Why Hire A Boutique SEO Agency
Regardless of your background, the need for external marketing expertise often arises within different business contexts from time to time. That’s why some people look for a guide on how to hire a marketing agency. Given the differences among marketing agencies, hiring one is rarely an easy task for everyone.
Without a clear understanding of the dynamics and core differences, you may waste your time and money with the wrong service provider. But I’m sure you don’t want to experience any form of waste.
More than anything else, your current marketing goals should be at the center of your search for the best marketing agencies.
When clarifying your goals, it will become relatively more straightforward to determine the type of marketing expertise you need before hiring an agency. Besides, understanding how marketing agencies work will prove helpful; whether you are a marketing manager or a business owner. One thing you should remember is that getting the best results does not always depend on the size of your budget. Do not believe everything you have been told or heard about marketing agencies.
At the end of this writing, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to choose the best type of marketing agency that will help towards the achievement of your current goals.
What Is A Boutique Agency?
A boutique agency is a small marketing business specialized in a distinct area of expertise while serving a particular niche or industry. Boutique agencies are usually found in the traditional world of marketing and advertising. However, the convergence of online advertising platforms and the proliferation of digital marketing tools have blurred the line among agencies. That’s why it is relatively hard for some people to determine when they need a boutique agency or other marketing agencies.
Again, it is the nature of your business and marketing goals that will determine the type of agency you need at the present moment. For example, the agency specializing in designing and producing required creatives for branding projects might not be the best for a business in need of the quality lead generation.
Types of Boutique Agencies
As I have hinted earlier, there are different types of agencies. Sometimes, where one agency stops, another agency will start working to help a business achieve specific goals. Interestingly, one particular agency is hardly suitable for every marketing or advertising project a company may need from time to time. Check out the major types of agencies below. Now you can consider your needs while reading through the core differences.
Boutique SEO Agency
Boutique SEO agencies often specialize in search engine optimization for a specific industry or niche. From technical SEO audit to on-page optimization, keyword research, content writing, and link building, this type of specialized marketing agency provides everything you need to start generating organic search traffic. Most agencies in this category usually have outstanding professionals in each area of search engine optimization.
Besides, some of these professionals may specialize in national SEO or local SEO services. Moreover, this SEO agency may also specialize in a specific niche. For example, it is possible to find law firm SEO agencies across every state or city within the US and other countries.
Assuming you need video content production or graphic design for your marketing projects, a boutique SEO agency won’t be your best option. On the other hand, going for a generalist marketing agency when you need local search engine optimization services may not get you the best results either. That’s the essence of hiring SEO specialists in the first place.
Boutique Design Agency
Some boutique agencies are full business operations full of design specialists. Think about things like graphic design, website design, brand design, logo design, UI/UX design, animation, and illustration. Within each of these areas, you also find specialists. Among other things, these professionals and their agencies provide design services for their in-house marketing team or external clients in selected niches. Depending on your business needs and preferences, a single agency may also provide you with design and marketing services in a customized plan.
Boutique Social Media Agency
Boutique social media agencies specialize in all things related to social media marketing. An agency in this category will provide you the creative, strategy, research, and advertising services in a customized package. Sometimes, a boutique social media agency will provide organic lead generation services on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram. If you are more interested in social media marketing, this is the type of boutique agency you should consider hiring.
Boutique PR Agency
The central focus of most PR agencies is growing brand awareness through different channels. Public relations agencies in this category may have professionals experienced in areas like design, writing, outreach, market research, and advertising. Advertising services provided by public relation agencies often happens on digital and traditional offline mediums. Depending on your budget, goals, and preferences, you may want to go for big or small agencies.
Difference Between Boutique Agency vs. Full Service Agency
As defined earlier in this post, a boutique agency focuses on a specific area of marketing expertise while serving clients in selected niches or industries. Regarding headcount, such agencies usually have less than 30 professionals specialized in different areas of marketing. Going with a boutique agency might be your best option if you want a more personal touch and exceptional attention to detail.
Full-service agencies provide a spectrum of marketing and advertising services for every client. When your business needs a holistic or multi-channel marketing strategy, a full-service agency will work best in such cases. However, the communication protocol is relatively complex for full-service digital marketing agencies.
For small and medium-sized businesses that need platform-specific marketing expertise, small boutique agencies will be better in terms of possible results you can get from your current budget.
These are the core differences between a full-service vs. boutique marketing agency. On the other hand, if you need SEO services to help generate buyer traffic and quality leads for your business, here are some benefits you experienced by working with a boutique SEO agency.
Why Hire A Boutique SEO Agency Specifically For SEO Services?
