Marketing project managers have distinct needs when looking for software platforms.
Campaigns typically involve a number of teams, sometimes both internal and external, exist over a number of different channels, and require extensive reviews and adjustments throughout.
It’s a tough gig, and to really nail it, you need a reliable right-hand man.
We’re talking about marketing project management software — the modern marketer’s best friend.
In this article, you’ll learn exactly what to look out for in a marketing project management software platform, why you need one, and how a platform like monday.com can help make marketers’ lives that much easier.
So, pause Slack notifications off for a second, and listen up.
What is marketing project management software?
Marketing project management software helps marketing teams plan, manage, and execute marketing strategies, including high-level timelines and content planners, as well as singular tasks at the micro-level.
Project management software for marketers often includes project and resource planning capabilities, time tracking and invoicing, and the ability to share project boards with freelancers and key external stakeholders.
What are the benefits of using marketing project management software?
Marketing project management software offers a number of benefits to marketing agencies and in-house marketing teams.
Typically these platforms allow marketers to plan out campaigns in detail, using project management tools such as Gantt charts:
A good marketing project management tool should also give teams the ability to upload and share documentation — this keeps all of the context in the Work OS and saves searching for documents every five minutes.
A complete project management system is a great way for marketing teams to manage remote colleagues, improve team communications with group and individual chat (as well as task-based commenting), and plan and manage resources.
A smart project management solution gives marketers a big picture view over their project, with customizable dashboards that make reporting a breeze.
Do you need both content marketing software and project management software?
The short answer is this:
Yep. Both.
Project management software helps teams to plan and manage projects, from scoping out new project timelines to managing tasks on a daily basis.
Content marketing software may incorporate some planning aspects, but is typically more focused on content creation and distribution.
Ideally, you’ll find a project management software with a strong set of integrations (cough, monday.com, cough) that will play nicely with your content marketing software platform and keep everything running smoothly.
What to look for in marketing project management software
So, you know why you need a quality marketing project management app, but what features should you actually be looking out for?
Let’s take a look.
Time tracking
If you’re a marketing agency working for external clients, there’s a chance you’ll be charging by the hour.
In that case, you’re going to need to be able to accurately report on the time your team is spending on each task and project in order to invoice accurately.
Even if you aren’t billing by the hour, or you’re working on an internal marketing project, it’s helpful to have a detailed understanding of how long tasks are taking your team, so you can plan better in the future and improve your resource management.
Expense tracking
Marketing projects always have a set budget, and going over budget inevitably means something else will need to be sacrificed.
A solid digital marketing project management tool will allow you to quickly and easily track project expenses, and report on them in real-time.
Real-time updates and notifications
Everyone on your marketing team needs to be kept up to date, and that means you’re going to need real-time updates from your marketing project management software.
Many PM apps offer notifications via email or via push notifications to your smartphone, and the most flexible ones will allow you to customize your notification settings so you hear what you need to know and not what you don’t.
Mobile apps
Speaking of mobile apps, make sure your marketing project management tool has them, and make sure they’re offered on whatever platform your team is using (Apple or Android).
Mobile apps are invaluable for task management, allowing you to assign tasks on the go and inspire collaboration and communication improvements.
Customizable fields and app building
If there’s one thing a creative team loves, it’s being able to customize their workflow tools.
A quality PM software should for marketing teams should go beyond simple color-coding, offering you the ability to build your own workflow apps that work for your individual marketing operations.
Project management views – e.g. Gantt, Kanban
Everyone prefers to work in different ways.
Some of us enjoy the high-level view of a Gantt chart, others prefer a simple task list, and others rely on the age-old Kanban board.
A quality project management software should give your team all the options they could possibly want and let them decide for themselves, which works best.
Reporting and dashboards
There is no doubt that you’re going to need to report on your marketing campaign fairly regularly.
This extends from simple daily updates (which you’ll want to be able to see instantly in dashboard form), to complex project reports on a monthly basis.
Get yourself a PM tool that does both.
Resource management
Your marketing department is, at the end of the day, made up of people.
People can only complete so much in a day (much to the disdain of many ambitious project managers), which means you’re going to need to have a keen eye on resource management at all times.
Your marketing project management software should offer a variety of tools for visualizing resources, task responsibilities, and current marketing activity across all personnel.
