Any review platform or aggregator can put together a list of the top digital marketing agencies, but as a digital marketer myself, anytime I’m recommending an agency to small business owners, I want to make sure they’re genuinely worth your time and money.
Any digital marketing agency can build a website or set up a social media page for you, but the best digital marketing agencies can do all that and ensure you get the results you’re looking for and capture the right audience.
The catch here is that some agencies specialize in certain strategies over others, for example, SEO or social media marketing. That’s why I labeled each agency according to its specific use case. I also graded them according to their services, previous small business experience, and pricing.
- Straight North: Overall best digital marketing agency for building an online presence
- WebFX: Best for reaching new visitors and leads through PPC ads
- SEO Discovery: Best for ranking on Google through SEO
- LYFE Marketing: Best for engaging audiences on social media
- Ignite Visibility: Best for building a positive reputation through online PR
- Avalaunch Media: Best for building brand strategy through market research
- Hibu: Best for reaching local audiences through localized marketing
- KlientBoost: Best for building brand authority content marketing
- 99Designs: Best for building a brand identity with professional design help
An overview of the best digital marketing agencies for small businesses
Straight North: Overall best digital marketing agency for small businesses building an online presence
Pros
- Custom digital marketing services for your exact business needs
- Builds a holistic online presence through website management, SEO, and digital ads
- Specializes in online brand-building for small and medium-sized businesses
Cons
- Doesn’t do organic social media or local marketing
- No outbound marketing aside from paid ads
Why I chose Straight North
Straight North has one of the best track records in digital marketing for small businesses, which is why it’s still my overall best digital marketing firm for small businesses — even if its services aren’t as comprehensive as others like WebFX or Ignite Visibility.
For instance, Straight North doesn’t do organic social media marketing or local reputation management. That’s because it does a quality-over-quantity approach. What it does, it does well — like building and optimizing a website for your small business so it ranks high on Google search results and gets discovered by customers.
That’s what Straight North is most adept at: building a strong, authoritative, and credible online presence through a combination of website development, SEO, branding, and paid ads. Depending on what you need, the team will also create a custom strategy to meet your exact goals, whether it’s to get more website traffic or qualified leads. (It’s for these same reasons Straight North is also one of our best startup marketing agencies.)
Every strategy and campaign Straight North crafts is custom-fit to your business, so you won’t get any generic cookie-cutter services, and the team has plenty of experience growing small businesses through digital marketing.
Pricing: From $1,500 per month
Services:
- PPC search & display ad management: Straight North can set up PPC advertising for search (Google and Bing), ecommerce, display ads, and social media.
- SEO: These cover search-optimized content writing or rewriting, website optimization (including mobile optimization and site speed), and link building. The agency can also target your SEO campaigns to local or national audiences or tailor them for ecommerce if you have an online store.
- Website design: Straight North can also build a website for your small business, complete with a sitemap, content, and Google Analytics. It also offers higher-priced plans for larger, more comprehensive websites or a plan with combined website-building and SEO services.
- Branding and graphic design: Straight North’s creative team can design assets for your business, from brand logos to brochures and more. You’ll only need to discuss your vision and requirements, and the team will present designs for you to approve.
WebFX: Best for reaching new visitors and leads through PPC ads
Pros
- Strategize, launch, and optimize digital ad campaigns on Google and social media
- Hundreds of audience targeting data points, including interests, characteristics, demographics, and lookalike audiences
- RevenueCloudFX client dashboard tracks campaign ROI in real time
Cons
- Minimum of $1,000 ad spend
- Shared team resources with dozens of other clients
- Additional cost for other digital marketing services like SEO or website building
Why I chose WebFX
WebFX’s specialty has always been data-driven digital marketing. Every digital marketing campaign is carefully strategized using hundreds of data points and intensive audience research and targeting. Naturally, that makes it my best pick for digital PPC ad campaigns.
Even more, WebFX uses AI to target your ads more accurately, and its native RevenueCloudFX dashboard shows your ad campaigns’ ROI and leads in real time — an extra benefit that not all agencies offer.
