How No-Code Marketing Tools Can Level-Up Your Agency

Companies depend on marketing agencies to help promote their products, services, brands, and personas. This, you already know. “But how?” You might ask. The closest “right” answer is likely “multiple choice.” In today's increasingly fast-paced digital marketing world, businesses require a wide variety of software tools to stay a step ahead of the competition. 

However, building custom software is often expensive, difficult to use, and slow to develop. In order to keep up with demand and quickly adapt to multiple clients' specific needs, a majority of marketing agencies opt to use no-code marketing tools.

Wait…No-Code? What's That?

No-code marketing tools offer the perfect complement to a whole bevy of tasks, such as high-level data analysis, rapid delivery, and cross-team collaboration. 

So what is it exactly?

Like the name suggests, "No-Code" is a software development approach that requires few, if any, programming skills to quickly build an application. 

No-code removes the requirement of needing intimate knowledge of programming languages and instead takes a highly visual, drag-and-drop approach to software development. 

No-code allows for rapid delivery and development of software applications--such as a form or website--by line of business (LOB) employees with institutional knowledge who lack programming language knowledge. 

No code tools can also be used to quickly analyze data, without having to write code in order to extract actionable insights. 

How Does No-Code Work?

In truth, the term "no-code" is a bit of a misnomer: there is still plenty of coding involved "behind the scenes," you just don't see it! However, to the end-user, no-code marketing tools more than live up to the name. These tools require zero coding experience and are designed and tailored specifically to make it easy for individuals and teams to create applications. 

In many cases, it's as simple as moving things via drag-and-drop. Thanks to no-code marketing tools, marketing agencies can build websites, analyze data, seamlessly use dozens of different integrations, create multiple dashboards, and more. As a result, it's now never been easier for marketing agencies to impress their clients, save time and money on automated reporting, monitor campaign performance, and connect with all of their marketing channels.

The Rise of No-Code 

News flash: no-code marketing tools are not only here to stay, but they're here to stay in a big way. According to data from Forrester, low-code/no-code industry spending is expected to increase to approximately $22 billion by 2022. 

A report by Gartner predicts that, by 2024, low-code/no-code application building will make up more than 65 percent of all app development functions. A whopping 80 percent of developers say they choose low-code/no-code because it helps free up their time to focus on high-priority tasks. In only a few short years, no-code applications have quickly become the standard across multiple industries.

Marketing Agency Challenges

Marketing is multi-faceted work, and marketing agencies rely on a multitude of tools to meet the unique needs of their clients. With multiple functions comes multiple struggles, even in just one campaign.

Many challenges that marketing teams face are a result of:

• Low Bandwidth:  Many developers and IT teams are drowning in a deluge of requests and simply lack the capacity to meet demand.

• High Difficulty:  Many marketing agencies are using outdated systems that either need some severe modernization or should be replaced altogether. However, fine-tuning legacy systems can open up a whole can of worms, and many businesses can't afford the downtime or loss in productivity required to do so. It can get pretty messy!

• Low Budget: Hiring developers isn't cheap, and many businesses can't foot the bill required to purchase multiple apps or bring in the necessary experts to create the specific tools they need.

• High Skills Gap:  It's a tough ask to expect non-technical marketers to manage their day-to-day workflow with code-heavy apps. 

• Low Speed:  Marketing agencies need to act quickly to meet their clients' needs, which means they often can't afford to wait around for app development. 

• High Expectations: With the rapid increase of technology-driven challenges comes increasing customer expectations. Clients expect results, and they want them today, not next week. With the ubiquitous reach of technology, the playing field between bigger brands and smaller ones has been leveled. Marketing agencies that leverage no code methodologies can come out ahead.

In order to address these challenges, marketing agencies are turning to no-code marketing tools to improve workflow, increase productivity, and reduce reliance on costly and time-inefficient developer work. 

Benefits of No-Code Tools for Marketing Teams

The immediate and obvious upside of no-code marketing tools is that they're less expensive and labor-intensive than traditional, code-heavy tools. However, there are many other benefits of no-code marketing tools for marketing agencies. 

Simplified & Streamlined User Interfaces

Unlike traditional software, because there's no coding involved, it's relatively easy to quickly become familiar and proficient with no-code marketing tools in only a few hours or even minutes. 

Compare that to traditional software and programming, which can often require extensive, months-long practice and study, and the difference is already night and day.

The ability to see and create your work visually is by far one of the most significant advantages of using no-code marketing tools. Forget about struggling with back-end programming, constantly updating code, or needing extensive knowledge of how the tool works; simply drag-and-drop or layer application components.

User interfaces are simple; while users may require some basic training, nothing requires programming or coding knowledge. There's also a minimal risk to exploring and trying out different designs or builds. Traditional, code-heavy tools will often crash if you make a mistake. With no-code, you have the freedom and flexibility to take risks and get creative.

No-Code Tool Example #1: HubSpot: 

Hubspot plug-and-play apps don’t require coding, saving developers time and offering marketing agencies greater flexibility and power to help their clients grow their business. HubSpot’s no-code CMS platform helps increase traffic and convert leads by providing an easy content management experience along with easy-to-use marketing, sales, and customer service workflow automation. 

Improved Workflow Experience & Increased Productivity

If you're reading this, it should come as little to no surprise to you that workflows are a crucial component in project management, not only because they balance workloads against timelines and schedules, but also because they help maintain alignment with company objectives.

