In the same sense, making substantial changes to your company structure is much easier at an agency of 10 people than an agency that has grown to 50 or more. If you're considering making a change within your own agency's team structure, take a look at whether an approach like ours would work for you. Our account strategists managed sets of clients from their own department, while editors, in a separate department, worked on content for all clients according to their individual capacities. How One Change Can Improve Everything After six months of internal research and planning, we rolled out the client-based structure we use today. Each pod contains an account strategist who manages client relationships, a content strategist who manages client campaigns, and an editor who manages content creation. The pod structure completely broke down the silos that kept our client-facing team members from working together as efficiently as we knew they could. The new structure also included dividing the account strategist role into two positions, which allows the three pod members to specialize in their own areas of expertise. And because these team members are dedicated to working together and serving their shared group of clients, they each understand those clients, those clients’ strategies, and one another’s roles much more thoroughly. All of your roles are changing. Beginning with discovery conversations with people in all affected roles, we asked how employees thought it would impact their jobs and what resources they needed to make the transition smooth.
Making a U-turn in a Ford Focus is easier than in an 18-wheeler.
In the same sense, making substantial changes to your company structure is much easier at an agency of 10 people than an agency that has grown to 50 or more.
But that challenge and discomfort shouldn’t keep you from working to improve your agency’s structure. If you approach the process strategically and for the right reasons, change can be a positive force for your company — and it could potentially result in pretty impressive growth in the long run.
When my content marketing agency, Influence & Co., grew to about 50 people a year and a half ago, we decided to change our entire company structure.
When I discuss this change with my fellow agency leaders, they often think (at least initially) that a switch to a client-based team structure instead of siloed departments would be chaotic, difficult, and possibly negative for clients who were used to and preferred the existing model.
But change — even major structural and procedural change — doesn’t have to create chaos. If you and your leadership team manage development effectively and commit to transparent communication with your team and clients, you might be surprised by how smooth the process can be.
If you’re considering making a change within your own agency’s team structure, take a look at whether an approach like ours would work for you.
Why We Saw Change on the Horizon
In our agency’s infancy, our client services team was divided into departments by role. Our account strategists managed sets of clients from their own department, while editors, in a separate department, worked on content for all clients according to their individual capacities.
This is a fairly common structure for content agencies, but its prevalence doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, we found it was responsible for a number of inefficiencies and incidents of tension between departments.
A lack of regular contact between editors and clients often left editors in the dark about concerns like strategy and tone, which resulted in a disconnect that reduced content quality. Account strategists were split between two very different job functions: account management and content strategy. This not only left them feeling stretched too thin, but also made it difficult for us to hire and train content marketers and project managers.
This problematic disconnect made it challenging for us to effectively service clients, and kept our employees from performing at their best. We knew we needed a change — we just had to determine what it would look…
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