The Top 5 Struggles Digital Marketing Agencies Face
We love Client Account Management so much that we’ve built the world’s first and only dedicated team of remote Client Account Managers (CAMs). We love to step in and help digital marketing agencies whip their Account Management into shape. And when you work with as many agencies as we have, you start to see the same struggles popping up time and time again.
Ultimately, the biggest problem that agency owners tend to face is the same one that keeps them up at night. If you know you haven’t done the work to ensure that every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed when it comes to client management, you know this can turn into unhappy clients. Unhappy clients can turn into clients who cancel their contracts and leave you bad reviews … which can then turn into fewer clients … which can turn into shrinking revenue … which can turn into [insert worst case scenario here].
But let's take a deep breath and set that worse case scenario aside. It doesn’t need to get to that point—promise! Likely, you’ve got a lot of smaller, more manageable issues on your plate, too. And if you can get a handle on all those little issues now, then you can avoid that nightmare scenario all together.
So here are five mistakes we see digital marketing agencies make all the time, along with our tips to overcome them.
1. Too Busy To Manage Onboarding
If you’re an agency owner, you want to be busy—who doesn’t love a steady stream of new clients banging down your door?
But here's the thing. If you start to get too busy without any processes in place, then that steady stream of new clients might be doing more harm than good. That’s because when things get hectic, proper client onboarding is often the first thing to go. Which is a big problem, since onboarding is what is going to set the tone for your entire client relationship.
Don’t fret. If you’ve gotten so busy you’ve let some things fall through the cracks, that’s ok—as long as you fix the problem! We’ve put together a free client onboarding checklist to help you get started. Download it here.
2. Overwhelmed Account Managers
In a perfect world, you’d have a large team of Account Managers, each dedicated to just one or two clients, and no one would ever be stressed or overwhelmed or overloaded or on the verge of burnout.
But of course, we don’t live in a perfect world. And so it makes sense that one of the biggest questions we field is ‘how many clients should my CAMs be managing?’
There are no easy answers to this question. How many clients your CAM can handle will be largely dependent on what we call their Capacity Index. So many factors go into how many clients you can manage (not the least of which is the client experience you want to deliver).
That said, you probably already know if your Account Managers are overwhelmed. And if they are, we’ve got two surefire solutions.
First, your existing CAMs may simply need some better standard operating procedures (SOPs) and better client management practices in place. If that’s the case, they might benefit from our CAM Community, which is our go-to resource for all things Client Management, including access to the exact systems, education, and templates we use every day. Learn all about it here.
Second, you may simply need to add more Account Managers to your team. If you don’t think you have the budget for that now, then you might want to consider hiring a fractional Account Manager, which can be a lot more affordable (with even better results!).
3. Nonexistent Account Managers
If you’re a younger agency, then perhaps overwhelmed Client Account Managers might not be your problem … because you don’t have any CAMs at all!
We totally understand the concerns that new agency owners have around budgets and keeping costs in check, especially in this time of economic uncertainty. But we’ve seen it time and time again. If you don’t have someone managing your clients and in charge of project management, then that’s like having no one at the wheel. And this can lead to two scenarios. Either your clients suffer, with too many loose ends never being tied. Or else you suffer! All too often agency owners end up managing clients themselves—keeping them from all the critical, value-added work of growing the business.
If this sounds like you, then, again, we encourage you to consider fractional Account Management. For example, all the amazing Client Managers on our team work remotely, for 10, 15, or 20 hours a week.
4. Too Many Overhead Costs
Too many overhead costs? We’ve got a great solution: go remote!!!
Our team is 100% remote, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re able to funnel all the money we would have spent on an office, back into growing our agency and supporting our awesome team members. It’s win-win (see all the ways a remote team is good for your bottom line here).
And of course, like we’ve already covered, hiring fractional employees is another way to keep costs in check, while still providing a high quality service to your clients.
5. Team Confusion
When everyone’s confused about their roles and what they need to do on any given project, chaos ensues. We’re talking missed steps, low productivity, and, ultimately, unhappy clients.
This is another big problem with a relatively simple solution. Your team needs role clarity. And that means you all need all those SOPs we’ve discussed. And you need designated Project Managers who really know how to delegate. Both can dramatically improve efficiency and productivity in your agency.
You can’t do it all — no one can. That’s why it’s best to let everyone work in their own zone. Outsource key tasks to the pros, give your team clear guidance, and then let them do what they’re great at — whether that’s running 7-figure ad campaigns, optimizing pages for conversions, or anything and everything in between.
Ready to move beyond all these struggles, so that your agency can live up to its full potential? Schedule an intro call here to see how a simple change, like hiring a fractional Account Manager, can make all the difference!