WebFX also has comprehensive digital advertising services, including ad retargeting and geofencing. But my biggest issue with WebFX has always been that it has a large client base at any given time, so getting any kind of focused attention for your business can be difficult. It doesn’t have that same kind of laser focus as an agency like Straight North, as you’ll be sharing team resources with dozens of other clients. Even account managers handle multiple clients at once.
But because of its dedication to using data-driven strategy, its extensive roster of other digital marketing services, and experience with small businesses, it’s still one of the best digital marketing agencies around — and the best agency for PPC advertising.
Pricing:
- PPC ads from $650 a month (plus $1,975 one-time setup fee)
- SEO from $3,000 a month
- Website design: from $8,000 per website
Services:
- PPC advertising: WebFX also offers PPC ads for Google, Bing, and social media platforms. It also leverages AI to target your ads where audiences will likely see them.
- Website design: WebFX offers website design, redesign, and maintenance if it’s time for a brand refresh or your website simply isn’t performing well. Each site includes options like SEO, responsive web design, database integration, an ecommerce platform, and page design.
- Social media marketing: These include both organic and paid solutions. The team can set up your social media profile, analyze your competitors, and then set up a strategy and create your social content. They can also set up paid ads on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
- SEO: WebFX offers services for custom keyword research, optimization, and content strategy and creation to rank your site higher. Plus, you also get an in-depth on-site and technical SEO audit to identify and solve SEO issues like slow site speeds, site map errors, and link profile errors. If you have an online store, you can also get ecommerce SEO.
- Email marketing: WebFX will help you create an email campaign and targeting strategy, and do A/B testing on your email campaigns. The team can also create personalized content and landing pages to improve conversions.
- Content marketing: WebFX offers comprehensive content marketing services, from content strategy to reporting. This includes everything from blogs to whitepapers to videos, all of which are optimized for search engines.
- Analytics reporting: WebFX uses an in-house ROI dashboard, which measures the return for every $1 you invest in your marketing plan. This will include the revenue you receive based on the number of leads you earn, the cost-per-click for all leads, and the number of lead-generating calls to your business.
SEO Discovery: Best for ranking on Google through SEO
Pros
- Comprehensive SEO services, including technical SEO, link-building, and AI optimization
- SEO plans especially for small businesses, with keyword targeting and local SEO to get on Google results
- Ecommerce SEO to drive more sales to your online store
Cons
- No custom plans; everything is pre-packaged
- Most expertise is in SEO, not in social media, website building, or other digital marketing
- No branding or email marketing services
Why I chose SEO Discovery
The clue’s in the name: SEO Discovery’s main expertise is in SEO to help your website rank on Google: SEO blogging, link-building (aka getting links from other sites), ecommerce SEO if you have an online store, and technical SEO strategies like SEO audits and fixing broken links or JavaScript. It can also optimize your website for AI search engines like SearchGPT, which is increasingly vital.
What I particularly like, as well, is that SEO Discovery offers small business-specific, all-inclusive SEO plans with keyword targeting and local SEO, designed to help small local businesses gain a foothold in the online space, depending on what you want to achieve most. Many former small business clients have attested to SEO Discovery’s ability to bring in website visits and leads from its SEO strategies, and praised the team’s customer service.
There’s not much I can say against SEO Discovery except that it doesn’t offer website design and email marketing services. Otherwise, I would have scored it higher. But other than that, it’s one of the best digital marketing agencies around for small businesses, especially for SEO.
Pricing:
- Small business SEO packages from $199 a month
- Local SEO from $175 a month
- Global SEO from $350 a month
- Ecommerce SEO from $450
Services:
- SEO: SEO Discovery offers local, global, and ecommerce SEO, including keyword and content optimization, plus extras like voice search and AI optimization. It also offers ecommerce SEO for Shopify and Drupal, link-building campaigns, and SEO consultancy.
- Social media marketing: This includes analyzing your market, creating your brand story, and building and executing a social media content strategy on Facebook, Instagram, X, Pinterest, or LinkedIn. You can also run campaigns on two, three, or all four channels (at a higher price).
- PPC and display advertising: SEO Discovery can also set up your digital ads on those same platforms, plus Google, Bing, Amazon, and Yahoo. These include search, display, video, local, and (in Google’s case) Google Shopping. It also covers multiple industries, from finance and healthcare to lifestyle and real estate.
