Managing a marketing agency involves juggling many moving parts. From onboarding new clients and creating a plan to executing that plan and reporting on results, no two projects are ever the same. As your agency grows, this work can become increasingly complex and overwhelming. The right digital agency management software can help ease the burden by streamlining and automating your marketing agency operations. In this guide, we’ll explore how digital agency management software can help you create and grow your productized service efficiently.
One valuable tool for achieving this goal is Orchestra’s grow your productized service solution. This simple yet effective tool helps you organize your productized service and create the framework you need to deliver the service consistently and successfully.
Key Services of Digital Agencies
Boost your website’s visibility and search engine rankings with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services offered by digital marketing agencies. These services encompass on-page optimization and off-page strategies. On-page optimization involves refining individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It includes optimizing content, HTML source code, and improving site architecture.
Off-page strategies, on the other hand, focus on improving the website’s reputation and authority through link-building and social media marketing. By implementing both on-page and off-page techniques, digital marketing agencies can significantly enhance your website’s search engine visibility. Local SEO is another crucial aspect of SEO services, especially for businesses targeting specific geographic areas. It involves optimizing your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches.
This includes claiming business listings, managing reviews, and ensuring accurate information across all online platforms. Conversely, international markets require a different approach. Digital marketing agencies can assist in tailoring your website to target international audiences, including multilingual SEO, international link building, and geotargeting. Transitioning into the subsequent section about ‘pay-per-click advertising (PPC),’ SEO is the foundation for a strong online presence. While SEO focuses on organic search results, PPC allows for more immediate visibility by paying for clicks to your website. Let’s delve into how PPC services can complement your SEO efforts and drive targeted traffic to your website.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
Are you looking to maximize your online advertising efforts? Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) allows for targeted ad placement, ensuring your message reaches the right audience at the right time. Not only is PPC a cost-effective marketing method, but it also provides measurable campaign results, allowing you to track the success of your ads in real-time.
Targeted Ad Placement
Digital marketing agencies implement targeted ad placement through Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) to maximize your reach and engage with potential customers. Ad targeting and audience segmentation are crucial components of this strategy. By understanding your audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior, digital marketing agencies can ensure that your ads are shown to the most relevant audience.
This targeted approach increases the likelihood of capturing the attention of potential customers who are more likely to convert. Ad placement also involves behavioral targeting, where ads are displayed based on a user’s previous online behavior. This allows for a more personalized and tailored approach, ensuring that your ads are shown to individuals who’ve demonstrated an interest in similar products or services.
Cost-Effective Marketing Method
You can optimize your marketing budget using Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) as a cost-effective method to reach your target audience and drive website traffic. With PPC, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, making it a highly efficient way to allocate your marketing funds. This approach enables you to set a budget aligning with your business goals, ensuring you get the most out of your digital marketing effectiveness. Additionally, PPC allows for precise targeting, ensuring that your ads are seen by the right people at the right time.
Measurable Campaign Results
Achieve measurable campaign results through Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) to track and analyze the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. By utilizing PPC, you can ensure that every click is accounted for, helping you understand the impact of your advertising dollars.
Here’s how PPC can help you achieve measurable campaign results:
Conversion Tracking
Track and measure the specific actions that users take after clicking on your ads, such as purchases, form submissions, or sign-ups.
Data Analysis
Analyze the collected data to gain insights into user behavior, preferences, and trends, allowing you to refine your marketing strategies.
Performance Metrics
Monitor key metrics like click-through rates, cost per click, and return on ad spend to gauge the success of your campaigns.
Optimization Opportunities
Use data-driven insights to optimize ad performance, optimize targeting, and maximize ROI.
Social Media Marketing
In social media marketing, you can engage with your target audience through various platforms and build brand awareness. You can effectively expand your reach and connect with potential customers by utilizing influencer partnerships and strategic engagement strategies.
Influencer partnerships involve collaborating with individuals who have a strong presence and following on social media, allowing you to leverage their influence to promote your products or services.
This can significantly enhance brand awareness and credibility within your target market. Moreover, implementing engagement strategies is crucial for fostering meaningful interactions with your audience. Encouraging likes, comments, and shares can create a sense of community and belonging among your followers. By consistently providing valuable and relevant content, you can establish a loyal customer base and increase brand loyalty.
Community building is an essential aspect of social media marketing, enabling you to cultivate a dedicated following that actively engages with your brand. Furthermore, social media provides a platform for two-way communication, allowing you to listen to feedback, address concerns, and demonstrate transparency. This level of interaction humanizes your brand and fosters trust among your audience. As a result, social media marketing goes beyond just promotional content; it’s about creating an inclusive and engaging online environment for your audience.
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It’s a strategic approach focused on developing and sharing content to engage and connect with your target customers.
Here are some key elements of content marketing:
Content Strategy
Developing a well-defined content strategy is crucial for successful content marketing. It involves identifying your target audience, understanding their needs and preferences, and creating a plan to deliver valuable content that resonates with them.
Audience Engagement
Content marketing aims to engage the audience by providing them with content that isn’t only informative but also compelling and relevant to their interests. This can be achieved through various content formats such as blogs, videos, infographics, and social media posts.
Brand Storytelling
Effective content marketing often involves brand storytelling, where the focus is on creating a narrative that resonates with the audience. This storytelling approach helps in building a strong emotional connection with the audience, fostering brand loyalty and trust.
Visual Content
Visual content, such as images, videos, and interactive graphics, plays a significant role in content marketing. It helps in capturing and retaining the audience’s attention, conveying messages more effectively, and enhancing overall engagement. Incorporating these elements into your content marketing efforts can significantly enhance your brand’s visibility, credibility, and customer relationships.
