Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

Advertising agencies often handle multiple clients and projects/campaigns simultaneously, each involving budget management, production approval, and coordination with media companies.

This time, we will explain how EMOROCO CRM Lite can be used to manage this complex business structure.

table of contents

1. Unique challenges faced by advertising agencies
2. Why are there limitations to managing things with Excel or paper?
3. Specific Examples of Entity Design
4. Visualize project and campaign progress using BPF.
5. Budget management and visualization of results
6. Workflow management of the production approval process.
7. Common Challenge Scenarios at an Advertising Agency
8. Prioritizing when handling multiple projects simultaneously
9. Managing relationships with media companies and partner companies
10. Managing contract renewals with clients
11. Information sharing within the account team
12. Visualization of client satisfaction
13. The challenge of handing over responsibilities when the person in charge changes.
14. How to proceed with implementation
15. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
16. Summary

1. Unique challenges faced by advertising agencies

Advertising agencies face the following unique challenges:

- Multiple projects and campaigns are running simultaneously for a single client.
• Budgets are set for each project, and it is necessary to accurately grasp the difference between the budget and actual results.
- The approval process for the deliverables involves multiple stakeholders, including communication with the client.
- Coordination with media companies and partner companies (production companies, printing companies, etc.) will be required.
- It is necessary to accurately understand the timing of contract renewals with clients.

2. Why are there limitations to managing things with Excel or paper?

Many advertising agencies manage client information and project progress using Excel spreadsheets or paper documents.
In this state, the following problems occur:

- With multiple projects running concurrently, it's difficult to grasp the overall picture and understand which project is at what stage.
- The difference between budget and actual results needs to be compiled manually.
- The approval status of the work gets buried in email correspondence.
- When the person in charge changes, the history of the relationship with the client is not passed on.

3. Specific Examples of Entity Design

Using EMOROCO CRM Lite's no-code functionality, you can design entities for advertising agencies in the following way:

・Client entity: Manage company name, contact person, and contract details
・Project/Campaign Entity: Manage project name, purpose, budget, and implementation period.
・Budget and Actual Entity: Manage budget, actual amount, and variance
・Production Management Entity: Manage the type of work, approval status, and responsible person.

By using the relationship management function to create a structure of "Client (parent) → Project/Campaign (child)" and "Project (parent) → Production Progress (child)," you can view all projects and their progress for each client on a single screen.

4. Visualize project and campaign progress using BPF.

Advertising projects typically proceed through the following stages:

1. Planning: We interview the client to understand their challenges and objectives, and then develop a plan.
2. proposal: Propose the project plan to the client.
3. Production: Create advertising creative content
4. Client Approval: Obtain client approval for the deliverables.
5. Media placement and implementation: Advertising in media outlets, conducting campaigns
6. Effectiveness measurement and reportingMeasure the results of the implementation and report them to the client.

By visualizing this process using Business Process Flow (BPF), you can instantly see "which project is currently at what stage."
For advertising agencies handling multiple projects simultaneously, this visualization is particularly important.

5. Budget management and visualization of results

For advertising agencies, managing budgets and performance is a crucial task that also relates to accountability to clients.

- Record the budget amount for each project and the actual costs incurred (media costs, production costs, etc.).
- Monitor the difference between budget and actual results in real time on the dashboard.
- To enable early detection of projects that are at risk of exceeding their budget.

The workflow feature allows you to automatically send alerts to responsible parties once a certain percentage of the budget has been spent.

6. Workflow management of the production approval process.

The approval process for advertising materials often involves multiple stakeholders (production team, sales team, client), and using an approval workflow allows for the following types of management:

- Visualize the process from submission of deliverables to internal review and client approval by displaying statuses.
- Create a list of projects that have been in a pending approval state for an extended period, making them easier to review.
- Record the details of the correction instructions as a history so that they can be reviewed later.

This prevents situations where it's unclear whose approval is pending.

7. Common Challenge Scenarios at an Advertising Agency

To give you a concrete idea, let me share a scenario from an advertising agency.

This agency managed projects for multiple clients using separate Excel files for each person in charge.
At one point, due to overlapping busy periods, one person in charge ended up handling projects for five different clients simultaneously. However, checking budget usage was put off, and in one case, the budget for a particular client's project was exceeded before it was even realized.

