When you cannot run a repair shop without a toolbox, a hair salon without scissors, or an airport without airplanes, how could you think of running an agency without agency management tools? Also, 91% of marketers believe that automation helps them achieve their goals; why are you lagging?

Always remember that the right management tools empower the agency teams, optimize their productivity, and let them efficiently complete their projects. They also facilitate client collaborations, help track resources, and improve the creation process. Thus, agency management tools not only streamline the whole process but also foster the growth and productivity of your agency.

But there are hundreds of marketing tools, and it is easier to get lost. This article comes in to rescue you and help you find the best agency management tools tailored to your agency's needs. So, let’s dig into the details without any further delay!

Why Effective Tools are Crucial for Agency Success?

Agency management tools can save time and maximize productivity by:

  1. Reducing the risk of errors
  2. Eliminating repetitive tasks
  3. Allocating resources efficiently
  4. Standardizing processes
  5. Improving visibility and client communication

Not only that, there are various other ways by which these tools can help you to manage the agency efficiently; let's find that in detail in the next section:

How Do You Manage An Agency Efficiently?

To manage the agency efficiently:

  1. Establish clear goals
  2. Take decisions driven by data
  3. Keeps your customers a priority
  4. Always delivers the projects on time
  5. Schedule your resources efficiently
  6. Leverage the tools and technologies for your agency’s success

Now, you might wonder how tools can play a key role in your success. Whether financial management or client communication, tools will always make everything easier.

Not only that, tools can do a lot more for your agency, like managing and handling repetitive tasks. For example, over 40% of workers spend 25% of their work week on repetitive tasks or activities. Excessive manual work wastes valuable time and energy, which your employees could spend performing other valuable tasks like client interaction or strategy creation. Project management software is the only way to reduce these tedious and repetitive tasks.

Creative automation software can effectively enhance an agency’s operational efficiency, streamlining everything from planning to tracking. Workflow automation also ensures that every project is delivered on time and within the specified budget. Agency management tools can also be used to stay connected with clients, share files, and keep them informed regarding project progress.

One of the major benefits of workflow automation for agencies is that you can get an overview of the project status and identify the bottlenecks. It can help reallocate the resources quickly. Besides that, the agencies can also automate various other tasks, including data entry, reminders, emails, customer support inquiries, reporting, and invoicing.

The Importance Of Client Collaboration And Feedback

Communication is the lifeline of any relationship. Remember that honest, open, and frequent communication can transform your good campaign into a great one. But, miscommunication, misaligned expectations, and different visions can cause friction.

Here are the agency management tools that can solve your problem:

  1. Tools can turn conflicts between you and your client into opportunities for growth.
  2. Management tools bring your team members and client together on one page, streamline communication, make file sharing easier, ensure transparent working, and build trust between both parties.
  3. The tools also keep the clients engaged and push them to provide feedback across the project. They also make the feedback loop easier for your team and offer them actionable insights. Consequently, this collaboration with the client is a long-term relationship!

Clientjoy and Basecamp are the two best tools that can be used for effective communication with clients.

14 Top Tools for Agency Management

If you need tools for your day-to-day tasks, find the different categories of agency management tools here.

Project Management Software for Agencies

Your agency is working on complex campaigns and projects, and with the right project management software, all of your hairiest projects can become easier to manage. The tools provide a unified platform to manage and track project progress efficiently. Below, you can find the top creative project management tools:

#1. Asana

When you search for the best project management software for task tracking, Asana is the name that comes up repeatedly. And for a good reason. The tool is like your team's headquarters for all projects, tasks, deadlines, and communication.

Within the task tracking software, you can:

  • Set up your projects and break them down into tasks and sub-tasks. Then, assign all of these to your team members, and the deadlines of these tasks will keep your team working.
  • You can also check the progress of all of your tasks and projects. Asana offers various views, including a board list, calendar, and timeline.
  • It is also best for resource management capabilities. Because of its collaborative features, it is an ideal choice for advertising, marketing, and consulting agencies.