Email Marketing
To effectively engage and connect with your target audience, email marketing is a valuable tool for delivering personalized and relevant content directly to their inboxes. Through email segmentation, digital marketing agencies can tailor content to specific groups, ensuring that the right message reaches the right people. By utilizing A/B testing, these agencies can determine the most effective subject lines, content, and calls to action, optimizing your email campaigns for better engagement and conversion rates.
Moreover, email automation allows for timely and consistent communication with your audience, ensuring that they receive relevant content at the right moments in their customer journey. Digital marketing agencies also focus on conversion optimization through email marketing. They analyze and refine each element of your emails to drive better results, whether it’s increasing click-through rates or boosting overall conversions.
By constantly refining and improving email content and design, these agencies can help you achieve your conversion goals.As we transition into the subsequent section about ‘web design and development’, it’s important to note that a cohesive strategy between email marketing and website design is crucial for a seamless user experience. Your digital marketing agency can integrate your email campaigns with your website to create a unified brand experience, driving traffic from email to your site and maximizing the impact of your digital marketing efforts.
Web Design and Development
For a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, your agency provides expert web design and development services tailored to your business needs. When establishing a strong online presence, your website is the cornerstone of your digital marketing efforts. Here’s how our web design and development services can benefit your business:
User Experience
We prioritize creating a seamless and enjoyable experience for your website visitors. By focusing on user experience, we ensure your website is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and provides valuable content to engage your audience.
Responsive Design
With the increasing use of mobile devices, having a responsive website is crucial. We design and develop websites that adapt and function seamlessly on various devices and screen sizes, enhancing user experience and maximizing your reach.
Customized Solutions
Our team understands that every business is unique, and we offer customized web design and development solutions tailored to your specific industry, brand identity, and target audience.
SEO Integration
We integrate search engine optimization (SEO) best practices into the design and development process to ensure that your website isn’t only visually appealing and optimized for search engines, helping you rank higher and attract organic traffic.
Analytics and Reporting
Regarding analytics and reporting, digital marketing agencies offer data-driven decision-making tools to help you understand your audience and optimize your strategies.
Performance measurement tools are also provided to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and make informed adjustments. Additionally, customized reporting dashboards give you a clear overview of your campaigns, allowing you to focus on key metrics that matter most to your business.
Data-Driven Decision Making
You use data-driven decision-making to inform your digital marketing strategies, utilizing analytics and reporting to measure and optimize performance. This approach allows you to gain valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences, enabling you to tailor your marketing efforts effectively. Here’s how data-driven decision-making can benefit your digital marketing strategies:
Data Analysis
Leveraging advanced data analytics tools to extract meaningful information from large datasets.
Marketing Strategy Optimization
Using data-driven insights to refine and enhance your marketing strategies for better results.
Performance Measurement
Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
Continuous Improvement
Utilizing data-driven decision-making to optimize and refine your digital marketing initiatives continuously.
Performance Measurement Tools
Digital marketing agencies offer performance measurement tools, including analytics and reporting, to track and evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Conversion tracking is a vital component of these tools, allowing you to monitor user actions after engaging with your digital content. You can optimize your strategies for better results by understanding which elements are driving conversions.
Additionally, audience segmentation within analytics enables you to categorize your audience based on various criteria such as demographics, behavior, and interests. This segmentation provides valuable insights into how different groups interact with your marketing efforts, allowing you to tailor your campaigns to specific audience segments for improved engagement and conversion rates. With these measurement tools, you can make data-driven decisions to enhance the performance of your digital marketing initiatives.
Customized Reporting Dashboards
Utilize customized reporting dashboards provided by digital marketing agencies to gain real-time insights into the performance of your marketing campaigns. These dashboards offer a range of benefits that can significantly enhance your marketing strategies:
Dashboard Customization
Tailor the dashboard to display the specific metrics and KPIs that matter most to your business, allowing for a deeper understanding of your performance.
Client Satisfaction
By leveraging reporting tools and data visualization, you can present clear and impactful reports to your clients, enhancing transparency and trust.
Real-time Monitoring
Access up-to-the-minute data on campaign performance, enabling quick adjustments and optimizations for better results.
Actionable Analytics
The ability to visualize data in meaningful ways facilitates informed decision-making and the implementation of effective marketing tactics.
10 Tips for Efficient Digital Agency Management
1. Use an Agency Management Software Like Orchestra
Managing a digital agency is no simple task. There are a lot of moving parts, and proper organization is key to keeping the ship running smoothly. That's why agency management software is essential for any digital agency looking to scale. Take Orchestra, for example. Launch your productized service effortlessly with Orchestra's all-in-one growth toolkit. Designed for creatives ready to scale, Orchestra provides a branded, white-labeled client portal, task management, and real-time analytics, with no coding needed just your Stripe account.
Whether you're a designer, developer, or copywriter, Orchestra streamlines your workflow, letting you collaborate with clients seamlessly while maintaining a private workspace with your team. Add integrations like Slack and webhooks to customize your setup and deliver a branded experience. Elevate your service with a platform built to grow alongside you, try Orchestra for free to grow your productized service today.
2. Establish a Scalable Agency Structure
I understood the value of having good systems in place to communicate and track work, even when we were just three people. After that, my first full-time hire was a Project Manager to help keep on track of all our clients and task management. Think about where you're at and where you see your agency heading. As you begin to hire more resources, ensure that your agency structure, systems, and processes allow for growth without severely disrupting organizational hierarchy.
For example, your digital agency may have just two specialists specializing in search engine optimization. As you begin signing new clients and taking on more complex projects, you may need an agency liaison (such as an account manager) to oversee project management. In this scenario, adapting to a pod agency model may be your best bet.
