Marketing Project Management software streamlines your business workflow and boosts productivity.
You can use it to plan and track projects, delegate work among team members, and improve team collaboration through functionalities like task and document management.
With so many project management software solutions available, finding the right one for your needs may take a while. To spare you the research, we’ll cover some of the best project management tools for marketing agencies currently available.
We’ll take a look at each platform’s key features and its pros and cons. But first, let’s dive a little deeper into what project management software is, how it can help your marketing campaigns, and what functionalities you should look for.
What is marketing project management software?
Marketing project management tools help you plan, manage, and oversee marketing projects from beginning to end.
These platforms bring multiple marketing project-related tools under one roof—from built-in calendars that are useful for planning marketing campaigns, to document management and file-sharing capabilities where team members can store, access, and edit media assets, and time tracking features that help ensure projects stay on schedule and within budget.
Some project management tools also have a time-blocking feature that can help with productivity by allocating specific time slots for focused work on various tasks. This ensures that each project phase progresses on time and that distractions are minimized.
They also give you a granular overview of your projects through their task management capabilities. You can divide a project into multiple, smaller tasks, giving you a much more structured approach to completing your projects.
Digital vs. manual: how does marketing project management software improve workflows?
- Automated workflows: Streamline various parts of your workflow, like setting up recurring tasks and deadlines, or delegating work to teammates to save time.
- Campaign planning: Visualize marketing projects through multiple formats, like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, or list views, to handle project planning according to your specific needs.
- Reports and analytics: Gauge employee productivity and campaign ROI via team performance and budget reports. Some marketing project management software solutions also offer customizable reports so you can track metrics most relevant to you.
- Collaboration: Minimize communication errors and better collaborate with teammates through built-in task comments, chat, and file-sharing functionalities. This spares you the need to rely on separate collaboration tools.
What to look for in marketing project management software
- Time tracking: Track the time teammates spend on specific tasks to identify time-consuming activities and organize future work accordingly. This can be done through specialized employee monitoring tools or through the available features of the project management software.
- Resource management: See who works on what and when to prevent overworking employees and assign tasks across your organization evenly.
- Document management: Store, manage, and share project-related files to track and collaborate on media assets with team members easily.
- Multiple project views: Handle different parts of your marketing campaigns more effectively via a broad selection of project views. For instance, you could plan and schedule social media content under calendar views, whereas content production workflows could be set up via Kanban boards.
- File proofing: Streamline the review process by checking and approving media assets directly within your chosen project management solution. Leave feedback and see whether it was implemented via version control.
Better workflows: the best project management software for marketing agencies
Planable
Planable is a content collaboration and approval software that allows you to work on any type of written content, like blogs, newsletters, social media posts, and more. The platform stands out through its top-of-the-line approval functionalities.
You can set up custom approval workflows specific to your needs. You can choose between four types of approval workflows: none, optional, required, and multi-level. Multi-level approvals ensure that your content goes through all the parties involved (like your content team, design team, and legal team) before the final sign-off, ensuring an in-depth review and social media approval process.
Planable also shines in terms of collaboration tools. The platform includes comments, text annotations, and suggestions, coupled with customizable notifications, internal notes (not visible to the client), and custom user roles.
One of the platform’s main strengths is ease of use. You can plan and schedule content via a drag-and-drop interface. Approving posts can be done with a single click directly within the calendar view—no need to access different dashboards.
While the platform supports collaboration on any content, the drawback is that Planable’s direct publishing and scheduling capabilities are currently limited to social media posts. Planable offers a free version, and paid plans start at $11 per user per month (billed annually).
HubSpot
Although primarily a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), HubSpot also offers dedicated solutions for marketing, customer service, operations, content management, and eCommerce—which is ideal for companies seeking to unify numerous business activities.
HubSpot’s Marketing Hub includes all the features necessary to expand your online presence across multiple channels, including a built-in landing page builder, email marketing tools, A/B testing, and marketing automation functionalities.
The Marketing Hub also offers project management capabilities under its Campaigns feature—you can create a series of tasks for each marketing campaign and collaborate with team members through comments. You also get access to custom reports that reveal your campaign’s revenue, leads, and more.
However, the Campaigns feature is only available from the Professional plan and up, which starts at $800 per month (billed annually).
GanttPRO
GanttPRO is a Gantt chart maker and an easy-to-use project management tool that can streamline marketing workflows through its intuitive interface. Perfect for marketing teams looking to plan, track, and collaborate on marketing activities, it offers a wide range of features to manage tasks, resources, and deadlines effectively.
