-eyes principle for quality assurance is also frequently built in. This creates structure and reliability, but comes at the cost of flexibility and speed. The larger team structure and the associated overhead are also often noticeable on the cost side.
For a corporate client, this can be very attractive: if you want to completely relaunch your website, having a single point of contact for everything – from logo design to tracking – saves time and nerves. A mid-sized company that needs a quick, cost-efficient campaign for a new branch location, however, will probably prefer to skip the long lead time, mandatory persona workshops and other standardised process components.
In-house marketing specialists
Very well suited for: Strategic anchoring, ongoing brand management, internal coordination, tasks that require deep company know-how.
Less suited for: Highly specialised topics, very uneven workloads and project volumes, situations where an external perspective is essential.
In-house teams excel at something you can never fully buy externally: deep understanding of the brand, company and culture. They know the decision-making processes and which stakeholders need to be involved when – an enormous advantage for consistent communication and long-term brand management. It’s also a big plus that a long-standing in-house specialist typically grows along with the areas that matter most to the company.
For ongoing tasks such as social media, content or internal projects, a permanent team can quickly become cost-effective. Recurring tasks can be handled more efficiently than via external providers, especially when the workload remains relatively stable. And even when external support is needed, internal marketers are ideally positioned to coordinate external partners, because they know the internal needs and priorities very well.
However, building a strong in-house team in Switzerland is challenging. Recruitment is time-consuming, skilled professionals are in high demand and the associated fixed costs are relatively high. At the same time, there’s an increased risk that, as the internal view deepens, the bigger picture gets a little lost: those who are too immersed in day-to-day business sometimes overlook structural issues that external partners would spot immediately.
Either or…?
If making a decision still feels difficult, that’s absolutely fine. I can assure you that hybrid setups are far more common than committing to just one option. For many organisations, the greatest value almost always lies in a combination.
Some of my clients, for example, run their own in-house team that fully covers content, social media and internal projects. They still ask me to prepare a quarterly report with an action plan because an external perspective provides irreplaceable value here – and they then implement the measures themselves. Other clients have a long-term relationship with an agency that handles campaigns across all media channels, from posters to TikTok, but still bring me in for ad-hoc support with conversion tracking when more advanced technical requirements arise that only occur occasionally and cannot be handled efficiently by their agency without a dedicated tracking specialist. I’ve even acted as a sparring partner for agency SEO specialists during a website relaunch.
In short: there is practically no combination that doesn’t exist. The art lies in selecting exactly those building blocks that match your organisation’s needs instead of forcing yourself to stick rigidly to one single model.
One important tip before you decide
Terms like digital marketing freelancer, agency or even marketing specialist are not protected. Unfortunately, this leads to people positioning themselves as experts after a short course, straight out of university or simply on a whim and without experience – even though they are in reality still at junior or entry level. For organisations, this often results in a lot of lost time, wasted budget and few meaningful results.
That’s why it pays to look closely at any potential collaboration: how transparent is a person’s or team’s background? Are there references, case studies or testimonials? Do they publish content such as blog posts or specialist articles that demonstrate expertise? In the first call, it’s allowed – and advisable – to ask critical questions. Serious marketers can clearly explain how they work, why they recommend a particular measure and which results are realistic, ideally without promising miracles.
If, despite a longer collaboration, doubts remain, an independent audit usually helps. Good professionals have no issue with someone “external” looking into an account or setup – if you work cleanly, there is nothing to hide.
Do you need an online marketing freelancer now?
I hope this comparison has helped you get more clarity on which setup makes the most sense for your organisation. And if, by chance, a freelancer (whether as the sole solution or in a hybrid model) seems like the right fit for you, you’re already in the right place. As an online marketing freelancer in Switzerland, I’m happy to support you with your plans. You can find more information on my services page.
