Launching a digital agency can be a daunting process. When you’re already focused on key business tasks — setting goals, managing finances, landing clients, and more — simplifying the rest of your duties can help you breathe a sigh of relief. The right digital marketing agency tools can help you streamline even your most complex workflows.
In this post, we’ll highlight seven essential tools for digital agencies to invest in during their startup phase. While there’s plenty more that can help you improve your agency management, this starter pack can help you stay on top of your most critical tasks.
1. Project Management Platform
Meeting your client’s expectations isn’t always simple. The more clients you take on, the more you’ll have to keep track of. That’s what makes project management platforms such popular tools for digital agencies. They help you plan and organize all your tasks, timelines, and resources, so your agency and individual team members can stay on track.
Asana, for instance, can help you streamline your agency management by letting you set clear deadlines, collaborate, and communicate project needs on one platform. Plus, it gives your team leaders the big picture of what’s happening across your agency. This way, you can confidently prioritize and delegate all of your tasks.
2. Client Feedback Collection and Bug Tracking Platform
When you’re working with clients day in and day out, you need digital marketing agency tools that foster strong client communication. Real-time feedback software can empower your clients to provide valuable thoughts and suggestions when you send designs for their review. Opt for a feedback platform that allows your clients to provide visual context — for example, annotations and screenshots — so you can better meet their needs..
When your feedback software also doubles as a bug issue tracking platform, you can streamline your resolutions and satisfy client needs with ease.
3. Time Tracking Tool
You know what they say: Time is money. A big part of agency management is figuring out when your team is working, so you can bill clients, pay team members, and strategically delegate tasks.
A digital marketing agency tool like Harvest can simplify time tracking. No physical clock-ins or manual time entries are needed. All your team members need to do is tap start and stop on a desktop or mobile app to accurately record their time on each task. Harvest can even integrate with project management platforms like Asana, so you can connect your time to specific tasks.
Investing in a time tracking tool can even help you gather insights about your agency’s spending, bandwidth, and productivity. You’ll have data to help you maximize your agency’s resources and eliminate bottlenecks.
4. Online Invoicing Tool
When it’s time to bill your clients, you don’t want to waste your time manually creating each invoice. An online invoicing tool can speed up your billing process by simplifying the process of filling out and sending professional-looking invoices.
Quickbooks Online, for example, allows you to save a customer list complete with email addresses and billing details. Once you finish customizing your invoice as desired, you can instantly email your invoice to clients by tapping send. Alternatively, you can set up a recurring invoice to make the invoicing process hands-free for select clients and services.
5. Team Collaboration Tool
Collaboration is critical for a healthy digital marketing agency. However, project management software isn’t always the most convenient platform for your team members to chat. Agencies can benefit from a team communication tool that allows for agency-wide announcements, team discussions, and quick one-on-one chats.
Digital marketing agency tools like Slack allow you to communicate in dedicated channels. This way, you can loop in all the right people and keep every conversation focused. No need to have multiple tabs or devices opened to chat with your team members — everyone will be available on one central tool.
Looking for a way to improve the way your agency collaborates with clients and stakeholders?
SimpleStage is the only platform that unifies the client experience by providing tools to help agencies collect content, feedback and track bugs.
Learn More6. Design Platform
Some of the most important tools for digital agencies are design platforms that allow them to bring campaigns or websites to life. To impress your clients, you need high-quality design tools that allow you to create stunning multimedia designs.
Adobe Creative Cloud is one of the most popular options for digital agencies. It offers a wide range of professional tools, from Photoshop and Illustrator for images and graphics to Premiere for video and audio. Choosing this design suite — or select tools within it — can help you keep your digital agency in the modern content-driven world.
Invest in the Right Tools For Digital Agency Success
Effective agency management doesn’t have to be a manual process. With the right digital marketing agency tools, you can streamline your everyday processes. Plus, you can better collaborate with clients and your team. Start exploring our suggested tools for digital agencies to help your startup grow with minimal effort.
