In advertising there is no such thing as ‘every day is the same’ and I actually think it would be very uninspiring. And because that is a blessing and a curse when doing client management in a dynamic industry, like digital marketing, you need to have a way of working that can sustain your daily tasks while also helping you see the bigger picture.
In my 5 years of experience in Project & Process Management, I have encountered lots of situations that required creative solutions. In this article, I will talk about 7 important and easy to adopt tips & tricks that I use to keep my clients happy month by month. If you are looking for a digital marketing partner at the moment, I hope this article will convince you that you also want to be a happy client and if you are a fellow advertiser, I would love to hear your tips in the comments section. Let’s go baby! And I promise it wouldn’t be an AI slop.
1. Write it down
I know you might think this is obvious, but I do not have enough fingers to count the times I wished I would have written down a request or a task in the exact moment it was given to me. In client management, there will always be a lot of information going on and tasks moving around places. It is perfectly fine to train your short term memory, but I can assure you that your future self will be very grateful if you write all the small things that appear during the day on your task management app, in your notebook or where you keep track of what you have to-do.
2. What can you do in 5 minutes?
In a digital marketing agency you can have months with 5 projects, months with 3 projects and months where all of your clients need extra activities. Whenever it gets busy for me, one thing I do to keep the pace is to do the tasks that take me less than 2- maximum 5 minutes in the exact moments I receive them. Why is that? Because a lot of the tasks in client management consist in keeping things glued together, and if someone from the client team or internal team needs some glue, I make sure I move very fast so we can save as much time as possible. Also, the 5 minutes rule that went crazy on Reddit can come in handy.3. Feedback moves mountains. Of tasks. Literally.
When managing a client portfolio it is crucial to move things forward as fast as possible, especially if you use project management approaches like waterfall where tasks are linear and the next step depends on finishing the one before. So, if you have a day where clarity leaves the building for you, I recommend you start with offering feedback where it is needed so that everyone on all teams can move forward.
4. ‘Hey Phineas, whatcha doin?’
If you are a GenZ, you know what I mean. If not, let me teach you some important GenZ cultural references. There was a cartoon called Phineas & Ferb about two brothers that were inventing random things everyday just for fun. In this cartoon, a girl named Isabella was always popping up randomly saying this line ‘Hey Phineas, whatcha doin?’. Where do I want to get with this and what does this have to do with client management? Well.. Isabella was kind of the queen of follow-up.👑 When we have a lot of projects running around the agency I think those small daily interactions make the difference. Start your morning coffee with your team, ask them how they are doing on their tasks. Pop-up randomly in the room like Isabella at 15:26 and check the vibe, check the process. I believe that part of great management is to have in the back of your head a status and a clear vision about where the project is.5. How do you name your email subjects?
One future version of you will need that information. Put everything in there. The month, the year, the name of the client, the name of the project. Trust me, your future self will give you a kiss, you just saved her half an hour of searching. An email subject for sending a report? ‘Monthly Report// august 2026// client name’, an email subject for reporting an issue? ‘The problem in 3-5 keywords// client// august 2026’, a meeting title for a debrief? ‘Client name// Social Media DEBRIEF // 2026’. In this way, months after, when you want to have an overview you can access information very easily.6. Client management 101: Where did you start and where are you going?
I think this a very simple question, but one that suddenly disappears when day to day tasks and pressure take control. When I have busy months I try to ask myself questions about my clients portfolio and take a step back to look at the bigger picture. Is it the beginning of the month, the middle, the end? What stage are we comparing to the monthly plan, but comparing to the trimestrial KPIs, but what about the annual strategy? In this way I double check that we are going in the right direction and what improvements might be needed. The formulation ,“Where did we start and where are we going?” is something I picked up from our client Serpico Trading in a meeting and it’s just stuck with me ahaha! We just agreed on the social media strategy for one of their brands. Coming soon on DEFISH (Happy Criss in August 2026 🧚🏻♀️)
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