The Advantages of a Small Full-Service Agency
Marketing is a major undertaking — it’s not something that business owners or other employees can do “on the side” of their normal jobs. To grow your company and attract the right customers, you need dedicated marketers.
A common mistake is to hire multiple specialists rather than a full-service agency. As your marketing budget grows, you can employ agencies who specialize in social media, branding, content, email, and any number of unique facets of a marketing plan. The problem is that these companies rarely communicate with each other, leaving you to act as the middleman and attempt to unify their work.
The smarter approach is to hire a full-service marketing agency that can cover every aspect of your marketing needs. When you do choose an agency, a smaller agency can offer some significant benefits over the larger shops that you might not have considered.
Flexibility and Agility
Large agencies start to accumulate bureaucratic policies and procedures as they grow, which often results in a cookie-cutter approach to new clients in the interest of efficiency. Unfortunately, this often means that large clients don’t have the flexibility to build a unique plan based on their clients’ specific needs.
A smaller agency can build a holistic, bespoke marketing plan that’s unique to your organization, focusing only on the areas that you need most and forgoing the channels that won’t be as effective.
The same goes for new trends and techniques. Large agencies tend to be slow to adopt cutting-edge marketing and advertising methods, sticking instead to the tried-and-tested approaches that have sustained them so far. Smaller agencies are likely to be more adventurous, nimbly adopting new trends, channels, and strategies as they arise.
A More Personal Relationship
When you work with a smaller agency, you’ll have the opportunity to develop a working relationship with everyone touching your brand. With a tight-knit team, there’s less chance that your marketing needs fall through the cracks or get tied up in bureaucracy and red tape. You’ll know who’s handling each aspect of your account, so you’ll know what’s happening with your work at all times.
Better Value For Your Money
Large agencies have large overhead costs — big offices, accounting services, human resources, and so on. Those costs are inevitably passed onto their clients, but they don’t come with a corresponding increase in talent. The marketing professionals at smaller agencies have just as much experience and expertise as those at the big firms, but retainer costs tend to be lower.
This makes a smaller agency much more cost-effective than a large organization for small and medium businesses that want to make an impact in digital marketing, but have to focus on maintaining a tight budget.
Closer Correspondence
Communication in a marketing relationship is absolutely essential. You need your marketing team to reach you quickly when they have questions, offer useful feedback on your plans and strategies, and answer the phone when you call. Your marketing team should have a seat at the table when it comes to guiding your long-term strategy, and they can’t do that if they don’t communicate well.
At a small agency, you’re likely to receive closer attention and a more dedicated team than at a large firm. Rather than being lost in a crowded marketing calendar, your account will receive the dedication and attention you deserve.
Ask Around
There’s no single solution that works for every company — your goals, product, audience, and strategy will dictate the exact needs that you ask for in an agency. The important thing is to find an agency that can bring in the right attention and serve your organization, and a small agency might well be the best choice for you.
