Advertising agencies are firms that create, plan and manage advertising campaigns for their clients. They may also provide other forms of promotion and marketing services.
Before deciding to hire an agency, it’s important to understand their role and how they work. This article will explain how an agency works, the benefits they offer, and some tips for choosing one.
Creative Services
Advertising agencies can offer a wide range of creative services. Standard versions are often limited to specific marketing strategies that can be executed in a single medium, while full service agencies may deliver integrated promotional campaigns using social media, traditional print and offline event components.
These services can include branding, website development and design, digital graphics, video production and more. A good creative agency will employ a variety of experts with different backgrounds and industry trends to produce a brand that is unique to each client.
Market research is also an important function of an advertising agency. It helps them determine which ad designs will convert best.
An advertising agency San Francisco will work closely with clients to understand their goals and develop an effective strategy for each project. This process can be a long one, so be sure to find an agency that is willing to help you achieve your objectives.
Media Planning & Buying
Buying media is a key function of an advertising agency. It involves securing advertisement space within, among other things, TV schedules and magazines, to maximize the impact of clients’ campaigns.
To plan for this, the agency will complete market research to understand the client’s brand and their target audience. This will help them decide on what type of medium is best suited to promoting the company.
Media planning and buying is a complex process, and it requires both hands-on expertise and data-driven insight. Despite automation tools and new methods of campaign management, it’s still important to build meaningful vendor relationships.
Client Servicing
Client servicing is one of the most crucial areas in an advertising agency. It involves understanding a client’s needs and proactively meeting them.
Client services executives are responsible for interacting with clients in person, over the telephone or through email to identify their needs and resolve any issues they may have regarding the company’s products or services. These professionals are also tasked with creating positive onboarding experiences for new clients and maintaining open lines of communication between the client service department and other departments within the company.
Excellent client servicing is crucial to ensuring that business clients remain loyal to an advertising agency. A good client service executive can provide regular updates to the client’s higher-ups, upsell the agency’s products and services where possible and cultivate solid relationships with clients through exceptional after-sales service.
An excellent advertising account planner is able to build strong and trusted relationships with their clients. They are seen as intellectual prowess, seniority, and possess empathy in the creative process.
Clients often equate client service to email forwarding, or even Chinese whispers, an intermediary between the agency and the clients. But they are actually an essential role in any advertising agency, the glue that holds everything together – the client, the project, the budgets, the deadlines.
Account Management
Account management is a strategic process that keeps a client happy and ensures they continue to do business with your company. It’s an extension of the sales cycle and involves uncovering upsell & cross-sell growth opportunities.
Most agency account managers handle just a few accounts, but there are those that work across multiple pieces of business. These teams need purpose-built tools to help them unearth and manage every aspect of the client’s needs, wants, and goals.
Account management is a critical function for agencies that provide services, because it’s difficult to get new clients if your existing ones aren’t satisfied. The agency’s bottom line depends on the success of the relationship, so ensuring they’re both happy is paramount.
An advertising account manager is responsible for working with clients and overseeing the work that agency creative and media teams do. They are primarily tasked with delivering advertising campaigns, but they also oversee other areas of the business, including financial planning and client servicing.
A key component of effective account management is the ability to keep clients in the loop with the agency’s progress.
