Competitive and fast-moving, PR and marketing agencies never stand still. With thousands of players in the market, not to mention digital, content and advertising agencies trying to steal your turf, you must constantly evolve to survive.

The pace of change has become even greater in recent years, as clients respond to a volatile business and political climate. This has led to a faster turnover of accounts, an increase in project work and less predictable resourcing needs. Many agencies are increasingly turning to freelancers as a result.

While PR and marketing has always had its fair share of freelancers, the numbers have grown dramatically in recent years, with the ONS identifying around 9,000 across the UK, at least double the number there were in 2011. Here are six reasons why smart agencies are snapping them up:

1. Managing project work:

With clients increasingly moving towards a project-based approach, freelancers offer agencies much greater flexibility. If a last-minute project comes in, and the existing team is at capacity, it’s almost impossible to hire another permanent employee within a short timeframe. In contrast, there’s always a freelancer available to pick up the slack at a moment’s notice.

2. Specialist skills for integrated campaigns:

More demand for integrated campaigns means agencies need to offer a range of services, from content marketing, to SEO and design work. It isn’t necessarily good business sense to hire all these specialists in house, particularly for small agencies, which may not have enough accounts to make it worthwhile. This is where specialist freelancers come in, allowing agencies to draw on their skills when needed, without investing in a multi-faceted permanent team.

3. Broad experience and insights:

Most freelancers have been around the block a few times, which means they’ve worked on a huge variety of accounts and witnessed innumerable different ways of doing things. This not only gives them lots of experience to draw on, it also benefits you and your team, providing valuable insights that you can use to perfect your own approach.

4. The perfect stop-gap:

Persistent skills shortages mean finding the right fit for permanent positions can take time. And high turnover means it often feels like you’ve only just filled one role when another employee jumps ship. In this situation, freelancers are a life-saver, keeping your client accounts resourced and your employees’ heads above water, while you organise a more permanent solution.

5. An injection of productivity:

The nature of their work means freelancers are past masters at getting up to speed quickly and getting the job done, with minimum hassle and fuss. That means you save time managing on boarding, training and explaining. You just get great work and great results, on time.

6. Expensive is cheap:

They may look expensive on paper, but freelancers are often the most cost-effective solution, when you consider how much you are saving on recruitment costs for a permanent hire. And because they’re so efficient, they can often whizz through work in half the time, which means great, results, happy clients and more business.

Looking for freelance support to enhance your agency business? Then give The Work Crowd a call on 0207 632 8809 or drop us a line at hello@theworkcrowd.com, to find out how we can help.