Content has become the language through which brands express who they are — yet much of it still sounds the same. After years producing campaigns across industries, I’ve come to believe that the real key to differentiation lies not in what is made, but in where it’s made.
This essay explores why the shift toward bringing content creation in-house signals not just an operational change, but a cultural one.
Coming from an agency background, I have been involved in the creation of pretty much every possible kind of content: editorial, social media, data visualisation, scripts and storyboards, gamification… There are plenty of Pro/Con-type articles about in-house content creation out there, but most tend to fall into the snackable/clickbait bracket — i.e. not offering a lot of insight beyond some top-level thoughts. I wanted to attempt to redress that balance by throwing my own experienced hat into the ring.
Risking the wrath of employers past, present, and future, I will state quite simply that if you want to create content, then it is certainly worth considering an in-house team over an agency. As externals, we agency types can be objective, sure, but at the end of a long day no one knows your brand like your own staff. Agencies are earnest in their attempts at representing a client brand but, of course, we do that for whatever firms happen to cross our threshold.
Beyond the possibility of a personal interest in a client brand establishing itself, it cannot be said that an agency content creator will have any particular investment in one brand over another
This is not to say that the results are not of quality. I am certainly not suggesting laziness — quite the opposite. We will strive hard to ensure that your brand will get content that is just as good as everyone else’s. But therein lies the rub: your content will be exactly like everyone else’s because it comes from the same well. Inevitably, repetition will creep in as an external creator simply lacks the internal insights that separate good content from exceptional content.
Trust
Interestingly, the results of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer caused a stir back in 2022 when the news was published that business is now more trusted than NGOs, government, and the media. Fast-forward to today and the same still largely stands. Apparently, in a post-Covid world, we collectively feel that we have been let down by establishments that we previously held up as bastions of authenticity, and we are turning to business to fill the gap and answer the big questions that had previously been the remit of others.
Moreover, Hubspot recently published the results of their own study, stating that 88% of marketers say that content is a top priority and accounts for 26% of B2B marketing budgets. It is therefore not surprising to find that, as we approach the close of 2022, there is an identifiable trend among businesses of all sizes towards building in-house content teams.
A logical question to now ask is why it should be that, out of all the methods in the marketing mix, content is currently proving to be the worthiest of investment
To answer that, let’s remind ourselves of a fundamental: the power of content marketing is that it allows a business to escape the realities of the material world for one where the accretion of cultural and social capital levels off the playing field.
In this world — namely ours right now — it is the consumer’s perception of one brand’s worth that becomes all-important because it is this that has become the mode of differentiation between similar products. Thus, those best at communicating what they are doing are the ones able to establish themselves as market leaders.
As the practice of branding has developed, cognitive knowledge and aesthetic experience have taken over from the provision of product or service as the core source of value. This was inevitable. As the cost of material production went down, it became easier for competitors to copy what another business was doing and, quite possibly, to do it better than the originator.
To understand how this process works, we can think of a brand as being like a tangible object
All objects fulfil a need and therefore a value system can be built around them, due to a perception of significance that extends far beyond the object’s own boundaries. All objects are supporters of an identifiable narrative, in the sense that the audience applies a storyline peculiar to the object’s particular function. The key for the communicator is to find the seed of this emotional importance that the audience is projecting onto the object, and then amplify it.
Clarity
If this is too abstract, try thinking of a brand as being like a photograph. A photograph has two states: the first is its natural state, where it is an image that is simply the result of a mechanical process. At this point, a photograph has no message or meaning — rather like a brand with no audience. It is only when the photograph is used for a purpose that its meaning is activated. When we are invited to address a photograph’s subject matter — be it a reportage image in a newspaper or a family snap on a mobile phone — the emotion that the image stimulates in us has given this otherwise useless object a worth. In the same way, it is only when a given brand is seen within a certain context that it can be said to have any meaning for its audience.
The first benefit of an in-house team is that they are the ones best placed to create the context of which I just spoke. Their knowledge of the brand, the core product, and the expertise of its industry is a readily available resource whenever needed. They are there to do that job; there is not the time lag often seen when working with an external agency. The best ambassadors will always be a brand’s own staff because they work for you full-time, are not splitting their attention across other clients, and can — and should — be fully aligned with your company’s values and culture.
Motivation
Being in-house, their motivation to do good for the brand is also higher. While external content creators can also be experts in an industry and produce good results, the reality is that they work with other brands — and quite possibly competitors too — meaning that, whilst often very committed, the very nature of the way they work means they simply can’t ever be as knowledgeable as someone who works with your brand full-time.
When you produce and distribute your own content, you also have a direct line to the engagement statistics
You can monitor how an audience reacts, either positively or negatively. Outsourcing also offers the chance to monitor output, but when not involved in what’s being published, the opportunity to engage with the data diminishes amid other daily business.
For quality content marketing, a brand needs to put out a high quota of good content — and in-house teams are able to generate a lot of content quickly because they are focused purely on their brand and motivated to create high-quality material. Agencies, by contrast, are often too expensive to sustain over a longer period.
While there are clearly many benefits to building an in-house marketing team for your content production, doing so isn’t the best option for every business. The two biggest things to consider are what stage your business is in, and what your budget is like. Often, these two are intertwined.
Start making sense
If you’re a start-up trying to build brand recognition and a customer base as soon as possible, it may make more sense to hire an agency or a freelancer to start building your blog while you invest heavily in paid ads. But when your business has a solid customer base and wants to invest in sustainable growth, the time has come to consider bringing your content production in-house so you can enjoy the benefits discussed above. It’s also worth mentioning that many businesses opt for a combination of in-house content producers and freelancers, with the former guaranteeing a consistent flow of content while the latter jump in for shorter-term projects. Lastly, keeping your content production in-house doesn’t mean you need to hire a complete content marketing team. You can still opt to outsource your content strategy, for example.
In closing then, a brand, like a photograph, only gains meaning through context — and no one is better placed to frame that context than those who live it every day. In-house content creation isn’t simply a structural decision; it’s a cultural one. It signals a shift from representation to participation, from hired storytelling to lived narrative — perhaps that could be the most powerful brand asset of all?