- Content writing and marketing: Beyond the usual website content and blog posts, the team can also write social media content, press releases, and product descriptions for any topic and industry.
- Website design: SEO Discovery can build a completely custom website with responsive design and ecommerce features. Services include website wire-framing, logo design, user experience (UX) design, and user testing to ensure your site’s quality. As add-ons, you can also include live chat, site maintenance, and social integrations.
- Reputation management: These involve managing your online reviews, improving your on-page SEO, creating and managing your social profiles, building reputable links to your site, and monitoring your overall performance.
- Web analytics: SEO Discovery also offers website analytics via Google. It’ll set you up with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Search Console. Then, analytics experts will evaluate your site’s performance on each and give recommendations to grow your website.
LYFE Marketing: Best for engaging audiences on social media
Pros
- Organic and paid social media marketing services
- Custom content for your social media profiles, plus profile optimization and performance analysis
- Full social media management, like hiring a social media team for your business
Cons
- Management fee and one-time setup fee
- No custom strategy for your business, only pre-packaged plans
Why I chose LYFE Marketing
For anything social media marketing-related, especially organic social media, LYFE Marketing is always my number one. It has plenty of experience with small businesses, and social media is its primary expertise. It also doesn’t have any long-term contracts — you have a set number of posts per month.
But that’s not to say its services aren’t comprehensive. The team also optimizes your social media profiles by adding missing information and keywords, creates custom content that meets your target audiences’ interests, and analyzes your posts’ performance.
What I also like about LYFE Marketing is that it allows clients to be as involved or hands-off as they like, and every post will be approved by you first. You can also publish your posts yourself or hand them off to LYFE Marketing’s account manager, whichever you’re more comfortable with.
LYFE Marketing has also worked with many small businesses and independent brands, and its social media content has consistently been modern and well-designed — it’s clear that the team stays up to date with shifting social media trends. It’s the agency so far that understands social media best.
Pricing:
- Social media marketing from $650 a month
- Social media advertising from $750 a month
Services:
- Social media management: LYFE Marketing’s expert marketers strategize, create, and manage your social profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest. This includes monitoring pages and responding to comments and queries, building brand awareness, and increasing followers. It also directs traffic to your website for conversions.
- Social media advertising: LYFE Marketing’s paid social media advertising services include on-brand ads for Facebook and Instagram. However, you can also pay extra for platforms, like X or LinkedIn. It can also track and manage campaigns, launch retargeting strategies, and work with location-based advertising.
- PPC management: This includes PPC advertising on Google (including geofencing ads), with added fees for advertising on Bing. The ads the team creates are all fully optimized for their respective platforms, including highly targeted visuals, videos, and copy.
- SEO: LYFE Marketing’s SEO services start with a site audit and include keyword research, optimization, and content strategy to drive traffic to your website from prominent search engines, excluding Amazon. It also offers off-page tactics like link building, both for local and national SEO.
- Content marketing: Although not clearly stated on its website, content marketing is one of LYFE Marketing’s services. The team can create unique and high-quality blogs, videos, and infographics designed to drive traffic to your website by inserting relevant keywords. The team will also distribute your content on social media platforms through this service.
- Website building: The LYFE Marketing team can design or redesign a custom website for your business, and maintain it after it’s live.
Ignite Visibility: Best for building a positive reputation through online PR
Pros
- Comprehensive digital PR strategies: press release pitching, media outreach, influencer marketing
- Custom PR strategies for your business goals
- Also does website building, SEO, content marketing, social media, and PPC ads
Cons
- More for medium-sized businesses than small businesses
- Quality of services depends on the team assigned to you
Why I chose Ignite Visibility
Not many digital marketing companies offer online PR services for small businesses, but Ignite Visibility does. These services include press release writing, media outreach, and even influencer marketing. These are all helpful if you need to build buzz about a big event in your business, or even just for some positive press to get in front of new audiences.
Ignite Visibility takes a holistic approach, depending on what your business needs most and what audience you want to reach. That’s one of its biggest advantages as an agency: It creates a customized strategy for your business, and you get an assigned team.