#2. Trello

Trello is one of the best collaboration and time management tools. It can organize your workflow through different types of project boards. It also provides different community-powered and professional templates to support project teams.

The tool is well-known for its intuitive dashboard and is best suited for small companies that need a task management solution but don't require a comprehensive and robust solution. Trello understands the importance of timelines for the agencies. So, it provides you with:

  1. A real-time overview of important information and allows the teams to reach their objectives efficiently and within the set deadline.
  2. Updated data information to all the project members, leading to accuracy, greater efficiency, and timeliness. It makes Trello one of the best time management tools for agencies.
  3. The project management tool allows managers to monitor team members and projects. It also helps them understand bottlenecks and resource allocation, boosting workflow efficiency.

#3. Monday.com

Monday.com can streamline task visualization and offer customizable features that can be matched with your agency's workflow. The tool offers:

  1. Comprehensive workflow management
  2. Reporting
  3. Time-tracking capabilities

Here, you can see the project timelines in Kanban and Gantt views. The tool simplifies project management with its customizable workflows, offers a centralized space for communication, and helps agencies stay organized and aligned on their goals. The tool lets you put all the resources front and center for resource management.

You can see what has been used, how long it has been used, and who is responsible. The tool is also helpful for planning, scheduling, and allocating resources, making it one of the best resource scheduling tools.

Team Collaboration Tools

A successful agency relies on collaboration, and this is where the right team collaboration tool can offer you needed support. The tool makes communicating and sharing feedback and ideas easier and drives the project's success. Below, you can find the best team collaboration tools:

#4. Slack

If you are searching for cloud-based collaboration tools, use Slack. It is an excellent platform known for its remarkable audio and video calling functionalities and best for:

  1. Team collaboration and communication
  2. Chat group creation
  3. Document sharing

Slack integrates well with other platforms, such as Google Docs, making it easier to track conversations. You can also integrate it with other applications and use its workflow builder to automate routine tasks. After creating the channels, you can invite team members. Meanwhile, admins and moderators can keep track of all the conversations to ensure a smooth workflow.

It is one of the best team collaboration tools suitable for all agencies. Depending on your agency's needs, you can choose between its free or premium services.

#5. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams acts as the centralized hub for internal communication within an agency. The tool features:

  1. Channels
  2. Chat
  3. File-sharing options

These features help teams communicate in real time, collaborate on projects efficiently, and share ideas. Besides that, it also offers robust audio and video conferencing capabilities, which help conduct virtual meetings, host webinars, and engage clients in face-to-face discussions regardless of geographical boundaries. You can also schedule meetings and calls. It is what makes Microsoft Teams one of the best client communication platforms.

The tool can also be integrated with Office 365 (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint). This integration lets team members edit and share documents, ultimately boosting productivity and eliminating the need to switch between different applications.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) Tools

Digital asset management (DAM) has become crucial in the present era when assets multiply rapidly. For DAM, there is no better way than digital asset management software. The software lets you upload, manage, organize, share, and track all your assets in one place.

The other plus is that these assets remain accessible anytime from anywhere. The software regularly backs up all your data, protecting your crucial files. You can give complete control over accessing these files to those you want or trust.

Likewise the brand asset management tools focus on sales and marketing materials (logos and product images) to assure branding consistency. If you need a digital asset management tool for your agency, below you can find the best ones:

#6. Widen

It is a user-friendly and cloud-based asset management tool that goes beyond what conventional centralized and shared digital asset libraries do. The tool:

  1. Let’s you distribute your content across the web
  2. Offers powerful content analytics
  3. Allow the users to automate the marketing workflow

Widen redundantly stores and synchronizes your data within various geographically separate data centers. Using tags, you can organize your data into different categories and easily find your digital assets when needed. The data always remains accessible.

You can also access your data through links included in emails or instant messages. The tool can also be integrated with other social media platforms.

#7. Bynder

Bynder has a user-friendly interface and is a great tool for team collaboration. Storing your digital assets is much easier; you must drag and drop. The tool can handle every file type or format.

