When you decide it’s time to start marketing your business, it’s vitally important that you choose the right company. Marketing can be a big investment, but if you solicit the help of the wrong company, you could find yourself investing time and money in exchange for few or mediocre results.
One of the biggest choices you’ll have to make right from the start when searching for a marketing firm is whether to choose a small or large company. Admittedly, we here at Sozo are somewhat biased, as we are a small business ourselves, but we do feel that small firms have some definite advantages over larger ones.
Individualized Attention
One of the biggest benefits of choosing a small marketing firm is that your project will receive a great deal of individualized attention. At larger companies, it’s common for employees to be responsible for dozens of clients. Whether that employee is a graphic designer or a copywriter, at large marketing companies, it’s certainly not unheard of for them to simply “put in their time” and display little or no personal interest in the client. Because they have little or no personal investment in your company or its marketing efforts, employees at large companies may be more likely to complete the bare minimum amount of required work and then move onto the next project.
Employees at larger companies are often saddled with too much work, which prevents them from fully applying themselves to each of their clients. Multiple clients all compete for their time and attention, and by the time they fully immerse themselves in your business’s marketing project, it’s time for them to move on to the next company’s work.
At smaller firms like Sozo, however, projects receive personalized attention from every employee. Because smaller companies have fewer clients, employees are able to become intimately familiar with every aspect of your company’s needs.
To a greater degree than large companies, small firms also tend to rely on their clients. Because smaller firms only have a short list of clients, each and every client is vital to the firm’s success. This means they are highly invested in your company’s success, which prompts them to go above and beyond your expectations (and also sometimes your billable hours, at no cost to you) in an effort to see you succeed.
Flexibility
At smaller firms, you’re also likely to encounter a great deal of flexibility in comparison to larger ones. At large companies, there tends to be an official chain of command. While this certainly has its place, it often interferes with the needs of the client. If you need to make a change to a plan or budget, for example, a large company must usually go through multiple employees in order to finalize the change.
It’s also no secret that employees at larger companies tend to have much less freedom than employees at smaller ones. Their chain of command tends to be rigid, and because employees have less freedom, it is usually harder and more cumbersome for large companies to correct mistakes.
At large companies, all propositions must be passed through numerous individuals before they can be finalized, and in the fast-paced world of web marketing, this is far from ideal. Mistakes left uncorrected for too long, especially those that have been published online, can quickly damage a company’s reputation, so it’s important that they be addressed promptly. This leaves little time for large companies’ insistence on adhering to a chain of command or official handbook policy.
At smaller firms, however, employees and the company as a whole are often extremely flexible, both in terms of their clients’ demands and their own internal affairs. This allows them to conform themselves to your needs as a client with little or no fuss regarding seniority or official policy. In short, this means better service for you and a better marketing campaign for your business.
With smaller or less complicated chains of command, mistakes are also able to be corrected quickly. And with more employee freedom and flexibility, any changes that you decide to make to your budget or marketing strategy can be implemented swiftly and effectively.
Although large companies are certainly not without merit, we here at Sozo firmly believe that small marketing companies present you with a number of benefits that large firms never could. Smaller companies tend to be very flexible and accommodating, allowing them to meet your companies’ needs effectively, and they are able to give your business the personalized attention it deserves.
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