Keeping Clients and Projects in the Loop: 10 Marketing Agency Project Management Software to Consider
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Marketing agencies play a vital role in the growth of many businesses. They operate by their own rules, follow the latest marketing trends, and use specific tools, including online marketing agency project management software.
Professional marketing project management tools keep up with the times and provide marketing teams with everything for successful project organization and implementation.
What is the best project management software for a marketing agency? Let’s dive into this article to find the right answer.
Contents:
- What is marketing agency project management software?
- Why marketing agencies need project management software.
- What features to look for in marketing agency project management software.
- GanttPRO – best Gantt chart functionality for panning marketing projects.
- nTask – best project management tool with multiple project views.
- Asana – best project management software with a rich set of integrations.
- Nifty – best for remote work.
- Scoro – best combination of project management and CRM.
- Smartsheet – best project management tool in terms of online spreadsheets.
- Workzone – best for teamwork and communication.
- CoSchedule – best for managing marketing agency calendars.
- Workamajig – best for managing marketing agency budgets.
- ClickUp – best free project management software for marketing agencies.
What is marketing agency project management software?
Marketing agency project management software is a specialized tool that helps marketing agencies efficiently plan, organize, and track their projects and campaigns.
This software typically allows teams to collaborate, assign tasks, monitor progress, generate reports, and more. It streamlines workflows, enhances productivity, and improves project outcomes for agencies, making marketing project management their strong side.
Effective PM tools help marketing agencies build websites, launch advertising campaigns, provide SEO services, and manage many other additional tasks. Overall, they assist in building a predictable and revenue-generating business.
Before listing the best online solutions, let’s take a look at how these tools help agencies perform better.
Why marketing agencies need project management software
Marketing agencies may face different obstacles. However, their work remains highly demanded.
Here’s what Aaron Agius, co-founder and managing director of the global marketing agency Louder.Online thinks about it:
In the future, digital marketing may be able to reach more people, but the challenge will be to continue to get people to take action. If people become more immune to online marketing, agencies will have to continue to innovate and invest in quality to drive success.
This success will also depend on the usage of professional software. To effectively control complex marketing workflows and ensure successful project execution, agencies need reliable online solutions.
They can benefit greatly from using general marketing PM platforms and project management software for creative agencies because they help in the following ways.
1. Increase efficiency
Smart marketing agency project management systems streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and provide a centralized spot for communication. By eliminating manual processes and reducing administrative overhead, agencies can operate more efficiently, handling a larger volume of projects and clients without sacrificing quality.
2. Improve productivity
These tools help agencies optimize their resource allocation, track progress, and manage deadlines effectively. By enabling teams to work more cohesively and prioritize tasks efficiently, online PM systems enhance productivity. This allows marketing agencies to complete projects faster, take on more work, and meet client expectations.
3. Enhance client satisfaction
Effective creative project management contributes to a better client experience. By utilizing professional project management tools, agencies can provide clients with clear project timelines, regular progress updates, and transparent communication channels. This helps build trust and manage expectations.
4. Ensure scalability
As agencies grow, they need tools that can scale with their expanding operations. Best PM platforms provide the necessary infrastructure to handle larger teams, increased project complexity, and a higher volume of work. They offer enough features that enable agencies to manage and track multiple projects simultaneously, facilitating scalable growth.
5. Optimize data-driven decision-making
Project management software solutions for agencies generate valuable data and insights about project performance, team productivity, resource allocation, and client profitability. By leveraging this data, marketing teams can make informed decisions to optimize their processes, identify bottlenecks, allocate resources effectively, and improve project outcomes. Data-driven decision-making contributes to continuous improvement and growth within an agency.
6. Boost communication
Effective collaboration and communication are essential for agency growth. These tools provide a centralized platform where team members can collaborate, share files, provide feedback, and discuss project-related matters.
7. Streamline project delivery
Top marketing agency project management software solutions help agencies streamline the project delivery process by providing clear project plans, task assignments, and timelines. This enables agencies to optimize project execution, minimize errors, and deliver projects within the defined scope, timeline, and budget.
What features to look for in marketing agency project management software
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the best PM platform for a marketing agency.
Before making any decision, explore the key features that leading marketing agency PM platforms typically contain.
1. Centralized project management
Project management software provides a centralized platform to track and manage all projects of a marketing agency. It allows teams to have a unified view of project progress, tasks, timelines, and resources.
2. Task organization
With a professional PM system, agencies can create and assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and monitor progress. It helps ensure that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and deadlines, reducing the chances of missed deliverables.
3. Thorough scheduling
All projects start with detailed planning. Therefore, marketing teams will benefit from a robust project management software solution that will provide them with powerful functionality for planning and scheduling.
4. Streamlined collaboration
Marketing projects involve collaboration among team members, clients, vendors, and stakeholders. Professional software facilitates seamless communication by providing features such as file sharing, calendars, and real-time updates. It improves collaboration, minimizes communication gaps, and fosters effective teamwork.
5. Resource allocation
Online software solutions for managing marketing work allow agencies to allocate resources efficiently. They can manage team members’ workloads, assign tasks based on their availability and expertise, and avoid overloading individuals. Powerful marketing resource management software solutions also help prevent resource conflicts.
6. Budget management
Agencies often work within defined budgets for client projects. Best marketing agency project management software solutions enable them to track project expenses, monitor resource utilization, and manage costs effectively. They help ensure projects stay within budget and enable accurate financial reporting.