3. Update Your Pricing Structure
Knowing how to charge your clients may not always be the most straightforward task, but it's absolutely essential. To decide on an appropriate agency pricing strategy, make sure to ask yourself the following questions: Is my agency focused on short-term or long-term client projects (or a combination)? How long would these types of projects take? Should my agency consider any contractual clauses (e.g., 50% downpayment)? How do my competitors typically price their services? Are there any opportunities for pricing add-ons or upselling clients? Should my agency charge for client reports?
Be sure to set your boundaries early when receiving payment. You don't want to end up in sticky situations such as trying to convince a client to pay on time or even firing a client for payment delinquency. Include payment terms and conditions in your client's contractual agreement (and stick to them). With a pre-determined pricing structure, you position your agency to send proposals and contracts quickly. But, as your agency continues to scale in size and experience, don't be afraid to adjust your pricing structure as needed.
4. Decide on a Niche
What does your agency want to be known for? Trying to be all things to all clients can be difficult to sustain as your agency continues to grow. If you haven't already, narrow your services and target a specific niche (or two). That way, you become top-of-mind for prospects seeking your specialized product offering and expertise. Find a niche or two and be great at it. It is far easier to repeat results for similar clients than to be an expert in every field imaginable. To become a niche agency, make sure to Clearly outline your ideal customer profile. Create advertising and inbound marketing strategies that align with prospects' needs.
Research different keyword types to understand user search intent and their pain points. Evaluate competitor websites and social media platforms to decipher who their target market is. Develop a unique selling proposition and determine whether there are any untapped target markets. Once you decide on a niche, creating repeatable agency processes for that type of client becomes exponentially easier. That way, you'll be better positioned to scale and build your brand reputation in the process.
5. Create Replicable Documents and Procedures
Our onboarding was so messy that we knew we needed better processes. Now, when a client onboards, it's all automated, and each client has a smooth experience. And getting sales was always just a matter of chance. Now, we have a strategic and focused sales process that gives us a steady stream of leads. Picture this–your agency's brand reputation begins prospering, and suddenly, you've onboarded ten new clients in one day! It's excellent news, but it won't mean much if you try to do everything from scratch and fumble during onboarding.
To avoid unnecessary hassle, create documents and procedures that can be easily customized and sent out when needed. From professional SEO proposals using a pre-built proposal template to client contracts to onboarding checklists and dashboard templates, automated processes save your agency time in the long run. The proper management system is an advance!
6. Invest in Infrastructure
When scaling their agency, Yanira M. Castro, CEO of Humanity Communications, found that the most important thing was to build out the infrastructure. It makes sense because workflow automation is non-negotiable for scaling agencies. As your roster grows, you need proper systems to ensure your agency can keep up with numerous marketing efforts and evolving demands. I understood the value of having sound systems to communicate and track work, even when we were just three people.
Infrastructure building helped us grow because there wasn't wasted time searching for something stuck in one person's email inbox. It also allowed us to become more responsive to clients, which leads to better quality work. For example, say your client wants to run several large-scale marketing efforts in conjunction (e.g., a Facebook Ads campaign alongside a Mailchimp drip campaign). Relying on unscalable processes (such as tracking metrics through a manual spreadsheet) will only work for so long.
7. Keep Track of Your Numbers
Know your numbers! Understand the cost of doing business and delivering the work at your desired level. Once we understood our processes, workflows, and staffing needs for every project and initiative, we could price our services with profitability. Business is business, and you're in it to make a profit. To run your marketing agency successfully, you'll need to keep track of your financials and performance. Just as you deliver actionable insights to your clients, don't forget to track your agency KPIs, such as implementing EOS rocks or measuring key retention metrics to ensure you're holding onto your hard-won clients.
8. Hire the Right People
There's power in diversity and hiring resources with various skill sets. This will bring new perspectives to your agency and ensure proper resource management while scaling. We ensure that we have the right mix of people and support their individual needs, all while staying focused on the company as a whole. When building a company, you don't want to hire all the same types of people.
Just like in a recipe, you need different ingredients to make a dish shine. And a part of hiring the right people is trusting them to do their jobs. As CEO of SEOMCR, Simon Thompson says, "I hire good people with specialist skills that can–annoyingly--do every job better than me." After all, you have an agency to run and can't stretch yourself thin by focusing on everything.
It may be a challenge to pass essential responsibilities on to someone else, but it is the only way an agency can continue to scale. The solution? Focus on hiring resources with the appropriate skill sets and trust them to do the job. That way, you won't have to worry about micro-managing competent employees or excessive workflow management, which gives you more time to focus on agency operations.
9. Invest in Employee Development
Scaling your agency means putting measures in place for your employees' development also. As your workforce grows, your staff must be able to manage their workloads at a steady and realistic pace. Here are a few practical steps to ensure your staff is well-equipped to reach their full potential. Identify and Nurture Employee Strengths Your employees are valuable assets with their own particularities and interests.
By understanding their strengths and taking the time to cultivate them, you encourage your employees to bring their best selves to work. Not only does this lead to their professional and personal growth, but also your agency's. Invest in your employees and watch your agency thrive.
10. Create a Healthy Agency Culture
Creating a value-based, inspiring agency culture will attract employees that align with your vision and long-term goals. It's especially important since you want to ensure your staff is on board during your growth trajectory. Our values have run deep through our company culture since we started. This list continues to evolve, strengthen, and serve as our guide. Your agency team members spend many of their waking hours at work, so make sure to prioritize their job satisfaction.
It's a continual process of enacting your agency's values (when applicable), encouraging employee engagement, and protecting morale at all costs. As Rodrigo Campos, Founder & CEO of Splurge Media, puts it, "I focus heavily on building the right culture for our business. We spend a significant amount of time together, and this time together needs to be positive, welcoming, collaborative, creative, and innovative."
