Best Types of Agencies and How to Choose The Right One for You

The spread of digital marketing as a technique for promoting your business led to the emergence of more and more ways of advertising. Nowadays, businesses have at their disposal various types of agencies they can reach out to, depending on their specific needs and the product or service they’re trying to promote.

However, if it’s the first time you’re hiring an agency to showcase your business, finding the right fit for you may be challenging because of the many options available out there. Luckily for you, in this article, I will go over ten types of marketing agencies, covering what each one does, their specific benefits, and why each one could be a good fit for you.

Let’s go!

 

What Is a Marketing Agency, and Why Are There Different Types?

Marketing agencies are made up of a team of advertising professionals with creative knowledge and industry expertise that offer services to other businesses based on their particular objectives. From reaching and converting potential customers to designing your brand identity, agencies can guide your marketing efforts, leaving you to handle the more important tasks, like improving your product or managing your business.

As customers become more used to the overflow of information, they pay less and less attention to ads. In order to compete in this environment, reaching out to the pros can help you stand out among other companies and attract customers more easily. After all, while you’re probably a knowledgeable professional at your business, it’s not the same as being an expert at promoting it the right way.

Depending on your audience’s preferences, the industry you’re in or the situation your company is facing, your marketing objectives may change. That’s why marketing agencies started to specialize in different areas. For instance, you can find some types of agencies that focus on digital environments, public relations, branding and design, and more. 

 

Most Common Types of Marketing Agencies

Now that we’ve answered the question of ‘what is a marketing agency,’ let’s go over some of the most common services they offer. 

There are plenty of fish in the sea—each with its own pros and cons, so the first step in finding the right type of marketing agency for you is getting familiar with what they’re about.

 

1. Traditional Marketing Agency

Traditional marketing agencies are what most people think of when they imagine a marketing team. These agencies specialize in coming up with advertising campaigns based on traditional mediums like print newspapers, television or radio commercials, billboards, and bus stops.

You can get traditional types of agencies to help you plan a campaign all the way: from sorting out the ideal audience and finding the right medium for it to hiring a team of actors and filming the spot for you. Additionally, they’ll be in charge of purchasing spots on the media outlets you want to reach.

The downside of these companies mainly lies in their cost. They are expensive because they offer a complete service, and due to the high prices of traditional mediums like television and billboards. But that could be seen as an investment, as they can definitely help you reach a massive, general audience, and bring awareness to your brand or products.

 

2. Digital Marketing Agency

Digital marketers publicize brands through digital advertising channels like search engines, websites, email, and social media. To get the most out of them, these types of agencies take care of all your online marketing-related needs, from backlink strategies to website design, content creation, lead generation strategies, data analysis, and more.

Unlike other channels, the Internet offers really-deep segmentation options. For example, you can pinpoint those users who visited your website once and create ads to retarget them, or you can build campaigns on social media to find audiences based not only on demographic data but also on their interests and pastimes.

This allows you to reach a small but most likely-to-convert audience—that is, if you know how to properly manage digital marketing tools. This is where an agency may be what you need. By analyzing the data provided by these platforms, they’ll help you create, maintain, and measure your online presence in a way that effectively attracts your potential customers.

 

3. Growth Marketing Agency

Growth marketing agencies implement data-driven strategies to help businesses achieve sustainable growth. By focusing on the entire customer journey, from acquisition to retention, these agencies look for ways to optimize your processes in order to increase sales in the shortest amount of time possible.

Regardless of your company’s size, these types of agencies can be a great ally. For instance, if you’re launching a product, a growth agency could help you test the market and determine whether it’s the right choice to do so right now. Or, while your project is still in development, they can assist you by revising every process to ensure an excellent customer experience. 

Even if you’re a well-established company, organizations like these can help you scale up to new channels, innovate, or jump into new markets where your product has a high chance of succeeding. Overall, growth marketing professionals identify opportunities for expansion to unlock a business’ full potential.

 

4. Branding Agency

Your brand represents everything your business stands for. But in order to reach a target audience that shares your values, you have to properly convey them through your brand image. That’s where branding agencies come in, helping companies identify and convey their core values in a way that appeals to their customers.

Effective branding is more than creating an attractive logo and displaying it on your product, though. It’s more about building a consistent, attractive identity that is reflected in everything you do, from the color palette you use to the way you greet customers on your website. Agencies know that, so they use their keen eye to guide your actions in a way that creates a collective positive experience for your customers.

Developing a solid brand identity will help you connect with your target audience on an emotional level, build a positive, lasting opinion among them, and create a trademark. All of this will ultimately allow you to establish a stable position within your industry that differentiates you from your competitors and gains your customers’ trust and loyalty.

 

5. Production and Design Agency

Sometimes, you have your marketing campaign well thought out, but when it’s time to develop the creative elements to launch it, you find out that your team’s ability with Photoshop isn’t as good as their resume promised. But luckily, there’s a way around that. 

Production and design types of agencies specialize in the creation of media materials, like visual pieces for social media, online banners, web designs, applications, marketing videos, and more. You can reach out to them with a specific idea in mind, or just tell them what your business needs, and they’ll jump right in to work on a cohesive, visually appealing campaign for you.

The most crucial element of partnering with a production and design agency, though, is to properly communicate your brand’s tone and aesthetic. In-house teams know your brand perfectly, but when you’re working with someone else, making a creative brief, for example, will allow them to produce content that properly represents your brand.

