When you’re looking to hire for marketing, you should consider hiring a full service digital marketing agency.
Why?
Because a full service digital marketing agency has multiple capabilities that your company can tap into to accomplish marketing tasks, without the pain of having to find and onboard a new agency.
This said, a full service digital marketing company isn’t for everyone.
In this article we’re going to cover what a full service digital marketing agency is, what one does, and who should consider working with one.
Table of Contents
What is a Full Service Digital Marketing Agency?
A full service digital marketing agency is a company consisting of usually 30+ people who can execute all the efforts needed to run multiple marketing channels for a company.
An agency usually has separate teams of experts, such as paid media and web development, who work together to execute a client’s full digital marketing strategy. The teams are held together by project and account managers who make sure that work is being completed according to plan and getting results.
When you hire a full service digital agency, you can get a full team for the price of hiring just a few team members in-house. While a hired agency will still need management from the company they are working for, hiring an agency enables the in-house manager to focus on high-priority tasks while the marketing agency realizes the company goals.
From content to ads, web development to design, full service agencies can be a great return on investment for a company looking to improve their online presence.
What Does a Full Service Digital Marketing Agency Do?
A full service marketing agency is responsible for all of the marketing activities for their clients.
This means agencies work with their clients to develop a strategy, and then the agency implements it and reports back to the client on the results. This activity and metric report then lets the client know if they need to make any adjustments to the marketing strategy if the results are not meeting the company’s goals.
Looking for a full service digital marketing agency? Speak with our team to get matched with the right ones for your needs.
What Are Some Examples of Services Marketing Agencies Offer?
Full service digital agencies offer a range of services to their clients, often including:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Content marketing and writing
- Ads management
- Public relations and press release writing
- Web and website development
- Web and social media design
- Copy writing
- Social media management
When speaking with agencies to decide which one to hire, it is best to understand ALL of their capabilities before hiring them.
Some agencies may list services that they outsource to partners, which may affect quality control and timelines. During the vetting process, you should ask if they do all services in-house. If they do outsource, that isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. Just make sure they have good quality control and can still meet your deadlines.
It’s worth asking your prospective agency if they outsource at all and if so what they outsource and how they vet for quality.
What’s the Difference Between a Full Service Agency and a Niche Agency?
Full service agencies aren’t your only option for a marketing agency–there are also niche agencies. These two types of agencies are suited for different companies, so carefully consider their differences when determining which type of agency you want to hire for your company.
Expertise
Niche agencies usually have one or two expertises, such as SEO or PPC, or even a specific type of development like WordPress development. They are very good at that thing, and if you need a specific channel or type of website built, then a niche agency can be great.
Full service agencies also usually have a few areas they are especially strong in, but they’ve also developed strong capabilities in other areas that you can tap into.
Ability to Scale
Niche agencies usually do not have the ability to scale, because they’re smaller and are pressed for capacity within their team. Their client count is limited not only by their staffing but also by their expertise. Generally, niche agencies are discerning and only accept clients they are confident they can work well with.
Full service agencies on the other hand do have the ability to scale, and even if they don’t hire more people in-house, they usually have teams of freelancers that they know and trust and can tap into when more work is needed.
Pricing
Niche agencies tend to be more expensive than fullservice agencies, which usually surprises people. Most people assume that a full service agency will be more expensive than a niche agency because of overhead like account management, but the reality is that niche agencies are specialists, and specialists almost always command a higher rate than generalists.
Full service online marketing agencies are usually able to provide their services for lower per-hour costs because they are able to hire more junior staff that they can train up in their way of delivering services to clients. With this, it’s important to ask a full service agency about their internal training and performance management processes.
Time to hire
It often takes longer to hire a niche digital agency than a full service agency for a few reasons.
Niche agencies are usually very busy doing work for clients and do not have endless capacity, so they are slower to send proposals, get on sales calls, and even to kick off projects.
Full service agencies, on the other hand, do have spare capacity and are able to bring on more clients. They usually have a dedicated sales staff as well, which means you get proposals and quotes much faster. They are also more likely to have case studies and testimonials of relevant clients to look at.
What does a full service digital marketing agency cost?
The average marketing provider worldwide charges $112.22 per hour, while a US-based agency that offers SEO and PPC averages around $150 per hour (according to our digital agency rate card).
The total cost for a full service digital agency varies based on the scope of the engagement. One benefit to working with a full service agency is that they’ve often solved the scale and hiring problems that many smaller agencies face, so they have the capacity to work on more projects for you when and if you need them.
Most full service agencies have a minimum retainer for ongoing services, and then you can add on additional services as needed.
Looking for a full service digital marketing agency? Speak with our team to get matched with the right ones for your needs.
Who Should Work with a Full Service Digital Marketing Agency?
Not every company should work with a full service digital agency.
Companies that see the best results with a full service digital agency:
- Have someone in charge of marketing strategy and managing the agency.
- Have product-market fit (based on demand and revenue) and are looking to scale up.
- Have experience working with outside providers and managing them well.
- Need multiple marketing channels and the ability to scale up and down based on marketing needs.
- Have a defined marketing budget and understand that marketing is an investment rather than an expense.
Hiring a digital agency?
If you’re hiring a digital agency, then you need to speak with us at Credo. We specialize in helping companies find the right agency to work with. Get started here.
