Guide to Agency Workflows: The Best Process for Agencies

The agency workflow is the step-by-step process by which an agency conducts its business operations.

This guide examines various types of workflows for agencies, discusses their importance, and provides tips for successful management.

Key Takeaways

The agency workflow is a way to contextualize your agency operations. It’s a structured approach to completing tasks, managing projects, and delivering services effectively. It usually involves moving through various stages, each with particular goals and challenges, such as initiation, planning, execution, and analysis.

Workflows can consist of multiple workstreams, defined as sets of activities or tasks within a larger initiative (learn more about what is a workstream and its importance).

Agencies can manage their workflows in various ways. Most will utilize different types of workflows during their day-to-day operations. We can roughly categorize them into three groups:

Although usually less customizable, automated workflows can be more reliable and efficient than manual ones. Automating data-heavy or repetitive tasks can be a good idea to achieve more accurate results and free up your resources for creative workflow solutions.

End-to-end project management will usually contain all of these types of workflows. Sequential vs parallel workflows are especially interesting, as some tasks can be completed with both approaches.

Sequential workflows usually involve less collaboration and back-and-forth, which can lead to quicker completion, especially with experienced teams. On the other hand, parallel workflows are more flexible and can bring more creative results.

A good project manager will know how to best balance these benefits and downsides.

According to research by PMI, agencies who undervalue project management report 67% more of their projects failing. Furthermore, 11.4% of agency investment is wasted due to poor project performance.

Although agency workflows can encapsulate broader agency management processes, they are equally important for the success of your projects.

A lack of structure in your operations can lead to many disruptions, including:

The workflow process is a structured sequence of operations designed to accomplish a specific goal. It involves systematic planning, implementation, monitoring, and review to achieve desired outcomes within set timelines. Embracing a well-defined workflow process allows teams to optimize resources, manage changes, and enhance productivity.

Defining the project scope and objectives is key to the project initiation and planning process. However, aligning project goals with your specific agency goals is equally important. How should the project look to make it worthwhile for you as an agency, not just the client?

Consider the following statement:

According to PRWeek, nearly one in five agencies are overservicing every single account, and 80% believe it’s a growing concern. The main reasons for this are identified as:

While it might be tempting to gold plate your tasks, this can be a significant drain on your finances (learn how to manage costs by reading our article on what is cost efficiency).

Not to mention that you’re setting high expectations for the duration of your cooperation with the client. This means that once you do have to pull back, it will likely be met with resistance and client dissatisfaction.

Realistic project expectations must be set at the very start of the project. If nothing else is working, consider pulling back on unprofitable clients to focus on more lucrative engagements:

People can be considered the most valuable resource for agencies. The importance of managing your teams effectively during the entire process is magnified by the fact that turnover can cost employers 33% of an employee’s annual salary (Employee Benefits News).

What are some things that your resource planning should aim to achieve:

Some key steps of the resource management process include: demand forecasting, assessing current capacity, gap analysis, and developing strategies to balance needs with availability.

The resource management process also involves breaking down the project into tasks, milestones, and subtasks, and then scheduling these elements to create a comprehensive project timeline.

Read our comprehensive Guide to Capacity Planning to learn more.

After defining expectations and managing your resourcing and timelines, it’s time to monitor your workflow execution. Common methods used for monitoring project progress involve tracking task completion across project milestones, keeping all relevant parties up to date, and monitoring key performance indicators that reflect the project’s health, such as budget burn.

Learn how Productive helps improve business operations with real-time financial tracking.

During the execution process, you might have to account for specific changes in the workflow lifecycle. This can include requests for scope changes from the client, or internal disruptions, such as prolonged employee sick leave. Change and risk management are essential to the workflow process and can be simplified using workflow management tools.

For example, the all-in-one agency workflow software Productive lets you visualize and forecast your revenue and profit margins according to your resource scheduling. This real-time financial insight helps agency project leaders make informed decisions for advanced budgeting in project management.