Marketing teams can break down complex projects into tasks and subtasks, assign team members, set task dependencies, and monitor progress in real time. GanttPRO’s visual timeline and multiple project views, such as Kanban boards and calendars, make campaign planning straightforward and adaptable to different scales and working styles.
Teams can also centralize project communication within the platform’s Communication hub, leave comments, share files and documents. Resource and workload management tools help to distribute work evenly and avoid overloading team members. Mobile and web time tracking features ensure that projects stay on schedule.
Additionally, GanttPRO provides reports and dashboards that allow marketing teams to track project performance, budget usage, and timelines.
GanttPRO offers a free trial, and its paid plans start at $7.99 per user per month (billed annually).
ClickUp
ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform that stands out through its broad set of functionalities.
The software offers built-in time tracking features, while its collaboration tools include in-app recording, file proofing, built-in chats, and the ability to send out emails directly from within the platform. You can also hold live brainstorming sessions and work on ideas with teammates in real time via the platform’s Whiteboards.
Regarding project management, ClickUp allows you to create highly structured workflows by breaking down tasks into multiple subtasks. You can also set up dependencies for a thorough step-by-step process towards achieving your goals.
Other key features include a large variety of project views (calendar, Gantt, table, list views, etc.), resource management, and goal tracking. Most of the functionalities we mentioned are available with ClickUp’s free plan, while paid packages start at $7 per user per month (billed annually).
Although ClickUp shines through its versatility, it has a rather steep learning curve. It might take a while to get used to the platform, especially if you have no prior experience with project management solutions.
Asana
Asana is a project management tool suitable for medium and large organizations. Its free plan allows for up to 15 collaborators and includes key features like unlimited tasks and projects, as well as list, calendar, and board views.
Asana’s Business package also gives you access to Portfolios. You can group multiple projects together and easily visualize key details like status reports and track progress for each—which is perfect for complex projects where you have to keep an eye on multiple marketing campaigns at once.
Then there’s the platform’s Workflow Builder. This functionality allows you to set up custom automated workflows via a drag-and-drop interface. Asana also includes built-in file proofing, goal tracking, resource management, and the ability to collaborate with team members through comments.
However, scalability may be an issue. There are steep pricing differences between paid plans. The platform’s Premium plan costs $10.99 per user per month (billed annually), whereas its Business package costs $24.99 per user per month.
Monday
Monday Work Management is an excellent marketing project management tool for small teams looking for a scalable solution. The platform’s free plan is available for up to two users, while paid packages cost $8, $10, and $16 per user per month, respectively (billed annually).
Monday handles digital asset management and tracking, annotations on each file for feedback, and marketing campaign planning through Gantt charts. It also includes Whiteboard collaboration, which is perfect for brainstorming sessions.
Monday’s customization options are another standout. You get access to 200+ industry-specific project templates, which you can further modify according to your needs. For instance, Monday’s pre-built marketing dashboards cover anything from content and social media planners to event and budget management dashboards.
Monday.com’s entry-level plans are rather limited—they only give you access to Kanban boards and lack automation tools.
Notion
Notion is a project and document management platform ideal for handling content production. You can use Notion’s Wikis to set up knowledge bases and content guidelines, as well as store media assets.
Its Docs functionality is perfect for handling content outlines and creative briefs. You can also collaborate on documents in real-time through comments and notifications. You can add tables of contents and collapsible toggles to your documents to make them easier to go through.
Notion lets you turn each doc into a webpage, making it easily accessible to team members and other stakeholders.
As for project management features, you can create highly structured workflows via tasks, subtasks, dependencies, and task priorities. Notion’s calendar views are perfect for planning upcoming content, while you can use its list views to set up review and approval processes.
However, Notion doesn’t offer any built-in reporting and analytics capabilities. Pricing starts at $8 per user per month (billed annually) with a free plan included.
Wrike
Wrike is a versatile project management tool with advanced automation, proofing, and approval functionalities.
You can set up trigger-based automation workflows via When and Then sequences to eliminate repetitive work, like moving a project to the archive once it’s completed. Wrike also leverages AI to assess project progress and identify any risks that may lead to missed deadlines.
Wrike’s proofing functionality handles numerous file formats—be it PDFs, JPEGs, videos, and even web pages. You can easily leave suggestions under each file via comments. Most notably, the platform allows you to check media assets side-by-side to see whether feedback is implemented correctly.
The platform’s automatic notifications will instantly let approvers know whenever a document is ready for review. Other key features include resource planning, an AI-powered content generator, and built-in time tracking.
Despite its in-depth proofing and approval tools, Wrike lacks multi-level approvals, but you do have the option to invite external reviewers to the platform. The platform offers a free version, while paid plans start at $9.80 per user per month.
