What is marketing project management software?

At first glance, marketing and project management may not be an obvious pair. Predictability, guidelines, and repeatable processes are the backbone of project management methodologies. Their rigid nature is often at odds with the fast-paced, creative world of marketing.

Despite their contrast, marketing organizations and marketing teams are rapidly adopting project management principles and using software tools to increase efficiency and better serve their clients.

Find your marketing project management software

Can you use project management software for marketing?

Not every PM software meets the unique needs of marketers:

• Marketing environments are fast-paced and ever-changing; firms need a system that can paint a full picture across a spectrum of projects and shifting priorities.
• Marketing teams are comprised of writers, designers, videographers, podcasters, and more. They need a platform that not only stores and organizes multimedia such as graphics, videos, and audio, but provides mobile access as well.
• Project management software for marketing must be flexible and collaborative since firms need to discuss issues outside of email inboxes — where details and project requirements are often buried.
• Marketing managers need to sort tasks in a variety of ways: by project, department, responsible team member, or client in order to ensure deadlines and projects don’t clash.
• Dispersed marketing teams can be working from around the world, so it’s important to unify tasks, documents, and people in a single system. Departments need technology that helps teams plan, create, delegate, monitor, and discuss tasks as if they’re sitting in one office.

Enter marketing project management software. This technology convergence was fueled by the gaps that many marketing teams experience with traditional project management software. Marketing teams are just one of many groups benefiting from the growth in popularity of project management software.

A survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon found that when organizations become better at project management, key performance metrics significantly increase. Scheduling adherence rises 50 percent. Productivity can improve by over 60 percent. Numbers like these helped the global project and portfolio management market grow to $3.9 billion in 2013, and its predicted to reach $5.7 billion by 2018. At that time, the much larger marketing software sector is expected to reach $32.4 billion.

Together, marketing project management software may be a mouthful, but it has the potential to meet the nuanced needs of marketing professionals and drive measurable business performance.

Many vendors will claim to provide the best project management software for marketing, but the best software for your business depends on the functionality your team needs. So how do you know what functions are critical? At a broad level, you need a system to manage your marketing projects end-to-end. More granularly, you need a system that fits your company’s strategic goals.

Pinpoint where your processes need improvement, and use those pain points to help identify the specific, must-have features in your new system. Identify your biggest priorities first:

• Do you need to collaborate with clients through an external portal?
• Do you have a complex process for approving creative briefs or design work?
• Does your team need to track time in order to charge for work?
• Do you need a web-based platform that team members can access on any device, from anywhere?

Once you know the problems you’re solving, you can truly identify and select the best marketing project management software for your business.

How does marketing project management software work?

Functionality varies from vendor to vendor, but good marketing project management software should provide the following features:

• Scheduling and task management: Ability to create goals, tasks, subtasks, and set deadlines, with permission settings that determine who can view, edit, or change tasks. A robust system will allow you to set up dependencies for interconnected tasks or assignments and assign different responsibilities to various members of the project team. Systems should notify users when deadlines are approaching or tasks are not completed so teams are notified when they should begin work.
• File and document sharing: the ability to store, share, and comment on multimedia files. Advanced systems will have a live editor, version control, and threaded comments so discussion can happen all in one place.
• Pages or Wikis: a content repository that all team members can access. It can house any piece of knowledge related to the company (best practices, style guides, sales documents), or it can be used as a database for project specific details.
• Discussions and message boards: A public forum where teams can discuss projects collaboratively rather than emailing back and forth.
• Internal messaging: An instant chat system for one-on-one or group discussions.
• Calendar: A public way to manage key events and see team member’s availability.
• Visual timelines: Kanban boards or gantt charts that provide an overall picture of projects.
• Time tracking and invoicing for billing client work.
• Analytics and reports: metrics that are easy to digest and track key initiatives or campaigns with dashboards. Workload reports help show who has bandwidth for the next projects or who is overloaded.
• Interactive timelines: A social media type “newsfeed” that updates when one team member starts working on a task, so the rest of the team can see it in an activity stream and stay up to date.
• White-label solution: The ability to brand your software in accordance with your business or your clients.
• Client Portal: An external portal that clients can access to request changes or view project progress.
• Project templates: The ability to duplicate a similar campaign or project
• Custom workflows: Setup custom triggers so that proofing, review, and change order processes require approval before going to the next stage.

• • Which marketing project management software is right for your business?
  • Find out now

Common applications of marketing project management tools

Marketing project management tools can be used by a variety of businesses. Depending on your size and goals, your system priorities will vary. Below are a few additional points to consider depending on your intended use.

Enterprise

Big businesses and global brands must keep track of myriad activities across the organization. For enterprises, choosing marketing software that provides a view of multiple projects is critical, as is integration with existing ERP systems. Additionally, large companies must ensure that mobile and remote workers can easily access the system, as well as collaborate from around the world.

Marketing Agencies

Marketing and advertising agencies must manage initiatives for multiple clients. To do this, marketing project management tools must consolidate all client projects, communications, and files in one place. You’ll need strong project portfolio management tools alongside task management and other tools for managing projects individually. The best systems provide both. Agencies usually also require a vendor that allows collaborator seats, so that clients can login and stay up-to-date on project progress. Features such as a client portal, time tracking to bill per hour, and project templates are paramount at this type of business.

SMBs

Small and medium-sized businesses require two things from a marketing project management system: consolidation and scalability. As businesses grow, it’s common to adopt standalone solutions as singular issues arise. For example, you may have separate applications for tracking time, sharing files, and delegating deadlines. A good project management system will streamline these separate operations into one platform. And since you’re growing, you need an easy way to add users. A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), or cloud-based marketing project management solution, will grow with your team.

Freelancers

Marketing freelancers or owners of a very small business need the right tools to successfully manage clients and juggle multiple projects. At this size, client portals are very important, especially if you spend a lot of time emailing back and forth with clients. Time tracking and invoicing features are also valuable tools to have on one platform. Lastly, mobile access should be available so you can manage projects on the go.

• • Which marketing project management software is right for your business?
  • Find out now