Marketing, advertising, and social media agencies are the lifeblood of the digital marketing world. UK businesses value outsourcing marketing activities to specialists, with 51% of organisations reported to be working with an agency.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit. Small to medium-sized businesses gain access to marketing services they could not otherwise afford.
On the other hand, larger corporations receive the benefits of specialist marketing services without having to invest in internal training and resources.
In this article, we discuss agency account management and break down its importance and relevance in modern business. Plus, we delve into key tools for agency account managers. Let’s get started.
- What is agency account management?
- The role of an agency account manager
- What does an agency account manager do?
- Agency Account Manager Salary
- How effective account managers operate
- How to improve agency account management
What is agency account management?
Agency account management is a service that involves overseeing and tending to client needs within an agency.
It’s a critical pillar for businesses looking for help with specific activities, like marketing, advertising, or social media. By hiring an agency to handle these tasks, they ensure core areas of the business are up to or above the industry standard.
To give you a clearer impression of how the process works, let’s take a social media marketing agency as an example. Normally, this type of agency supports businesses with three key tasks:
- Reaching their target audiences
- Developing relationships with potential customers (nurturing)
- Converting customers
How does a marketing agency do this?
They utilise key activities, such as social media campaigns, search engine optimisation (SEO), and email marketing campaigns. Agencies leverage experience, expertise, software, and account managers to help businesses achieve their objectives.
The role of an agency account manager
It’s important to remember that clients not only seek professional services from agencies. They also want a personal touch.
In a competitive industry, clients expect to receive tailored plans. They want to feel as though they’re an agency's only customer.
How does an agency maintain relationships with clients while also ensuring they hit their goals? Assigning agency account managers is the starting point.
An agency account manager is the primary contact between the agency and its clients.
Acting on behalf of the agency, the account manager’s main duties are to assess the client’s needs - both short and long-term - and ensure the agency delivers the services required to meet those needs.
On the client side, account managers make sure they hit their targets, such as generating leads, growing their email list, or reaching a set number of sales.
On the agency side, account managers attract and retain clients with the aim of maximising revenue.
Quality account managers understand client expectations and consistently succeed in hitting or exceeding them. Furthermore, they find new leads, develop client rapport, and retain customers, creating mutually beneficial relationships between all parties.
What does an agency account manager do?
Agency account managers are the glue that binds clients and agencies together, but what do they actually do on a daily basis?
Using the social media agency example again, let’s dive into an account manager’s core responsibilities.
Since their job is to foster relationships and hit targets, on any given day account managers may go back and forth with clients, work alongside sales and marketing teams, create pitches and presentations, publish reports, and more.
Account managers tend to wear many hats but ultimately, relationships are their priority. To assess an account manager’s performance, agencies typically focus on a handful of key performance indicators (KPIs), including:
- Client Retention Rate (CRR)
- Client Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Net Promotor Score (NPS)
- Client Lifetime Value (CLV)
- Up-Sell Rates
These metrics not only help agencies determine their top-performing account managers, but they also indicate client satisfaction levels and show agencies where they can improve.
Naturally, agency account managers leverage all resources available to them to stand out, such as social media management tools.
Agency Account Manager Salary
In the United Kingdom, an advertising account manager makes approximately £43,000 per year. Glassdoor also reports that account managers may make additional income from bonuses or performance-related rewards, worth around £8,500.
Across the pond, Salary.com reports that account managers in the United States earn $76,000 (£60,000) on average. According to Glassdoor, US-based account managers may also earn upwards of $39,000 per annum in additional pay.
If your agency is hiring a new social media manager for the team, check out this article that shares 25 excellent interview questions.
Image source: Forbes.com
How effective account managers operate
Depending on the type of agency and its business model, the precise roles of account managers vary. That said, regardless of industry, there are several key areas in which leading account managers excel. Let’s take a further look.
- Client nurturing: Maintaining solid relationships with clients is a key role of an account manager.
They must be proactive as well as responsive, ensuring that the client’s goals and expectations are met. This involves fixing problems, answering queries, and checking in to evaluate the client’s satisfaction level. - Collaborating with internal and external teams: As a liaison between the client and the agency, an account manager must be able to work seamlessly with internal teams (e.g. advertising team or creatives), clients, and relevant external parties.
Each working relationship is unique so activities should be tailored to the client’s needs. - Adapting to the industry: Businesses hire agencies for their expertise. Account managers who can prove themselves in a specific industry breed confidence in clients.
Most importantly, they leverage their experience to make the right decisions and achieve their targets. Managers must commit to immersing themselves in their client’s industries. - Creating quality reports: Account managers should provide clients with detailed reports to help them make strategic decisions. For example, data should be used to determine the best days and posting times for various social media platforms.
- Increasing revenue: In addition to serving clients, account managers must focus on revenue. Without pushing too hard, they should seek opportunities to increase client spending through upselling, cross-selling, or other means.
How to improve agency account management
If your agency is looking for ways to streamline account management, improve communication with clients, increase the standard of social media content, and gain more control over complex projects, consider working with a social media management tool, like Sendible.
Sendible is a powerful and fully-fledged tool purpose-built for agencies. We create our tools with both agencies and brands in mind.
Our aim is to provide agencies with what they need to create quality content and deliver on client needs.
With that, let’s take a closer look at some of Sendible’s standout features for agencies and agency account managers.
White label customisable dashboard
Our white label software allows your agency to offer clients custom colours, tabs, support pages, personalised email notifications, and a web domain.
The white label solution also includes a custom page for offering trial links. Each client’s page can be fully integrated with tools of their choosing.
Collaboration features
Sendible’s platform is centred around collaboration for smooth workflows between agencies and clients.
Our system uses multiple collaboration tools, allowing you to work together on projects or post designs. Plus, you can share content libraries for brand assets, hashtags, or evergreen content.
A key feature of our collaborative system is the Canva plug-in. Clients and agencies may create engaging visual content for social media as well as blog posts or website articles.
This is a time-saver as all aspects of the Canva application are accessed through Sendible.
The user permissions feature means certain members have more access to functions. This creates a highly practical approval process for post-creation as you can give clients a final sign-off on all content.
Interactive calendar
Image source: Sendible
Sendible’s interactive calendar is another collaborative tool that can be filled with content and deadlines for every platform.
The calendar provides a visual overview of social media posts from the past and present, giving you access in seconds.
Team members can also edit calendar tasks, rearrange content, and add new posts. Sendible’s scheduling queues make it extremely easy to plan social media ahead of time and post with consistency.
Secure client connect onboarding
We provide an enhanced client onboarding process through a secure profile connection. This protects agencies and clients and eliminates the need to share passwords. It also boosts credibility.
Clients can be onboarded to the white label dashboard quickly, easily, and securely.
Reports hub
Without a doubt, one of Sendible’s standout benefits is its advanced reporting capabilities.
Our platform allows you to access detailed analytical reports for all social media accounts, helping you demonstrate real results to your clients and gain useful insights into marketing activities.
What’s more, you may present reports to clients as fully branded, presentation-ready documents, giving the best impression possible.
Agency perks
Some other noteworthy agency perks include:
- RSS feeds
- Bulk importing
- Multiple media integrations
- Content suggestions
- Community management for multiple clients at scale
- Resource library with guides, templates, and case studies
At Sendible, we’re fully committed to providing quality products and services. We stand by our solutions by offering a free 14-day trial with no contract or card requirement. If you want to talk through Sendoble’s platform in more detail, book a demonstration today.