 

6. Creative or Boutique Marketing Agency

As the name indicates, these types of agencies use creative strategies to help clients achieve their goals. They aim to offer unique, innovative, and clever campaigns that make your brand stand out, increase your sales, and attract your target audience’s attention.

Creative marketing agencies are usually made up of a team of art directors, graphic designers, copywriters, and various other professionals that collectively produce visually appealing content. Although they frequently have a small staff, this includes experts and well-known figures in the field, which is why they’re also known as ‘Boutiques.’

One of the fields in which Boutiques specialize is Guerrilla Marketing, a tactic that advertises a product or service by surprising people and engaging them in out-of-the-box ways. So, if you’re looking for a way to create a unique brand experience for your customers while working with a close team of professionals, creative marketing agencies may be perfect for you.

 

7. Online Advertising Marketing Agency

Online advertising firms use paid digital marketing strategies like campaigns on social media, display ads on websites, or SEM tactics to promote their clients’ products, services, and brands. These companies help you by creating and sharing ads that really appeal to your customers and help you fulfill your objectives.

Some types of agencies like these can develop campaigns on platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok in order to get the most conversions possible. They’ll be responsible for doing the segmentation so you reach the most relevant audience for your product, measuring results, and adjusting any strategy or tactic that isn’t working

Although online ads are much more affordable than traditional mediums, you may end up wasting funds if you don’t understand how these platforms work. Advertising agencies will be responsible for the success of your online campaigns from start to finish, measuring the results and acting upon them to make sure you achieve your goals.

 

8. Social Media Marketing Agency

Social media marketing agencies specialize in targeting specific audiences and optimizing posts and content you share on social media to help you reach the right people, build a presence online, grow a community, and increase sales. 

Most companies have a limited marketing budget, which makes it impossible to hire traditional marketing agencies capable of showcasing your products on TV. This is one of the reasons why marketing through social media has been on the rise lately. Your actions on these platforms can be highly effective and cost-efficient because you can reach a wide audience without facing entry barriers 

Although beneficial, this also caused the online environment to be highly competitive. Social media marketing agencies help businesses set themselves apart from the crowd with effective content marketing strategies and attractive posts that quickly grab users’ attention.

 

9. Account-Based Marketing Agency

As their name indicates, account-based marketing agencies offer a unique, specialized service focused on each of your clients and treat them with the ultimate care. These types of agencies are great for B2B businesses or companies that have a small number of clients who generate the most revenue.

Account-based agencies work to deliver positive, seamless experiences to key clients in order to improve their favorability towards your brand and maintain strong relationships. They can help you organize events for shareholders, design gifts to send on special occasions, or simply maintain constant communication in a way that reminds them of you without being bothersome.

As you can see, these agencies base their service on offering the utmost care to your clients and their requests in order to build stronger relationships and help your business grow. With the aid of one of them, you can maximize your company’s relevance with high-value clients, and boost their loyalty.

 

10. Public Relations Marketing Agency

Reputation is one of the key aspects a brand needs to be constantly mindful of, as public perception has the ability to significantly affect any business. This is particularly true if you work in the B2B environment, where most business relationships are long-lasting and built entirely upon trust.

To improve, maintain, and protect your company’s reputation, you can hire a public relations marketing agency. PR agencies work alongside media outlets to influence public opinion and ensure it stays positive through interviews, articles about your company, press conferences, and press releases. 

Many businesses consider implementing positive measures to be enough publicity, but if you aren’t sharing them, the public won’t be aware of your good deeds. That’s why hiring a PR agency can help you showcase everything your company does. Just remember that reputation isn’t something you possess; it’s the result of a constant and systematic effort to maintain it.

 

How to Find the Right Agency for You

There isn’t a set formula for finding the right option for your business among these different types of agencies. But in order to guide you in the right direction, you can ask yourself some of the following questions:

 

1. Objectives: What are you trying to achieve? 

Depending on the time of year, your company’s position in the market, or your current customers, your marketing objectives will differ from the ones you might’ve previously had.

That’s why, in order to get the most out of any deal with a marketing agency, it’s important to have a clear idea of what your company needs to grow right now. Although marketing professionals can help you guide your actions, they won’t know your company and its vision as well as you do.

 

2. Budget: How much can you spend? 

Because most of us are still members of a generation who grew up watching TV—apologies for making us feel old 😭— oftentimes when we think of advertising as those big TV spots with actors, jingles, and expensive production sets which only a small number of companies can afford today.

So, before choosing the right marketing agency for you, it’s important to determine your budget. Not only because the cost of their services can vary a lot, but also because paying for certain media spots like billboards can be out of your budget too. 

And before taking any deal, make sure to discuss this with the agency, so you won’t get any costly surprises down the road.

 

3. Product: What product or service are you trying to sell? To who?

A marketing agency that promises to sell your product to everyone may sound very persuasive, but at the end of the day, it’s best for your business to target a more amicable audience for your product. 

If your customer base is mostly made of Baby Boomers, advertising on TV may be a great way to reach them. On the other side, if you’re targeting a younger audience, you have better chances of finding them on digital platforms. 

Among all the types of marketing agencies I’ve mentioned here, the best one for you will always be the one that helps you reach the ideal audience for your product in the most effective way possible. 

 

Wrapping Up

Marketing agencies are like snowflakes: there are no two equal. But the same goes for businesses. Before choosing among types of agencies, think properly about your business goals, your brand identity, your vision, and the type of co-working environment you want to create.

At the end of the day, you are two businesses working together, so it’s important to establish objectives beforehand. If your marketing agency isn’t good at communicating with you, chances are their messages to your customers won’t be very effective, either.