There are many companies that offer project management software that are designed to be used for numerous industries; Asana, Trello, Monday and Basecamp are just a few examples. Some simple project management software programs are even designed for the needs of a specific industry—like construction or computer programming.
Yet, for marketing agencies that need to track multiple pieces and data assets associated with projects and campaigns, the popular project management software programs that are designed to fit the needs of multiple industries might not have the customizable features for the ever-changing atmosphere of the digital marketing industry.
Agencies need industry-specific marketing project management software that can be customized to meet every client’s needs and demands. Software also needs to help agencies organize their workflow, ensuring that writers and other team members stay on deadline and on budget.
Here’s what marketing agencies need to look for when they are researching project management software to simplify and organize workflow and manage all the assets of campaigns and projects for clients.
Is Generic Project Management Software Good Enough?
Asana, Trello, Monday, and Basecamp offer basic project management tools that can be used across many different industries. These programs allow for agencies to track workflow and other campaign data. However, they may fall short when it comes to customizable features.
Many project management programs are simply not designed to accommodate for the industry-specific needs of marketing agencies. Digital marketing changes fast; many assets need to be tracked for individual campaigns and projects. Not only does the agency need to be able to quickly assess deadlines and budgets, but the team also has to understand the ever-changing data of site analytics and performance.
Project management software should link or sync to programs like Google Search Console and/or SemRush so agencies can better assess SEO, including keyword rankings, GSC errors (they happen!) and page views. Which project management software connects to both programs? Gryffin, of course!
Software Should Track Elements of a Marketing Campaign
There are numerous elements of a marketing campaign that agencies may need to be able to create and track. A client’s project might include blog or article posts, technical SEO audits of this content (or of individual pages), and infographics or videos also may accompany campaigns.
Project management software should allow the agency to create, assign and track tasks for writers, editors and illustrators. However, the software also should provide quick access to SEO data to gauge the success of content after it goes live online.
It isn’t enough to assign and track blog posts and articles; the agency has to know if the keywords featured in the content fared well on search engines. In addition, page views and engagement data also enable the agency to better understand the success or failure of every communications campaign.
Of course, the agency needs to be able to summarize all results of every project and campaign. Reporting features are essential to compile all the data and communicate it to the client. Gryffin provides templates to create basic reports that can be sent to clients directly from the program.
Software Should Help Organize Teams
At a glance, software should help agencies understand outstanding, completed and in-progress tasks associated with all teams and team members. Why is this important? When tracking so many moving pieces, managers need to know which teams may be falling behind and holding up other aspects of the project.
Many marketing agencies have teams of writers, client/project managers, developers, designers, and editors. Software should allow for tasks to be sorted by team so managers or agency principles can view all the moving pieces of a campaign. If the editor is behind, this could push back the work for an illustrator. Agencies need to know the status of every task, and they need to sort this data by the team to which the task is assigned.
While many project management programs allow for tasks to be sorted by stage (writing, editing, etc.), tasks might not be able to be viewed by teams. Managers need tools that let them manage all aspects of the task and project; this includes pulling up each team and viewing all the work associated with that team. Gryffin provides comprehensive tools that can be customized and sorted by teams…and team members!
Creating Specialized Campaigns and Deadlines
Some campaigns may be specialized; maybe blog content is tailored to Black Friday or Back to School. Campaigns may be focused primarily on social media. Other projects and campaigns are simply revamps of old content that need to be updated to reflect changing keywords.
Project management software should provide customized options to create more specialized tasks and campaigns. If the agency wants to track all Back to School content for every client, the software should allow for the agency to view everything associated or tagged as Back to School.
Why is this important? Months after a campaign ends, a client may ask about the results again. Perhaps the agency is planning a similar campaign, and the client inquires about a customized project from the past. Without the ability to search for projects and campaigns by specialized tags or customized topics, the agency may spend hours hunting down data and communications related to that Back to School campaign from three years ago. Gryffin allows for agencies to search via customized tags and topics to gain access to all those old tasks and campaigns in seconds!
One Tool for All Assignments
Project management software should serve as the primary tool for creating and tracking every task and project. Software should include templates that allow agencies to create project workspaces, assign personnel to each project/client, assign tasks, chat about the projects/tasks, and follow up.
The workflow should be customizable, allowing managers to assign each task phase to a team member. And the project should move along seamlessly. Once the writer checks off that the content has been completed, the editor should be notified that the content needs review. Workflow should continue without interruption until the very last phase is completed.
However, all team members also should have the ability to communicate during the creation process. Software should feature chat or messaging capabilities on the project page to allow for brainstorming, follow-ups and task clarification. If the writer is unsure about keywords, they should be able to message SEO team members on the project page to receive clarification.
Gryffin includes these built in tools for the agency to track the status of the workflow and to allow constant communication, too. Emails can get lost in the shuffle, but on-page messaging allows for all pertinent information from chats to be accessible to everyone at all times.
Reporting/Accountability to Clients/Managers
Agencies need to be able to tell clients what their agency has accomplished–successes and failures–even years later. Again, it isn’t unusual for clients to ask about a project from the past. Project management software designed specifically for marketing agencies helps keep all assets in one place.
For marketers who need to manage so much information, it’s easy for it to fall apart unless the information is accessible in one place. Gryffin includes an executive dashboard, and this allows managers to see what tasks that are overdue and pending as well as completed tasks. The dashboard also shows which team members are completing tasks on-time and which ones aren’t meeting deadlines. Managers also can view how much time has been allocated to each client and budget data for clients, too.
While marketing agencies can find numerous project management software programs to organize workflow, agencies also need software that can link to SEO data (like Google Search Console), organize teams, create customized campaigns, track all assignments and send reports to clients. Gryffin does all this and more! Ready to try Gryffin to organize your campaigns and projects? Sign up for a free trial today!