Mention the word “timesheets” to someone who has worked at an agency and it’ll probably send shivers down their spine and have them running for the hills. It’ll conjure up memories of frantically going through emails and to-do lists on a Friday, and somehow making things add up to 40 hours for the week. We’ve all been there! For an industry so dependent on good time management for success, it can be difficult to explain why most agencies struggle to do it effectively.

Mark Sanborn once said: "Your success in life isn’t based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change faster than your competition, customers, and business." In the agency world, how you implement change is just as vital as the specific changes you make. It's a classic case of the journey being as important as the final destination.

Almost 30 years ago, Bill Gates made the famous proclamation that "content is king." A lot's changed since the days of dial-up internet and web pages that look like a freshman web developer's end-of-semester project. But when it comes to digital marketing, it's still “long live the king!” That's why 70% of marketers state that content marketing is a key pillar of their overall marketing strategy.

How hard have you worked to make your digital marketing agency a success? You probably need a nap now just thinking about it. But don’t shut your eyes yet, because we need to talk about digital marketing contracts — a key element of agency success. No matter how hard you work, a weak marketing services agreement can tank your efforts, erode your profit margins, and even threaten your agency’s long-term viability.

Do you feel like your paid search campaigns are stuck in a rut? Are you struggling to take it to the next level and don’t know where you’re going wrong? If so, you’re not alone. Success in paid search marketing comes down to monitoring the right key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs provide insight into your campaigns’ effectiveness and give you the information you need to meet objectives and improve your key results.

Hourly. Project-based. Value-based. Hybrid. There are a ton of pricing models available for agencies, and while the options listed above do have advantages, they’re not without their risks. For growing agencies, the pricing model you choose could have a significant impact on your profitability. That’s why working with clients on a retainer is a smart choice. Monthly retainers give you steady, predictable revenue and make it easier to structure your team’s workload.

When you discuss a contract, it can make everyone’s eyes glaze over fast. Most people are far more interested in the meat of the deal: how you’ll execute the project and the payoff. However, thorough marketing contracts are vital to an agency’s success. Proper contracts between your marketing agency and the client, independent contractors, and subcontractors protect all parties, outline expectations, and establish boundaries.

We’ve all been there—the wild chase to get teammates to log their time. Whether you distribute an email mid-week, comb through individual timesheets and send one-off direct messages, or post an announcement on a broader channel, chasing teammates to log their time is a big annoyance. Enter Time Reminders!

Are you looking beyond Jira for your agency’s project management software? Sure, Jira offers some distinct advantages. It’s an agile project management tool that gives users a way to communicate and customize workflows and complete scrum projects. It also offers several helpful integrations. But (you knew there was going to be a “but,” right?), it’s hard to learn how to use it and the interface seems outdated and confusing.

To succeed as an agency — or a business of any kind — you need a clear vision of what success looks like. Is success more revenue? More clients? Higher customer satisfaction? A Super Bowl ad? All of the above? Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a time-tested way to measure performance and the success that strong performance generates. Tracking KPIs is also a part of project management best practices.