Partnering with a freelancer, a consultant or HNW? 

When you’re looking to expand your agency, extend your products and services and deliver more value to your clients, there’s usually one very big question you’ll ask yourself (and your team) first…

How? 

How are you going to widen your repertoire and offer more? How are you going to sell in more services when you’re already at capacity? How are you going to give clients the support they want, when you don’t currently have that skill set in house? 

The answer is usually along the lines of “get more resource”, which begs a second…

How? 

Hire or outsource? 

That ‘how?’ leads into a more specific question about whether you should hire or outsource. 

And it’s a big question we won’t cover here. But, speaking to agency owners around the country, they tell us that the majority of agencies are landing heavily on the outsourcing side. 

Hiring means: 

• Recruiting and onboarding costs 
• More expensive NI and pension contributions
• Time spent trying to find the right candidate
• Time and money wasted on wrong hires 
• A tight job market 

Hiring ain’t easy. 

Neither is outsourcing, but it doesn’t have the initial cost or risk that hiring brings. 

So, outsourcing it is. 

Not all outsourcing options are created equal

When outsourcing to expand your offer and deliver additional products and services to clients, there are typically two options on the table. 

Consultant or freelancer. 

Seemingly closely related but in reality very different in output and experience, consultants and freelancers bring different kinds of benefits, but also a host of challenges. 

Freelancers: 

• Offer on-demand resource
• Adapt to your capacity requirements 
• Deliver a specific skillset 

As you’ll probably already know, there are many difficulties when partnering with a freelancer on client projects. 

1. They need clear instruction

Freelancers just want to do as they’re told. They’re not going to think about strategy or goals, they just want a clear brief and the tools, information and data they need to complete the task. 

2. They often require micro management

If you want to deliver a more strategic service to your clients, you’ll need to tell freelancers exactly what to do. What, where, when, how. That means more account management.

3. They don’t ask why

Freelancers aren’t going to be checking to see if the task they’ve been given aligns with the clients goals. They don’t need to make sure it’s going to deliver the right results. They have a job to do. They’re just going to do it and invoice you.  

4. They might not care that much about your client

That attitude means that freelancers don’t care about your client like you do. They’re probably not looking ahead to renewal dates or worrying about satisfaction scores. They just want to deliver the work, so that you’ll pay their invoice on time.

5. There may be a lack of quality control

Because freelancers usually work alone, they lack the oversight or quality control that you’d get in-house or from a team of consultants. 

6. They won’t be looking to upsell opportunities 

Freelancers just aren’t looking out for your agency, it’s not in their nature. They want to help, of course, but their main aim is project delivery, not account strategy. 

Consultants: 

• Expand and enhance your strategic focus 
• Offer expertise across wider disciplines
• Usually offer long-term resource security 

Of course, that level of expertise and specialism comes at a cost. 

1. They demand more resource

Consultants are usually significantly more expensive than a freelancer. They also often require long term contracts, and don’t usually do small, short projects. 

2. There’s more advanced planning needed

As consultants work to longer term contracts, they’re not usually available next week, or even next month. That means it’s harder to wait until you’ve won a contract or project to book them in. 

3. They don’t want to do 

Another challenge with consultants is that they often want to focus on the strategic stuff. They’ve been freelancers before, and now they want to tackle the big picture while others do the ‘on-the-ground’ work. For your agency, that might mean you still have to hire freelancers to do the actual content delivery. 

4. They don’t play well with others

Consultants can be very protective of their space. They often want to control the narrative and the strategy, which, if you have a lot of other contractors or service teams working on a project, can be a pain. 

5. They can dominate client relationships 

Because consultants typically have a hands-on role with clients, strategy and direction, if your agency isn’t careful, you could find yourselves being pushed out, as the consultant takes on more work and more client interactions, to the detriment of your relationship. 

So what do you do? Option one or option two? 

Cheaper resource that doesn’t ask why, just wants to do, and then go home? 

Or more specialist expertise that can be more difficult to manage and risk relationships? 

Or is there a third way? A middle ground? 

Spoiler alert, there is. A third way made up of three letters. H N W. 

HNW Agency gives you the best of both consultants and freelancers. 

That middle ground agency partnership sweet spot. The old win-win. 

When you work with us on messaging, tone of voice and copywriting projects, you get: 

• Extensive expertise without the expense of consultants
• On demand resource without the risk of freelancers disappearing
• A unique focus on brand messaging, copy and content only – with years of experience working with and complementing other disciplines
• A focus on BOTH strategy and delivery – we think, we question and we do
• A commitment to essential foundations and an eye on new opportunities for your agency
• A partner you can trust and rely on

Consultant-level strategy and direction. Freelance flexibility and deliverability. 

You’ll enjoy the quality control and strategic insights you don’t get with freelancers, plus the multi-project capacity and execution that consultants can struggle with. 

We fit in with your existing processes, we work with your current resource and we help your agency grow. 

No dramas, no egos, no risk – just work to be proud of.

Something you can never guarantee with freelancers or consultants. 

It’s why dozens of agencies trust us to partner with them. 

A message first marketing partnership that expands their offering, delivers more client value and makes them more money.

Time to see how we could help you too? 

Let’s grab a coffee 

Get in touch