Maybe you own a digital marketing agency and are looking to fill some holes in your system with the right software. Or, maybe you’re apart of a SaaS startup and in need of a fresh toolset.
No matter how old or large your agency is, you’ll likely need a few core tools— at minimum— to operate seamlessly. Here are the top SaaS tools to keep your marketing company running smoothly:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
Every agency needs a system to manage their leads and conversions and to maintain important information about their clients. CRMs house and organize your client’s personal data and are a necessity for your sales team to succeed by helping to track all touchpoints with prospects.
A few popular CRMs for agencies include HubSpot, Pipedrive and Agile. Some CRMs also allow you to create webpages and track performance metrics, eliminating the need for some of the performance tools we’ll discuss below.
Project Management Software
Most agencies have at least one Project Manager, who is responsible for coordinating due dates and time tables between internal teams. This person’s job becomes a whole lot easier with the right management system.
Project management software allows you to assign tasks to individual employees with set due dates and time restraints, to track time against available retainer points and to keep your agency delivering work on time and on budget. Check out big management tools like Asana, Teamwork or Monday to get started.
SEO Tools
Many people come to digital marketing agencies to improve their ranking on Google and Bing, and SEO tools are a must for tracking organic search results. There’s a variety of search engine optimization tools, including ones specially designed for analyzing backlinks, citations, keywords and other important ranking factors.
Most digital marketing agencies have at least one tool that does a little bit of it all, like SEMRush. Some other popular SEO SaaS tools include Ahrefs or Moz. Sometimes simple plug-ins like Yoast are enough, depending on your desired level of optimization insights.
Performance Tools
If you don’t have a CRM that tracks your page views, clicks, and traffic sources to the level you’d like, then you may need a standalone performance tool. Many SaaS software programs can dive deep into your metrics, giving you in-depth reports to send or share with clients.
Databox is a great tracking tool, as it shows individual metric boards that update in near real time. While not a SaaS tool, Google Search Console includes a lot of website metrics specifically around your domain. Login access can be shared with agency partners to make reporting easy.
File Storage & Management Tools
When juggling many clients, you’ll need a protected space to house their files. This space will have to be secure and have the capacity to hold your required space of documents, pictures, videos and projects. You’ll want a system that makes sorting and searching a breeze as well as one that can grant and restrict access easily, for sharing externally with your clients.
Google Drive and their File Stream is a top contender in the file storage realm for its familiarity and compatibility. Others use Dropbox or Box for their business accounts.
Proposal Management Software
Your agency will also need a smart solution for submitting business proposals, taking payments and receiving authentic signatures. The right software can help to ensure contracts are properly withheld and operations run smoothly from month-to-month.
Wondering which proposal management software is best for your business? PandaDoc is a highly used platform, but we covered a few more in our post on proposal tools which you should absolutely take the time to review.
Get a Deal on PandaDoc
If your agency is need in need of a better proposal management software, we can get you a great discount on PandaDoc.
Get the “Enterprise Plan” of PandaDoc with no minimum seat requirement and no on-boarding fee (at less than the Business Plan price). Learn more about the benefits of choosing PandaDoc with us and let us help you to dramatically improve your agency’s workflow today.