8 most essential agency management software for an all-star marketing firm

Efficient marketing operations are a mix of strategic planning, outreach, communication, teamwork, and much more.

Managing all these elements manually could be challenging, especially for agencies that run campaigns for multiple clients simultaneously.

As a result, marketing agencies need specialized software tools to streamline and optimize their operations.

Such agency management software can help them serve more clients without a massive team and improve profitability.

In this article, we’ll explore eight necessary software tools for marketing agencies and why you should use one. We’ll also share tips to find the right tools for your needs.

8 must-have marketing agency management software
3 key reasons you should use an agency management software

8 must-have marketing agency management software

For marketing companies, an agency management system (AMS) is an umbrella term for tools that help manage their day-to-day operations, which include:

Market research.
Marketing campaign management throughout its lifecycle.
Social media management.
Sales and marketing automation.
Customer and client outreach.
Digital content creation and management, etc.

Let’s look at eight super-useful tools to manage your marketing workflows more efficiently:

1. Time Doctor for productivity management

time doctor - better for the organization

As a marketing agency leader, you typically work with tight budgets and deadlines. To ensure success and long-term profitability, it’s paramount that you manage your team’s time and productivity well.

Here’s where Time Doctor could be a lifesaver!

Time Doctor is a popular time and performance tracking tool with many additional business features to streamline your marketing workflow.

It’s used by businesses of all sizes, including leading marketing companies like Boost Media, to improve team productivity and accountability.

You and your team can use Time Doctor’s impressive features via its:

Desktop apps like Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Mobile apps for Android.
Chrome browser extension (for supported integrations).

Now, let’s explore Time Doctor features in detail:

Key features

A. Comprehensive time tracking

Time Doctor has a standalone time tracking feature with two flexible modes:

In the manual or interactive mode, a user has complete control over the time tracking process.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Open the Time Doctor app and add a new task that you want to work on under a relevant project.

Step 2: Click the ‘Start’ button when you’re ready to work.

Step 3: Press ‘Stop’ when you’re done working or want to take a break.

The automatic mode starts tracking time as soon as the system turns on and runs silently in the background.

It doesn’t affect the user’s workflow and helps them focus better. It also gives a marketing manager insight into their team’s work patterns.

B. Idle time tracking

This feature tracks a user’s idle time – the duration where they’re logging time but not actively working.

After a specific duration of idle time (set by the admin), the user gets a pop-up checking if they’re still working.

If there’s no response from the user, the tool automatically stops tracking time.

Note: Time Doctor isn’t a keystroke logger. It only checks if a user pressed any keys or mouse buttons to determine idle time.

It’s a super useful feature that helps minimize the unproductive time during work hours. Besides, it improves your payroll accuracy by accounting for exact billable hours.

C. Projects and tasks

Time Doctor lets you create multiple projects and track time for tasks within them individually.

It’s a handy feature if you have several client projects running simultaneously.

You can create a separate project for each of your clients. This way, you can keep track of the time your team spends on each client, helping you with invoice accuracy.

The individual project time data will also help you create more accurate time and budget estimates for your future campaigns.

Here’s how the feature works:

Ensure ‘Use Projects & Tasks’ is enabled under Company Settings.
Click on ‘Projects & Tasks’ from the dropdown menu in Settings.
Click ‘Add Project’ and add the project name.
Press the ‘+’ button to add the project to your project list.
Now you can add separate tasks under each project.

Note: Only admins or authorized project managers can create projects.

Once you’ve created a project, you can assign them to employees or teams who’ll be working on them.

D. Productivity reports

Time Doctor generates several detailed reports that you can view in real-time. These reports help you visualize the tracked time data and gain useful business insights.

Here are some of the reports available:

Hours tracked report: Reflects how many hours or minutes your employees have worked per week, workday, or the date range you select.
Activity summary report: Gives an overview of an employee’s activity, highlighting their active minutes and manual, productive, mobile time, etc.
Timeline report: View how much time your employees work daily or weekly.
Projects and tasks report: Detailed reports of time spent on each task and project over a specific time period.
Web and app usage report: Tracks how many hours your team spends on different websites and applications during work hours.

Time Doctor Detailed Productivity Reports

E. Payroll management

Time Doctor also has an integrated payroll management feature to process employee salaries using their time data.

You can customize the payroll based on currency, payment methods and pay period.

But what if you use third-party payroll software?

No worries. Time Doctor integrates with popular payroll and payment platforms like Gusto, ADP, Paypal, Payoneer, etc.

You can export your payroll data in PDF, CSV and Excel formats for external processing.

For more agency management use cases, check out Time Doctor’s features page.

Pricing

Time Doctor offers a 14-day free trial (no credit card required). Its paid plan starts at $7/user per month.

Customer ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (280+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)