Hiring in-house gives you dedicated focus but is expensive and hard to cover every skill, while a growth retainer gives you a range of skills for less than one salary but with less day-to-day presence. For most small businesses, a retainer is the more practical start. Here is the honest comparison.
Hiring in-house
- A dedicated person focused only on your business.
- Deep knowledge of your brand over time.
- Expensive once you add salary, tax, and tools.
- One person rarely covers brand, web, SEO, email, and content well.
A growth retainer
- A range of skills across brand, web, and growth for a monthly fee.
- Usually far less than a full salary.
- Senior experience without the overhead.
- Less day-to-day presence than an in-house hire.
How to choose
- Lots of ongoing work and the budget for a salary: an in-house hire, ideally backed by outside specialists.
- Want broad skills and senior help without the cost of a hire: a growth retainer.
Where we land
Our SEO retainer is built exactly for this: brand, web, SEO, email, and local growth for a monthly fee, without hiring a whole team. If that fits where you are, send us a line.