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25 Best Digital Agency Management Software
1. Orchestra: The Perfect Tool To Organize Your Client Service
Orchestra’s ultimate growth toolkit to help you launch and scale your productized service. The software is specially designed for creative professionals like designers, developers, and copywriters to help them organize their workflow to deliver their services to clients efficiently. Use Orchestra to create a fully-branded and customizable client dashboard to help you deliver your service, manage tasks and team communication, and visualize your performance with built-in analytics.
With Orchestra, you won’t have to worry about any coding. Just connect your Stripe account, and you can start processing client payments. Try Orchestra for free today and discover how it can help boost your productized service.
2. Monday: A Top-Rated Digital Agency Management Software
Some of the biggest companies in the world, like Hulu and NBC, use Monday.com, and there’s no reason why your agency shouldn’t give it a whirl, either. Monday streamlines workflows and task visualizations. It’s an excellent agency management system tool. You can create boards or visual tables to sync items and updates in real-time.
There are status buttons and other presentable options, including Gantt, maps, forms, Timeline, Calendar, Kanban, and more. Available on Android and iOS, this highly responsive agency management software tool allows you to easily manage and collaborate with remote teams. You can assign owners for different tasks and let their AI bots focus on mundane matters. This also reduces the chances of human errors.
Pros
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Forever free plan available for up to two seats
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Modern, intuitive, and visual dashboard
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Highly customizable
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200-plus templates for creating boards and automations
Cons
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Confusing pricing plans because of per-seat (user) pricing
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Minimum team size of three for paid plans
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The free trial is only 14 days, whereas most project management platforms give 30
3. Notion: The Ultimate Workspace Organization App for Creative Agencies
Used by giants like Verizon, McDonald’s, Pixar, and The Wall Street Journal, Notion is a robust agency management software program that you should also be using. It is the ultimate workspace organization app designed to empower your teams and give them unprecedented collaborative control when dealing with different projects. From creating product roadmaps to codifying processes and building CRMs, Notion has it all. You can use it to create content calendars, prepare notes and documentation, decide on participants, send out meeting invites, and integrate with other apps.
If you are using multiple B2B lead generation strategies, you can also track performance with Notion. Many leading tech giants have also introduced their Notion integrations, so if you are using other apps like Slack, you can integrate them with Notion to track your data across multiple apps. It’s one of the best ways to collaborate with teams, which is why many web design agencies worldwide are already using Notion. It’s one of the best creative agency management software tools out there.
Pros
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Great note-taking capabilities
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Very easy to use and customize
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Affordable pricing
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Forever Free plan has enough features for solopreneurs
Cons
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Lacks advanced project management features
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Keeping multiple projects can get tedious
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Poor security features
4. Zoho CRM: The Omnichannel Client Management Tool
One of the areas where Zoho CRM stands out as a client management tool is its omnichannel approach. This allows firms to engage with clients via whichever medium they prefer, whether email, telephone or something else. Zoho CRM has made a great effort to become an all-in-one platform. It allows businesses to monitor lead activity and customer buyer preferences and view price lists or documents without changing applications - everything your company needs for client management is right here.
Given that AI is such a hot topic right now, it should come as little surprise to hear that Zoho offers users its assistance. You won’t find ChatGPT levels of intelligence here but personal assistant Zia Voice can retrieve information, update accounts, and help generate performance reports. It’s certainly a handy addition that improves Zoho’s ease of use. Although there is no free tier with Zoho CRM, a free trial is available. Given that the platform is currently used by more than 150,000 businesses across 180 countries, a free trial may be all you need before you’re convinced this is the right client management software for you.
Pros
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Workflow automation
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Customization
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Email marketing
Cons
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Steep learning curve
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Limited customer support
5. Freshworks CRM: An Easy-To-Use CRM for Agencies
Freshworks CRM makes it easier for teams to track leads, automate marketing campaigns, segment customers into different categories, manage customer data in one place, and quickly build customer relationships. Through features like contact management, lead scoring, customer segmentation, task automation, and customer insights, businesses can increase revenue and get a better understanding of their customers.
The CRM tool also helps teams stay organized by providing detailed reporting on customer interactions and allowing users to set up rules-based workflows that can be used to automate repetitive tasks. Additionally, Freshworks CRM integrates with popular third-party applications like Google apps, Zapier, and Mailchimp, making it even easier for teams to get the most out of their customer data!
Pros
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Pipeline management to visualize the entire sales process organized by stage
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Sales Goals to set and track goals based on revenue or the number of deals
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Filter, sort, and search functionality on the mobile app
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Deal performance dashboards
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Drag-and-drop interface
Cons
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Project management features are only available on the expensive plans
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Limited reporting capabilities to customize key metrics
6. Productive: A Well-Rounded Agency Management Software
Productive is a well-rounded agency management software with a stack of powerful functionality that gives you the tools and data you need to keep an agency running smoothly. The tool was built by a team with a decade of experience in founding, managing, and scaling a software development shop, so it's especially well-suited to digital agencies. The tool's features fully satisfy my criteria for agency management tools. You'll find client and prospect management in the Sales Pipeline (manage deal flow, get sales organized).
The Resource Planning feature, time tracker, and task collaboration tools fit the criteria for resource and project management that I look for in an agency tool or platform. Billing and invoicing can also be managed straight from the tool, along with useful reports on profitability and costs to help with finance management. The reporting feature actually goes quite a bit beyond that, with real-time reports on margins, utilization, and a whole lot more—including reports on individual employees' or contractors' history with the company, salary report, etc. Productive's integrations include Zapier as well as Jira, Open API, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Exact.
