Running a business is expensive, and it’s about to get even pricier.

With National Insurance contributions increasing in 2025, employing staff is going to cost more. So, if you’ve been thinking about hiring an in-house marketing team, you might want to hit pause and consider an alternative: outsourcing to a marketing agency (like Farm Creative!)

Let’s break it down…

What’s changing?

From April 2025, employers will pay 15% in National Insurance contributions instead of 13.8%, and the threshold at which you start paying is dropping from £9100 to £5000. Essentially: you’ll be paying more to employ staff.

The Forgotten Costs of Hiring In-House

Hiring a marketing team, however, isn’t just about their salaries and NI contributions! It’s also important to consider:

• Pensions
• Annual leave and sick pay
• Training costs
• Recruitment fees

Suddenly, the ‘one marketing hire’ is costing a lot more than you planned.

Marketing is also constantly evolving – SEO algorithms and keywords need careful monitoring, social media trends come and go, and it needs a good eye to try and cut through the noise in a crowded digital space. Keeping up with all of this is time-consuming – but it’s what we do best! While you’re focused on running your business, we can work on ensuring your marketing stays fresh, relevant and one step ahead of the competition.

The Smarter Alternative:

Instead of paying for one or two new employees, working with a marketing agency gives you access to an entire team of specialists for a fraction of the costs. A hybrid approach is becoming more popular amongst businesses, from small to medium enterprises, to larger international firms looking to enter the UK market, who may have just one Marketing Manager in-house supported by an outsourced marketing agency.

Expertise Across the Board 

Graphic design, social media, SEO, branding, content creation, web design and maintenance, marketing strategy… we have specialists in every area.

No overheads

No national insurance, no pensions, no holiday pay, no tying you down in contracts… we work flexibly to suit your needs to provide expert marketing when you need it.

Fresh ideas and strategies

We work with clients across multiple industries, from rural businesses and agricultural firms to events, fashion, construction, hospitality and leisure. It means we can get a vast understanding of many consumers and their behaviour: so we can bring innovative, agile ideas that in-house teams might not have the time or resources to explore.

If rising employment costs are making you rethink hiring in-house, have a chat with us instead! We’re here to help, and we promise no corporate jargon – just straight-to-the-point marketing that works for your business and delivers you a return on your investment.

Get in touch for a free consultation.

We attended the Rural Business Awards, in partnership with the CLA, on Thursday 13^th October and we didn’t leave empty handed!

This year, Farm Creative was shortlisted for two national awards: Best Professional Services Business and Best Creative or Media Based Business. Unfortunately, we just missed out on an award for Best Professional Services Business, but we did come Runner Up for Best Creative or Media Based Business, a huge achievement that we’re all thrilled with!

It’s great to have all our hard work recognised, especially on a national level, and it will spur us on to continue to grow the business and keep our eyes on the prize for next year.

Thank you to the organisers & judges of the RBA’s!

Earlier this year we blogged about how excited we were to be the official marketing agency for the UK’s national Flooring and Tiling Shows, two huge exhibitions that take place at the Harrogate International Centre each year.

Using multiple marketing platforms from our available services, we increased visitor numbers to the shows by 9.6%, with 3,119 people passing through the doors!

From October 2015, we’ve created and designed digital campaigns, content management of the Show websites, written and printed all the Show materials; including Show Previews and Show Guides and the team have written monthly press releases that have featured in over seven industry leading magazines along with regular printed adverts. This approach to their communications garnered positive reviews and comments from visitors and exhibitors alike.

We attended the show, which took place at the Harrogate International Centre from 18th to 20th September to assist with onsite communications.

With this year being such a success, we’re thrilled to have renewed our contract to work on all aspects of marketing for the 2017 Shows, and work has already begun to beat this year’s visitor numbers!

We want to say big congratulations to Steven Holmes, our Farm Yard Ales client, who won a brand new Land Rover Sport Discovery through the Prince’s Countryside Fund scheme.

On hearing the news he’d won, Steven said, “the car has landed at the right time for Farm Yard Ales, as the build of the microbrewery begins and the start up of the business really gets underway. The Discovery Sport will be one of the hardest working machines Farm Yard Ales has, being used for meetings, collecting items, delivering samples and towing a cask or two when the ales are brewed.”

Since early last year, we’ve been working with Steven to develop his Farm Yard Ales brand, a microbrewery he’s building on his family farm that’s had to diversify due to the low milk prices.

The new Land Rover will make life for Farm Yard Ales so much easier and we’re really excited for the grand opening!