If you run a construction, engineering or building services firm, you’ve probably asked this question and got a vague answer. Here’s a straight one, with the figures, the trade-offs and how to decide.
There are three main ways to get marketing done: hire someone, use freelancers, or use an agency. Each costs different money and gets you different results.
Option 1: Hire a marketing executive
A full-time marketing executive in Ireland typically costs €40,000–€50,000 a year in salary. That isn’t the full cost. Add:
- Employer’s PRSI of roughly 11% on top of salary
- Software: design tools, scheduling, email marketing, analytics
- Management time: someone has to brief them, review their work and keep them pointed at commercial goals
- Recruitment: an agency fee or weeks of your own time
Realistically, the all-in cost is well over €50,000 a year, and often more than €4,500 a month.
What you get: someone in the building every day, who learns your business deeply and can turn things around fast.
The catch: one person rarely covers strategy, writing, design, video and reporting well. Most marketing executives are strong at two of those and stretched on the rest. If they leave, your marketing stops until you replace them.
Option 2: Use freelancers
You can hire a freelance writer, a designer and someone to post on social media, paying by the hour or by the job.
What you get: flexibility, and often a lower monthly bill.
The catch: you become the marketing manager. You brief each freelancer, chase deadlines, check quality and make sure it all fits together. For a busy MD, that time is the real cost. Freelancers also tend to come and go, and most won’t know the difference between a QS and a PQQ.
Option 3: Use an outsourced marketing agency
An agency gives you a team (strategy, writing, design and reporting) for a fixed monthly fee.
In Ireland, ongoing retainers for small and mid-sized firms typically start at several hundred euro a month and rise to a few thousand, depending on how much content and how many channels you need.
At The Works, our packages are:
- Essential: €795 a month ex-VAT. A planned, consistent presence for firms building their profile.
- Growth: €1,450 a month ex-VAT. A fuller marketing department, including posts from your MD, video, a newsletter and custom pieces each quarter.
Both have a three-month minimum term, then run monthly with 30 days’ notice. Websites, video shoots and one-off projects are quoted separately.
What you get: a planned, consistent output without managing people, and a team that covers more skills than one hire.
The catch: an agency isn’t on your site every day. The good ones make up for that with a short monthly conversation and access to your project photos and updates. The bad ones send you generic content that could be about any industry.
How the costs compare
| In-house hire | Freelancers | Agency (The Works) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical monthly cost | €4,000–€5,000+ | Varies widely | €795–€1,450 ex-VAT |
| Skills covered | Usually 2–3 well | Depends who you hire | Strategy, writing, design, reporting |
| Your management time | Medium | High | Low (30–60 minutes a month plus approvals) |
| Risk if someone leaves | High | Medium | Low |
| Knows construction | Only if you hire for it | Rarely | Yes, if you pick a specialist |
What actually drives the cost
Whichever route you choose, the price comes down to four things:
- Volume: how many pieces of content a month.
- Channels: LinkedIn alone, or LinkedIn plus Instagram, a newsletter and your website.
- Original material: professional photography and video add significant cost. Site photos from your team cost nothing.
- Strategy and reporting: a plan tied to your commercial goals, and a monthly look at what’s working. Cheap services often skip this, which is why they feel like busywork.
Which option is right for you?
- Hire in-house if you need someone on site every day, you’re producing a lot of material (bids, events, brochures), and you have someone to manage them.
- Use freelancers if you have a clear plan, someone to manage it, and need specific skills for specific jobs.
- Use an agency if you want consistent, professional marketing without adding headcount or management load. That’s most firms with under 20–30 staff.
A useful test: if you can’t name who would manage a new marketing hire, you’re not ready to hire one.
What should you expect for your money?
Whatever you spend, hold it to these standards:
- A written plan for each quarter, linked to what your business needs: more tenders, better clients, more recruits.
- Content about your work, not generic industry tips. Your projects, your team, your results.
- Everything approved by you before it’s published.
- A monthly report that tells you what happened, in plain language.
Expect three to six months before results are consistent. Marketing in construction works like a reputation: it builds steadily, not overnight.
Talk to us
If you’d like a straight answer on what your firm needs and what it would cost, book a 30-minute call or request a free marketing review. We’ll tell you honestly if we’re not the right fit.
Gareth Cuddy is the founder of The Works, a marketing agency for construction, engineering and built-environment firms in Ireland. Prices are correct at the time of publishing and exclude VAT.