Marketing Agency Software Is All About Improving Productivity and CollaborationBy Manogna Matta, Technical Writer at SelectHub
Imagine a bustling beehive buzzing with activity. That's what a successful marketing agency looks like: teams collaborating, projects progressing and data buzzing everywhere. But just like bees need their honeycomb for structure and efficiency, agencies need marketing agency software to organize the chaos and fuel their growth.
Marketing agency software provides a centralized platform and communication tools that help keep up with team members and customers. In this buyer’s guide, we’ll go over what marketing agency platforms are, the most popular tools in the market and the software’s benefits and features. Let’s dive in!
Executive Summary
- Marketing agency software helps increase profit margin by making your marketing operations more efficient.
- Key features include project management, content management, client relationship management, analytics and reporting, and marketing automation.
- Be sure to ask potential software providers specific and targeted questions before committing to a purchase.
What This Guide Covers: What Is Marketing Agency Software?
Marketing agency software is a tool that helps optimize the operational and collaborative processes of marketing agencies. From campaign creation to performance analysis, this solution offers numerous ways to improve your profit margin while maintaining quality work.
Marketing agency software is akin to a Swiss army knife, providing multiple, multi-faceted tools in a centralized platform. With this software, you can keep your customer communication sharp and cut down on workflow hurdles. And just like a Swiss army knife fits in your pocket, the software easily integrates into your smartphone, enhancing resource organization and results.
Be it launching new marketing campaigns or monitoring customer journeys, advertising agency software is your Man Friday and helps you stay on top of client information.
Marketing agency tools come in various forms of software, including:
Primary Benefits
Marketing agency software offers a wide array of advantages to boost your business growth. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Improve Productivity
The saying “old is gold” isn’t applicable everywhere. Case in point — sticky notes and spreadsheets can only take you so far. You need robust content management tools to maximize campaign efficiency, and marketing agency software provides just that. A centralized platform helps you be more organized and manage tasks without constantly switching between platforms, saving time and effort.
Another way marketing agency solutions save time is through automation. You can automate redundant, repetitive and manual tasks and let machines take care of snoozefest-y activities. Streamline workflows with ease and allow marketers to focus on core tasks that require human intelligence, like resolving sensitive customer queries.
Clara Shih, co-founder of Hearsay Social, said this about automation:
“Rather than wringing our hands about robots taking over the world, smart organizations will embrace strategic automation use cases. Strategic decisions will be based on how the technology will free up time to do the types of tasks that humans are uniquely positioned to perform.”
By automating content scheduling and gaining a holistic project view, you can create compelling content that improves productivity and helps foster better customer relationships.
Enhance Collaboration
About team collaboration, Niven Al-Khoury said:
“Teamwork in an organization is like performing a piece of music. Each employee works as a member of a world-class orchestra…If one instrument is lacking, no other can make up for it. If the piano player is missing, the flute cannot substitute its sound. Similarly, in an organization, each individual employee and each department is essential, they all need to bring their best selves, and they all must work together in harmony.”
Marketing agency software helps materialize the above vision by boosting team communication and helps users connect anywhere, anytime, via any device. With shared calendars and file-sharing capabilities, you can ensure seamless collaboration and that everyone is on the same page.
Advertising agency software also helps team members keep track of each other’s tasks and assignments. It helps improve accountability by making sure everyone finishes their projects on time and lets people coordinate in a single platform.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
Peter Sondergaard, former EVP at Gartner, aptly points out that:
“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.”
Marketing agency software helps you make the best of your available data so you can make smarter and more informed decisions. With robust reports and dashboards, you can visualize data in a digestible way and identify customer trends and preferences. This enables you to personalize future campaigns.
You can monitor client behavior and measure ROI accurately to create successful marketing projects. Charts like pie charts, donuts, heatmaps, bar graphs and line graphs help understand and analyze information, providing nuanced and data-driven insights.