On the other hand, most of Ignite Visibility’s clients are already established, mostly medium-sized businesses, so it’s not one I’d recommend if you’re still getting your business off the ground. Ideally, Ignite Visibility will work on top of your existing marketing strategy.
Still, it has the most comprehensive PR-building strategies I’ve seen by far, and it’s definitely one of the top digital marketing agencies to call if building a media presence is what you’re after.
Pricing: Custom, typically between $10,000 and $50,000 for PR services, according to former clients
Services:
- Website design: Ignite Visibility can build your website from scratch, redesign your website, or simply optimize your site pages to drive conversions. This can be especially helpful if you want a truly custom, branded, and expertly built site that you won’t get from a website builder platform.
- Digital public relations: These include writing a press release and pitching it to relevant journalists, media outlets, and bloggers, and partnering with influencers who can reach your target audience.
- SEO: Ignite Visibility’s SEO process begins with keyword analysis based on your business and industry. Then, the team will incorporate those high-ranking keywords throughout your site with on-site optimization. They can also help you get backlinks from high-authority sites and influencers and target your keywords by location.
- Content marketing: The team can audit your existing site content, then prepare a content plan and create content for your blogs, emails, and social media. They can also create location-specific content if you have franchises in multiple locations.
- Email marketing: Ignite Visibility offers services for email marketing, text messaging, and push notifications. Email marketing services include strategy development, triggered and data-driven messaging, contact list growth, and advanced analytics and optimization.
- Social media marketing: Ignite Visibility’s experts can develop a full social media strategy, create content like infographics and short-form videos, handle influencers, and manage your social media accounts. They can also develop social media ads.
- Franchise marketing: Another service that sets Ignite Visibility apart is its franchise marketing services. These also make it a good digital marketing company for small businesses with multiple locations or franchises. This strategy involves locally optimized SEO, social media, email marketing, landing pages, and ads.
- Digital advertising: Ignite Visibility offers paid search management and Google Display, Facebook, Amazon, and Bing advertising. It can also do targeted and retargeted ads and international PPC campaigns, and can build landing pages to capture leads.
Avalaunch Media: Best for building brand strategy through market research
Pros
- Conducts market research for your business, then recommends next steps
- Great way to understand your audience preferences and characteristics
- As much or as little marketing support as your business needs
Cons
- More experienced with startups and medium-sized businesses than small businesses
- No local marketing services
- Needs clear guidance about the results you want for your business
Why I chose Avalaunch Media
What I find most remarkable about Avalaunch Media is its marketing research services, which can be particularly helpful if you’re new to marketing and want to do audience research but don’t know where to start.
And Avalaunch Media conducts old-school research through focus groups and surveys to find out who your target audience members are and what they like (or don’t like). It’s like having your own consumer research arm. The team will also recommend next steps based on their findings.
Avalaunch Media also offers other digital marketing strategies, including SEO, websites, and email and social media marketing, but they’re all separate additional plans. And, like Ignite Visibility, its clientele centers more around medium-sized businesses and established brands more than local businesses (it doesn’t offer any local marketing services).
But Avalaunch Media has some of the most comprehensive digital marketing services you’ll find from an agency, and is adept at understanding each business’s unique identity and leveraging it for marketing.
Pricing: Custom, typically between $10,000 and $50,000, according to former clients
Services:
- Market research: The Avalaunch Media team will act as your business’s market research arm, conducting focus groups and surveys to find out about your audience and recommend next best steps.
- Advertising: Avalaunch Media offers creative services to design your ad, along with ad setup and optimization services for Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The team will research and set up a strategy based on your needs, then create, manage, and optimize your ads and report results.
- SEO: Avalaunch Media offers on-page content optimization, keyword research and strategy, link-building, technical optimization, and SEO for ecommerce businesses or local audiences. It can also create SEO content for blogs, website copy, product description pages, or other long-form content like ebooks and content hubs (i.e., pillar pages).
- Website design: Experts at Avalaunch Media can also design and maintain your business website or even a specific landing page. They can set up your WordPress CMS, run A/B tests on your landing pages, and optimize their conversion rates.
- Creative branding design: Avalaunch Media can design logos and style guides, graphic marketing collaterals like presentations, project proposals, infographics, and videos for websites and social media.
