6 Personas of a Successful Creative Agency: Agency Owners

Here at Function Point, we are constantly working with creative firms, advertising agencies and digital agencies to better define internal processes and workflow using our agency management software. In doing this, we have come up with 6 personas that interact within the typical creative agency.

Helping these people work more efficiently and effectively together will help the agency become more profitable.

The 6 Personas:

1. New Business
2. Creative
3. Client Services
4. Traffic Manager
5. Accountant
6. Agency Owner

Agency Owner

Job Description

The Ad Agency Principal (owner) or Senior Management is responsible for the success of the entire agency. Often (in a small agency) owners are involved in Creative or Account Executive roles, but the key to the position is in making key strategic business decisions based on information and data presented.

A marketing agency owner is responsible for creating new marketing plans, introducing novel contract types to clients, and managing current contracts inside their company. To conduct meetings and handle marketing requirements, they can either operate in an office environment or go to clients’ sites.

By reaching out to potential customers, developing strong client connections, and doing so while protecting the organization’s reputation, a digital marketing agency owner assists a company in expanding its customer base.

Agency Owner’s Responsibilities

As part of their regular obligations, agency owners may carry out the following tasks:

• Encourage the creation of new business prospects and sources of revenue for the agency.
• Guarantee that each client’s demands are satisfied and foster relationships with them.
• Offer clients a variety of original solutions to pick from.
• Use marketing tactics, word-of-mouth, and recommendations to attract and generate more leads. 
• Provide optimal financial solutions to clients by identifying their unique needs.
• Improve the agency’s reputation and represents the agency in various external activities.
• Keep up with the most recent developments in the goods and services of the agency industry.

A Typical Day of a Marketing Agency Owner

• Overseeing all the work going on in the agency
• Meeting with clients
• Analyzing agency profitability and developing a future-looking strategy.

A Typical Interaction with FP

Function Point is used to pull management reports to help with decision-making.

• Profit analysis
• Timesheet analysis
• Agency and employee efficiency
• Cash-flow and revenue projections
• Resource allocation and availability

A Perfect Day

So a perfect day is when clients are happy, and employees are busy and efficient. All tasks and jobs for every client are on or ahead of schedule and on budget.

Top Problems Agency Owners Are Facing

Marketing budgets get smaller

When the economy weakens, marketing is usually the first thing to be reduced, and agencies are currently feeling the pinch as a result of rising inflation and the rumblings of the next recession. It defies logic to be defensive and spend less on marketing during a slump. 

Making clients happy

Despite the fact that every company requires a marketing strategy and marketing services, not every client will be a good fit for your marketing approach. You must discuss with clients to match your style and their needs before you start working with a new customer.

Understanding your client is the fundamental first step in the retention process. You, as a marketing agency owner, will need to have a comprehensive understanding of their long-term objectives. By being aware of these crucial details, you will be able to develop a marketing plan that supports their objectives. 

Additionally, you need to ensure your agency has sufficient resources to complete projects on time and satisfy clients’ expectations. High-quality work will help you build and maintain strong connections with clients, showing your commitment to the client’s success.

Hard to Retain Great Talent

People are no longer willing to devote their time to work that they feel unimportant, making it harder for many agency owners to recruit and keep top talent.

Agencies still using outdated hiring strategies will be in trouble since the industry has changed. A job posting on LinkedIn or Indeed won’t bring the best candidate any longer. It’s time to participate in Facebook and Reddit forums where high talent hangs out because they likely have other jobs.

Your culture should be so gratifying that once an employee is employed, they will never want to leave. People increasingly value the work that gives them recognition and subsequently a sense of meaning. Being accepted and valued by our tribe is essential to our happiness since humans are social animals. The sensation that we matter to those around us comes in third behind money and promotions. Therefore, companies should care more for their staff’s well-being and offer them opportunities to learn and thrive. 

Hard to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Agency owners are discovering they are losing control to manage their downtime effectively, which is essential for recovery and optimal performance both at home and in the office, as remote work has further blurred the borders between personal and professional life.

To improve a balance between work and life, you must stop defining your self-worth solely based on your productivity and instead prioritize your family and personal well-being. This might be challenging after a lifetime of being part of a culture that teaches you otherwise. However, you can shift your mindset to embrace what you previously thought was improbable.

Criteria to be a successful agency owner 

Some skills needed:

Working With Purpose

A successful marketing agency owner accomplishes any objective with purpose, a solid plan, and a sense of responsibility. A clear purpose and mission help everyone stay concentrated and move toward a common objective.

Having a clear goal and a leading unified team reflects your leadership skills, character, and inner strength. The purpose will not only assist you in developing enduring, reliable relationships, but it will also eventually positively impact your agency’s bottom line.

Big-Picture Thinking

A successful digital marketing agency owner no longer has the privilege of concentrating just on one area of the organization. The capacity to view things from a wider angle will determine your success. You are now in charge of various agency components, including staff management, new technology investment, and more. However, don’t get bogged down in the daily business operations; instead, empower your team to take on these responsibilities.

As you establish a team that can take your overarching vision and manage it down through your company, you will be in a better position to serve both your current and potential clients. Strong leaders understand that they don’t always have all the solutions. Be receptive to ideas and feedback from staff. 

In addition, thinking big also encompasses your mission and direction. Although it isn’t always easy, choosing integrity and accountability over short-term gains or victories can ultimately lead to long-term success. 

Strategic Planning Mindset

As a marketing agency owner, your agency’s future is in your hands, and the best way to guarantee safety and success is with a solid strategic plan. A sound strategic plan should permeate all aspects of your agency’s activities. Set specific, quantifiable short- and long-term goals for your organization and assess your progress on a regular basis.

Don’t make a strategy only for you to keep it to yourself. It’s vital that all members of your team understand the strategy and objectives so that everyone is aligned and working in the same direction.

Tools and Software for Agency Owners

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

One of the major concerns of marketing agencies is real-time customer management. As your organization expands, you will need to oversee five to ten clients at once. Both sales and profitability significantly depend on it. However, managing all of the clients’ projects daily and reporting on progress is difficult unless you have a robust CRM tool to back you up. 

Marketing Resources Management

You will inevitably mix the content for one customer with that for another if you manage numerous clients. Not to mention that when the PPC or social media management team wants to upload material, accessing the media assets stored on the PCs of many content authors would be challenging. 

Project Management

Your clientele expands along with the number of ongoing tasks. These projects can no longer be managed using a spreadsheet. Not to add, human errors, unintentional task deletions, jobs left unfinished for a long time, a lack of resources, and other issues make managing your agency a nightmare.  

However, by utilizing agency project management software like Function Point, you can manage all project schedules, deadlines, briefs, and resources m in one location. Your teams can access the information they need anytime, giving them the flexibility to deliver high-quality work on schedule and under budget.

If you have any comments or think we’ve missed something from the agency owner job description – let us know. We love working with people to help with both the software requirements to make working together easier, as well as developing efficient workflows – Function Point is here to help creatives run a profitable business! We’re here to be your agency management partner.

This article was written by former Function Point employee, Tate Lillies