Key Features & Functionality
| Project Management | Create, manage and assign tasks with ease. You can set deadlines and track progress, enabling you to plan projects, budgets and timelines. Allocate team members to activities and monitor time to manage productivity assessment and visualize goal progress. |
| Client Relationship Management | Teams can manage leads from various sources and nurture relationships, improving revenue in the long run. The platform lets you store client information, communication history and preferences and use them to find insights about client behavior, helping you shape campaigns. |
| Marketing Automation | This capability helps with email marketing and lets you automate email campaigns and segmentation. You can create targeted messaging, manage content creation, schedule blog posts and track performance. Monitor engagement and assign lead scores for better prioritization. |
| Analytics and Reporting | Teams can generate customizable reports, helping them make informed decisions. You can track KPIs, ROI and other metrics to stay on top of campaign performance and maximize their effectiveness. Use charts like pie charts, bar graphs, donuts and heatmaps to visualize reports and identify market trends. |
| Content Management | This feature helps you plan, organize, schedule and publish content and execute campaigns. You can manage different content versions across various platforms to ensure consistency. Teams can communicate in a centralized platform, fostering collaboration and quality content.
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| Social Media Management | Schedule and publish posts on multiple platforms like Meta, X and Instagram. Monitor audience engagement and gain insight into client trends and behavior. You can track performance, make edits as needed and create attention-grabbing posts. |
Software Comparison Strategy
With so many vendors in the market, deciding which software would be the best for your business can get overwhelming. Jumpstart your search by considering the following aspects before committing to a purchase:
Preferred Features: Look at your current system and analyze where it’s lacking. What are the most common problems you face? Which features can help maximize productivity? Take your time to make a list of requirements.
Budget: You need to be honest about your budget and how much you can afford to spend. Consider all variables like the number of users, hidden costs and maintenance fees before making a purchase.
Deployment: Cloud solutions are cheaper and easier to access than on-site platforms. On-premise software also needs an IT team on board to fix technical issues if they come up. However, it can be cost-effective for large teams with lots of data, while cloud solutions are useful for smaller teams or startups.
Integrations: Take note of apps you use daily. Your ideal solutions should integrate with your preferred apps, enabling you to streamline communication.
Customizations: What customizable features does the software offer? Does it come with any pre-built templates? What about scalability options? Investing in a scalable solution helps keep up with your company’s changing technical needs.
Vendor Support: Does your vendor provide hands-on customer support? Do they have 24/7 live chat? What do their onboarding and training processes look like? How do they ensure data security? How will they help you import existing data into the new software?
User Experience: Marketing agency software that is intuitive and easy to use is always a plus. They can save valuable time and money that would otherwise go into costly and time-consuming software training.
Cost & Pricing Considerations
The cost of advertising agency software depends on various factors like the number of users, capabilities, scalability and deployment. It starts from $20 for basic systems and can go up to hundreds of dollars for cutting-edge solutions.
The most common billing method is to charge per user/month. Some vendors charge on a quarterly, half-yearly or annual basis. Others bill a one-time, flat fee, though they are becoming increasingly rare.
Cloud solutions are cheaper than on-site ones. On-premise software also requires a round-the-clock IT team for maintenance and repairs. However, on-site platforms are suitable for large teams with a lot of people, as paying per user/month would become costly in that case.
Make sure to watch out for hidden costs like training, maintenance, implementation and onboarding fees before making a purchase.
Questions To Ask
Ask yourself the following questions to guide software selection and determine your requirements:
- What are your end goals as an agency to serve your clients?
- Which apps do you use daily?
- How much scalability are you looking for?
- How many users do you have, and do they need different access controls?
- What are your pain points, and which capabilities will help solve them?
Here are some questions to ask software providers to know more about the software and its vendor:
- Do you provide industry-specific solutions? Do you have any use cases to back this up?
- How customizable is this software?
- How readily available is the customer support?
- How user-friendly is the tool? Is there a learning curve?
- What integrations do you provide?
Next Steps
As marketers, you always need to be on your toes — monitoring market trends, analyzing client behavior and optimizing strategies. Marketing agency software helps make that job a little simpler and lets your teams breathe easier by streamlining operations and enhancing workflow efficiency. The customer insights you gain from it are the cherry on top of a decadent, dynamic, capabilities-filled cake.
Still confused and unsure which software to pick and which to chuck? We’re here to help. Check out our free comparison report to gain insight into top industry leaders and compare them on the basis of their advantages and capabilities. Good luck!
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