The final phase of the workflow process is a project evaluation and debrief. It involves analyzing the project’s outcomes against the initial objectives and identifying lessons learned.

This phase is critical for understanding the project’s successes and areas for improvement. This is done by analyzing your gathered data and conducting feedback with team members and stakeholders.

This practice promotes continuous improvement, allowing organizations to refine their workflow processes for future projects, ultimately leading to higher efficiency and better project outcomes.

Learn more about managing your creative process with software:

According to a report by Wellingtone, as many as 22% of agency professionals spend 1 to 2 days per month manually collating information on the project status, while 21% take even more than 2 days.

The right workflow management software can help you reduce time spent on complex tasks, get more reliable data, and even provide you with previously unexplored project and agency insights.

However, with the variety of options available, finding the best fit for your agency can be tricky.

Here are some top features and criteria to consider:

Productive is a workflow tool designed specifically to help streamline and optimize agency operations.

Some key features include:

Additional features include: Docs, Sales, Automations, Purchase Orders, Permission Builder

Here’s a short outline of some of the key parts of efficient workflow management:

In short, the implementation of successful agency workflows streamlines operations and enhances project management in professional services.

It also significantly elevates the quality of work and client satisfaction.

By fostering efficient collaboration and maintaining high standards of excellence, agencies can achieve sustainable growth and build lasting relationships with their clients.

The advertising agency workflow is a systematic process of creating and launching an advertising campaign. The advertising agency project management process usually begins with client briefings and market research, moving through creative development and media planning to campaign execution and finally, performance analysis.

Coordination between various departments, such as creative, media, and account management, ensures that campaigns are well-created and strategically placed across the most beneficial channels for maximum impact and ROI.

Find out more about the best advertising software.

The creative agency workflow is focused on the ideation and design phases, which include brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping. This iterative and cross-functional process includes various types of creatives, such as graphic designers, copywriters, and art directors.

An essential part is collaboration with the client, as creative teams must ensure they can meet the client’s vision. It’s important to establish clear client feedback and approval loops to minimize the chance of miscommunication or disruption in the process.

Learn more about streamlining this process with the best project management software for artists.

The digital marketing agency workflow leverages digital channels to achieve marketing objectives. This workflow integrates various digital strategies, from SEO and content marketing to social media and email campaigns, all geared towards building an online presence and connecting with the audience on multiple platforms.

Analytics and data analysis are key parts of project management for marketing teams, allowing for the monitoring of campaign performance in real time and timely adjustment of strategies (you can also check out our list of the top marketing agency management software).

To conclude our guide, we’ll give you our final tips and tricks for managing workflows:

Statistics show that the average project manager runs from two to five projects simultaneously (RGPM). This is why prioritization is a key process in resource planning for multiple projects.

One tip for successful prioritization is to consider which tasks can be standardized (and streamlined) and which can’t. You can separate them into two groups: judgment-based work, for which you need creativity, critical thinking, and instinct, and procedural work, which is more process-based.

The other is to monitor your agency’s most important metrics across different workflows. For example, you can examine utilization across departments to try to spot areas of low utilization or billable hours tracked. This can point to workflow inefficiencies such as miscommunication or lack of standardization.

Try to find the best method for organizing specific workflows. This can vary from agency to agency, as different industries can manage very different agency processes.

For example, the content creation process can be divided into several steps, including brainstorming sessions, creating a content calendar, outlining the content with reference to competitors, target audiences, and desired outcomes, reviewing and editing, and so on.

A general method to visualize a creative process is to:

Workflow and communication tools can also help you figure out how to best manage development and creative projects by providing various layouts to switch from. What’s right for one person may not be right for another, and your team members may have different needs when organizing and processing information.

Finally, don’t underestimate the benefits of a centralized platform for managing your creative workflow process.

The right professional services project management software can help you reduce your tech stack, standardize workflows across various projects, and simplify how employees approach their work on a day-to-day basis.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of an all-in-one agency management tool, book a demo with Productive.