Leverage Specialty Expertise
Bigger agencies are known to be generalists in most cases. Moreover, they are usually running with significant overheads. Even though they may hire some experts in specific areas of search engine optimization, boutique SEO agencies with smaller teams are more specialized. Instead of hiring a single person to do everything related to search engine optimization, these smaller agencies will have experts in technical SEO, content creation, on-page optimization, and link building.
Another benefit of hiring a boutique agency is the assortment of powerful tools they will be used to do the work involved. As a business owner or marketing manager, you may not have some of these tools and the experience required to effect SEO strategy.
When you look around very well, it is also possible to find some agencies specializing in specific niches, industries, or business models. Assuming you want to work with local SEO experts specialized in your niche, it’s better to go with boutique agencies.
Save Some Time
As a business owner, you probably already have a lot on your calendar. Even if you commit time to learn everything there is to learn about search engine optimization, there is a limit to how much work you can do within each passing day. Comparatively, hiring a boutique SEO agency will save you some time.
From period SEO audit to content creation, link building, and rank tracking, you’ll hardly have enough time to do all the work involved when you consider other business responsibilities. Even if you are a marketer with some search engine optimization experience, doing everything on your own will take a long time to get good results.
But when you outsource the work to an agency with a team of experienced experts, you’ll have more time to do other things that will move your business forward.
It’s Cheaper Than In-House Staffing
Hiring one boutique SEO agency is better than in-house staffing. Because of a limited budget, you may be tempted to go with a generalist marketing manager. Unfortunately, going with the in-house option might not get you the needed results from your search engine optimization strategy.
Depending on the location, hiring an in-house SEO manager or marketing manager may cost you $40,000 – $100,000. Besides the base salary, some other costs are associated with full-time staffing. Interestingly, having a limited budget is one reason you should consider hiring an agency. When you hire an agency, you’ll have a team of experts working on different aspects of SEO.
Comparatively, using in-house staffing to fill the role of technical SEO experts, content writers, and link-building specialists will cost you more money.
In this case, you should consider your marketing goals and available resources before deciding on the most suitable option. Another interesting factor is the bulk discounts that most agencies on the best SEO tools for the job. Full-time staff may not have access to such discounts.
High-Level Flexibility
Here is one area where smaller is usually better.
The point is that smaller boutique SEO agencies specializing in specific niches or business models are more responsive to the unique needs of business owners. Mostly, you’ll have a dedicated point of contact when working with small agencies. As your business needs change from time to time, smaller agencies will help you move faster without wasting time on bureaucratic protocols.
Another interesting factor contributing to high-level flexibility is the ease of hiring and onboarding new talent. Bigger agencies often have relatively rigid hiring rules that slow down operations.
Assuming that high-level responsiveness is a top priority for your business or marketing team, you’ll e better off with a small boutique agency.
Perhaps, you don’t want to work with an agency that will be connecting you with different in-house team members every now and then.
Results Are Measurable
Beyond vanity metrics, boutique marketing agencies will help you track the results of your search engine optimization strategy or campaigns. And when you need to have a meeting to discuss the results achieved over a period and the next steps forward, you won’t have to go through complex communication protocols, as is the case with bigger agencies.
If you have been spending your money on traditional marketing strategies that don’t deliver good results, now may be the best time to think differently. Consider hiring an agency with a team of experienced data analytics and conversion tracking experts.
Another benefit of hiring an SEO agency with specialized tracking experts is the professional measurement of your marketing ROI. Yes, the best SEO agencies can help you measure real results and relate that to overall ROI over a specific period. Don’t stop at measuring website rankings only.
You can start tracking some of these performance metrics as well.
- Website traffic volume
- Lead generation
- Contact form submissions
- Online appointment bookings
- Inbound phone calls
- Return on marketing spend
It is not enough to spend good money on search engine optimization if it is not bringing you some of the results mentioned above. When hiring an SEO agency in Stamford, Connecticut, or anywhere else, don’t forget to ask questions about how the agency will measure over time. Again, you should beware of those agency owners that will only show your website name on the first page of Google without any significant traffic volume, sales, or lead generation.
Final Thoughts On Boutique SEO Agencies
Because this post was not meant to be exhaustive, it is still possible to find some other benefits of hiring a boutique agency for SEO services. With the key points discussed here, you can now consider your current needs, nature of business, and available resources when deciding whether to work with an agency.
Most times, it is not just about hiring a boutique agency or bigger full-service agencies that matter. The first and foremost consideration should be the best expertise for getting the marketing results you need in your business.
Now that you know the core benefits and why you should go with the boutique agency option, use these points to clarify some of the essential questions that need answers before signing the contract.
Remember, it is not enough to stop at vanity metrics. Ensure that the most valuable results in your business are directly tracked and reported accordingly. If your looking for a Boutique SEO Agency to truly work with your business on a personal level give us a call! At Online Biz Builders thats what we do!
