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Project management is a versatile discipline that finds application in different fields. The success of many organizations is heavily reliant on their ability to incorporate the appropriate project methodology. This is why it is funny to still find many creative and marketing agencies managing their projects the archaic way- especially with Excel spreadsheets.
One then wonders what exactly is the reason for embracing digitization in the first place. Thus, increasingly, more than ever, agencies are on the lookout for business or project management software that can help outline their tasks, encourage team collaboration, and assist with their accounting and billing, if possible.
Every creative individual or organization has its unique niche and forte, and so does project management software, too. In this article, we will highlight some of the best project management software you can use as a creative and delineate what makes each of them a recommended choice. That way, you will be able to find the particular one that suits your business, strategies and help you achieve success.
To be candid, there is no hard and fast rule concerning creative tasks. In a digital agency, project management can be complicated, demanding more proactive shifts in your plans. This could be due to changing customer’s preferences or the general market trends. This is why you need suitable project management software that can deliver and offer you a magnitude of efficiency in catering to the numerous unpredictable modifications you experience in workflows.
How to identify the best project management software for digital marketing
On average, digital marketing agencies desire a top-notch UI/UX design for effective content marketing strategy and to ensure that they are constantly creative as well as keeping their products in the limelight. Such versatility of work processes demands an equal and appropriate tool to help pull off the respective projects, and thus, you will need project management tools to achieve this feat.
There are tons of project management software on the marketplace that are generally touted as “best” for digital agencies. But many of them fail when put to the test. Depending on what exactly you need it for-, say team reliability, integration with your firm’s current software stack, and easy-of-use, among others, you can find one that suits your project needs in this article.
Generally, we believe that no matter what you do, you want to be able to manage your projects, business as a whole, track time, manage teams and deliver the best service to your clients. This is where some of these tools become applicable. Do you probably wonder what separates the best marketers from the rest? Talent? Creativity? Or work ethic? Or maybe the way they use technology?
There could be reasonable speculation around all three, but there is certainly something they do differently. In a report from the Aberdeen Group, “The State of Marketing Technology 2016: Controlling the Chaos”, it was established that the best guys in the industry are performing well because they use some of the popular marketing software, especially the ones that incorporate the following features: CRM, video conferencing solution, email service provider, marketing automation platform, print materials & solutions, data visualization solutions, and CMS. They perform better in the respective tasks and functions than others. The same goes for those who adopt project management technology, too
Best Project Management Software or Marketing Agencies/Digital Marketing
1. Bonsai – Best for scaling digital marketing businesses
When your business begins growing, you also require solutions that will meet the needs of your business. This is where Bonsai comes in, as the perfect solution for all digital marketing businesses. The platform will enable you streamline all the processes so that digital marketing can become a breeze for you.
It combines various features such as client portals, contracts, bookkeeping, proposals, and more to offer an extensive solution. You can use the features to impress your potential clients to turn them into loyal ones. Besides that, there are endless templates created for your digital marketing needs.
The invoicing experience will also take your customer experience to another level. Its features will allow you to create a branding experience that will make the invoices look great and guarantee that it is easy for the clients to pay. Such a simple experience is there so that you can get paid on time.
However, that is not all because you can also utilize Bonsai to capture new leads. You can embed the forms to your website and centralize all the clients and leads in the CRM. Then, you can also automate follow-up to know whether you have certain leads or not.
There are many features to help your growing digital marketing business, but these are the most important ones that will allow you to provide an experience like no other. Once you start using Bonsai, you will wonder why you didn’t use this tool before.
2. Scoro
Scoro is a combination of project management with billing and customer relationship management (CRM). It is designed to help agencies use one tool with different options, which is some kind of all-in-one solution.
The top features of Scoro are time entries and billing for time, CRM and sales pipeline management, client and billing data, customizable project management dashboard, project scheduling mode, detailed reporting and tracking metrics, invoices, and quoting with pre-set templates, among others.
Scoro is unique because it is by far more comprehensive than many other project management tools you will find out there. This is why it is recommended for digital marketers so it can help with their CRM, media planning, and billing- especially given their nature of work which requires that they bill their clients for projects and works.
3. Trello
Trello is a popular name in the project management field, and it is best known for its ability to help users visualize project tasks on a dashboard in form of cardboard. That way, managers can easily manage short and quick daily tasks.
The features of Trello include task management on cardboard, task organization by date or priority, commenting on cards, creating multiple task lists. Trello is an ideal option for digital marketing because of its highly interactive user interface, which makes managing daily tasks fun and intuitive. It is also typically suitable for teams whose projects are not overly complex. Besides, Trello is free software that can be used by anyone, with the paid pricing option available for businesses and enterprises.
4. Asana
Asana combines project management functions with the capability to store files, encourage team collaboration, and manage team projects without the necessary use of email. Among its top features are commenting on projects and tasks, attachments, projects with many users, tasks, and subtasks, team interaction in real-time, and notifications about projects update.
It also features an in-app inbox for quick and effective communication. Asana is an easy-to-use tool with a simple interface and layout. It is recommended for digital marketing firms with unsophisticated projects.
Are you a designer or a creative? Do you want to create tasks and assign teams easily for your digital marketing strategies and projects? Leverage the calendar and scheduling project features of Asana. You can also hold a meeting with your team to have an instant discussion with them via the available collaboration channels.
5. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is one of the most comprehensive agency management software you will find on the marketplace. It is recommended for digital marketing agencies because of the unique and incredible capabilities, including track timesheets, invoice clients, hire remote staff, and manage projects. Users find Hubstaff greatly applicable for maximizing billable hours, and its ability to integrate with ClickUp, among other tools, makes it a top option.
6. Teamwork
Teamwork is the best tool for monitoring team capacity and workload. It is a work tool and project management software that helps your teams and entire organization improve visibility, accountability, and collaboration. It also guarantees that you can achieve great results.
Teamwork is a flexible and fully-featured project management solution that helps users manage the project from start to finish with little or no hassles. Some of the features include creating task lists, tasks, and subtasks to break the work down into action items. You can also use the workload feature to get the big picture of the team’s capacity.
You can customize the dashboard with due dates, priority, supporting documents, or tags, and descriptions. This customizable feature makes it incredible coupled with its integration with Gmail, Harvest, HubSpot, Slack, Dropbox, and others.
7. nTask
nTask is primarily built and designed for teams and industries of all sizes. Its wide range of features allows you to structure your projects properly and streamline your workflows. It is an ideal project management software for digital agencies because it helps you manage your marketing projects effectively through different features such as team-specific workspaces and many options for task assignment.
Generally, some of the features of the task are, but not limited to the following:
- manage and monitor the progress of your projects with Gantt charts and timelines
- manage and monitor your employee task efforts with the payroll management option
- creating, assigning, organizing, and prioritizing as well as sharing tasks concerning creative projects, plus the ability to control projects in a simple and comprehensive user-interface
- arranging and scheduling meetings- whether one-time or recurring
- issue tracking to identify and list issues related to the different tasks
- risk management feature to identify potential risks to the project for better planning of the workflow
- alerts, notifications, and reminders to track teams
8. Podio by Citrix
This is a popular project management tool that offers an optimum team collaboration solution. It combines the features of chat and email service and offers a server where you can share documents and other information to deliver a satisfactory service or product.
Among the features of Podio are individual accounts for team members, API for setting custom integrations, creating your applications with templates and fields via the drag-and-drop option, multiple applications for every workspace to facilitate team collaboration, and customizable workspaces for teams.
It is often considered an all-in-one solution for project management, which, due to its app-based design, can help teams customize their application set for various types of the deliverable. It fosters auto tasking and team reporting too, which are requisites of a digital marketing agency.
9. G-Suite
These days, Google does more than being used as a search engine. Many tools and services can prove to be useful for you as a digital marketer, among which is its use as a project management tool. Apart from being able to host your website on Google, you can also perform content management on an elaborate basis.
G-Suite provides users with the entire marketing cycle where they can use My Business to advertise for free, Google+ Business pages to set up their business page, and Google Webmaster Tools account to alert you in case of potential red flags, and also to analyze search traffic.
With Google Suite, you can store your documents, sheets, slides, and forms automatically in a single place. More so, the idea of using G-Suite will also ensure that you incorporate Google analytics and campaign data directly into spreadsheets. That way, you can keep track of your team communication and monitor the progress of your projects adequately.
10. Basecamp
Basecamp is the best digital marketing tool for team collaboration and all-in-one project management. It is designed as a simple and powerful project management software, which is ideal for agencies including marketing, and other creatives. It features chat rooms, file storage, and provision of project timelines.
It is perhaps one of the reasons it is considered more flexible than Slack. With Basecamp, the client can upload their files to the respective project. It also encourages business scaling with a flat fee of $99 a month for unlimited users.
11. Jira
Jira is the best digital marketing software on the marketplace for agile project management. Many users choose Jira to support the agile project management of their projects, and the reason being that it helps simplify and break projects down into smaller tasks so that they can be assigned to a team with a deadline.
Considering how critical project management is for marketing agencies, Jira becomes handy in and among multiple teams working on many projects at a time. The agile solution helps to keep users aware of the status of the task and the project, and it provides clear ownership of every detail. Irrespective of the team, position, or otherwise in the organization, Jira is the hub of all activities and is highly recommended to handle high-level tasks on a to-do list.
To choose the best creative project management software for your digital marketing, look out for the following:
1. User Interface: Be certain that its navigation is clear and intuitive, and it suits your creative team.
2. Usability: What is the essence of choosing a tool that you cannot use or is difficult to learn? Creative agencies like digital marketers have to choose software with reliable technology and user support since not everyone will be familiar with the technical aspects. Also, the idea of the software being easy to use is that it should offer you a way to manage your files efficiently.
3. Features & Functionality: Here, you want to be certain that many of the key management software features and functions provided by the software are what you need. For instance, the reporting features, budget management, collaborative feedback, visual, customizable workload management, and briefs and intake forms are essential.
Other things to look out for are integrations and pre-built functions that can enhance the use of the software, plus the value for money.
Conclusion
As against what you have in other industries, you will agree that the digital marketing field must stay constantly updated concerning the changing market requirements as we have today. Thus, for the diverse tasks of planning, forecasting marketing trends, making on-the-spot decisions, and monitoring your customers’ preferences, among other things, any of the aforementioned project management software will do.
These tools will help you and your team as a marketing agency benefit from software that can help you manage the workflow of your creative projects. That is, creative project management means more than collaboration, communication, brainstorming. It also means you are willing to automate your administrative or technical tasks. That way, you can navigate the basic needs of your team and free them up to do other things like creating, designing, and critiquing.