Pros
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Customizable Dashboards: Enhanced customization allows users to tailor their workspace to their needs, providing a more personalized and efficient management experience.
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Integrated Financial Management: This feature integrates financial tracking with project management, offering a seamless experience for budget and expense oversight.
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Client Portal: Including a client portal sets Productive.io apart, enhancing client engagement and transparency.
Cons
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Learning Curve: New users may find the platform slightly complex, requiring time to understand and utilize all its features fully.
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Customization Constraints: While customizable, some users might find the extent of customization options insufficient for their specific needs.
7. Forecast: An Agency Management Tool That Offers a Wide Range of Features
Forecast is an agency management tool that offers a wide range of features to manage your projects, resources, time, and budget. Users typically enjoy Forecast for its extensive user interface and forecasting software that supports informed decision-making, but its project planning side could be better. The forecast can be a good pick for agencies that are looking to invest in a comprehensive solution that offers resourcing and financial management support.
Pros
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Advanced AI technology
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Cloud-based platform
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Real-time data analysis
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Seamless tech stack integration
Cons
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Occasional software update
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Customer service can be improved, according to some Forecast reviews
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Initial training required
8. Salesforce: Agency Management with Advanced Client Management Features
Salesforce Cloud CRM is a fantastic piece of software for agency management. Although, as a CRM, it has a wide range of functionality, including a vast number of integrations, one of the areas where it truly shines is managing your communications with existing clients. Regarding contact management, Salesforce provides a clear overview of your clients, including activity history, key contacts, customer communications, and internal account discussions.
It’s easy to access critical customer data, such as their communication history, to gain a complete picture of every client. It’s also easy to pull in relevant social data from LinkedIn and Facebook so your company can gauge customer sentiment. The Salesforce CRM also recognizes that we live in a mobile-first world, and business can be conducted anywhere. That’s why Salesforce Cloud CRM is accompanied by the Salesforce Mobile App, which means you can quickly access critical data before you enter a client meeting - wherever you are.
Pros
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Total sales pipeline management.
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A high number of integrations available.
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Advanced reporting and customizable dashboards.
Cons
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Expensive in comparison to competitors.
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Limited customer support.
9. Hubspot CRM: A Top-Rated Client Management Software
HubSpot CRM is a customer relationship management platform designed to help businesses grow. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help teams manage client relationships and interactions, from tracking leads and deals to managing customer data. It also features automation capabilities to help streamline workflows for sales reps, customer service agents, and marketers.
The platform’s integration capabilities allow businesses to connect HubSpot CRM with various third-party tools, such as email marketing platforms and payment processors. With its intuitive user interface, comprehensive suite of features, and integration capabilities, HubSpot CRM is an ideal tool for businesses of all sizes.
Pros
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Contact and pipeline management
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Email and prospect tracking
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Contact website activity
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Email template builder
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Landing page builder
Cons
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Expensive pricing plans compared to other client management software
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Lacks intuitive tools for workflow automation
10. Harvest: The Simple Tool for Tracking Time and Expenses
Harvest is an easy tool to use to track time and expenses. It provides clear reports on time spent on a project and the agency’s billable hours. Harvest’s integration capabilities make it easy to integrate with your current workflow and tech stack.
Pros
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Clean interface and easy navigation
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Option to generate invoices and share them with clients through email
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Comprehensive integrations (50+)
Cons
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Per-user pricing can be costly for larger teams
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Customization and reporting capabilities are limited
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Software seems too basic for larger enterprises or those with complex project management needs
11. Apptivo CRM: A Highly Customizable and Affordable CRM
Apptivo CRM is an affordable and highly customizable platform that aims to be a one-stop solution for all your business software needs. In addition to essential CRM functionality, it also includes tools for such tasks as accounting, invoicing, and project management. It's easy to use and provides support for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Pros
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Comprehensive feature set with various customization options
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Outstanding mobile applications, granular security controls, and 24-hour support
Cons
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Performance can feel sluggish
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Could use extended APIs
12. Score: A Comprehensive Business Management Solution
Scoro project management offers a range of features to help you manage your projects and resources. It’s a good option for service-providing businesses that are looking for a single platform to manage their day-to-day operations but can be challenging to onboard. Users like Scoro because it’s a good business management software that offers many features to help teams collaborate and manage tasks. Since it focuses on project management, time tracking, and invoicing, it can be a good choice for businesses looking to automate daily processes.
Pros
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Data-focused and detailed, perfect for project managers,
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Offers a continuous and logical flow, from quote to project to invoice to final project delivery, suitable for many different business processes,
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Offers a good onboarding experience,
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Although there’s a lot of data presented, it manages to put the most essential information upfront, like the profit margin for all issued quotes,
Cons
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It is a lot to take in, quite overwhelming at the beginning,
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Moving to Scoro will take quite a bit of time due to the amount of data we ill have to transfer and the time it’ll take to introduce our team to Scoro,
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The UI, although modern, could use some improvements to package the amount of data it presents or requires better, like in the many numbers we can enter when working on our quotes,
13. Teamwork: A Project Management Platform Built for Agencies
Teamwork is a project management platform built to help agencies manage the entire lifecycle of their client work in one place. Teamwork provides all the features you’d expect, including integrated time tracking, financial management, robust reporting, and free access for clients to ensure your projects are delivered on time and within budget. Forget crossed wires, unread Slacks, and endless emails.
Collaborate in real-time with your team and clients to get your questions answered. Keep clients, teammates, and leadership on the same page. Centralize your work, communicate easily with your team, and reduce the complexity of collaboration so your team is free to focus on what they do best. Keep your team members and clients in the loop with Teamwork. Communicate with colleagues and clients without having to switch platforms. Update the team, ask for input, and get feedback in context. Working as a team has never been easier.
