Discover the 3 major reasons why hiring a local marketing agency gives small businesses an edge, custom content, local insights, and better alignment across campaigns.
To effectively run digital marketing and advertising for your business, we’re currently seeing four smart paths you can take:
1. DIY: Creating content, managing your own social media, and running ad campaigns. Best for brand new businesses just entering the market.
2. Hire Staff: Building an in-house team with a photographer, videographer, social media manager, and ads specialist. Best for businesses backed by investors and scaling nationally.
3. Hire a Nationwide Agency: Partnering with a large agency that services hundreds of clients across the country. Best for national businesses looking to leverage industry connections.
4. Hire a Local Agency: Working with a marketing team in your area. Best for small businesses that serve customers locally.
There’s no universal best solution. If there were, we’d all use it and there wouldn’t be any other options. Instead, you’ve got to evaluate your unique needs and choose the approach that fits best. I remind myself of the same thing when I’m tempted to buy new golf clubs or camera gear, tools only work if they solve the right problem.
When I started Launch Kit in 2020, we set out to build a local marketing agency that does its best work serving businesses in our community. Being local opens up a full range of possibilities in how we collaborate with clients. Over the years, we’ve found three key advantages to hiring a local agency for your small business marketing:
Let’s dig into each of these three benefits to understand what to look for when selecting a marketing solution.
The most effective ads speak directly to your customer. The better we can call out their pain points, desires, and goals, the more likely our message will resonate and convert.
If you're serving customers in a specific geographic area, that local context becomes one of your strongest value propositions. For example, if I need my roof replaced, I’m not hiring a contractor from Los Angeles. I want someone here in Grand Rapids. That automatically narrows my options, and means I’m looking for a company that understands the area, has local references, and feels familiar.
That’s where a local marketing agency comes in. We live here too. We understand the west side vs. east side dynamics, seasonal buying habits, and even the tone and slang people use. This matters because we’re using those insights to write your ad copy, design your website, and produce your content. Marketing that feels local works better for local businesses.
This one’s about logistics. When you hire a local marketing agency to manage your advertising, we’re able to take the lead on producing the content your ads rely on.
A home-run ad starts with a home-run offer. Let me be clear: you can have the best visuals, headline, or branding in the world, but if the offer isn’t compelling, the ad won’t convert. So before we ever touch a camera, we work with you to craft an irresistible offer.
Once the offer is locked in, it’s time to get the message out. In today’s digital landscape, there’s no better tool than high-quality photo and video content. That’s why we’ve structured Launch Kit to specialize in both content creation and campaign management.
Every month, we begin with a strategy meeting to review what worked, what didn’t, and where to go next. Everything in digital marketing is an experiment. By tracking data and iterating, we keep improving.
We’ll develop fresh content ideas, schedule your production day(s), and then it’s lights, camera, action. From concept to final cut, we handle the execution. This soup-to-nuts production process is a big reason our clients choose Launch Kit as their marketing partner.
To tell your story well online, you need two key components working together: organic social media and paid advertising. It’s like upper body and leg day, real strength comes from doing both.
Organic social gives us a place to test ideas, build community, and post for free. Think of it as a low-risk way to run A/B tests on your messaging. By watching what your audience responds to, we gather insights that inform our paid ads.
Here’s what’s changed: users can now scroll past, skip, or ignore your content entirely. That means we need to create content that’s actually worth watching. Whether it’s educational or entertaining (ideally both), the bar is higher than ever.
When we launch paid ads, we keep that same energy. For brand awareness campaigns, the goal is engagement. For lead generation campaigns, we use strong offers. As Sabri Suby put it: “If the offer doesn’t make the founder toss and turn at night, it’s not good enough. Try again.”
By managing both your organic content and paid ads in one place, we’re able to keep things aligned, efficient, and on message. That’s the power of working with a local digital marketing team.
As a thank you for spending some time with us today, I want to leave you with a few questions you can ask when evaluating agencies. These questions come straight from analyzing what our highest-performing clients do well. These are the difference-makers between blending in and standing out.
Each year, we take a fresh look at the various marketing efforts a small business can make. We've built this framework to get started optimizing your business's online presence.
