Over a quarter (26%) of workers struggle to prioritize daily tasks, citing the lack of a system and the effort needed to create one as the major reasons why. In a busy agency where every minute counts, these “systems” can mean the difference between success and failure — making project management tools a top priority. On the surface, email project planning tools may seem like an obvious solution.

Most agencies don’t have unlimited resources. They must use their time and budgets wisely to get the most bang for their buck. Reaching out to every contact via one-off emails is an inefficient (and unrealistic) communication method. So, how can your agency connect with its audience effectively without overwhelming your staff? It's smarter to keep up with your email marketing efforts, even with a small team, by building automated email workflows.

Quick pulse check: How is everyone feeling right now? Are you still in hibernation mode after the holidays, already behind and struggling to catch up? If you are feeling a tad rusty, you’re not alone. Switching mindsets from unwinding to ramping up can take some time. We’re only human after all. Setting goals for your agency is one way to boost motivation and activate forward motion.

Professional service projects are different animals than “normal” projects. While both offer challenges, professional service firms must meet their internal goals AND the client’s expectations. More companies and more people involved usually equates to greater risk. This article is your ultimate guide for understanding professional services, why companies use them, and the challenges professional service firms have in common.

“Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.” ~ Joy Gumz Pulling off client projects successfully is no small feat. Project managers and team members hyper focus on delivering high-quality work all day, every day; planning workflows and proactively addressing obstacles as they arise.

The saying “too many eggs in your basket” is apt for the professional service world. Juggling multiple accounts, a spread of different team members, and wildly differing client expectations can get out of hand very quickly. Luckily, with the right professional services software, you can keep processes tight and on track. By providing key features like time tracking, automated invoices, and handy checklists, you have the space you need to actually do the work.

Is your marketing team spread way too thin? Endless email chains. Missed deadlines. Frustrated team members. Unhappy clients. Ah, the classic signs of insufficient marketing project management. We know them all too well. There’s a reason why marketers that are proactive about project management are three times more likely to report “success.” Are you struggling to exceed client expectations without totally burning your team out?

One key element of project management is keeping team members and key stakeholders continually updated on project progress. For large projects and teams, though, keeping everyone in the loop regarding the project's status is often easier said than done. This is especially true when you consider that 60% of project managers are running between two and five projects simultaneously, while 15% are running 10 or more projects at once.

We often talk about the importance of customer service to today’s discerning customers. And while it’s true that we can't overstate the value of excellent customer service, it’s also true that there’s too much of a good thing when servicing customers. It’s called “overservicing,” and it can lead to diminishing returns for bottom-line-minded companies.

There are a lot of important metrics for agencies to track, and monitoring them is key to optimizing how you close deals. Your agency’s sales closing ratio is one metric that can tell you a lot about how effective you are at onboarding new clients — or converting qualified leads into new clients.

Your agency lives and breathes client work. It’s what powers your business model and keeps the light on. Creative client work can take all sorts of shapes and sizes, with short and simple projects running parallel to lengthy, deeply complex ones. Projects this varied and requiring an array of creative specialist skills are automatically difficult to track.

Looking to eliminate bottlenecks and streamline operations within your business? If so, then having a detailed approval workflow process in place is essential. With an approval workflow process in place, team members within your organization follow a predictable sequence of steps to process data. This improves efficiency while helping teams close deals in a timely manner.

Project management is a wide-ranging discipline that touches all aspects of a company’s projects and reaches into nearly every department. And that’s before you add client needs to the mix. As wide-ranging as project management already is, creative agency project management involves so much more. You have to keep team members on track and internal stakeholders happy, plus client relationships to nurture and client expectations to meet all along the way.

As a digital agency owner, it's critical to manage your team’s time efficiently, keep clients happy, and monitor your profitability if you want to grow your business into a successful agency. Without scalable processes in place, it’s easy to get lost in the confusing chaos of never-ending email threads, missed deadlines, and breakdowns in communication.

Social media projects require more than creating a social media calendar and calling it a day. Your team needs structure and organization to build effective social media strategies and campaigns. Clients need to know what’s happening. Followers wanted their messages responded to yesterday. Thankfully, there are solutions that address these challenges (and more).

Agencies know the importance of achieving their goals and meeting their timelines. It’s necessary to maintain healthy customer relationships and positive cash flow. This feat takes managing your work consistently at all levels. Projects can get stuck and falter without proactively planning, watching, adjusting, and following up. Project management tools are crucial in avoiding this stressful scenario.

As a business owner, you understand the value of project management. You need to be able to organize your team, assign tasks to people with the right skill sets, and prioritize your projects and clients. However, knowing how to meet demand and increase the profitability of your business can seem overwhelming. In order to maximize the available capacity of your organization, you need capacity planning.