By using budget and actuals entities to display the budget utilization rate for each project on a dashboard, this agency was able to identify the risk of budget overruns early, even during peak seasons.
The person in charge reflected, "I realized that a system for visualizing progress is truly necessary when you're handling multiple projects simultaneously."

8. Prioritizing when handling multiple projects simultaneously

Advertising agency representatives are always handling multiple projects simultaneously.
To properly prioritize in this situation, the following strategies are effective:

- Display a list of deadlines for each project and reporting timings to clients on the dashboard.
- Prioritize highlighting urgent items, such as those with high budget utilization rates or pending approval status.
- Allow managers to have an overview of the project status for the entire team and adjust the workload distribution accordingly.

These strategies help prevent situations where you suddenly realize the deadline is approaching, allowing you to effectively allocate limited resources.

9. Managing relationships with media companies and partner companies

The work of an advertising agency involves collaboration with many partner companies, such as media companies, production companies, and printing companies.

- Record contract terms and advertising performance for each media company.
- Record the order history and evaluation of the quality of service provided by partner companies.
- Ensure that the history of past interactions can be passed on even if the person in charge changes.

The concept of managing trading partners can also be applied to managing media companies and partner companies.

10. Managing contract renewals with clients

For advertising agencies, maintaining contracts with clients is directly linked to the stability of their business.
Using the workflow feature, you can incorporate automations such as the following:

- Automatically list clients whose contract renewal date is approaching.
- Notify the person in charge in advance of the task of preparing the proposal for the update.
- Continuously monitor contract renewal rates on the dashboard.

11. Information sharing within the account team

It is common for multiple staff members, such as sales representatives, planners, and production staff, to work as a team on a single client.

- Ensure that the entire team can review the history of communication with the client.
- Clearly record the roles and responsibilities of the person in charge for each project.
- Use security roles to design permissions so that only the assigned team can access each client.

The concept I previously explained in my article on how to eliminate reliance on individual salespeople is perfectly applicable to this situation as well.

12. Visualization of client satisfaction

For advertising agencies, client feedback is a crucial indicator that affects both contract renewal and referrals.

- Conduct a satisfaction survey (such as NPS) after the project is completed.
- Record the relationship with the client as perceived by the person in charge, as an emotional temperature.
- Continuously monitor changes in satisfaction levels to detect early signs of relationship deterioration.

13. The challenge of handing over responsibilities when the person in charge changes.

Advertising agencies face the risk of losing relationships with clients due to personnel changes or resignations.

- Record the history of proposals with the client, their preferences, and points to note as an activity history.
- When a person in charge changes, these records should be used to enable the successor to take appropriate action based on the circumstances.

14. How to proceed with implementation

For implementation at advertising agencies, we recommend the following step-by-step approach.

We will start by introducing basic tasks such as client information and project management.
Budget management and production approval workflows will be added once the system is operational and stable.
• Managing media companies and partner companies, and conducting satisfaction surveys, will be considered last.

15. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. Can I manage multiple clients simultaneously?
Yes.
You can manage projects, budgets, and production progress for each client, and handle multiple clients simultaneously.

Q. Can you predict the risk of budget overruns in advance?
Using the workflow function, you can automate notifications to assigned personnel when the budget utilization rate exceeds a certain threshold.

Q. Can the revision history of the work also be recorded?
Yes.
The production progress entity can record the details of revision instructions as activity history.

Q. Can I restrict access to information to only members of the account team?
Yes.
Using security roles, you can design access permissions that are limited to the assigned team for each client.

Q. Is it possible to migrate from existing client data (Excel)?
Yes.
You can use the Excel import function to migrate your data while importing existing data.

16. Summary

The work of an advertising agency involves managing multiple clients and projects simultaneously, and encompasses a wide range of tasks, from budgeting and production progress to coordinating with media companies.
With EMOROCO CRM Lite's no-code design and process visualization using BPF, you can manage these tasks on a single platform.
Establishing a system where client relationships are preserved as organizational records, even when personnel changes, leads to the building of long-term trust.

EMOROCO CRM Lite costs ¥1,500 per user per month (minimum 3 users) and has no initial setup fee, with a 30-day free trial.https://www.emoroco.com/You can start from there.
IT implementation subsidy eligible tool number: DL07-0022934.

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Related article

・Complete Guide to Business Process Flow (BPF)
・How to eliminate reliance on individual sales personnel
・Summary of implementation guides by industry