10 Benefits of Choosing a Boutique Marketing Agency

We are sometimes asked "What type of agency are you?" It's always a bit of an awkward moment, because often the person asking the question is not all that familiar with terms like "full-service marketing and advertising agency" or "digital marketing agency" or "inbound marketing agency." Sometimes all they "know" about marketing and advertising agencies is what was reflected in Mad Men. Still, there are others that have a real sense of the attributes that differentiate agencies, and may even have a strong preference for one over another. Because 30dps has been a boutique agency that has constantly evolved, the way we label ourselves has also changed through our 28 years. For example, multimedia & web design firm, new media marketing agency, full-service marketing and advertising agency, inbound customer experience agency, just to name a few. 

Through it all though, as a boutique agency, we've always been proud of the fact that, unlike some of the biggest agencies in the country—and in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Springfield, Missouri for that matter—we are able to provide a special level of service that makes a big difference in our clients' businesses.

Here are some of the benefits you can experience with a boutique agency like 30dps:

1. The folks you trusted at the time you signed the agreement are often the very same folks that will service your account.
   
   
2. Direct access to the people that are actually doing the work rather than only your account manager.
   
   
3. Access to and/or a relationship with the agency owner or CEO, whose passion and vision gave rise to the organization.
   
   
4. Responsiveness to change and shifting priorities.
   
   
5. A stronger allegiance to getting the job done rather than following a rigid and inflexible set of internal procedures whose primary purpose is to protect the agency.
   
   
6. Unlike bigger agencies with huge overhead, boutique agencies are more likely to be as concerned with YOUR bottom line, as they are their own.
   
   
7. Boutique agencies are less likely to be tied to the mass-marketing practices of the past, and more likely to be involved in leading-edge (and often less costly) approaches, and state-of-the-art technologies.
   
   
8. Smaller teams can often work faster and more efficiently.
   
   
9. Boutiques cannot afford to support mediocre staff members, so you get consistently excellent talent.
   
   
10. What may be considered an unacceptably meager marketing budget to a large firm may be seen as excellent to a smaller boutique firm.

By the way, Huffington Post writer, Shawn Prez, wrote an excellent article on Why Boutique Marketing Firms Give Brands the Biggest Bang for Their Bucks. For the record... we agree!

If you are reading this, you are likely one of the following three types of people:

1. you represent a company looking for an agency and are exploring the potential benefits of hiring a boutique agency. If so, please give us a shout. We will do our best to impress you with the above ten qualities.
2. you represent a competitor (of sorts) that is researching boutique agencies and/or considering becoming more of a boutique. If so, you're likely headed in the right direction. But if you'd like to discuss with someone who has been there/done that, give us a shout. We'd be happy to talk with you.
3. you are a student or prospective employee looking for a great place to work. If so, please go to our Careers page, and send us your resume. We'd love to hear from you (but only if you like to work hard at doing amazing work while having loads of fun.)

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September of 2015, then again in 2017...
but the response was so high we felt it was meaningful to update it a bit and show you again!