SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING AGENCY THAT THINKS BIG

When it comes to marketing, most small business are faced with the choice of either struggling to do it themselves or biting the bullet and calling in a specialist marketing agency. With SME profits being squeezed from every angle, business owners find themselves under increasing pressure to justify every expense. Something has to give and the marketing budget is often the first casualty.

Buying the know-how and experience of a small business marketing agency doesn’t come cheap. Putting a marketing plan together, creating effective communications and executing them through the right channels to reach the target market are all skills that carry a premium price. Something not every small business can afford.

Shrinking budgets and expensive marketing costs. No wonder more and more small businesses are opting for the DIY route, or worse, forgoing marketing altogether.

One small business marketing agency thinks they have the solution and have restructured themselves to meet the needs of budget-strapped SMEs. Three years ago, Lean Agency decided to reinvent themselves as a ‘virtual’ company, slashing their overheads and passing the savings on to their clients.

The central London office went – and with it all of the restrictions of conventional agency thinking.

“We realised that while a lot of businesses were keen to use our services, when it came to the crunch they simply couldn’t afford the budget. We’ve always operated a ‘lean’ business and tried to offer great value, but expensive rent, rates and overheads restricted how flexible we could afford to be.

As a small business ourselves we understand first-hand the dilemma other business owners face. By freeing ourselves of the office and all the usual trappings, we were able to offer our clients the same high level of service at a much lower cost,” Creative Director, Steve Graham explained.

As well as moving out of the office, Lean also swapped full-time employees for skilled freelancers, hired on a project-by-project basis. Instead of converging together in one place, everyone connects online, working from their own satellite ‘home office’ and meeting up in small groups to focus on specific project requirements as needed.

“It’s a much more flexible way of working, allowing us to bring in the people and skills we need for each job and put together a tailor-made task force. We have a creative network of over 400 people on call, far more than we could afford to run as full-time staff,” continued Steve. “We can call on a much broader range of expertise and have people located all over the country and indeed, globe. Plus, it means big savings for our clients, enabling limited budgets to go a lot further.”

Lean Agency believes their ‘virtual’ model will enable small businesses to invest properly in professional marketing and give themselves a competitive edge. As Steve concluded: “Our aim is to become the biggest small agency on the planet, but it’s more about common-sense than rocket science."