Top Three Aspects that Agencies Must Focus Upon in 2021

As we approach the middle of 2021, there’s every reason for agencies to believe that they will experience tremendous business growth this year. In a recent CallRail survey, 88% of agencies indicate that they are delighted with their business’s overall financial health. Although uncertainties remain due to COVID-19, 2021 will be a strong and positive year for agencies worldwide.

Also, with revenue in the Digital Media market likely to reach US$8,386m in 2021, the future of digital media agencies looks pretty bright. (Source: Statista)

Following are the three primary aspects that every agency must focus upon to achieve strong financial health in 2021:

Staying Competitive
Keeping Clients Satisfied
Retaining Good Talent

Experts feel that agencies that will focus on these above three aspects will become trendsetters and position themselves as industry leaders in 2021 and beyond. Let’s look at each of these aspects individually.

Staying Competitive

If you want to grow and expand, you have to stay competitive. Small studio agencies’ rise puts pressure on larger agencies that must compete with the biggest, most established agencies’ experience.

Here’s how to stay competitive:

Offer a better ROI than any other agency.

If you get a return of $40 for every $1 the client puts in, then you’ll out prove agencies that can only get $30. You should demonstrate how much money the client is gaining from your solution — and you must show how it’s a better return than what your competitors can offer.

Keeping Clients Satisfied

We’ve all dealt with meddling clients. However, if you openly and effectively communicate and deliver ROI-based results, you’ll be able to blunt the edge of client dissatisfaction.

Time is a valuable resource. Nothing beats the effectiveness of consistent and face-to-face meetings. So, give full attention to the expectations of your client, and you’ll see a drop in miscommunications and misplaced expectations.

Include clients in the feedback loop and offer customized packages. Since the start of COVID-19, eight out of 10 agencies provide custom packages for their esteemed clients. Around 70% of agencies even state that social is integral to their custom-made packages.

Also, make sure you’re following up on all your touchpoints, and communication is always open. You might get a dictator client. However, by following a policy of enforcing honesty and transparency in both your team and your client, you might help mitigate some dissatisfaction.

Your clients tend to think that their solution is the best. They expect their solution to gain world-altering success. This problem is widespread in agencies focusing on branding and design. These agencies may struggle to communicate their efforts when compared to conversion-oriented services like PPC and email campaigns.

Your efforts should yield profits for your clients. If that means offering conversion-oriented services you don’t already provide, then you might have to hire a freelancer or a full-time expert.

Retaining Good Talent

So, how do you retain the top employees? Well, experts say that retention starts right from the beginning, from the application process to screening candidates to choosing who to interview. Next, it’s essential to provide clear paths to advancement and more excellent compensation. Besides, perks and benefits like remote work policies, flexible work schedules, and generous paid leaves go a long way in retaining top talents.

It’s important to note that big-name agencies always headhunt the creme de la crop of talents. So, if you don’t have the funds, you can’t retain them.

Other issues with hiring in-house talents are:

Scalability
Flexibility
Time spent training

If you face the above, you can hire freelancers because they don’t come with the burdens of taxes, benefits, and insurances that in-house employees require. They offer drastic cost savings and can be an excellent resource for completing projects quickly and within budget. A good freelancer needs less time to execute projects. You can soon supplant a core in-house team with a group of freelancers and finish projects that would have been nonviable otherwise.

On the other hand, freelancers may often be notoriously unreliable. Anecdotally, maybe one in every three freelancers has the communication and transparency agencies are looking for.

Even worse — freelancers can take half your deposit and “ghost” you or become non-communicative. The flexibility and agility that make them such good assets also make them untrustworthy.

If the idea of hiring freelancers worries you, look into using the services of a small web development agency. These agencies will offer transparency, honesty, and accountability. Some will also provide skill sets that match what you would expect from an in-house employee.