Project management is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor.
Marketing projects are not like those of other departments, so it is important that the PM software chosen by marketing teams offers the tools and functionalities that will best complement their needs and provide the highest added value.
In particular, there are two areas where project management software needs to be exceptionally capable in order to satisfy the needs of an active marketing team: client interaction and document management.
1. Client Interaction
Whether you’re a marketing agency with many clients, or simply the marketing wing of a larger company, you’ll want to streamline your interactions with stakeholders, all the way from acquiring new assignments to showing them your progress.
Email task automation can be particularly helpful with lead management.
Tools such as Brightpod Send place details on potential clients into your task list as soon as they’ve submitted a contact form. Likewise, you can avoid losing emails in a crowded inbox with Wrike. Wrike can integrate with various email tools (Apple Mail, Outlook, Gmail, etc.) to provide a button for one-click task creation. A task created through this tool includes the email’s contents and email address, and even allows you to respond directly to the emailer through Wrike.
Project templates expedite the process of establishing a new project and promote consistency between similar projects.
Many marketing projects fit into a mold (web ads, blog posts, promotional videos, etc.), such that projects of a similar type involve similar tasks and a patterned workflow. WorkZone is a particularly workflow-conscious PM software with a prominent template feature. It allows any users with permission to select from a list of custom templates and pick an end date. Work Zone creates all the tasks and formats them so that the project reaches completion on the submitted deadline.
Client portals serve several purposes.
Primarily, they allow you to keep clients updated on your progress on their project. Easy Projects’ guest portals allow clients to track progress, view and upload shared documents, and participate in task discussions. Client portals also empower clients to directly submit issues, requests, and new project parameters that are instantly reflected in your task lists and dashboards. This will minimize email exchanges over project specifications, which would otherwise have to be manually transcribed into the PM software.
Configurable project request forms for guest portals allow you to specialize what is asked for when clients submit project requests.
A primary feature of RoboHead marketing project management software, the project request form’s fields are customizable in content and priority. Different project types require unique goals and specifications to be carried out in a properly informed manner. Questions on RoboHead’s forms can be made dependent on conditional logic (“if/then” questions), which change the form’s fields based on which type of project the client is requesting. For example, if a client wanted an ad with an image, then the form could ask the client to upload a sketch. If a client wanted copy for a web page, the form could ask for the length of the requested copy.
2. Document Management
Document management can be as simple as the ability to store and share media related to your project.
These simple management tools usually allow you to attach files to a certain task or project for easy reference. Marketing projects, however, are often very document intensive, whether in the form of text, images, videos, emails, or webpage designs, so it makes sense to include more advanced tools for management, editing, and interaction.
Annotation and live editing tools come in several forms.
WorkZone’s image markup tool lets you draw a box around the area of concern and add a comment. Robohead comes with a few more tools, such as the ability to make comments on the document as a whole, or to add stamps that contain a custom message (“This part is good!” or “This portion needs some more work.”). Wrike PM software contains an entire built-in, online document editor. Users can create and edit documents simultaneously in real time to demonstrate concepts or collaborate on new ideas.
Approval workflows allow the editing and annotation of documents to integrate with the completion of tasks and projects.
Central Desktop’s SocialBridge has an extensive, built-in document management toolset with a workflow track for ensuring all permitted reviewers have approved or made suggestions to a document before beginning the next phase of production. In RoboHead’s PM software, approval, rejection, and approval-pending-changes are recorded with a timestamp and converted into a notification to keep other users aware of the document’s progress at all times.
Versioning tools store a copy of your files and documents at each new upload and alteration along a timeline.
You track your progress by walking back through the project’s iterations to identify the point of specific change, and you can guide clients through the thought process that led to the final result. All annotations, approvals, and rejections are attached to the document in question. Central Desktop’s SocialBridge includes versioning tools that permit you to restore previous document versions with a single click. SocialBridge even keeps an audit log for you to see who’s viewed which files, when they viewed them, and presumably the amount of work that went into each version.
Regardless of whether you work for various clients or if you’re the department of a company, marketing workflows are distinct and require distinct PM capabilities. It is, therefore, key to identify the tools and the features that will most efficiently meet the needs of your team. Fortunately, many of the best project management software options for marketing include all of these features, and more.
