In-house hire, agency retainer or consultancy?

An in-house hire varies in seniority, is a permanent commitment and is hands-on. An agency retainer also varies in seniority, runs for a contracted term and is often hands-on. Consultancy with Cultured Digital is direct and senior, with a flexible commitment, and hands-on including the build.

The differences that matter most in practice are who does the thinking, how long you are committed for, and whether anyone can change the site as well as recommend changes.

• In-house hire: varies in seniority, permanent commitment, hands-on
• Agency retainer: varies in seniority, contracted term, often hands-on
• Consultancy: direct and senior, flexible commitment, hands-on including build

Consultancy suits teams that can already execute but need a technical lead, and decisions that need a trusted second opinion. It also helps when developers need SEO requirements specified well, and when there is no case for a full-time senior hire.

You work directly with the person doing the thinking and, when needed, the building. That is what direct and senior means in practice.

If the work is constant and belongs inside the business every day, a permanent hire is the natural answer. If you want a wider team delivering a continuing programme, a retainer may suit. Cultured Digital is not a full-service marketing agency, so work such as PPC and social sits outside what it does.

These options also combine. A consultant can add technical leadership to a team that already has a hire, or sit alongside an agency as a specialist input to its plan.

Advisory is being on call for the hard questions: scheduled sessions and ad hoc access for decisions about migrations, architecture, tooling and priorities. Embedded is working in your tools and channels for a defined stretch, such as a launch, a replatform or a turnaround. Review is independent sign-off on specifications, staging builds and releases before they reach production.

The commitment is flexible, so a focused audit or a short advisory period is a common way to begin. Simple projects stay simple, with no six-month engagement for something that should ship in weeks.