Your marketing agency is successful because you give clients creative and unique ways to promote themselves. You approach assignments from a fresh perspective and attack through different angles to craft a campaign that’s memorable, original, and guaranteed to stand out from the rest.
You should be just as innovative when it comes to your own operations, especially if you’re still using manual labor within your accounts receivable (AR) process and other dated methods that can you to lose ground in such a competitive industry.
Staying relevant means modernization, and the answer is AR automation, which is effective in reducing spend, saving time, and invigorating cash flow.
Here are five ways your marketing agency benefits from automation:
1. Expedites payments
Statista reports that 46% of payments made to digital media and advertising agencies were delinquent during the first half of 2023. This hampers cash flow, creates stress, and leads to disputes with customers.
AR automation generates invoices with your branding and logo in seconds, enabling you to get them out to customers as soon as a project has been completed. That is why PYMNTS found that 87% of advertising firms reduced their DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) when switching to automation.
By automatically performing tasks typically done by hand, AR automation eliminates the risk of human error in data entry and ensures invoices are linked to the correct services and accounts. By providing safe and speedy payment options through the Automated Clearing House (ACH), AR automation eliminates the time you have to wait for a customer’s check to arrive by mail.
2. Minimizes scope creep
Scope creep, which occurs when a project experiences uncontrolled growth beyond what was planned, costs marketing agencies time and money and dilutes the finished product.
Tools provided through AR automation delve deeper into your customers’ payment trends and history, enabling you to better set expectations and guidelines during the planning phase. Automatic prompts alert you whenever payments are overdue and keep customers aligned with the agreed-upon schedule. That way, you and your team don’t advance to the next stage of a project before prior work is compensated. AR automation also expedites the billing process and helps you get paid on time while maintaining complete control over a project’s progress and finances.
3. Allocates time better
You hired your staff because they’re creative marketers who bring great ideas to the table – not because you wanted them to spend half of their week preparing and reconciling invoices or calling customers whose payments are late.
AR automation prepares invoices and reconciles them in a secure digital platform – no more time wasted rummaging through file cabinets for payment histories – and sends automatic payment reminders and alerts. This frees your employees to better serve your customers and work on more creative projects that they enjoy, which is key considering the average annual marketing agency turnover rate is more than 30%.
4. Better predicts cash flow
Every industry is forced to deal with volatility. But it’s especially challenging for marketing agencies who must battle through seasonality and the fluctuating costs of software, technology, and other tools.
Accessing crucial financial data is simple with AR automation, which provides detailed breakdowns into payments by date, accounts receivable aging reports, and other granular information to help spot trends and better predict the inflow of cash into your agency. Having this information readily available leads to sound, well-informed financial decisions tailored specifically to the growth and success of your agency.
5. Enhance the customer experience
The marketing industry is growing and becoming more competitive, with IBISWorld reporting the number of advertising agencies in the United States has increased by more than 4% per year from 2018-2023. Standing out requires you to offer customers results as well as a pleasant and stress-free experience.
A simple billing process is integral. AR automation enables customers to save and manage preferred payment methods in a secure digital wallet and pay balances with just the click of a button. They’ll appreciate not having to repeatedly enter checking account information and routing numbers. Recurring fees are automatically drafted from a customer’s wallet each month through AutoPay, which ensures customers never miss a payment and avoid late penalties.
AR automation makes it easy to send personalized notes and messages to customers, helping you meet specific needs and quickly resolve any issues that may arise.
Bill360 was purpose-built for B2B companies like your marketing agency. Offering seamless payment flow in a single platform for ACH and card processing, Bill360 helps you get paid faster and instantly access the funds required to grow your agency and achieve long-term success. Bill360 syncs to existing accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks in a matter of minutes and requires less than an hour of training. You’ll be expediting your AR process in no time.
Discover firsthand the Bill360 difference by taking advantage of our free, no-risk 90-day trial.