Pros
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Free forever plan and low-cost paid plans starting at $5.99 per month
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Deep level of customization
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Easy-to-use automations
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Agency-oriented nomenclature and features
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Built-in time tracking
Cons
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A minimum of three users for the low-priced paid plan
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Slower run time once more work gets added
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Most features are only unlocked with the Deliver plan or above
14. Creatio: A Versatile CRM for Sales and Marketing
Sales Creatio has undergone several name changes over the years, but it remains a top CRM choice. Its specialty is larger sales organizations, and it does a good job catering to their needs. Creatio also offers tools for business process management (BPM), marketing automation, and help desks, enabling customers to address multiple business objectives in a unified way.
Pros
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Multifaceted and highly customizable unified business solution
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Rooted in solid CRM functionality
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Creatio CRM helps SMBs streamline processes from lead management to closing
Cons
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Relatively short trial period
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Hefty feature set
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Customization can be daunting at the outset
15. Pipedrive: A CRM Built for Sales
Pipedrive is a CRM system designed to help sales teams increase productivity and close more deals. It offers various features that help streamline the sales process, including contact management, email tracking, call logging, lead scoring, sales forecasting, and automated workflows. With Pipedrive, a sales team can quickly organize their leads, contacts, and deals to stay focused on the tasks that matter. The client management app allows users to easily create custom pipelines and automated emails to help nurture leads and increase conversions.
Pros
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Segment leads to create personalized, targeted communication
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Drag-and-drop interface to quickly update deal statuses
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Activity reminders and team collaboration
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Customizable web forms
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Revenue forecasting
Cons
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Limited customization for user permission settings compared to other free client management software
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Project scope and document management tools are paid add-ons
16. Insightly: A Highly Customizable CRM
Insightly delivers a lot of bang for your CRM buck. It's one of the easiest to use among the tested systems, even if it's not quite as feature-rich as some. Importing data is a smooth process. Insightly's built-in reporting engine is AI-powered, providing one-button data export to Microsoft Power BI.
Pros
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Smooth data input and sharing
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A slick interface that's consistent and easy to pick up
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Highly customizable
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Easy integration with Unsightly's help desk and marketing apps
Cons
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Expensive high-end tiers
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Lacks advanced features like custom workflows
17. Zapier: Automate Tasks Between Your Business Apps
Zapier isn’t a regular AMS but is great for automating tasks between apps. It connects software for you, so you don't need coding skills. For example, you can create a “Zap” to add new leads to your CRM from your website or get a Slack alert when an invoice gets paid.
Pros
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Free forever plan and low-cost paid plans starting at $5.99 per month
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Deep level of customization
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Easy-to-use automations
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Agency-oriented nomenclature and features
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Built-in time tracking
Cons
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Minimum of three users for the low-priced paid plan
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Slower run time once more work gets added
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Most features only unlocked with the Deliver plan or above
18. Screendragon: Manage Projects, People, Processes, and Profitability in One Place
Screendragon is an agency management software designed to manage projects, people, processes, and profitability in one place. It is easy to use and offers powerful customization. The world’s top agency groups like Omnicom, WPP, and IPG rely on Screendragon to power their agency operations. Screendragon is seamlessly integrated, offering project management, workflow management, resource management, and forecasting, time-tracking, budget management, and asset management.
The tool is highly configurable, allowing users to customize forms, dashboards, templates, workflow rules, permissions, notifications, reports, and even the terminology used on the platform. Screendragon’s integrated budget module enables users to build SOWs and estimates and forecast future revenues and resourcing needs.
Reviews and approvals are made simple with features for visual proofing, real-time collaboration, version control, and granular permissions. Screendragon’s advanced automation capabilities facilitate the secure and efficient approval of assets and can adapt quickly to support scaling agencies. Intuitive task management allows users to switch between Kanban boards, interactive Gantt charts, and list views.
Pros
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Screendragon offers flexibility to deliver a solution fully aligned with the organization’s needs. Brands can create and edit their terminology, templates, forms, workflow rules, notifications, reports, and rates.
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It provides an enterprise-class hosting environment and service levels. Moreover, its sophisticated permission controls ensure that only the correct data is collected by the right people at the right time.
Cons
- Some users encounter occasional system slowness.
19. Accelo: A Solid Choice to Support Your Project Lifecycle
Thanks to its CRM and management features, Accelo can be a good choice for agencies interested in supporting their entire project lifecycle, from client acquisition to project delivery. Something to consider is that Accelo’s price of entry is less affordable than comparative solutions on the market, such as Productive, which similarly offers integrated sales and management features. Additionally, some users have noted that the tool can be somewhat inflexible.
Pros
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Easy to learn to use.
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Feature-rich.
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Billing and expenses management capability.
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Quality and responsive customer support.
Cons
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Expensive compared to its competitors.
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Core and Professional plans lack ticket and retainer management features.
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Limited integrations.
20. Bitrix24: A Comprehensive Business Suite
Although Bitrix24 may be outlined as a CRM tool, it also doubles as a fantastic piece of client management software. The solution is a well-designed collaboration tool for communication and project management. Beyond lead generation, Bitrix is a valuable tool for customer support, making it ideal for client management. The platform has its own Customer Contact Center, so you can answer client queries and solve problems in real-time, whatever channel they come through.
Bitrix can also help businesses set up automated support if needed and offers help with creating company websites or setting up a chat network on your homepage. With AI tools becoming mainstream news thanks to the release of ChatGPT, Bitrix knows that businesses are increasingly expecting AI to play some part in client management. Here, the platform employs AI to help with customer troubleshooting. Still, if human support is needed, a chatbot can gather the relevant customer information before passing it on to a real-life agent.