In the past, marketing agencies used the tools available and created workflows that fit around those platforms. In a sense, they were doing things in reverse. This led to inefficiencies, as the focus was on the tool's infrastructure rather than on a client's unique, specific needs. 

Since coding knowledge isn't required, no-code applications make building automated marketing and sales actions a breeze. Multiple integrations of different software allow for a seamless and consistent workflow creation process. With no-code solutions, you can quickly and efficiently simplify the idea-to-development process, increase automation, ensure faster turnarounds on projects, and take advantage of scalability features. 

No-code marketing tools allow for automation of nearly everything, from setting campaign milestone reminders, populating dashboards with data, generating reports, and more. By reducing the time spent on tasks, what once took weeks now takes days or even hours. 

No-Code Tool Example #2: Zapier

Automation removes busy work for busy people. Zapier automatically moves info between web apps and creates workflows that fit around the way you work. Get instant notifications when you receive customer feedback or a work request. 

Automatically route your data, organize your leads, and engage with new customers. With thousands of pre-made templates and custom integrations with other no-code software, you can build out a Zap in only minutes to help your clients achieve their business objectives

Rapid Innovation & Reduced IT Dependency 

Regardless of the industry, it's always an arduous task for a marketing agency to keep up with fast-paced and constantly changing markets. No-code marketing tools alleviate some of that burden by empowering marketing teams to achieve their objectives without relying heavily on IT. 

Due to the significantly smaller learning curves required compared to traditional dev tools, no-code tools afford marketing teams the luxury to learn and customize their growing tech stack. In addition, most of these tools are highly customizable and easy to integrate. 

Marketing agencies can easily remove or swap out one tool for another, seamlessly update their workflows, and grow their tech stack alongside their team. IT no longer has to suffer the strain and burden of constantly installing, integrating, and updating tools that can now easily be created and customized using no-code. 

This level of autonomy, speed, and customization would simply not be possible otherwise. Freed from the shackles of code-heavy applications, marketing agencies and other non-development teams can focus on learning and customizing these tools to fit their objectives as their needs change and develop. The result? You foster an air of self-sufficiency and confidence, and your clients notice.

No-Code Tool Example #3: Jotform

Jotform is a web-based form builder that helps you create online forms without any programming skills. You can create contact forms, surveys, order forms, and more.

For those who want to do more in the mobile world, they also offer a No-Code App Builder. Make an app with no programming. Jotform's free no-code app builder lets you integrate forms, widgets, goods, and your branding into a fully customized program that may be downloaded to any smartphone, tablet, or PC.

No-Code Tool Example #4: Wix

With over 500+ customizable, eye-catching website templates, the popular no-code platform Wix lets you make your clients’ websites exactly how they want. Use your favorite Marketing Integrations to measure online campaigns, collect valuable data, and gain actionable insights. Manage your clients’ sites all in one place using Wix’s built-in professional business suite, replete with all the tools necessary to meet your client’s unique needs.

Example: Creating Custom Metrics with No-Code

One example of how agencies can take advantage of no-code platforms marketing analytics platforms like AgencyAnalytics is by creating custom metrics. Instead of having to write code that collects, aggregates, and normalizes data from multiple sources, custom metrics can be created by simply choosing the metrics from each channel, selecting the data type, and creating a formula to apply. For example, custom metrics can be used to aggregate PPC data across multiple platforms in order to analyze the ROAS from total ad spend.

Example: Automated Reporting

As this simple example highlights, no-code platforms allow you to analyze data that would have previously required code in a few clicks. Ultimately, this makes marketers that much more efficient and can level up your agency.

Automated reporting software does away with the time-consuming and inefficient task of manually creating reports. Instead of relying on a plethora of tools and the arduous task and manually tracking data on their own time, the user can focus on the essential functions, such as running the campaigns themselves. 

With no-code automated reporting, data is automatically pulled through an API. Simply connect your account to your data sources to being automatically retrieving data on a daily basis. Save time and money with automated reporting as you reduce reporting costs, improve consistency, scale your business, increase upselling opportunities, and demonstrate the true value of your services to clients.

Example: Goal Tracking

Goal tracking ensures that your long-term campaign objectives aren't lost in the day-to-day shuffle and that you are administering time and resources effectively to complete your marketing objectives. Effective goal tracking is essential to building strong, long-term client relationships. Benefits include:

• Clarity and unity of purpose among stakeholders in a shared objective

• Alignment of work and effort and increased productivity

• Improved odds of hitting performance and budget targets

• A transparent framework of progress and regular, open communication, leading to increased client satisfaction 

• A focal point for your internal team's efforts

Thanks to no-code, you no longer have to spend time manually updating spreadsheeting; the entire goal-tracking process can be automated via the Goals widget on the AgencyAnalytics platform.

No-Code Marketing: The Future Is Now

The need for easy-to-use, cost-effective applications led to the meteoric rise of no-code development platforms, and the increasing popularity of these platforms is, ahem, rewriting the code for how marketing is done. As a result, marketing agencies can now automate processes at the click of a button. 

Thousands of businesses are embracing no-code marketing to gain an edge and improve their skill sets. Marketing agencies who use and take advantage of no-code marketing tools will position themselves for day-to-day and long-term success. The others? They'll be left looking at their watches and to-do lists, wondering how they fell so far behind.