Invoicing
If you’re a creative agency managing projects for a portfolio of clients, then you’ll need an easy way to manage invoicing.
Not all project management software tools offer a direct invoicing functionality, but you should be able to find a solution that integrates with whatever you’re using to invoice clients.
Integrations
Speaking of integrations, make sure your chosen PM tool has plenty.
There’s nothing worse than having to manually update various platforms when you’re working on multiple projects.
Workflow platforms like monday.com offer hundred of integrations with tools commonly used for creative projects, including (but not in any way limited to):
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Slack
- Shopify
- Mailchimp
- SurveyMonkey
- Basecamp
Automation
Let’s face it, manual work sucks.
It’s a huge productivity killer, and frankly, a lot of it is simple administrative tasks that take up time that could be better spent elsewhere, like working on some kickass marketing content.
Choose a marketing project management software that allows you to build automated workflows to automatically complete recurring tasks when another action takes place.
Creating automation rules should be an easy process too, so that everyone can do it. So make sure there’s no complex coding required!
Scalability
Though you might be starting off small, you shouldn’t limit yourself to a platform that won’t work for larger operations.
With a bit of luck (and a tonne of hard work), your company is going to continue to scale upwards, meaning you’ll need a tool that can scale and expand as you do.
Marketing project management software platforms like monday.com allow you to create new boards, columns, and fields as and when you need them, meaning your project management systems can start out simple, and grow as your company does.
User-friendliness
Don’t forget the fact that you and your team are going to be using the platform on a daily basis for project planning and task management.
That means you’re going to want to find something that’s user-friendly, meaning it has:
- All the apps you’d require
- An intuitive interface
- Drag and drop editing
- Pre-built templates for getting off the ground quickly
- An easy to understand architecture
Support and training
Implementing any new software package comes with an inevitable learning curve, and this is especially true if your team is used to current embedded processes.
As such, look for a project management tool that offers a lot in the way of training and onboarding, such as:
- How-to guide
- Video walkthroughs
- Onboarding video calls
Find out what kind of support comes with your package, too. At an enterprise-level, you may look for a dedicated account management rep to help with any teething issues.
The ability to share with your clients
Sharing project boards with external stakeholders and clients is always a tricky balance.
You want to bring them into the mix and keep every updated, but you also need to restrict access to certain types of information.
Your chosen marketing PM software should allow you to set individual sharing permissions on a per-user basis, allowing you to keep sensitive data private, but involve external parties where needed.
Marketing project management: from strategy to success
At monday.com, we’re not afraid to blow our own horn, which is why we’re happy to say with confidence that our Work OS is the ideal marketing project management software.
Why?
Glad you asked:
- Templates: we’ve got a whole bunch of pre-built templates that are perfect for marketing teams looking to get straight into the action.
- Customizable workflows: build a project management system that fits your team with drag and drop editing and customizable columns.
- Strong collaboration functionality: share tasks instantly with team members, communicate directly on tasks for maximum context, and upload documents all in one easy to access location.
- 8 different project views: find the way you like to work best, without compromising the productivity of your teammates.
- Mobile apps: for on-the-go work.
- Time and expense tracking: keep projects on budget and bill clients accurately with a simple and visual time tracking or expenses column.
- Automations: leave manual grunt work behind by building easy to create automation rules that speed up your workflow.
- 70+ integrations: keep the tools you still need (and throw out those you don’t) while keeping work in one place.
- Reporting: high-level dashboards give you an at-a-glance view of project progress, while more advanced reporting tools give you a deeper look into team performance.
Over 100,000 teams love and trust monday.com to run their marketing campaigns across a variety of purposes.
Here are just a few of the ways marketers use monday.com to manage their projects:
Editorial calendars
monday.com is ideal for creating editorial calendars for planning, organizing, and tracking content production:
Media and production
Managing multiple projects? No problem. monday.com makes this workflow a breeze, with fields for customer contact info as well as project and task management boards.
Email marketing
Build and collaborate on your email marketing campaigns and get new ideas on the road faster.
Design projects
Manage various design and development phases and share boards with your clients, without sacrificing sensitive information.
Conclusion
Marketing teams need a lot from their project management software, so make sure you find the perfect fit for your team with all of the features that will ensure smooth sailing for your next campaign.
Ready to dig in?
Why not check out our content planning template for monday.com and kick things off right now?
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