To say that today’s digital marketing landscape is crowded would be an understatement. As technologies advance and business locations become less integral to servicing clients, creative agencies face more competition than ever before. To remain profitable in what’s quickly become a global market, agencies must find ways to increase their operational efficiency while providing customers with innovative, scalable marketing solutions that produce real results.
Automating workflows is one of the best ways for marketing agencies to do this. In addition to minimizing error and boosting productivity, effective automation strategies can lower operational costs, speed up ROI, increase employee engagement, and improve customer experience. Automation can also help marketers communicate and collaborate more effectively with their clients, resulting in high-performing campaigns that closely align with customer expectations.
If your organization isn‘t using automation to streamline its tasks and processes, it’s time to embrace this now-necessary trend. Here’s a closer look at automation’s business-boosting benefits, along with suggestions for getting started.
What Is Process Automation?
Process automation is a term that describes the use of technology to carry out business tasks and processes within an organization. It streamlines systems by removing the need for human facilitation of tedious, redundant tasks to allow for more efficient workflows. Process automation offers many big benefits, especially when it comes to improving operational efficiency.
- Saves time: Digital technology can help your team quickly carry out repetitive tasks that are time-consuming when performed manually, such as A/B testing, data entry, reporting and analytics, and much more.
42% of business leaders agree that workflow automation speeds up the completion of repetitive tasks. – WorkMarket
- Minimizes errors: Repetitive tasks are much more prone to error when performed by a human versus a machine.
- Improves productivity: Not spending time on repetitive manual tasks gives teams more time to focus on high-level initiatives such as content strategy and business development.
Marketing automation tools improve productivity by approximately 20%. – Nucleus Research
- Increases employee satisfaction: Workers tend to be happier when they’re relieved of tedious, time-consuming tasks and can focus on the big-picture work that excites them.
- Reduces workload & operational costs: As companies grow, they face heavier workloads and mounting operational costs as administrative tasks pile on. Automating key processes such as order-to-cash makes it possible for businesses to handle the increased workload while taking advantage of economies of scale.
Boost Productivity By Automating These Processes
Introducing automation into your agency’s workflows doesn’t have to be a daunting process. And you don’t have to do everything all at once. Here are some areas where automation can make a significant difference in efficiency and productivity.
Project Management
There’s no shortage of software available to help organize and streamline project management tasks, and most modern businesses are taking advantage of these tools. Popular programs like Asana, Trello, Wrike, ClickUp, and Jira — to name just a few — keep projects on track and relieve PMs of time-consuming admin work such as assigning and managing deadlines, monitoring budgets, tracking feedback and approvals, and more. They also enable centralization and a higher level of collaboration across teams, which has become essential in today’s heavy work-from-home office environments.
Project management software saves the average employee 498 hours per year. – Saaslist
How do you know which tasks to automate? Start by identifying which manual tasks are the most time-consuming, repetitive and have processes that are already mapped out and well- documented.
Business Reporting
It’s essential for marketing agencies to regularly review their own performance, as well as submit monthly (and sometimes weekly) status reports to clients. But compiling these reports can be one of the most time-consuming tasks an employee has to tackle. In addition to taking over the busy work from humans, automated business reporting is almost always more accurate because there is no chance for human error.
Some popular automated reporting tools include DashThis, Megalytic, Klipfolio, and Databox. These programs can pull real-time data from your clients’ marketing platforms in seconds and generate in-depth reporting on everything from website performance and social media strategies to Google ad campaigns and KPIs.
Time Tracking
Time tracking is a necessity when it comes to identifying productivity issues that may exist within an agency. But when hours and other work activities have to be tracked manually, it can end up adding to the problem. Automated time tracking software makes the process easy and efficient, sparing employees the tedious hassle of having to log their own hours and/or sift through, organize, and synthesize stacks of employee timesheets. They also help streamline billing and reporting updates.
In addition to making time tracking more efficient, tools like Timely, Traqq, ClickTime, and Clockify can help streamline billing and reporting updates. Plus, they improve accuracy by removing the margin of error that manual tracking typically introduces. Having the most precise and accurate information on how time is spent across an organization is imperative for effectively improving productivity.
Email Marketing
Most agencies use email marketing to grow their business, and there are plenty of automated platforms to help streamline the processes and enhance results. If your organization’s primary need is to attract new clients, look for email marketing software that helps with segmentation, CRM, A/B testing, reporting, and subscriber growth.
Companies using email marketing automation generate twice as many leads. – Autopilot
For example, email marketing programs such as ActiveCampaign have advanced segmentation capabilities that can organize contacts into sub-segments based on location, history, interests, and other key info, enabling agencies to send more relevant and personalized emails to their clients. For organizations focused on capturing new leads while maintaining relationships with current clients, programs like HubSpot offer built-in CRM systems.
Automation Has Become Essential for All Digital Marketing Agencies
In today’s overcrowded marketing landscape, agencies can no longer afford to manually perform the majority of their business tasks and processes. While investing in automation software can be pricey, incorporating the right programs into your workflows will ultimately lower costs by improving efficiency, boosting productivity, and ensuring the most accurate results when reporting both internally and for clients.