7 Tips For Transitioning From Inhouse Marketing To Agency Life

Have you worked in internal marketing and are thinking about moving to an agency?

Agencies are great because you can tap into different types of businesses and learn how to optimize them for different marketing purposes. But they are also dynamic and very different from working in inbound marketing.

One of the biggest differences between inbound marketing and agency life is that you can run multiple accounts at the same time and have to focus more than ever on managing your time and attention.

The transition to agency life can be a little intimidating, especially if you've been working from home for a long time or focusing on a brand.

The following seven tips will help you start your agency career the way you hope.

1. Follow the 80/20 rule

One of the most important things in any agency is to work quickly and efficiently. Help create your own time frame and consider where the 80/20 rule applies. This is where I've seen people struggle the most with the transition from corporate life, especially with smaller clients with limited hours.

For example, a client might have a contract for 20 hours per month and you need to make the most of those hours. Think of it this way: doing 80% of different tasks is likely to bring more value to the business than 100% dedication to one thing.

For example, you can spend two hours looking for keywords to focus on and get a lot of information you need, or you can spend five hours and maybe find other keywords that you haven't worked on in six months. Think about what else you could do with an extra three hours that could be more valuable than additional keyword research.

Another rabbit hole is the competitive search for backlinks. Spend a few hours putting together an initial list of goals, but be realistic about what you'll use over the next few months.

It's easy to keep digging and lose track of time when something hasn't been done (like keyword research or backlink review), so stop for an hour or two to work on it and see how you feel about the results.

You want to think about creating value consistently and continuously. Remember that every day you delay or delay communication is the day your customers fail to make progress in growing their business and achieving their goals, so don't overdo it and aim for "perfect"!

2. Plan your schedule to leave room for one-time work

Managing concurrent customers can be overwhelming for people in marketing positions. I would recommend blocking calendar appointments with specific tasks assigned to each. Best of all, you can schedule appointments that repeat at the same time each week to build momentum.

For example, "Client A Content Summary" every Monday at 2:00 PM or "Client B Weekly Report" every Wednesday at 3:00 PM.

If you can schedule 80% of your time, it will allow you to fulfill special requests from your manager, colleagues, or clients without hindering the completion of your projects.

Friday night is a good time to plan for the upcoming week so you don't get nervous over the weekend!

3. Deal with imperfect information

When you're working from home, it's easy to put things off until you've got all the information you need from your colleagues or from your own research.

However, when working in an agency, you should be comfortable working with imperfect information. We cannot collect information about audience demographics, a rough estimate of target pawn value, or historical performance data.

You rarely get everything you need from a client. It is important to move forward and overcome limitations. Waiting for all the data means burning days and weeks, usually on short-term projects.

Think of your time like a perishable inventory or an unsold hotel room;

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4. Sync with colleagues to get started quickly

When you work for an agency, you should be comfortable with the fact that sometimes "other duties" can make up the bulk of your job and you can dive into a project or catch a client in the middle.

It's usually faster to learn about a new industry or client by listening to what your peers already understand than by trying to figure it out on your own.

Participants can provide enough background information in an hour of a phone call to get started, when it would otherwise take hours to sift through all the source material or old emails.

It's harder if the person you're picking up has already left. If so, you can request a copy of the original seed doc, browse Slack, or view the last four or five weekly/monthly reports.

5. React quickly without compromising other priorities

Providing immediate service does not mean leaving everything to one-time requests or abandoning existing obligations. An immediate response to an email, SMS, or Slack can disrupt your workflow, unless it's an actual emergency (such as a site crash, poor data transfer, or similar issue).

While clients (and colleagues) expect you to communicate quickly, don't confuse great service with fast work.

Schedule time to check your email and Slack (or similar) multiple times throughout the day and keep an eye on the following types of responses that will be sent:

- Yes! When do you need it?

“I will return it on the 15th, will it work?”

"One thing's for sure. I'm busy this week, but I can start on Tuesday. Do you mind?"

"I confirm that I have received your letter. Unfortunately, we cannot meet the deadline. We will do our best, but we will definitely get it to you by Friday. Please let me know if this works for you."

You can save your relationship by learning to set realistic time limits and stick to other commitments. It is difficult to establish conflicting priorities; make sure you don't confuse "important" with "urgent".

If you have multiple emails from clients with different requests, you can combine responses into one email. Combining different topics will help reduce the number of replies you get!

6. Control the conversation by planning

A surefire way to impress colleagues and clients is to plan ahead. As an insider, you probably had to deal with what was more important to you, preparation for seasonal peaks or analysis.

Customers will turn to you to promote their marketing; That's why they hired an agency!

Here are some design options:

Early this month or earlier: Ask customers if there are any important product launches, meetings, or discussions (such as board meetings) that they need help with so they can plan accordingly.

Create 30-, 60-, and 90-day plans and set clients up for tests, projects, and initiatives. Plan for most cases. You can always move something forward, but it's even worse to put it off.

It's also great for organizing your schedule - once you commit to a 30, 60, or 90 day plan, you can set a time limit on your calendar to get the job done on time.

Plans build trust and let customers know what you're thinking ahead, not just responding to their requests.

7. Learn to manage your time

This is one of the biggest challenges for people moving from work from home to agencies, but it's important. Time tracking helps agency managers plan capacity and staffing, understand client profitability, and accurately bill clients.

I found it easier to track in real time by leaving a time tracking tool (eg. Harvest, Toggl) open in a browser tab next to my email so it was always visible. But as I said earlier, you can also keep track of your time if you block projects from your calendar at the end of the day or week.

Agencies also track usage and time spent, so tracking time will help you get "credit" for your hard work!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of the search engines. Staff writers are listed here.

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about the author

Antonella Pisani is the CEO and founder of Eyeful Media, where she leads a team of passionate and talented marketing professionals. During her career, she has held senior digital marketing and e-commerce positions at Fossil, JCPenney, Guitar Center, and Proflowers, but began her career as a web designer in 1996. Antonella lives in Dallas, and her trusty shoulder, Riley (a rescue pup who is also the company's director of security), often sleeps next to her desk. He has traveled to 37 countries and loves to travel at every opportunity.

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