Full Service vs Niche focussed Digital Agency – The Difference and Takeaways

John Doe is a small business owner and has just built his own website with a WordPress template. He needs to start with digital marketing with a possible low budget. He also plans to do aggressive digital marketing after 6 months.

Patricia has a small consulting company for six sigma and lean sigma and has a website for almost 8 years without much engagement. The company is in need of a good responsive website and a custom digital marketing package for both maintenance, ad campaigns.

Robert is a cardiologist and runs his own clinic. He realises the importance of having a website and benefits of digital marketing. He is looking to engage with a digital agency to build a new shining website with all the app integrations for doctors and also outsource his digital marketing campaigns.

Sharon owns a consulting company that serves enterprise clients on a large scale. Their website is old and outdated with minimal SEO activity. They are looking to revamp their website with the latest trends. They are even looking to outsource their marketing automation activities due to their huge customer base.

John, Patricia, Robert, Sharon are solution seekers and wish to engage with a suitable digital agency to expand their businesses online.

Finding a Suitable Digital Agency: a Full Service Agency?

A full-service digital marketing agency is akin to a one-stop shop for all online marketing and advertising services, Web development, Designing and Content services. Such agencies, like ColorWhistle, expand tech capabilities across industries – Travel, Hospitality, Education, Healthcare, Realestate, SaaS, API marketplace systems etc. alongside Design, and Marketing services.

Typically, a full-service digital agency offers:

Web Design ServicesLogo Design Services
Mobile UI/UX Design
Graphic Design

Social Media Design
Website Redesign
Web Development ServicesMobile App Development

CMS Website Conversion
Web App Development

Infusionsoft Integration
E-Commerce
Website Development



Infusionsoft Integration
And more …
Digital Marketing ServicesSEO Services

Marketing Automation
PPC Services

Social Media Management
Content Marketing

And more …

One obvious advantage of consulting a full service agency is their ability to integrate various strategies into one and work towards your company’s goals, like increasing Brand awareness, manage Brand reputation, discuss Brand strategies, measure Brand popularity and performance, enhance Brand visibility, sales and revenue.

A Chapter From Our Experience …

Take Sharon, for example. She approached ColorWhistle with an expectation of getting their company’s website updated with the latest SEO trends. She also wanted to integrate the latest marketing automation tools on their website keeping in mind their huge customer base.

As a part of their strategy, ColorWhistle invested in the following service:

  • SEO
  • PPC
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Marketing

Together we chose Marketo, Getresponse, Salesforce & Zappier to automate lead generation, campaigns and email marketing successfully with that tool.

If working with a niche agency was an option available with Sharon, she would have had to collaborate with four separate agencies.

Having said that, it would have not only required a tremendous amount of time and effort from her team, but would also miss out on controlling a coordinated strategy for increasing their leads and revenue.

And ofcourse, full service agencies also allows for bundling of services with cost-effective budget just like Sharon’s –

Finding a Suitable Digital Agency: a Niche Service Agency?

As self-explanatory as it can be, niche agencies focus on certain select services. They are otherwise known as specialised agencies that offer focussed Pay Per Click (PPC) management and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) for select niche groups. Or on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and PPC services for selected industries. Or even a specialised Content Marketing (SMM) agency. Such niche agencies are more preferred for localised marketing.

Such agencies mean more to companies and managers who know what they want and look for a specialised resource that they probably lack within their team. Niche agencies are insignificant for companies who want to outsource their entire marketing department for obvious lack of scalability.

Some notable examples of top niche service digital agencies are:

Should You Work with one Full Service Agency or with Multiple Niche Agencies?

To evaluate your possible responses, it would be best to test your requirements against the following criteria:

#1 Scalable solutions for long-term benefits

Consider a niche service agency, ie. say specialising in SEO services or may be content marketing. If you asked them to help you with an upcoming PPC campaign, they would shy away from doing it. They lack multi-operational skills. In comparison to a niche marketing agency, a full-service web agency will readily assist with your immediate PPC campaign needs.

#2 Effective communication is the key to success

Getting services from one niche agency may not be a problem for your in-house teams but coordination issues rise with multiple niche agencies. This will generally result in lost time, miscommunication, and low-performing services. A full-service agency is otherwise a one-stop-shop solution for multiple digital agency services.

#3 When in-house teams look for specialised inputs

Niche agencies spend years gaining useful insights in their area of operation. Hence companies can take advantage of having lower-cost internal resources full-time, while also gaining the flexibility and skill diversification from these niche agencies when needed.

In a report, it has been found that nearly 70% of in-house marketing team partners with an agency.

In such cases, the comparative advantage for a full service agency is less significant.

Full Service Digital AgencyNiche Service Digital Agency
Best suited for Marketing and Technology Solution needsBest suited for Technology Solutions - Website Redesign, Building Website and Web App development services

Good for local SEO marketing.
Mostly preferred by Small and Medium sized businesses and even professionals. Mostly preferred by Medium sized businesses as they understand the nitty gritty of working with Digital Agency services
Companies/Individuals prefer such agencies it to “outsource” their requirementsCompanies prefer such agencies for “remote staffing” needs

And here is a good read to understand the difference between Outsourcing and Remote Staffing, if not known already.

And now, if you have come to know that a full-service digital agency is the best option for your business, contact us online to learn how our custom strategies can help your company grow further!

ColorWhistle has served 700+ clients across the region, so whether you need lead generation services in Indiana, PPC services in Houston, Website redesigning services in the UK, App development services in France, UI/UX designing services in India or social media marketing in Philadelphia, we’ve got you covered!

Major Takeaways

John, Patricia, Robert and Sharon will prefer full-service agencies over multiple niche agencies. It is based on a simple fact that it would be more cost-effective to outsource the entire marketing department or technical maintenance to a reliable full service agency.

However, at some point of their business operation, there would arise a specific and specialised need, say micro-targeting their lead generations, ad campaigns, website redesign only. Hiring a niche agency then would be much more reliable and cost-effective.

But the game for big-sized companies / enterprises is a little different. They operate on a huge scale and volume. It is sometimes not possible for a full-service agency to match up to their requirements.

A hybrid vendor selection model can provide a better solution. Here, full-service agencies partner with niche agencies and vice versa to serve a bigger company. It offers various working strategies for the company to implement on the go.

Additionally, here is our detailed ebook to help you plan and build your own customized digital marketing package or get a better knowledge of what to expect when you get help from a digital marketing agency.

Sankarnarayan. R
About the Author - Sankarnarayan. R

The founder and mastermind behind ColorWhistle is Sankarnarayan, a professional with over fourteen years of experience and a passion for website design services and digital marketing services. At ColorWhistle, our team has a wide range of skills and expertise and we always put our clients’ satisfaction first. This is what sets us apart from the competition – an eye for detail and the best website development services from the start to the completion of your project.

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