Nashville Web Design knows choosing a marketing agency is a big endeaver. It’s a serious decision. There are lots of options out there, especially in a city like Nashville where technology jobs are high and startup companies are welcome. The city gives tax breaks to some of these companies so it’s a desirable place to start a business like this.

There are roughly four types of companies out there that do marketing. We’ll look at each of these companies, the different types, and the value or drawbacks of each. At a glance, you have the freelancer, the boutique shop, a small agency, and a large agency. At Nashville web design group, we consider ourselves a boutique agency. While that sounds general and perhaps obvious, there are nuances to each. Let’s discuss each one now.

First, let’s start with the freelancer. Almost all companies start with this, way including our Nashville web design group. A freelancer is someone who does work on their own. They may be protected by a company entity but that is not relevant. For this purpose, this is a single individual that the business will be working with. Often, a freelancer does many things and will contract out one or two parts of his tasks. Her speciality might be design and writing content, with enough capabilities to get a website constructed. One or two features on the website might be hired out to a trusted third party.

Next, the boutique website company or boutique agency. As mentioned, this is how we consider our Nashville web design group. This is a company roughly ranging from two to six employees and doing enough revenue to support that. The size of the company is a little less important than the focus of their specialty, which is going to be either websites or advertising with a leg of the other. It may mean four of the six members focus on the website area, one in marketing ads, and one manages all of the projects to keep things running smoothly.

A small agency and a large agency will usually do everything in house. Although, not always. Our Nashville web design group has been contracted by both types of agencies to perform one-off services or handle their overflow. Anyway, the differences between the two are are either the size of the agency or the size of their clients. Most often those two will go hand in hand. A small agency is either working toward becoming a large agency or their clients are smaller and they are partially capped by working on a certain size project. With a large agency, projects may range in the millions of dollars and the number of employees and project size may be large. There may be a service or two the large agency adds on, such a television commercials but often we see small agencies providing such services as well.

To recap, there are roughly four types of marketing agencies to choose from. The freelancer, the boutique shop, the small agency, and the large agency. Our Nashville web design writer has identified what each group is and what they do. Choosing between these depends on a few factors and the preferences your business has. We’ll discuss what might look like and how to best analyze your choices. Picking the one that works best for you is important because the commitment is typically a few years. And you want to pick one that will help you grow your business and you enjoy working with.

The first thing you should consider is the size of your business and how the website impacts your business. For example, if the website serves the purpose of a customer finding directions to your business, the website needs to look nice and a map needs to be there. Of course, our Nashville web design group understands that there is more to it than that but in the case of this example, let’s keep it simple. If the website is an e-commerce store with thousands of dollars in advertising driving traffic to it and it should take leads into a customer relationship manager and tie into an accounting software, the need is far different.

Let it be known, there should not be a direct correlation between size the business and the marketing agency. For instance, a freelancer could easily work on a website of a company making millions of dollars. To say it in a different way, consider the level of risk that your website and marketing offers and the level of complexity it requires. At this point, your business can look through the four groups and decide if there is an evident match to your needs. A freelancer might not be the best fit if your business is doing millions and has complex integrations that, if broken, may cost thousands or even millions of dollars. 

Next, the business should consider the type of services you require. Unless the marketing budget is over one million dollars, which often means the business is doing north of thirty million dollars, the choices could be narrowed down to the boutique shop or the small agency. At this point, there are several factors that come into play and deciding which are important to your business is key. Let’s discuss those factors. 

The common factors differentiating a boutique shop from a small agency might be price, a one-stop shop, speed to delivery, the results guaranteed or proven, perceived quality of the deliverables, the relationship between the supplier and vendor, physical offices, responsiveness, availability, ongoing support, and services offered. Choosing between these two, like our Nashville web design group and a small agency, should not be taken lightly and all of these factors should be considered. 

At a glance, a business owner may see some factors and consider them obvious choices, but we ask for careful consideration because of the budget constraints and best use of your resources. For instance, a business owner may say price, speed, quality, and relationship are obvious choices. However, a deeper understanding may unveil a higher price might offer a reduced risk, speed may not be as important than planning and executing properly, a strong relationship is developed by communication and adds cost but not always value, and the business owner may have be a true understanding of the deliverable to adequately perceive quality (consider, does it deliver qualified leads).

Picking what’s right for your business and understanding what the provider delivers is key to your success and the partnership you will have with your marketing agency. Our Nashville web design group is here for a free consultation to help you with your decision.