- Reputation management: This includes press release writing and distribution, link-building with other reputable websites (i.e., blogs and media outlets), press mention monitoring, and community engagement.
- Email marketing: Avalaunch Media also has top-to-bottom email marketing solutions. The team can set your business up on an email platform, build your email list, design and send your email, and nurture your leads.
- Social media management: Aside from social media advertising, the Avalaunch Media team can also manage your business’s social media profiles for you. This includes setting up a social media strategy and creating and publishing content.
- Marketing analytics: The team can audit your Google Analytics, translate your data, and then provide consultations on the best next steps.
Hibu: Best for reaching local audiences through localized marketing
Pros
- Reach nearby customers through its local listings and review management services
- Manage and track your listings through Hibu’s listings management platform
- Ensures all your online business information is accurate and updated
Cons
- Mostly for building reputation, more than generating revenue or leads
- Not consistent with reporting, according to former clients
- No dedicated team to focus on your business, just shared resources
Why I chose Hibu
Hibu’s single best asset as a digital marketing company is its local marketing experience, which is invaluable if you have a brick-and-mortar business and are trying to capture local customers.
It’s particularly adept at building local citations, aka getting your business listed on local directories like Google Business Profile and the Yellow Pages, and in collecting reviews for your listing to build a stellar reputation for your business.
This is important because when people do local searches like “cafes near me” or “car repair near me,” they’ll usually land on one of these local directories, and a business with a bunch of good reviews will be more attractive to customers than one with none.
That’s the primary reason and use case I have for choosing Hibu. While it offers other digital marketing services for small businesses, like website-building and digital advertising, its track record for those isn’t as great as that of other agencies like Straight North.
Hibu’s not the agency to go to for generating leads and setting up ad campaigns. Local marketing and reputation building are primarily where it excels.
Pricing: Custom, typically between $3,000 and $9,000 per contract, according to former clients
Services:
- Listing management: Hibu’s team will do a comprehensive audit of your business’s information across your online listings and then update any outdated or inaccurate info and create new relevant listings if necessary. Its listing management platform also shows real-time data about your listings, like their clicks and engagement.
- Online reviews: Hibu can also manage your online ratings and reviews. Through its in-house review platform, you can request ratings from customers, and if they give you a high rating, you can go further and ask them to leave a review on your Google, Facebook, or Yelp pages.
- Website design: Hibu’s “Smart Sites” web design services ensure your site is highly optimized for Google Search. The team will also sync your site to dozens of online directories to ensure all online info about your business is uniform and updated to build a solid brand presence.
- SEO: Hibu’s SEO services mainly involve optimizing local search, managing meta tags, detecting duplicate content, adding relevant keywords, and auditing websites for search bots and voice search.
- Display advertising: Hibu offers display advertising for Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram. Hibu carefully creates and targets each ad to appear before potential leads and continues to retarget them to increase brand familiarity and conversions.
- Social media marketing: Hibu also offers social media marketing, primarily on Facebook. The team will set up your Facebook page and create, run, and monitor ads to keep visitors returning to your profile.
KlientBoost: Best for building brand authority through content marketing
Pros
- Experts at building brand authority through content marketing
- Expertly written content with SEO, link-building, and content distribution
- Email marketing, landing pages, and PPC ads to generate and nurture leads
Cons
- Not ideal for small local businesses — more for more established businesses with plenty of competition
- Most plans start at $10,000
- Content output needs clear guidelines
Why I chose KlientBoost
None of the other top digital marketing agencies has content marketing services as extensive as KlientBoost’s, which is why it’s among our best content marketing service providers. If you need case studies, infographics, ebooks, or blog posts to build your authority in your industry, KlientBoost has that expertise, arguably more than most others.
It doesn’t just create custom content for your business, it takes care of the whole process — including keyword research, graphic design, linking, and distribution — to ensure your content gets the right traffic and leads.
Admittedly, KlientBoost is on the pricier side (all plans are custom, but generally start at $10,000). But it’s a more unique and specialized service than your regular content writing. KlientBoost makes content especially for building your brand authority in your topic area and standing out from competitors. It goes beyond building an online presence to establishing your brand as an authoritative one through well-researched content.