Trello
Trello is a straightforward Kanban-based project management software. Its visual interface makes Trello very easy to use—moving tasks across the board is just a matter of dragging and dropping, and you can easily organize your work through color-coded labels.
The platform can also automate tasks through When and Then parameters. Coupled with its affordable paid plans, Trello is excellent for small teams seeking a simple and accessible marketing project management tool.
You can collaborate with team members by leaving comments and file attachments under each task. Additionally, Trello includes an extensive library of community-made templates fit for various activities so you can kickstart your projects. For instance, you can find pre-built Kanban boards for content workflows or social media marketing.
Although Trello primarily focuses on Kanban boards, it also comes with list, calendar, and table views. A potential drawback is the fact that Trello lacks advanced project management features, like task dependencies and resource management. Paid plans start at $5 per user per month (billed annually).
Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management software solution that emphasizes collaboration. You can post announcements through the platform’s message boards, hold group chats via its Campfire functionality, and send one-on-one DMs. You can also set up automatic polls to see what your teammates are up to.
Basecamp also allows you to set up tasks through Kanban boards and to-do lists, while you can easily track project progress via its Hill Chart.
You can get an in-depth view of your projects by tracking each team member’s activity. Basecamp’s document management features allow you to store, share, and collaborate on files, documents, or images.
However, Basecamp lacks task dependencies and multi-level approvals. In terms of pricing, you can either use Basecamp for $15 per user per month, or for a flat fee of $299 per month for unlimited users (billed annually).
Productive
Productive is a tool specialized in end-to-end agency management. It’s a centralized platform for agencies looking to keep their project management, customer relationship management, resource management, and financials in one place.
To visualize your projects’ progress, you can choose from seven project views, such as Gantt, Kanban, and Calendar. Various automations help you speed up project work, from opening new tasks to sending Slack messages.
Productive also has diverse features for resource planning and allocation, helping agencies scale their business effectively. For example, you can book teammates’ time for specific projects, manage time off requests, or group your workforce by skills.
In terms of pricing, the base plan starts at $11/month. However, if you’re looking to manage your invoices or forecast revenue through Productive, you’ll need to sign up for one of the higher plans.
Planly
Planly is a social media scheduling tool that provides comprehensive solutions for content planning, analytics, and team collaboration—ideal for businesses looking to streamline their social media strategy.
Planly’s scheduling features enable you to effortlessly plan and publish content across multiple platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. With a user-friendly calendar interface, you can easily manage your posts and keep track of your content schedule. The platform supports automated posting, ensuring your content goes live at the optimal times to engage your audience.
Additionally, Planly offers in-depth analytics to track your social media performance, providing insights into engagement, reach, and audience demographics. You can also collaborate with your team through integrated communication tools, share feedback, and coordinate content strategies.
Planly’s advanced reporting features allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and refine your strategy based on actionable data. Planly offers a 14-day free trial, with individual plans starting at $15 per month, making it accessible and cost-effective for any business.
What is the difference between CRM and PM software?
A project management (PM) software solution helps improve team performance and deliver projects on time. It provides the tools necessary to manage resources and budgets, plan projects, automate recurring tasks, and collaborate with team members and external stakeholders.
For example, in the construction industry, PM software equips project managers with the tools to keep construction projects on track by efficiently allocating labor and materials, monitoring subcontractor schedules, tracking budgets against actual costs, and facilitating smooth communication between architects, engineers, and on-site teams.
In contrast, a Customer Relationships Management (CRM) solution helps you manage customer data and improve communication with potential prospects, as well as existing customers to increase sales.
Other more specific CRMs like sales CRM software, cover features like contact management, lead tracking and scoring, sales forecasting, or sales analytics. Take Livespace.io, for example, it is a CRM that enhances sales efficiency through structured processes, automation, and detailed analytics. It makes it easier to manage customer interactions and improve sales outcomes.
Integrating project management with CRM systems offers a holistic approach to handling client interactions alongside project execution. By aligning these two systems, businesses can streamline communication, ensure all team members know customer needs and expectations, and more effectively manage project deliverables based on real-time customer data. This integration allows for a seamless transition between sales and project teams, making it easier to track project progress, manage deadlines, and maintain customer satisfaction throughout the project lifecycle. Such synergy improves efficiency and enhances the overall customer experience by providing a more coordinated and proactive service.
Conclusion
There you have it—some of the best marketing project management tools you should. They help you create well-structured workflows, coordinate your team more effectively, and plan successful marketing campaigns.
Keep in mind that content is the center point of any marketing strategy. A well-planned campaign may not yield the desired results if your content is not up to standards. An organic growth agency like Omniscient Digital can help you grow your business by handling the content production process from beginning to end—from competitor research all the way to content promotion.
