What’s inside a marketing agency #1: The Account Manager

(Graphic Credits: Hueval Design Department — Author: Gionatan Fiondella)

“This spot’s awesome, I love this product!”

You see an ad that steals your attention. Its jingle stays in your head for weeks, even your son sings it. You see it back on TV, on social networks, in the online newspapers’ banners, in pre-roll before your favourite YouTube video. In the end, you buy it.

This is the flow of perfect marketing. Basic, linear, in it ostensible simplicity, but actually very complex, the result of thorough teamwork. Usually, when the spot works the team has a clear name: it’s called agency.

Starting from this first ‘episode’ of “What’s inside a marketing agency” I’d like to tell you how it works, from inside, a marketing agency with the purpose of explaining what those who trust a close-knit and experienced team buy and why a structured partner often makes the difference on the market.

Let’s start from the bases: why should you rely on an agency?

1. Because you’re an entrepreneur and, maybe, you’re good at it. Thanks to your expertise and team you designed products and services of high quality and you don’t have the time nor desire to carry out someone else’s job, that is the marketer’s, of course.
2. Because you know, as a skilled entrepreneur, that selling is a specific career and that reaching precise tasks requires specific skills.
3. Because you tried to fit in the workforce a “sole” figure to deal with all the marketing issues, but it wasn’t enough, no matter how great he/she is.
4. Because you want to purchase a comprehensive service. You don’t look for a creative, a social media manager, a strategic consultant, an expert of email marketing, and/or a PR guy organising your events. You don’t want to sweat blood and tears to keep together the work of many independent roles. You need that task is reached and you expect that someone plans a strategy, shares it with you, manages his/her team, starts off and concludes the tasks to reach the goal.

That’s why you need an agency.

What does who relies on an agency buy?

Those who outsource their efforts to a marketing agency buy themselves precious time. They buy the expertise of a multidisciplinary team, working together for precise goals: yours.

Who are these experts?

What are the roles that can’t be missing in a marketing agency in 2020?

• The CEO
• The Marketing Director
• Strategic Consultants
• The Creative Team
• The Advertising Team
• The Project Manager
• The Social Media Team
• Developers

All these roles can be divided into two blocks — stealing the developers’ lingo — we can call ‘front-end’ and ‘back-end’. In technical gibberish the visible and non-visible parts of digital infrastructure.

The former engage with customers (in different phases), the latter doesn’t. They work tirelessly behind the curtains.

The Account Manager

Then, we have a hybrid figure closing our list, that has a foot in the front-end and one in the back-end: the agency’s account manager. That’s the object of our analysis today!

A mythological figure, the account manager. Just guess the difficulty to explain mum and dad what is the job the account managers do.

A hybrid — I was saying. It is not a coincidence I chose this for our first episode:

The account maneger is the “tangible” partner a company “buys” when signing a contract with a marketing agency.

It is with him that customers will relate with all the time. It is to him that they will ask answers and solutions, submit new ideas, no matter their validity and/or feasibility. It to him that they will ask, in the first place, the results.

Hence, what do the agency’s account managers do? Well, they send emails, I mean, no, not only that at least.

A good account manager is a perfect blend between Batman’s wise butler, Alfred:

(as the customers see it)

And the practical Tarantino’s Mr. Wolf:

(as the CEO sees it)

Following, the account manager seen by the creative team:

The account manager makes different departments and professionals speak the same language, connects them, and then, reports the results to the customer, allowing them to understand dynamics often too technical and little clear to those who have no idea of what’s going on.

They are responsible for the correct perception of the customer regarding the team’s work and must have precise, unavoidable characteristics. Here are some. Write them down and look for them when you’ll go through LinkedIn in search of the account manager of the next marketing agency you’ll choose. They can make the difference:

• Empathy
• Multidisciplinarity
• Inclination to multitasking
• Rapidity
• Problem-solving skills
• Patience
• Detail-oriented
• Previous experience

Well, that’s it. I tried to vindicate a professional figure usually unknown, sometimes mistreated, but fundamental for the companies that want to outsource their marketing efforts. I swear I did this for you. Now you know how to identify good account managers. Keep this in mind when you’ll have to choose your next marketing agency!

P.S. Write to me, I know a great one! ;)

Versione dell’articolo in italiano a questo link.