Running a successful marketing agency is no easy feat, which makes it all the more important to take a shortcut when you can get one.

Thanks to a boom in tech support tools, today’s agencies have access to a huge suite of productivity-driven software and platforms that they can use to run their offices smarter, faster, and more efficiently. And when every minute counts, it’s worth investing in the ones that can free up your time and allow you to better prioritize how you spend your days.

If you find yourself putting your own initiatives on the backburner in favor of your clients’ needs — or if you could just use some support in your day to day operations (and honestly, who couldn’t?) — then check out this list of the four best marketing tools for agencies and discover smart solutions for putting your strategies to work.

1. Marketing Automation Software

Obviously, we couldn’t put together a list of must-have marketing tools without first mentioning marketing automation software.

This savvy tech solution is your partner in crime when it comes to managing your clients’ needs across a variety of platforms. Having a marketing automation tool offers more value to your clients, ensuring you’re indispensable and an asset to their overall success. 

You can also use it to manage your own in-house marketing efforts, with built-in analytic tools that make it easy to monitor the outcomes of all that hard work.

Some of the many benefits offered by marketing automation software include:

  • Automated lead tagging and scoring
  • Automated email marketing and contact list segmentation
  • Automated engagement based on customer behaviors

There are lots of automation platforms out there, so we recommend narrowing down your search based on your budget, the size of your agency, and the size of your client and contact base.

As for our favorite tool in this category, that’s an easy one. Check out all that BenchmarkONE can do for your agency and get in touch if you’d like a demo.

2. Social Media Automation

It seems like with every week comes the introduction of a new social media channel, feature, or trend that your marketing agency needs to master on the fly. And while there aren’t any shortcuts for staying ahead of the game, there are shortcuts for making sure that you don’t fall behind with your social media posts or engagement.

Social media automation tools allow you to aggregate all of your (and your clients’) various channels onto one simple dashboard. From there, you can schedule posts in advance, cross-post between accounts, and follow along with mentions, comments, shares, and likes.

Look for a social media automation platform that covers all of your normal channels and that provides the right range of features for what you’re trying to accomplish. One of our faves is Falcon, which hits the sweet spot between offering a ton of features while still being rather intuitive to use.

3. Project Management Software

Pretty much any business in any industry can benefit from project management software, and marketing is no exception.

Some of the many perks offered by project management software include:

These platforms provide a one-stop shop for managing and tracking projects from concept to completion, and are especially handy for keeping everyone on the same page at the same time — and ensuring that you always know where you’re at on budget.

There are tons of project management software options out there, but we’re big fans of Basecamp due to its streamlined interface and wide-scale integration capabilities.

4. Workflow Automation

The more automation you have, the more time left over for everything else on your to-do list. Workflow automation is no exception, allowing you to set up customized workflow practices that take place regardless of user input. For example, automatic updates to your all-in-one CRM when a new contact reaches out over email, or the automatic sending of attachments to Slack so you don’t miss anything.

Workflow automation software follows the basic “if this, then that” structure of algorithms. You choose what actions trigger what responses, with near-limitless possibilities for app integration depending on the software platform you choose. On that note, check out Zapier for a workflow automation tool that works across more than 30,000 different apps.  

What Tools are Right for You?

This is far from an exhaustive list of tools that can support your agency (CRM, user testing tools, and data analytic tools all have a place in your mar-tech stack, too, for starters). But, it should give you a quick look at just how impactful the right software can be for your business.

If budget is an issue, many tools offer free versions with limited features and/or free trials so that you can see if it’s worth it before you invest. Allocate your resources wisely, keeping in mind that the more efficiency you have, the more profit potential that comes with it.