For Medium and Small-Scaled Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, digital marketing is no longer optional. It’s the primary way customers discover your brand, how prospects evaluate you, and how existing clients stay engaged.
A dilemma business owners face is how to begin digital marketing. Should they hire an in-house marketing team, freelancers, or engage a digital marketing agency?
This guide compares the pros and cons of hiring an in-house marketing team, freelancers, and an agency. Furthermore, it outlines the digital marketing process to help business owners in Nigeria implement it effectively and grow their businesses.
The In-House Marketing Team Vs. Digital Marketing Agency
In-House Digital Marketing Team
One advantage of an in-house marketing team is that every team member in the marketing department works exclusively for you.
Pro’s
- Deep brand alignment
An internal team absorbs the culture, the founder’s vision, and the brand ethos. The proximity to the brand makes marketing messaging feel more authentic across every channel: website copy, paid ads, social content, and even internal communications.
- Direct control and speed
Priorities shift quickly in competitive markets. With an internal team, you can pivot without renegotiating a contract or waiting for an agency’s approval cycle. A sudden product launch, a pricing change, or a new market push can move from idea to live campaign in days instead of weeks.
- Institutional knowledge
Every test, every data point, and every lesson learned stays inside the company. Over time, you build a unique library of insights: what creative drives clicks, which audience segments convert best, and how seasonal changes affect sales. That data becomes an asset that compounds year after year.
Con’s
- High overhead
Hiring great digital marketing talent is expensive; your financial commitment doesn’t end at paying salaries. You’ll also need to pay for benefit packages and training budgets, and subscribe to a suite of analytics, marketing, paid media optimization, and SEO software.
- Tough hiring market
Nigeria’s pool of experienced SEO specialists, performance marketers, and content strategists is severely limited, and demand for these talents is highly competitive. Recruiting top talent can sometimes take months, and you’ll actively work on retaining them from poaching by local and international firms.
- Limited expertise breadth
An internal digital marketing team of five or six professionals can’t cover every aspect of marketing, including technical SEO, programmatic advertising, conversion rate optimization, and analytics. Given the extensive scope of digital marketing, online marketing evolves rapidly; investing in ongoing training is essential.
The Agency Option
Working with a digital marketing agency gives you access to a ready-made team of specialists, saving time and energy you would otherwise spend building an in-house department.
Pro’s
- Specialized skill sets
An established agency brings senior professionals in SEO, paid search, social media strategy, content development, and analytics. You get that entire range of skills and experience in one package.
- Broad market perspective
Agencies work across multiple industries. They see trends early, benchmark performance across clients, and know which tactics are gaining traction in Nigeria and beyond. That outside view can surface ideas that an internal digital marketing team might not consider.
- Cost efficiency at scale
Agencies maintain enterprise-grade software, automation tools, keyword tracking, and data analysis, which might be expensive for companies to license alone.
The Challenges
- Shared attention
An agency manages several clients at once. While good firms set clear service levels, you’re not their only priority. If your company needs constant same-day changes, that can feel limiting.
- Brand learning curve
One disadvantage of external teams is that they need time to understand the subtleties of your brand voice, internal processes, and decision-making culture. Without regular communication, early campaigns can miss the small details that matter to customers.
The Hybrid Advantage: Krestel Digital
Many Nigerian businesses want the benefits that working with an agency offers, but still don’t want to miss out on the agility and speed an internal team brings. At Krestel Digital, we understand that, and that’s why we exist, to bridge that gap.
We operate as an extension of your marketing team, embedding in your existing workflows and operations. Our account leads act like in-house managers, dedicated to your brand, while our broader specialist team provides the depth and technical expertise of a full agency.
We stay transparent. You see strategy documents, real-time data, and performance reports. You know what we’re testing and why, and you can redirect priorities without the friction of a traditional vendor relationship.
The result is a partnership that scales like an agency but feels as committed as a department down the hall.
The Core Digital Marketing Process
Whether you invest in an internal team, hire an agency, or choose a hybrid model, successful execution follows the same structured path.
- Planning and Strategy
Digital marketing starts with planning, which involves clearly outlining the business goals. Identify the target audience—demographics, pain points, and buying habits—and conduct competitor analysis to spot opportunities.
With the insights from planning, strategy formulation comes next. The strategy would involve choosing the right mix of channels: search, social, email, and paid media. Defining clear key performance indicators outlining what success looks like.
- Implementation and Execution
Implementation and execution follow completion of planning and strategy. This is the build phase. Campaigns go live, content is created, websites get technical SEO updates, communities are managed, and ad budgets are deployed. Coordination is key; a strong project plan keeps creative, technical, and analytics work aligned.
- Measurement and Analysis
Measurement and analysis are the feedback loop digital marketing thrives on. Analytics reveal how users move through the funnel, which keywords drive conversions, and which creative delivers the best ROI. Reporting shouldn’t just be a monthly afterthought— it’s the heartbeat of digital marketing campaigns.
- Optimization and Iteration
Digital marketing is never a “set and forget” thing. And shouldn’t be treated as one. Data from previous campaigns should be used to test new content formats and headlines, shift budget to high-performing ads, or rework underperforming landing pages. Continuously tweaking digital marketing strategies is what turns a good campaign into a great one.
Making the Right Choice
An agency makes sense when speed, scale, and access to broad expertise matter more than owning every process internally.
For many Nigerian brands, Krestel Digital offers a middle ground. You gain a dedicated team that knows your business as well as an internal department, backed by the tools and knowledge of a full agency. It’s a way to execute digital marketing at scale without building a large, costly division from scratch.
When the goal is sustained growth in a fast-moving market, that combination “focus plus scale” can make all the difference.