That said, it may not be the best marketing agency for getting your business off the ground in the way that SEO Discovery or Straight North might be. But for building authority through content marketing, KlientBoost definitely has the expertise.
Pricing: Custom, typically between $10,000 and $50,000, according to former clients
Services:
- SEO: KlientBoost’s SEO services can be provided independently or as part of its overall content marketing plan. It includes keyword research, content writing (for blog posts, whitepapers, and so on), and link-building. It also offers technical SEO services, including CRO and improving your site’s domain rating.
- Content marketing: KlientBoost’s content marketing services include all its SEO solutions, plus content creation (including for gated content), topic ideation, content editing, link adjustments, content distribution, creative copywriting, and even video production. The team takes a holistic approach with their content services, so you get solutions that target your business needs.
- B2B marketing: KlientBoost also has services for B2B marketing, from building your brand to generating interest to converting leads. These include brand advertising, community building, LinkedIn and Facebook ads, landing page design, email marketing, and retargeting.
- Digital advertising: KlientBoost can also set up and manage your digital ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Quora, and other social media platforms. It can design your ads, optimize your ad bidding to get the highest return on ad spend (ROAS), do A/B testing, and refine your ad keywords and other details once they’re live.
- Email marketing: This includes targeting your email contacts, writing email copy, SPAM and block compliance, email A/B testing, list segmentation, and conversion and bounce rate improvements.
- Conversion rate optimization (CRO): KlientBoost also offers CRO as a standalone service, which is useful if you want your website to generate more leads. This includes product, category, or checkout page improvements, split testing for your pages, page redesigns, and more.
99Designs: Best for building a brand identity with professional design help
Pros
- Hire professional designers to build a custom brand identity from scratch
- Work with designers one-on-one or hold a design contest
- Excellent design quality; experienced with small business branding
- Dozens of different art styles, from traditional to modern
Cons
- Only a branding and design agency, not a full digital marketing agency
- No SEO, email, or social media marketing services
- Doesn’t design ads or social media content (only social media covers)
Why I chose 99Designs
The main reason 99Designs doesn’t have a higher score is that it only offers one service — branding and creative design — but it does it very well.
It’s primarily a branding agency more than an overall digital marketing one, but it’s the best one I’d recommend if you don’t have a solid brand identity yet and want more than your basic Canva logo. Building a brand identity is something I overall recommend as well in today’s very visual marketing landscape.
99Designs (which is owned by VistaPrint) has hundreds of professional designers and graphic artists available for hire on a per-project basis, with dozens of different art styles. The great thing with 99Designs, especially compared to an alternative like Fiverr, is that its artists take time to fully understand your business and create a fully custom visual identity, complete with a brand guide and website to use for future marketing campaigns (or just a logo, if that’s all you need).
There’s also the option to hold design contests where you can pick the best design from 30-plus design submissions and continue working with that designer until you craft your business’s brand identity. The designers’ work quality is also excellent — you’ll be working with seasoned designers who start from scratch and aren’t working from templates.
Pricing:
- Single logo design from $299
- Logo and website from $1,399
- Poster design from $199
- Social media page design from $79
Visit 99Designs’ pricing page for all its prices.
Services:
- Logo and brand identity design: These can be bundled together or purchased separately. 99Designs’ designers can design a fully custom brand logo and identity for your business, from scratch, based on a creative brief you provide.
- Website design: This can also be bundled with your logo and brand identity. 99Designs’ designers can design a custom website for your business on WordPress or Squarespace, following your brand identity.
- Business cards, brochures, stationery, trade show booth, and postcard design: Hire a professional designer (or hold a design contest) to create unique designs for your marketing and event assets.
- Infographics, emails, and social media covers design: 99Designs’s designers can also design custom infographics, email templates, and social media cover photos and backgrounds for Facebook, X, and YouTube.
- App and icon designs: If you have an app or software, 99Designs’ designers can also create designs for it from scratch or based on your existing brand.
How I chose and scored the best digital marketing agencies for small businesses
Type “digital marketing agencies” on Google and you’ll find a couple dozen agencies all claiming to grow your leads tenfold in 10 days. That’s why I specifically wanted to find the real best ones with actual small business (or medium-sized business) digital marketing experience.
