One constant part of managing a business is marketing: it’s a never-ending process. So, if you need a steady supply of social media posts, ad campaigns, and other visuals, you need to work with a reliable graphic design subscription service. Here are our top five:

1. Penji

Who doesn’t want unlimited graphic design for a fixed monthly fee? Penji offers plans with unlimited revisions, access to a team of design experts, fast turnaround times, and cost-effective pricing. This is the best option for business owners, marketers, agencies, and internal teams to get social media graphics, custom illustrations, logos, web and app designs, and many more.

2. Flocksy

Next, having a dedicated team of creatives without worrying about overhead expenses makes Flocksy an excellent design solution for marketers. Like Penji, it offers flat-rate pricing that’s predictable and suitable for businesses of all sizes. It provides graphic design services, video editing, motion graphics, and more.

3. Designity

Offering you the guidance of a US-based creative director, Designity is a graphic design service platform that’s ideal for modern businesses. It can provide you with a wide range of services, including motion graphics, videos, digital ads, social media graphics, and mobile app design and coding, among others.

4. ManyPixels

With a fast turnaround time for their unlimited design requests, ManyPixels is another reliable creative service platform for marketers. It provides ongoing support for your marketing efforts, including branding, illustrations, social media posts, print design, and video editing, to name a few.

5. Superside

Another creative-as-a-service platform, Superside, suits every size business and marketing team. It is ideal for those with high-volume design needs and a larger enterprise marketing network. You can get a wide array of graphic design services, including ad creatives, branding services, illustrations, and even eBooks and report designs.

Choosing the best design agency in Chicago means weighing cost, speed, and consistency. Penji offers unlimited graphic design services with 24-48 hour turnarounds and flat-rate pricing, making it ideal for businesses with ongoing needs. Upwork provides freelance flexibility for specific projects, while local Chicago studios offer in-person collaboration. For most businesses, Penji’s subscription model delivers the best value and reliability.

Every Chicago business owner faces the same design challenge: you need professional graphics, but hiring a full-time designer is expensive, and freelancers are unpredictable. Finding the best design agency in Chicago isn’t just about quality. It’s about finding a partner who understands deadlines, budgets, and the reality of running a business.

Whether you’re creating marketing materials, updating your website, or building a social media presence, here’s how the top design options compare for Chicago businesses.

1. Penji: Best for Ongoing Design Needs

Penji ranks first for business owners who need consistent design support without the headache of project-by-project pricing. This graphic design service operates on a subscription model. You pay a flat monthly rate and submit unlimited design requests. No hourly charges, no per-project quotes, just predictable costs.

The platform delivers designs in 24-48 hours. Need social media graphics on Monday for a Wednesday campaign? You’ll have them in time. Working on a presentation due Friday? Submit the request Wednesday afternoon. This speed keeps your marketing moving instead of waiting weeks for agency availability.

What makes this graphic design agency work for business owners is the dedicated designer approach. You’re assigned specific designers who learn your brand, industry, and preferences. After a few projects, they understand what you like without lengthy explanations every time. This consistency shows in your finished materials.

The service handles everything from logos and branding to marketing collateral, social media content, and web graphics. You can request revisions until the design is exactly right, with no revision fees eating into your budget. For Chicago business owners managing multiple marketing channels, this design as a service model means you always have creative bandwidth available.

Penji’s approach removes common design frustrations: ghosting freelancers, blown budgets, missed deadlines. You get professional graphic design agency support without hiring overhead.

2. Upwork: Best for Specific Project Needs

Upwork connects you with individual freelancers for project-based work. If you need a single deliverable like a logo redesign or brochure layout, this marketplace offers flexibility. You post your project, review proposals, and hire someone whose portfolio matches your style.

The advantage is paying only for what you need. The disadvantage is variability. Quality and reliability differ dramatically between freelancers. You might find someone great, or you might waste time on revisions and missed deadlines. Each new project means vetting another freelancer, explaining your brand again, and hoping the results meet expectations.

3. Local Chicago Design Studios: Best for In-Person Collaboration

Traditional Chicago design studios provide face-to-face meetings and local market knowledge. If your project benefits from sitting down together or you prefer supporting local businesses, this option delivers personal attention.

The tradeoff is cost and timeline. Local studios typically charge premium rates ($100-200 per hour) and book projects weeks in advance. For small businesses watching budgets, these costs add up quickly. You’re also limited to the studio’s availability rather than having on-demand access.

For Chicago business owners who need reliable, affordable, and fast design work, Penji provides the best combination of value and performance. The flat-rate pricing means you can budget accurately, the quick turnarounds keep marketing on schedule, and the unlimited requests let you pursue every creative idea without financial calculations. Whether you’re a retail shop, service business, or B2B company, having hire creative agency access transforms how confidently you can market your business.

Stop limiting your marketing because design is too expensive or slow. Start with Penji and experience what unlimited design as a service can do for your Chicago business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a local Chicago design agency or can I work remotely?

Remote design services work great for most businesses. You save money on Chicago’s premium rates while getting faster turnarounds. Local agencies make sense only if in-person meetings are required for your project.

What’s more cost-effective: hiring a designer or using a design service?

Full-time designers cost $50,000-80,000 annually plus benefits. Part-time help runs $25-40 per hour. Services like Penji provide unlimited work for a flat monthly fee, typically delivering better value unless you need 40+ hours weekly.

