A common question for businesses owners is why should they work with a boutique digital agency?

Many of us are familiar with large full-service marketing firms that staff 50+ employees across all disciplines. These larger agencies can be a great fit in certain situations, while in others they may lead to a lower return on your investment. So why work with a boutique agency?

Focused Expertise

Modern digital marketing involves a wide variety of media formats, platforms and tactics that align to a larger strategy. Boutique digital agencies span across all disciplines ranging from strategy, web design, social media, email marketing, SEO, PPC, video production and more. By focusing on a particular discipline, smaller firms are able to remain experts in a single field and master their discipline. Digital marketing has become so expansive it is impossible to be a jack of all trades.

What this means for you when working with a boutique digital agency is a group of highly skilled experts that do one thing and do it well.

They eat, sleep and breathe their selected focus, and are continually expanding their education on the subject.  Boutique agencies are able to attract fresh talent that knows they will have a greater amount of responsibility and creative freedom than they would find in larger full-service agencies.

Personal Touch

When you work with a boutique firm, you have the opportunity to meet every person that will be working on your account. You will be able to communicate your business goals and objectives directly with the people that will be handling your account. Typically you will have direct access to them throughout the day.

The boutique experience is very personal and you will build relationships with everyone on the team over time. Small business owners know the importance of those personal relationships.

Reduced Risk

You know adage: never put all your eggs in one basket. This hold true for digital marketing as well. If you have a single agency handling every aspect of your digital marketing, what happens when if they aren’t meeting your expectations? What happens when you want to find someone new?

Moving to a new full-service agency is a costly, time-consuming process. You will need to start from square one,. This means speaking to a new agency, introducing your business to another dozen people, have many on-boarding meetings, and transferring your account information over. It can take weeks or even months to get set up with a new agency.

Meanwhile, working with multiple boutique firms allows you to avoid a single point of failure. If you are unhappy with social media efforts, you can quickly get connected to a new social media partner without affecting your other digital efforts. In fact, one of the other boutique firms you work with will likely have a referral for you. You can be up and running in less than a week.

Building Your Network

By nature of being a small firm, boutique digital agencies must form strong partnerships in other disciplines. A web designer will have clients that need social media. A social media company will have clients that need SEO. Thus, it is essential for boutique firms is to form these partnerships in order to refer their clients when they identify a need.

As a business owner, you are introduced to a network of highly skilled experts across the digital space. Each of these new connections is an opportunity to make additional partnerships. You gain access to a whole new network of potential referrals to your business. This is especially valuable to local businesses that service a specific geographic region.

With a larger agency you are only building a single relationship. If you decide to leave that relationship, your entire network of people within the digital marketing space is lost. Hopefully you made a few friends while you were with the larger firm that can point you in the right direction.

Strong Relationships

Boutique companies create strong ties to their clients. As a small company there is only enough room for a few projects at a time, so each client takes up a large part of focus, energy and mental space. Your business will be on their mind when they wake up and go to sleep. The members of the firm will be researching your industry, and sharing insights with each other throughout the day. This is exactly what you want for your business—a group of people applying new ideas, concepts and strategies to your industry. They are continually identifying areas for opportunity and growth.

Lower Cost, Higher Efficiency

This is an important consideration for business owners. Boutique agencies have much less overhead. They don’t require large office space, there isn’t a need for mid-level management, and in general costs remain as lean as possible. These cost savings get passed on to you which keeps them competitive with other boutiques companies.

Form an efficiency standpoint, in being a small firm, they are able to move fast. There is not much red tape to cut through when you have a request. Sometimes you are communicating directly with the person that will be handling the request. This makes project management much more efficient and once again reduces costs to your company.

Why a Boutique Digital Agency?

Do the benefits above resonate with you? Do you enjoy the more personal relationships, lower costs, reduced risk, and still working with highly skilled people in a particular expertise? Boutique agencies can be the best choice for businesses of all sizes. If you are looking for help with your digital marketing, consider working with a boutique digital agency to help you grow your brand.