You can also find and share your files, as Bynder provides instant search results from asset property. You can access and edit the files anywhere you want. You can also download the existing assets directly using the Brand Guidelines module.

Price: Custom-based package

Client Communication And Approval Workflows

Client communication and management help agencies acquire and retain clients for a long time. Tools like Basecamp not only help you communicate with clients but also let them track your progress and give you feedback.

By making the required changes, you can easily get the approval for your projects. If you also want to communicate with your client effectively, let's see how Basecamp and Clientjoy will help you out with that:

#8. Basecamp

Basecamp helps small teams organize projects, communicate with clients, plan resources, and track time. It is also a robust tool that makes it easier to compile client feedback and approvals in one place.

Client approval workflows with Basecamp help you avoid disputes as the tool records feedback and central and official conversations of clients. So, when you present your work with Basecamp:

  • All your team members can easily see what the client has said about their work
  • Everyone can easily follow up on the feedback and revise the design

So this way, Basecamp captures the entire thread on a single page.

#9. Clientjoy

Clientjoy can change how you run your businesses for the better. The tool lets your team lead client communication and helps you manage client emails. Also, with a custom Client Portal, you can:

  1. Quickly share the project information, tasks, and assets in one place
  2. You will not have to search for anything else in the emails
  3. You can get quick feedback and approvals from your client quickly and easily

If you don't want to ask the same thing from your clients, you can also create a template for onboarding. The tool also offers data rooms where you and your client can share files, further streamlining the process. So, when everyone works better with Clientjoy, how will your agency not thrive?

Time Tracking and Resource Scheduling Tools

Like time management boosts productivity, efficient resource management reduces the risk of resource bottleneck and budget overflow. So, let's see which tools can be helpful in this regard:

#10. Harvest

The tool provides real data on how your team members have used their time. It can help you maximize billable hours, create accurate forecasts, and plan projects moving forward. You can choose a Google Calendar event or project to track time and get automated time reports. That is why Harvest has become one of the agencies' most popular time management tools.

The tool is also helpful in budget monitoring. You can set hourly or fixed budgets and then start monitoring as your project progresses. It will help you get instant alerts once the budget is reached. Harvest can also be integrated with Slack, Google Workspace, and Asana. It helps the teams to capture time without changing the daily workflows.

#11. Toggl

Toggl offers you three different types of tools including the Toggl Plan for work planning, Toggl Hire for hiring, and Toggl Track for time tracking. With Toggl for time tracking, you can get to know how your teams use their time, as it provides you with the following:

  1. Summary reports
  2. Detailed reports
  3. Weekly reports

This way, you can also get actionable insights that can be used later on to boost productivity, balance team workloads, and increase efficiency. All of this can ultimately drive growth and profitability. Also, from web to integration to mobile, you can get a time-tracking application for everyone.

If you want to get more out of your resources, get help from Toggl in resource scheduling. The tool provides templates, which greatly help as they let you know how things can work better. As you can monitor time, you can also track the budget, allocate the resources efficiently, and ensure that the client gets the project within the set deadline and budget.

Visual Content Creation Automation

#12. Abyssale

In this digital era, capturing the attention of internet users has become very difficult. Shorter deadlines make the tasks more challenging. So, to combat this issue, marketers should develop better ideas and engaging content that can effectively capture the users' interest within a few seconds.

Like other agencies, you want to execute the client's marketing campaigns efficiently. If your team does not have time to create or needs unique ideas to start the project, give them creative automation software like Abyssale. The tool can automatically scale the production of multi-format visual assets. You can get thousands of variations within minutes from the templates, and there is no need for an Excel wizard.

The visual content creation automation also lets you personalize the images for your marketing campaigns. The best part is that no coding is required, so you can easily get brand-aligned visuals. The tool also maintains graphic consistency to ensure branding consistency throughout the marketing campaigns.

