Web Design
Home » Posts » We’re Marketing Agency Dropouts

We’re Marketing Agency Dropouts

Hi, Tony and Reina from 3tone Digital here – otherwise known as your friendly neighborhood marketing agency dropouts.

Yea yea, “dropouts” sounds kind of melodramatic, but when you’ve spent years within the walls of traditional digital marketing agencies, you realize that there has got to be a better way.

From Office Cubicles to Digital NomadsOur Agency Background

We met at a digital marketing agency. Reina was the marketing manager, and Tony was the web developer. Technically, Reina was Tony’s boss – please don’t tell HR.

Although we had our specific titles and roles, people working at digital marketing agencies usually wind up managing email and social media campaigns, integrating third-party software, attending strategy sessions, and more.

On average, client retainers were ~$150/hour, and most of the work just trickled down to the website (Tony) and other digital things (Reina). I mean, we only made $30/hour, the rest went to cover overhead like office rent and around a dozen employees.

Technical + creative + administrative + moreThe Many Hats We Wear

We knew there was a leaner and more efficient way to serve clients without charging them an arm and a leg. So we decided to take our hats and form 3tone Digital, passing the cost savings on to our clients.

When we say we wear many hats, we really do:

  • Code + Development: Tony handles front-end and back-end development, site maintenance, and custom integrations
  • Social Media + Organizational Strategy: Reina runs marketing campaigns, manage brand identities, and oversees content strategies
  • Creative + Design: Tony and Reina both have a proven track record of creating visually appealing and conversion-focused assets
  • Misc + Etc: Connecting CRMs, eCommerce systems, databases, servers, analytics tools, and more!

In a typical digital marketing advertising agency setting, these responsibilities might be spread across several departments.

We skip the middlemen by doing it all ourselves. Fewer hoops to jump through equals quicker turnaround times, less expensive retainers, and much more personalized service.

How we do it better than a marketing agencyXP + AI = 3tone Digital

Our combined 30 years of experience with a variety of AI tools, 3tone Digital is not just a digital marketing team – we’re a next-gen digital marketing agency.

If you’re frustrated with the steep prices of a standard digital marketing agency, we hear you. We pride ourselves on being a smaller, more efficient operation that delivers high-quality digital marketing services without the bloated cost structure.

Affordability

Pay for actual solutions
not overhead

Customization

Your business is unique
and so are we

Efficiency

Fewer layers of approval
creative problem-solving

Experience

3 decades of agency
technical + creative

We might be marketing agency dropouts, but that just means we took the most effective parts of a digital marketing agency – proven strategies, design expertise, data-driven insights—and threw out what wasn’t working (excessive overhead, inflated retainers, red tape).

The result is a nimble, high-performing team that’s fully committed to helping you succeed.

We’re like a family here.”Employee of the Month

Tony Ciccarone Square Sm

I spent years coding in cubicles. Sure, they have their own vibe and I’m a better web developer by working alongside and learning from very smart UI/UX and backend engineers.

Working at WordPress marketing agencies taught me a lot about:

Plugin Hooks and Filters
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)
Performance Optimization
Advanced Security
Technical SEO and Structured Data
Marketing Automation

I’m grateful for the experience, but as a small business owner who can see the forest through the trees in hindsight, there is no better feeling than working one-on-one with a client (usually another small business owner).

Anyways, all of that to say I was once Employee of the Month:

Employee Of The Month

Whether you need web design, digital marketing efforts, AI-driven campaigns, or a full digital marketing strategy, 3tone Digital is here to help. We might be dropouts, but we’re focused on elevating your brand and your bottom line – but again, just don’t tell HR about us.

Let’s connect and show you what a modern, transparent, and cost-effective digital marketing solution can look like:

Contact Us
Web Design

Published Date: