The Best Tools and Software for Agencies

By Jonathan Edelmann, PhD

Jonathan Edelmann's firm Scholar Path Consulting is listed on 50Pros as a top firm in Content Writing and Professional & Business Writing.

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Software – An Agency Essential

Software is essential to running an agency today. We buy and sell products and services using an array of software products that make business possible in ways that were unthinkable prior to that software. If you want to start your own agency or if you have an agency that you want to optimize, you will need to find a software product in order to flourish.

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The main objective for this article is to suggest and recommend some great software that your agency or firm would find helpful in supporting and growing your businesses.

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What You Want and Need

Software can help in tasks such as allocating financial and time resources, planning and executing projects, coordinating billings and receivables, client communication, and the organization of client data.

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There are probably a lot of activities your agency engages in on a day to day basis that can be automated or simplified using software technology.

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Finding the right software for you and your agency requires that you know what services your agency offers that require technological support:

• Think about what new services you might offer and which services you want to scale up.

• Think about the software you are using right now too. Maybe you have something that could be upgraded to make your activities go smoother, quicker, allowing you to take on more clients and responsibilities.

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Since you will likely need to purchase software, you must consider whether a new software could help you save money. In other words, you need to calculate whether or not there is going to be a return on your investment.

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Working with an Development Agency

Whether you are an agency of one or many, it is important to understand that there are many great software agencies and companies that can help you think through these important issues discussed above. 

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Use your imagination to envision what you want for your agency, and use the experience of a software designer to help you understand what’s possible. 

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Software is improving every day, and what was not possible last year might be doable today. If you want to develop your own software, something you think is not already made and for sale, there are firms at 50Pros that can help you understand what is possible given your needs: Top 50 Software Development Firms.

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If, however, you do not want to develop your own software, there are many products you can purchase, as discussed below.

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The Types of Problems Software Can Solve

In this section, I review software that can help you organize and manage new clients, manage your business operations and activities, and market your agency, although many of the software products do one or more of these functions.

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1. Client Management 

You want new clients, people who are interested in what you have to offer and ready to work with you. However, as your business grows, so will the number of people that want to know what you can do for them. In this section, I review some software products that help you understand, manage, and respond to potential clients.

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Jotform

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You can easily access Jotform through your email account to view hundreds of different types of forms or to create your own forms, going from “busywork to less work with powerful forms that use conditional logic, accept payments, generate reports, and automate workflows.”

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• Service: Send clients almost any kind of information gathering form so you can better understand their needs and background. Jotform produces the forms, and their software can seamlessly integrate with a wide range of platforms so you can organize and analyze the data you receive.

• Price: You can access and use many forms for free, but there is a tiered membership service from $32 to $99 per month that allows you to use and process many thousands of forms each month without the Jotform branding.

• Value: You can reduce time and spending interviewing and evaluating individual clients with survey forms, and Jotform helps you understand what you might want to ask and to organize what you receive. 

• Related Software: Cognito Forms, offering similar services, products and rates.

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HubSpot

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HubSpot offers software that connects your data, teams, and customers on one AI-powered customer platform. Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service tools in one platform. With 228,000+ customers in over 135 countries, HubSpot has over 1o million monthly visits.

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• Services: Marketing, AI-powered marketing software that helps you generate leads and automate marketing. Convert visitors into contacts for your database. Create campaigns with automation and AI.

• Pricing: There are free demos, and free tools Marketing, Sales, Service, Content tools, Operations, Commerce. $15 per month Starter Customer Platform provides contacts, and starter packages. Marketing and Sales packages range $800 to $3600 per month.

• Value: One platform for all aspects of client seeking, evaluation, retention can help your agency generate new sales and do better business. 

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2. Business Operations Management

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Trello

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Trello makes it easier for your team to get work done by centralizing your projects, no matter what the project is, the type of workflow you have, or the size of your team. Essentially, Trello can help keep operations organized. Trello is the visual tool that helps you see your team, manage their projects, set up workflow, and assign and monitor tasks. The software allows you to add files, checklists, and automation. You can customize the system in ways that work best for you. Sign up through your email. 

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• Service: View your team’s projects from every angle; automate tasks and workflows with Butler automation; power up your teams by linking their favorite tools with Trello plugins; templates from industry leaders and the Trello community; integrate the apps your team is already using or discover new ways to get work done in Trello.

• Pricing: Free trial and free tier of service, with additional services at $5, $10, $17.50 per month.

• Value: Trello combines services that you might otherwise disperse among other software, localizing them in one spot. For paying customers, there is support and you can bring it up to scale with the size of  your agency and client pool.

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Motion

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Motion. Time is of the essence, the only thing we can’t buy, and this software helps time management of individuals in an agency and the agency itself. Motion builds a schedule for you, prioritizes work, reschedules undone work, ensures you meet deadlines, tracks all your priorities, limits meetings, guards time for uninterrupted work, protects your weekends.

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• Services: Calendar organizes your meetings, tasks, to-do list, activities in one optimized schedule. Project Manager adds project work to your team's calendars, measures how much your team can accomplish, builds every teammate a prioritized, custom schedule, and automates project planning. Task Manager prioritizes and adds tasks to your schedule to make sure you complete everything by deadline. Meeting Scheduler acts as your personal assistant, handling the laborious scheduling and communication for you.

• Pricing:  Individual, $19 per month, Billed annually, Save 44%

• Value: There is no price on your time, and if used properly, this software can help you and your team manage time.

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3. Marketing Management

As you know, there are thousands of marketing agencies, but there is also software that automates a marketing strategy and campaign for you.

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Sprout Social

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Sprout Social’s offers an all-in-one social media management platform to develop your social media marketing. Sprout's engagement tools eliminate your team's manual tasks by handling large volumes of social messages through AI and automation while attempting to preserve the humanized customer connection and customer care. Sprout’s planning and scheduling tools help you and your team to create content that resonates with your audience, at the right time. Sprout’s analytics tools, identify market trends, and improve the ROI of your social impact.

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• Services: Sprout’s social media publishing, scheduling and reporting tools simplify the hard work of social media.

• Pricing: Ranging from $200 - 400 per month, the different tiers offer various services within the platform, although a free trial is available.

• Value: This is less expensive than hiring a marketing agency to run adds, and allows you to see and evaluate a social media campaign in one location. 

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Running an agency today requires software, and the best software for you is the one you like using, so don’t forget to consider your own user experience when you are evaluating which software you want to buy.