Abyssale also speeds up your asset production up to 10X and lets you save 90% of your time. The quick turnaround lets the agencies launch more effective campaigns faster. The tools offer you 100s of banner formats. So, instead of hiring more designers and wasting time creating each of your campaigns manually, switch to Abyssale, automate the whole process and boost your agency's productivity!

Marketing Workflow Optimization Tools

Repetitive tasks consume more energy and time. So, why not automate the marketing workflow and optimize efficiency? Also, this way, teams can get more time to focus on other things, which optimizes your agency's overall efficiency and revenue and lets you build a better reputation in the market. So, let's see here: Zapier and Airtable can be helpful in this regard:

#13. Airtable

It is easier-to-use database software that empowers marketing teams to drive business growth with increased flexibility, agility, and scale. The tool provides a single place for the marketing teams to streamline campaigns and workflows.

Airtable gathers business operational data from various sources in one place, allowing users to update information in real-time and streamline workflows. This makes Airtable one of the best multi-channel marketing tools available right now. You can view the data in the calendar grid, gallery, or Kanban formats, which enhances visibility.

In addition, the teams can integrate their custom and pre-existing workflows in Airtable with the marketing platforms and tools they have already used.

#14. Zapier

Another tool for workflow automation is Zapier. This tool helps you optimize processes and free up more energy and time for actual work. Zapier connects all of your tools and applications and lets them talk together.

You can discover different triggers and actions to help you develop automated workflows that will free your team's time. For instance, the tool can semantically save attachments to Google Drive. If not, you can use Asana tasks from emails. Clients' emails are not only for the age agencies; they have been built for everyone!

How to Scale Up an Agency Using the Right Tools

Running and scaling an agency is way more difficult than starting it up. If you have also done everything but yet have not achieved your goals, below you can find the right ways to scale up your agency:

How Do You Scale Up An Agency?

When your competitors take advantage of tools, why are you neglecting them? The tools can help you determine where you are, where you are going, and in which area you are falling behind. The tools can automate different aspects of your business and free up most of your time for other important goals like your clients.

So, you can build long-term relationships with the clients, and their trust in you brings more clients and revenue to your agency. You can also get insights through these tools, make strategic decisions, and grow tremendously. So, automate the workflows, get more clients, grow your teams, and scale up your agency.

Managing Client Relationships At Scale

CRM becomes crucial for agencies as they grow. It is a free, robust, easy-to-use tool offering various basic functionalities agencies need to log sales activity and track pipelines. The tool also enables agencies to manage client data and build stronger relationships with them efficiently.

The tool helps you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current sales processes. Resultantly, client reporting solutions can help make strategic improvements. If you get the paid plan, you can benefit from its advanced features.

Make Your Agency Stand Out with the Right Tools

The agency management tools can make your agency succeed in this competitive market. Let's understand it in detail here:

How Do I Make My Agency Stand Out?

As an agency, you can stand out only if you execute your project efficiently, meet client expectations, and assure on-time delivery. Project management tools can ensure you do all this smoothly and proficiently.

Creative project management tools help you organize tasks, monitor work progress, communicate or collaborate with clients, maintain branding consistency, and allocate resources effectively. So, if you want your agency to thrive, choose the right tools to help you achieve your goals.

Leveraging Automation For Competitive Advantage

Agency automation tools like Abyssale can efficiently streamline your visual content creation tasks, boost productivity, and help you create unique and successful marketing campaigns that will set you apart. The tools let you design hundreds of formats at the speed of one, empower coworkers to make their banners, and export template variations in various formats.

Conclusion: Invest in the Best Tools to Boost Your Agency's Success

Agency management tools make it easier to plan projects, allocate tasks and resources, and keep your teams organized so that you can easily meet set deadlines. The tools also help increase sales, minimize repetitive tasks, improve client satisfaction, personalize customer experiences, and streamline client communications and collaboration.

So, now you might be thinking of one of the best agency marketing tools that can streamline your creative process. If so, don't think of anything else than Abyssale. The tool saves time and money and enables your team to scale up the campaigns. So, don't wait anymore and let Abyssale boost your asset production ten times!