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A Specialist Agency, or an All-in-One Agency?

December 22, 2020

A Specialist Agency, or an All-in-One Agency?

SINGAPORE – You’ve decided to make the right choice to take your business online in response to the global pandemic’s effect on consumer behaviors. While that’s great and all, you’re now faced with the critical task of shortlisting a digital agency to get you started.

Ah, now comes the age old question when it comes to selecting an agency to take your business forward. An agency that specializes in a particular area of digital solutions or one that can do it all? Decisions, decisions.

Selecting a digital agency in Singapore to help drive your company forward is no easy task, especially when there are dozens of different aspects to consider. The cost of digital services, your company’s allocated budget, KPIs to hit and countless more things to think about!

However, one such consideration stands out above the rest – which is choosing the type of agency to engage. Digital agencies, no matter their specialization, usually fall into one of the two categories: Specialist or All-in-one agencies. As their names might suggest, specialist agencies specialize in a certain digital solution (eg. digital marketing, branding, etc.), whereas all-in-one agencies offer a whole suite of services to help your business.

So just how do you go about choosing the type of agency to engage? Not to worry, as we’ll be diving into the differences of specialist & all-in-one agencies and each of their use cases in this article! Put your thinking caps on and read on to find out more!

Specialist Agencies: Expertise for Specialized Tasks

Specialist agencies, expertise for specialized tasks, spoon, swiss army knife

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1. Specialist in their field

Specialist agencies may not have the depth and flexibility of full service agencies, but they excel greatly in their specialized fields. They’re a great choice for businesses who just need specific services to be done. In comparison to full service agencies, specialist agencies are more often than not better when it comes to these scenarios.

The main selling point of specialist agencies is the fact that their resources & staff are solely dedicated to a specific area of expertise. This provides your business with a level of skill and knowledge that (usually) surpasses that of a full service agency’s capabilities. For instance, an agency focused on just B2C eCommerce web design would definitely be more knowledgeable than an agency that does websites for multiple parties such as government boards, B2B and B2c all combined in one.  This is especially important during this pandemic, where you would not want to waste unnecessary dollars on a website that breaks often and loses your customers.

Read more here: Why your website will make or break your business this Covid19 season

While it’s more expensive and not as convenient as engaging a full service agency, you know what you’re going to get with a specialist agency – and that’s quality work! If you have a clear idea of what your business requires and don’t mind liaising with multiple agencies, specialist ones are the way to go.

 

2. Depth and Breadth of Ideas

Having spent more time in a single trade, specialist agencies tend to bring more innovative ideas to the plate if you’re looking for fresh ideas rather than focusing on the usual tried and tested strategies in your industry. This is good for agencies who want to go that unconventional route, be it a minimalist design, interactive themed website, or an experiential focused approach.

 

Full Service Agencies: Get An All-In-One Experience!

benefits of a full-service agency

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Jack of all trades, master of none. The opposite of specialist agencies, full service website agencies offer a variety of services to help your business venture into the digital space. Services offered can range from digital marketing, e-commerce development, branding and even content creation. A true all rounder, you can’t go wrong with agencies that can do it all if you’re just starting out on going digital.

 

1. Good for businesses starting out online

However, there are specific business scenarios where full service agencies are not just highly recommended – but the obvious choice. Take for example, a newly set up F&B business looking to take advantage of the current e-Commerce boom, they would be much better off engaging a full service agency that can help them handle the marketing, content creation, web development and brand design/strategy. Dealing with just one agency also saves you the time & hassle of trying to coordinate things between multiple service providers – making your experience much more pleasant. If you are a small business, you would rather spend your precious time on growing your business, than liaising with multiple vendors for each service you have engaged.

2. Inter-departmental cooperation

Another big positive full service agencies have over their counterparts is having departments communicate with each other seamlessly! Let’s say you want to add new products to your website, which requires new product shoots. The content can be effortlessly passed on to the development team to quickly add your new products to your website, as opposed to having one agency send the pictures to you, and then you having to send the pictures to another agency.

Time is precious, especially for business owners – and this is where full services agencies take the cake!

 

Our Recommendation

As much as we would like to just recommend full services agencies and call it a day (since we are a full service agency ourselves), the answer is way more nuanced than you think. The decision really depends on your business goals & scenario, do you already have existing digital solutions or are you starting from scratch?

If you’re completely new to the digital landscape, a full service agency makes the most sense as you will only have to communicate with one vendor for all your digital needs, as opposed to having to deal with multiple specialist agencies.

 

Closing Words

Whether you’re looking to engage a specialist or all-in-one agency, it’s a great idea to have your business goals & budget predefined. This makes selecting an agency much easier as you’ll have a clear picture of what you want for your business!

If you’re looking for an agency that can do it all, look no further! FirstCom Solutions is the premier digital agency in Singapore, offering a unique one-stop go experience to seamlessly take your business online.