I also scored and ranked them based on the quantity and quality of their services, including their services for building brand presence and generating and nurturing leads, against a unique scoring rubric.
30%
Brand presence services
30%
Lead generation and nurturing services
15% of Overall Score
While different agencies offer different pricing plans, I considered whether each agency offered comprehensive all-in-one plans tailored for each business, and if they had clear pricing on their websites, charged a setup or retainer fee, or offered a money-back guarantee.
30% of Overall Score
Building a strong online presence is one of the most essential parts of digital marketing for small businesses. This includes building websites, technical and on-page SEO strategies, content marketing, social media marketing, local listings and reviews, press releases, and creative branding and design services.
30% of Overall Score
Lead generating and nurturing services include email marketing, link-building, and setting up Google and social media ads, including ad remarketing and landing page optimization.
10% of Overall Score
Good customer support is central to any good digital marketing agency, which is why I gave higher scores to agencies with 24/7 support and more support avenues, as well as those that provide monthly reports and assign a full team to each business.
15% of Overall Score
Finally, I brought my experience as a digital marketer into my evaluation of the agencies on this list. I scored their overall service quality, audience research capabilities, years of experience, and their overall score on Clutch.co.
*Percentages of overall score
5 things to consider when choosing the right digital marketing agency for your small business
There are many things to consider when choosing the best marketing agency for your small business. Aside from the services they offer, you have to think about your short and long-term marketing goals and whether your agency will be able to grow alongside your business. You might also consider their previous marketing experience and the type of businesses or industries they work with most often.
- Services: This consideration doesn’t just mean whether or not the agency offers the services you need, but also the level of customization you prefer. Do you need a fully custom plan for your business, or just a specific service on top of your existing marketing strategies? Also, consider what areas you need help with most. For instance, an agency like LYFE Marketing specializes in social media, while SEO Discovery specializes in SEO.
- Previous experience: Ideally, you’ll want an agency that already has experience with businesses or industries similar to yours, with plenty of case studies that show their process and results.
- Timelines and goals: Some marketing strategies like PPC ads can produce immediate results, while others, like SEO, take more time and ongoing effort. An important thing many small businesses tend to overlook is clearly communicating their ideal timelines and expectations for agencies. Any given agency may be handling other clients at a given time and may not always be able to accommodate your timelines (especially if they’re tight).
- Results reporting: What kind of results and KPIs do you expect to see? Some agencies, like WebFX, have a client dashboard where you can track your marketing campaigns in real time, while others only have standard weekly or monthly reporting sessions.
- Budget: Most agencies keep pricing behind the curtains to build a quote customized to each business’s needs. However, there’s no harm in communicating your budget or a range of what you have budgeted to see if they can put a package together that will work. This also goes for agencies with transparent pricing. Verify if there are any setup or retainer fees you might need to pay.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
The overall best digital marketing agency for small businesses is Straight North. It provides custom digital marketing services to help small businesses grow their online presence through website building, SEO, branding, and digital advertising, depending on what your business needs most.
Other top digital marketing agencies for small businesses are WebFX for digital advertising, SEO Discovery for SEO, LYFE Marketing for social media, and Ignite Visibility for online reputation management.
Most agencies will charge between $600 and $1,500 for a specific service, like SEO or social media marketing. However, combined services with multiple strategies can cost between $1,000 and $10,000, sometimes even more. Some agencies also charge a one-time setup fee or monthly retainer fees, where prices vary for each agency.
Hiring a digital marketing agency for your business can be worth it to get expert help to meet your goals, whether it’s increasing your website visitors or driving more conversions. Agencies have experienced digital marketing professionals who can run your digital marketing campaigns for you.
They can be especially helpful if you have specific goals and KPIs you want to reach in certain timelines, like increasing your social media followers or growing your leads in a certain number of months.
Bottom line
The best digital marketing agencies should have a wide variety of digital marketing services as well as ample experience with small and growing businesses. The ultimate best one for your business comes down to your biggest priorities and goals, but any of the ones above I’m confident can provide good services and results, as a digital marketer myself.