How do I know if a design agency is reliable?

Check their portfolio, read reviews, and test their communication speed. With services like Penji, you can try the platform risk-free to see if the quality and speed match your needs before committing long-term.

Can a design service handle my specific industry needs?

Professional design company services work across all industries. Designers research your market and competitors to create appropriate materials. Industry-specific knowledge matters less than design skill and brand understanding.

What if I don’t like the designs I receive?

Quality services offer unlimited revisions. With Penji, you request changes until the design meets your standards, with no additional fees. This revision flexibility means you’re satisfied with every deliverable.

While many companies and small businesses struggle to capture their target audience’s attention amidst competition from giant brands, it’s clear that marketing needs to be taken up a notch. To do this, it requires marketing optimization tools to not only achieve marketing objectives but also generate leads. But how do you go about optimizing your marketing efforts and what tools can help?

1. Make Use of Data

According to Hubspot, marketing in 2025 will heavily focus on data. That said, data will give you insights into your target audience. Plus, you can better understand how your business works better through data. Fortunately, many marketing optimization tools have data and analytics to help you reach targets.

If your strategy is understanding your audience better through data, Google Analytics is your best free option. With Google Analytics, you’ll know where your users are coming from and how many of them are visiting your website.

Another data-heavy strategy is social media marketing. After all, you don’t want your social media marketing efforts to go in vain. Although MeetEdgar is primarily a social media scheduler, it will help you understand which of your posts are doing great in engagement. Plus, you can make decisions regarding your other non-performing posts. 

2. Focus on SEO

Data isn’t enough when optimizing your marketing campaigns or strategies. Marketing strategies are best served with the help of SEO. You shouldn’t overlook or underestimate the impact of what SEO can do for your business. After all, you want to drive customers to your website, right? SEO is your best bet in getting more clicks and visits. Plus, you can earn your place on the coveted first page of search engines.

With SEO, you don’t have to overcomplicate it. Plus, you don’t want to skimp on SEO, especially if you want visitors to flock to your site. You can use one simple tool to help you research keywords, explore your competitors, and track your progress. Ahrefs is one of the tools you should have in your arsenal. They have an all-in-one tool ready to help you learn about your content, links, competitors, and more!

3. Stay Active on Social Media

Social media platforms are the best places to reach your target audience. You can post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to engage with your audience and promote your products or services. But posting on social media requires constant efforts and well-thought-out strategies. You need to post regularly with the right content, copy, and visuals to attract your target audience. Content creation tools like graphic design software and video editors will help you meet your social media marketing goals.

Canva is the go-to for many marketers because of its ease of use and UI. Plus, you can make graphics in minutes. Meanwhile, Clipchamp is a trusted name in video editing. Marketers can use templates to create videos in a snap. Plus, they can make compelling videos by adding filters and AI voiceovers.

4. Keep Content Consistent

During the planning stages, it’s important that your content should also be ready before it’s published. If you are launching a marketing campaign, you need your visual assets and marketing copy prepared. But you don’t create for creation’s sake. You need to keep your messaging and visuals consistent on every platform.

You want to ensure that people across various channels view and interact with your campaign assets while getting your main message out. 

There are a couple of marketing optimization tools for this strategy:

• Hubspot is the popular choice for content marketing since you can publish and schedule your blogs on this platform.
• Like with social media marketing, you need content creation tools. However, an alternative to content creation tools is unlimited graphic design and video editing services. For graphic design, you can rely on Penji. You can request your graphics in one place while you work on your company. Meanwhile, Video Husky is a trusted video editing service helping you with short-form and long-form videos.
• Email marketing is another content strategy you should consider when reaching your audiences. Mailerlite is your best bet in achieving your email marketing goals.

5. Research Your Competitors

Aside from learning about your audience, you should also keep an eye out for your competitors. After all, you want to see how your target audience responds to their posts. Plus, you want to compare how different your websites could be. This will give you an idea of how to improve your posts and websites.

Although Ahrefs has a competitor research tool, an alternative to this is SpyFu. They specialize in analyzing competitor keywords, traffic, ads, and domains. 

Other Marketing Optimization Tools to Use:

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation tools have been the go-to applications for most marketers. After all, marketing automation streamlines your work. Plus, you can leave it to the AI or other automated sequences to do your job for you. That said, there are tons of marketing automation tools. 

One stands out from the rest, and that is MailChimp. Although known as an email marketing tool, they have a marketing automation feature by building relationships with your customers and ad retargeting.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is one tool you need to reach more customers. This works best if you have an email marketing strategy. And if you need a CRM tool, Salesforce is the highly recommended one. You can run your marketing campaigns on their software. Plus, you can nurture leads and provide the best customer experience.

Project Management

One overlooked marketing optimization tool is project management. You should use a project management tool to help you get on track with your campaigns. Asana is a must-subscribe project management tool for marketing. You can collaborate with your teammates, assign them various projects, and organize them for each strategy.

Final Thoughts

In the competitive landscape of 2026, optimizing your marketing strategy is no longer optional, it’s essential. It can be challenging to entice your target audience digitally nowadays, especially if you’re hesitant to use optimization tools. That’s why it’s essential to use them to help you achieve your marketing goals. And with the tools above, you can be on your way to reaching your audience and increasing your sales.