Pros
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Comprehensive business suite
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Affordable pricing
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Unlimited contacts with all plans
Cons
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Very steep learning curve
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It doesn’t support chatbots for sales or support
21. Bonsai Agency Software: An All-in-One Agency Management Tool
Bonsai Agency Software is an all-in-one agency management tool that simplifies agencies' lives. It handles everything from project management to client collaboration so that you can focus more on the creative side and less on admin headaches. This integrated approach makes it easy to organize tasks, track progress, collaborate with both your team and clients, and give you a clear idea of how your agency is performing.
Bonsai also includes time tracking, client onboarding, resource management, and automated workflows to keep your operations running smoothly, ensuring projects stay on schedule and within budget. It offers various visual tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and list views to help you stay organized and see everything at a glance. Real-time reporting gives insights into profitability, resource utilization, and your agency’s overall health.
Additionally, Bonsai simplifies the process of managing agency finances. You can track expenses, send invoices, and handle budgeting in one place. Bonsai is a solid pick if you’re looking for a tool to streamline your agency’s operations and boost productivity.
Pros
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User-friendly interface
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Client-centric focus
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Strong focus on small businesses
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Affordable pricing plans
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There is no need to switch between several tools as Bonsai offers an all-in-one approach
Cons
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Limited advanced project management features for larger enterprises
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Bonsai integrations are fewer compared to some competitors (although Zapier integration expands its possibilities)
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The mobile app could be further enhanced with additional features and functionality
22. Workable: Recruitment Software For Hiring Agencies
Workable is excellent for recruitment agencies. It makes hiring easier with job postings, candidate tracking, and team collaboration. Plus, it uses AI to help you find the right candidates faster.
Pros
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Comprehensive candidate evaluations: Workable provides all the necessary data for reporting, visualizations, and understanding the basics of hiring strategy and recruiting metrics, enabling more thorough assessment of candidates
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Swift and straightforward onboarding: The onboarding process with Workable is quick and easy, making it less time-consuming for new users to get started
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User-friendly interface: Workable intuitive ,and easy to use, reducing the need for extensive training for new employees
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Unlimited collaborative options: The software allows for real-time updates and comments from team members, fostering a collaborative hiring process
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Cost-effective: Compared to other options, Workable is more affordable, making it a financially sound choice for businesses.
Cons
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Incompatibility with virtual conferencing services: Workable does not integrate with Zoom or other virtual conferencing services, making it difficult to schedule interviews
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Email syncing issues: Emails from users' inboxes do not automatically sync or appear immediately on Workable, causing delays in communication
23. FunctionFox: Manage Projects, Tasks, and Time for Creative Teams
FunctionFox offers three different plans with features that range from basic time tracking and estimating to project scheduling and gantt charts to customized project intake forms. FunctionFox can support teams with five or five hundred members. FunctionFox is entirely web-based and compatible with all up-to-date browsers, so users on both Mac and PC can work together seamlessly.
FunctionFox allows for team collaboration through project scheduling, allows allocation of specific tasks through action assignments and to-do lists, and facilitates communication through the project blog. Another great feature is the availability tool, which project managers can use to monitor team capacity and utilize everyone’s time effectively.
FunctionFox is easy to use and made even easier with the tutorials and support provided. They offer dedicated onboarding, and all customer support is unlimited, ongoing, and included in the subscription cost. Their website also includes a help center, and detailed help files are contained within the software itself.
Pros
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Easy to use and intuitive
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Flexible plans to support diverse team sizes
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Excellent customer support
Cons
- Limited project management features on lower tiers
24. Kantata: A Customizable Agency Management Solution
Kantata is an agency management system that can manage everything from client relationships to workflows and project tracking. This highly customizable tool allows agencies of all sizes to streamline operations and increase profits. This guide will explain how you can use Kantata for successful agency management.
Kantata has various features designed specifically for agencies, including tools for client onboarding, project planning, time and resource tracking, invoicing, contracts, communication management, and more. With these features in place, you can easily monitor your team’s progress against deadlines or budgets and track the status of clients or projects at any given time. You’ll also have access to key performance data such as team utilization rates or revenue forecasts.
Kantata's core function is to provide users with comprehensive data management solutions. It allows you to store customer information, generate reports, manage tasks and projects, track expenses, collaborate with colleagues or partners remotely, and share information organizationally. Additionally, it offers real-time insights into customer trends and market conditions so that you can make informed decisions quickly. This makes Kantata an excellent solution for businesses that need to stay ahead of the competition by utilizing data-driven insights.
Pros
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Intuitive Task Management: Kantata simplifies work organization by allowing easy assignment and tracking tasks and subtasks.
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Real-time Collaboration: It supports immediate communication and file-sharing among team members, ensuring everyone stays updated.
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Robust Reporting: Kantata offers comprehensive reporting features that aid in making informed decisions and tracking project progress effectively.
Cons
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Limited Integrations: Kantata doesn’t support many third-party integrations, which may limit its flexibility and usability.
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Learning Curve: Some users might find Kantata challenging to navigate initially, requiring time to grasp its functionalities fully.
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• Digital Agency Management Software
Benefits of Using Digital Agency Management Software
Centralize Customer Information Like a Boss
Using an agency management system provides a single location for all customer information (including emails) that can be easily backed up to prevent loss of information. No more worries about disaster preparedness. No more backlogged filing. No more problems duplicating information or looking up previous documents. The same customer information can be accessed from every employee’s desktop. No more lost files!
