7 Tips For Transitioning From In-House Marketing To Agency Life
Are you new to agency life? These simple tips will help you transition smoothly to your new role and get on the ground running.
Are you considering moving to an agency after a long time in an in-house role in marketing?
Agencies are great for getting exposure to different types of businesses and learning how to optimize against different marketing goals. Agencies are also fast-paced and offer a lot of advantages over working in an in-house role in marketing.
The most crucial difference between agency and in-house marketing is the fact that you can be responsible for multiple accounts simultaneously and must focus more on time management and attention management.
It can be daunting to transition from agency life, primarily if your career has been dominated by one brand or in-house.
These seven tips will help you get the job done quickly so your agency career can be as great as you need it to be.
1. Follow the 80/20 rule
Working efficiently and quickly is a key aspect of any agency. It is helpful to timebox yourself and consider where the 80/20 rule applies. This is where I have seen people struggle most when transitioning from corporate life to smaller client accounts, where hours are often limited.
A client might have a 20-hour per-month contract. You must deliver the most value possible from those hours. This is how you approach the problem: Delivering multiple things at 80% will most likely add more value for your Client’s business than going 100% on one.
You could spend two hours searching keywords and get lots of information, or five hours brainstorming words that you might not have used for six months. You might be surprised at what you can do with three extra hours of keyword research.
Competitive backlink research is another rabbit hole. Spend some time creating a target list. Be realistic about the resources you will use in the coming months.
It is easy to lose track of time and keep digging when there is no end in sight (like keyword searches or review backlinks). So keep aside an hour to do it, and then let your emotions about the results speak for themselves.
It is essential to be able to deliver value consistently and continuously. Don’t forget that clients won’t be able to grow their businesses or achieve their goals if they delay sharing information.
2. To make room for ad-hoc work, plan your schedule
Managing simultaneous clients can be difficult for people who have been in-house marketers. It’s a good idea to block meetings on your calendar and assign tasks to each. To create a routine, booking regular meetings at the exact times each week is even better.
For example, Client A content briefs are available every Monday at 2:45 p.m. and Client B’s weekly reports are on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.
You should be able to plan for 80% of your time. This will allow you to take on any requests from clients, colleagues, or managers without having them interfere with your work.
You can plan for the next week on Friday afternoon, so you don’t have to stress over it the rest of the weekend.
3. Be comfortable working with imperfect information
It’s easy to delay things when you work in-house.
You must be able to work with imperfect information as an agency representative. This could include not being able to receive information about audience demographics, an estimate of the cost-per-lead targets, and historical performance data.
You will rarely get all you need from a client. It is essential to work with constraints and move on. It will take days or weeks to get all the data you need. This can lead to wasting time on projects with tight deadlines.
Your time is like a perishable inventory or an unsold hotel room. Once it passes, it’s gone.
4. To speed up your learning, sync with your peers
You should be able to accept that your agency may have “and other duties as required” and that you might need to take over a project or Client halfway through.
It’s usually faster to learn about new industries or clients by listening to what others have done rather than trying to figure everything out all by yourself.
Peers might be able to communicate enough background information with you in one hour, whereas you would otherwise have to go through hours of old emails or original materials.
It can be more complicated if the person taking over is already gone. You might ask for a copy of the original kick-off document, look through Slack or review the previous four to five weekly/monthly reports.
5. You can respond quickly, without sacrificing other priorities
High-touch service does not mean giving up your other commitments or dropping everything to accommodate a few requests. Suppose you respond to an email, text, or Slack message immediately. In that case, it can disrupt your workflow unless the issue is a real emergency (like a site down, broken data feed, or similar).
Clients and colleagues expect you to communicate quickly, but don’t confuse excellent service with doing the job immediately.
You can schedule a time to check your email or Slack (or something similar) multiple times throughout the day and become familiar with sending these types of responses.
- “Got it! “When do you need it?”
- “I can get it to you by the 15th. Will that work?”
- “Sure thing. “Sure. I am tied up this week, but I can get on it on Tuesday. Is that OK with you?”
- “Confirming I got your email. We can’t promise to get this done within the time you require. We will do our best, but we can’t guarantee that it will be done by Friday. Let me know if this works for you.
Setting realistic timeframes and staying true to your other commitments can save your relationships. It can be challenging to balance conflicting priorities. Make sure you don’t confuse “important” with “urgent.”
You may wish to combine multiple emails with different requests from clients into one email. You will get fewer responses if you combine other threads.
6. Plan to control the conversation
Planning is a surefire way of making an impression on your clients and colleagues. You were probably an in-house marketing professional primarily responsible for tackling the most pressing issues, preparing for seasonal spikes, and doing analysis.
Your clients will look to your agency to help them in their marketing efforts – that’s why they have hired you!
Here are some planning options:
- You can start planning early in the month or even before.
- Create 30-, 60-, and 90-day plans to align with clients regarding tests, projects, and initiatives. Ideal for most likely scenarios. It is possible to move things forward, but it is worse to push them out.
This is also a great way to organize your schedule. Once you have an approved 30- or 60-day plan, it’s easy to block out time on your calendar to get work done on time.
Plans instill confidence and show clients that you are thinking ahead.
7. Track your time
This can be difficult for people moving into agencies after working in-house, but it is essential. Agency leaders can use time tracking to plan for staffing and capacity, analyze client profitability, and accurately bill clients.
It’s easiest to track your time in real-time by leaving a browser tab (e.g., Harvest, Toggl) open next to my email to make it visible. As I mentioned, you can track your time at the end of the day or week by putting projects in your calendar.
Agencies keep an eye on usage and time billable, so it is essential to track your time to ensure that you are getting credit for all of your hard work.
