Are you looking for an online marketing agency to help you reach new customers or clients?

When you go online or ask your family or friends you will be inundated with dozens of businesses that make extraordinary claims to get your business seen across the web. One quick way to cut through the clutter is to identify if you want to work with a large marketing firm or a small agency. In this blog we will discuss the pros and cons of each and you can decide which path is right for your business.

‍

Large Marketing Agencies

Large marketing agencies are easily found online because they have years of experience helping them rank their services higher on Google. They also have more revenue to pay for ad placements and reviews so they come up when you search for marketing in your area. A big agency will come off very professional when you first contact them. They will make you feel like a priority with clean proposals and audits of your online presence and have the capacity to tend to your inquiries right away. A large marketing agency is typically made up of anywhere from 5-25 employees sometimes even more. Below we discuss the pros and cons of dealing with a bigger firm.

‍

Pros

• The onboarding process is more likely to go smoothly
  
• You will probably have a dedicated representative if you spend enough per month
  
• They have more people which typically means more combined experiences so you aren’t an acting guinea pig
  
• Leverage their network of backlink sources to speed up your SEO work
  
• Larger agencies usually pay for services like Facebook Ad Reps that give them better access to solutions, tools, and features across platforms

‍

Cons

• While you may get fast service in the onboarding process, there is a chance your communication starts to slow down once they lock you in
  
• Larger agencies love contracts! Be careful what you sign as they tend to lock you in for long periods of time and come with all sorts of ways for them to keep you onboard for a long time to come
  
• You may get bounced from rep to rep as these larger agencies tend to have really high turnover
  

‍

What businesses are best suited for larger marketing agencies?

• Businesses in hyper competitive industries
  
• Businesses with a marketing budget over $10k+ a month
  
• Businesses that are able to enter into year and multiyear contracts with a long term focus.
  

Big marketing firms focus on big clients. If you are not a big spender you will most likely get put into their client funnel where you get passed from rep to rep. The overall quality of these marketing efforts often come off as stale or seemingly cookiecutter, which they are. By the time you figure this out, you are locked into a contract and are used to having your credit card hit every month you end up in a never ending cycle of paying top dollar for minimal attention. One day these words may come back to haunt Mad Mango Marketing if we become a bigger firm but from what we have heard from our clients who have managed to leave these big firms, if you don’t spend thousands a month you won’t see the same results you would get with a more focused team.

‍

Small Marketing Agencies

Your other option, which can seem risky at first, is going with a smaller agency. The marketing firm your neighbor recommended, your co-worker’s kid’s business, any number of ways you may come in contact that does smaller scale marketing work. Their prices are often lower than the bigger firms but they don’t have as clean of a presentation or maybe they don’t have an office so it seems less concrete. Many small business owners are faced with this decision and are concerned with how they would hold this small business accountable for their efforts at all because as a small business owner they are already too busy managing everything else.

A small agency can be anything from a 1 man show freelancer to a 2-5 person operation. Here are some pros and cons that can help you make this decision. ​

‍

Pros

• You will typically get a better price with a smaller firm and have more negotiation abilities
  
• You will have a direct contact and can’t be passed from rep to rep
  
• You will be a higher priority with less spend
  
• Smaller agency owners and employees are likely to be more knowledgeable than the intern you’ll be dealing with with the bigger marketing company
  
• Easier for you as a business owner to hold your marketing team accountable
  

‍

Cons

• Smaller agencies tend to have smaller networks and this could make your marketing efforts move slower
  
• If you’re dealing with a freelancer something could happen in their life greater than work leaving you without a marketer
  
• Small marketing firms may not have access to enterprise tools like a Facebook Rep or high end video editing software
  

‍

Small marketing agencies tend to give the business owner more control and access to information which makes them great choices for businesses that have anywhere from $500 - $5,000/mo to spend. If you are lucky enough to find a good small marketing team they will beat the big agencies every day due to the added attention.

No matter which decision you make you should go into the agreement with your new marketing team and expect to ride it out with them for  at least 6 months. As the team learns your individual business and get more familiarized with your niche, the results will follow.

‍