ooner or later, the moment will come for you: then you’ll have to decide whether you and your marketing team will continue to tinker with the MarTech stack on your own—or whether it will eventually become too complex and you’ll need individual MarTech solutions tailored to you. That’s when working with a MarTech development team comes into play. And even if you haven’t reached that point yet and you have your MarTech processes perfectly under control: it’s better to start engaging with the topic now. Because technological development in marketing won’t be taking a breather …
It’s not quite the search for the Holy Grail or the Amber Room, but tracking down the right MarTech developers is a truly demanding, sometimes sweat-inducing, and always time-consuming journey. But in the end it will pay off for you and your marketing team—hopefully, no, absolutely! At this point, we can only give you a few helpful tips on how to proceed, because the ideal development team must match your specific needs and your company exactly.
Basically, you have three options for working with MarTech developers:
In-house development team
Outsourcing to freelancers or agencies
Partnering with a specialized partner
Below, we’ll introduce these three options in more detail.
First, ask around within your MarTech team, if you have one. Maybe there’s already someone who brings experience in MarTech development and would be willing to share their knowledge. Or is it possible to hire such a person? Sometimes agencies can also help you find professionals or even entire teams for MarTech development, who then work in-house at your company.
The following considerations are important if you want to hire MarTech developers directly:
Accountability:
When developers are employed directly by your company, they are usually more motivated and have a higher level of accountability. It’s also easier to provide a MarTech platform in cooperation with the team.
Costs:
Hiring developers is always expensive. On average, it takes over 40 days to find the right person. Salaries are high, but in return you can expect very strong performance.
Staffing:
With in-house developers—as with all employees—there are HR topics such as vacation time, utilization, and coverage. Therefore, the decision to hire someone in the area of MarTech development should be well founded.
Quality:
It’s especially important that the person delivers top-quality results. Make sure to find someone with MarTech development experience to guarantee maximum quality.
There are countless MarTech development pros who can work with you as freelancers or through their agencies. In English-speaking countries, this profession is particularly widespread, but there are also more and more MarTech Developers in Germany. Therefore, it’s worth considering outsourcing the relevant tasks.
Consider the following points:
Speed:
A major advantage of outsourcing is the speed at which you can find someone. Normally, the project of optimizing or building the MarTech stack can start immediately.
Costs:
Sometimes it’s cheaper to find someone via outsourcing. This is especially the case when the professional is based abroad. Since most MarTech Developers charge the usual hourly or daily rate in their country, you should expect the corresponding costs here.
HR:
With outsourcing, HR matters are less complicated than with in-house professionals. That’s because you pay an external agency or individual for the time required. You don’t have to deal with other topics such as labor law or visas.
Quality:
Quality in outsourcing can vary greatly. Especially when working with large agencies, it’s not always easy to find someone experienced who can respond well to your company’s needs. Therefore, always ask for individual references.
Accountability:
The accountability of external providers is significantly lower than that of team members within your own company. Therefore, consider working with a small agency or individual freelancers.
Learning curve:
External providers often have a steep learning curve, for example when it comes to domains and certain tools. Even if they learn quickly, this can take a little while and may cost you money in the meantime.
A third option for MarTech development is to work with a specialized partner. These are companies that, for example, focus on MarTech. They usually offer all-inclusive packages including design, project management, and developers, so you can hand over the entire project. Pretty convenient!
Consider the following aspects:
Quality:
With specialized agencies, the quality of MarTech development is usually particularly high. That’s because they bring the relevant experience and have already worked with many other companies.
Learning curve:
In-house team members often first have to learn what terms like cookie syncing mean. Specialized partners, on the other hand, are very likely to be more knowledgeable than you are and can also contribute exciting suggestions—after all, that’s exactly why you work with them!
Technologies:
The pros know the current software solutions and assess them correctly in terms of longevity and sustainability. You can therefore rely on the fact that new marketing technologies are part of the service offered.
Time required:
Specialized agencies often implement an entire MarTech stack rather than individual tools. That takes time, but initial results can be seen quickly. What’s more, the pros help you set priorities.
Costs:
Specialized MarTech agencies have only a few disadvantages, but they are expensive. They cost more than external contractors and usually more than new team members. Still, it can be worth the investment, because you will achieve very good results in the medium and long term.
All three options have clear advantages – and individual disadvantages. Choose the option that fits your company. And dare to change course if it doesn’t go as hoped. It’s clear that all decisions must be well thought out, as they can have far-reaching consequences for your MarTech stack and for your marketing. That’s why Matchilla is by your side as your guide from the very beginning. Feel free to contact us if you’re looking for the right team, and we’ll match you with suitable developers – free of charge and with no obligation!
Till Zier is CPO at Matchilla and, as a MarTech expert, reports in MatchZINE on news and trends relating to marketing, automation, analytics and data.
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