Improve E&O Documentation
Consistent workflows in your agency are more straightforward with an agency management system because there is a centralized location for all scanned information and notes for carriers, vendors, employees, accounting, prospect information, and all client documentation. The system creates a permanent audit trail.
Extensive Reporting Capability
Available reports from your agency management system provide information on your book of business, management reports on employee productivity and sales growth, expiration lists, call analysis reports, binder logs, production reports, marketing analysis, and more.
Download Policy Information and Automated Invoicing
Policy information from carriers is directly loaded into your agency management system without needing re-keying. Transactions can be automatically invoiced to your system without the need to handle policy dec pages. Direct bill commission statements can be downloaded to automate the allocation of commissions to particular producers. Commercial lines download has improved much in recent years, giving agents the same benefits they have received from personal lines download for years.
Claims Tracking Capability
Claims status reports are available in your agency management system to assist your staff with providing superior service to your clients. Some carriers are beginning to offer the ability to download claims information directly into your agency management system to avoid manual updates.
Financial Reporting
Instead of accessing individual carrier sites to obtain commission reports, your agency management system can download commission information from the carriers and provide valuable reports on profit, cash flow, accounts receivable, payroll, and payables.
Integration with 3rd Party Applications
Outlook, Word, Excel, email, voicemail — All letters, memos, proposals, spreadsheets, emails, voicemails, etc., are tracked in your agency management system. You can also create templates for commonly used customer letters to save typing. You no longer have to pull the file whenever you need any customer document!
Enhanced Ability to Cross-Sell and Re-market
Your agency management system centralizes all client and prospect information that can be used to obtain quotes, move a book of business, identify opportunities for cross-selling, and other sales opportunities.
Improved Profitability and Professionalism
Efficient operations result in higher profits. Clients are provided more professional service when your staff can devote more time to service by not dealing with unorganized pieces of paper.
Real-Time Makes Your Life Easier
Using Real-Time from your agency management system eliminates the need to remember separate login IDs and passwords for each carrier. With the click of a button in your agency management system, information is transferred from your agency system to the carrier’s system without the need to re-enter information for quoting, inquiry, and endorsements.
Real-Time represents the next significant advance in agency workflows, enhancing efficiency and customer responsiveness. Here are examples of agencies using agency management software to achieve these benefits:
AgencyBloc – Centralizes Customer Files and E&O Documentation
Insurance agencies like Davidson & Associates Insurance have used AgencyBloc to centralize client information. It enabled employees across departments to access up-to-date customer data quickly, ensuring everyone works from the same file and reducing miscommunication. The centralized system minimized errors and omissions (E&O) risks and maintained a clear audit trail for all communications and documents. This setup also streamlined client service since any team member could retrieve the client’s history in seconds.
Applied Epic – Extensive Reporting and Financial Tracking
California-based InterWest Insurance Services leverages Applied Epic for its extensive reporting capabilities, allowing management to generate in-depth reports on revenue, claims, and productivity. This visibility helped InterWest’s leaders monitor growth trends, track renewal rates, and identify revenue-generating opportunities. Financial tracking became more straightforward as Applied Epic allowed direct downloads of commission data, reducing the time and effort previously spent accessing carrier sites for these details.
HawkSoft – Automated Invoicing and Policy Information Download
The Wright Agency utilizes HawkSoft’s automated invoicing and policy information download features to streamline invoicing and reduce manual data entry. Policy details from various carriers are downloaded directly, ensuring accurate, up-to-date records without the risk of manual entry errors. This automation also supports direct billing for their agents, allowing them to instantly update producer commissions, reducing their finance team’s workload.
AMS360 – Claims Tracking and Integration with 3rd-Party Applications
Smith Brothers Insurance uses AMS360, particularly for its robust claims tracking features, enabling agents to track and manage claim status reports easily. AMS360’s integration with applications like Outlook and Word helps agents and admins connect client emails, documents, and reports within the system. This integration eliminated the need for manual updates, improved customer service, and ensured faster response times for client inquiries.
EZLynx – Enhanced Cross-Selling and Re-marketing Opportunities
EZLynx has helped agencies like Main Street Independent Insurance Agency enhance their cross-selling potential by centralizing all client data. Agents can identify re-marketing opportunities and cross-sell policies to existing customers by accessing comprehensive client profiles. EZLynx’s automation tools also helped Main Street Independent Insurance Agency develop templates for standard documents, reducing administrative time and allowing more focus on sales and client interactions.
NowCerts – Real-Time Capabilities for Improved Efficiency
Pacific Northwest Insurance has used NowCerts’ real-time feature, which allows direct communication with carriers through a single click without re-entering data. This capability improved accuracy and reduced time spent on tasks like quoting and policy inquiries, enabling agents to offer quicker, more responsive service.
Try Orchestra for Free to Grow Your Productized Service Today
Orchestra helps you launch your productized service with ease. The software provides an all-in-one growth toolkit with a client portal, task management, and real-time analytics. Best of all, you don’t need to know any coding to get started. Just connect your Stripe account, and you can immediately customize the setup for your productized service. You will be ready to begin delivering your service to clients quickly.
Branded Client Experiences Matter
Orchestra allows you to create a fully customized and whitelabeled experience for your clients. This means you can create a client portal that matches your brand to make your project run smoother and impress your clients. After all, first impressions matter. Using Orchestra, you won’t have to show your clients the behind-the-scenes tools you use to get the job done. Instead, they will only see the professional interface you created just for them.
Streamlined Workflows and Team Collaboration
In addition to enhancing the client experience, Orchestra also improves internal operations. The software helps you organize tasks to get your productized service off the ground. You can create and manage in-depth processes, build out the details, and outline clear steps for your team. This will help you organize and structure your productized service before you launch. Try Orchestra free to grow your productized service today.
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