7. Client management
Marketing agencies need to maintain strong relationships with their clients. PM tools help manage client interactions, track their requirements, and document project details. It enhances client satisfaction and improves overall client management processes.
8. Detailed reporting and analytics
Best project management software for marketing agencies offer reporting and analytics features that provide insights into project performance, resource utilization, and team productivity.
With their help, agencies can generate customized reports, track key metrics, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions for process improvements.
9. Workflow standartization
Modern PM software allows marketing agencies to establish standardized processes and workflows. They can create templates, define project phases, and set up standardized tasks. It ensures consistency across projects, improves efficiency, and reduces the chances of errors.
10 best project management software for a marketing agency
When talking about a marketing agency, not all PM tools are a good fit. To find the right solution, it’s better to first understand how your marketing agency operates and consider several platforms.
To help you pick the right software, here is a list of the best options for modern marketing agencies.
1. GanttPRO – best Gantt chart functionality for planning marketing projects
Basic: starts at $7.99 user/month (billed annually).
Pro: starts at $12.99 user/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $19.99 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial: 14 days.
If you want to create a stunning marketing Gantt chart for organizing even the most complex projects, GanttPRO is at your disposal. The popular Gantt chart maker suits any marketing agency that runs marketing projects and wants to visualize all its ideas and objectives without the risk of missing anything.
GanttPRO comes with a professional set of project management features that make it appreciated marketing project management software.
Marketing teams use an online Gantt diagram to generate visually appealing timelines and schedule all their marketing tasks, events, and other activities on it – all in one place.
These timelines may reflect as many projects as you need.
GanttPRO allows marketing teams to divide their tasks into subtasks and organize a comprehensive work breakdown structure. It is possible to manage resources and budgets, collaborate with other teams or departments, set task dependencies, add deadlines, and determine key project points known as milestones in project management.
Agencies can use GanttPRO for daily work, as well as weekly, monthly, or yearly planning.
Here’s the feedback of Łukasz Wielądek, project manager at GonnaBe, the marketing and advertising agency:
When I have to plan work for a team for the whole week, it’s really easy with GanttPRO.
Besides the obvious Gantt chart advantages for marketing projects, GanttPRO offers various beneficial features appreciated by marketing agencies all over the world.
If they desire to manage projects using other project views, they can easily do it. For example, a board view with handy columns and cards will help sort it all out without a headache.
Additionally, marketing agency managers can provide their colleagues with special rights to view data. They can work with different account roles and project rights.
GanttPRO is also known for its appealing UX/UI design, short learning curve, and helpful marketing project management templates.
Professional marketing agency project management tool
Visualize your marketing projects on an online Gantt chart.
Sign up for freeTop features:
- Professional Gantt chart planning.
- Task management.
- Resource management.
- Budget management.
- Deadline management.
- Time tracking.
- History of changes.
- Baselines.
- Notifications.
- Project export.
- Import from Excel, MS Project, and JIRA Cloud.
- Reporting.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.8/5, G2 – 4.8/5.
Quick review:
2. nTask – best project management tool with multiple project views
Premium: starts at $3 user/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $8 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial: 14 days.
nTask is also one of the best marketing agency project management software well-known all over the world. It offers multiple project views to help users visualize and manage their projects easily.
These project views cater to different needs and requirements. They offer flexibility and suit different project management methodologies. Depending on your preferences, you can use a list view, a Gantt chart, a Kanban board, a calendar, and a timelog view.
nTask is extensively customizable. It is designed for all-sized teams and industries.
Businesses trust and choose this tool for managing marketing campaigns, events, goals and targets, inventory, clients, and much more.
For example, this platform helps in planning and executing activities related to optimizing a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results, which makes it reliable SEO project management software. Some teams apply it to empower project management in digital marketing, and so on.
In general, nTask helps to get more done while meeting all of the standards of advanced marketing project management.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Gantt chart.
- Kanban board.
- Meeting management.
- Team management.
- Inventory management.
- Issue tracking.
- Bug tracking.
- Time tracking.
- Reporting.
- Risk management.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.2/5, G2 – 4.4/5.
Quick review:
3. Asana – best project management software with a rich set of integrations
Basic: starts at $10.99 user/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $24.99 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Asana is also a powerful PM solution that provides marketing agency teams with a wide range of integrations. These integrations help enhance collaboration, streamline workflows, and improve team productivity. By integrating Asana with different project management software, you can synchronize tasks, issues, and updates between platforms, allowing for seamless coordination and tracking. Overall, Asana has 100+ integrations with various apps.
Like many Asana alternatives, this platform comes with multiple ways to visualize tasks and projects. It provides online timelines to plan schedules of various complexity, a calendar view, intuitive to-lists, as well as appealing boards.
Asana is a good choice for small agencies, startups, and students as it offers everything for an easy start. Users appreciate its short learning curve and straightforward interface.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Scheduling and planning.
- To-do lists.
- Kanban boards.
- Customized dashboards.
- Calendar management.
- Milestones and task dependencies.
- Real-time team interaction.
- Notifications.
- Segmenting tasks into categories.
- Automated critical actions.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.5/5, G2 – 4.3/5.
Quick review:
4. Nifty – best for remote work
Starter: starts at $39 for 10 users/month (billed annually).
Pro: starts at $79 for 20 users/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $124 for 50 users/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Marketing agencies that operate with remote team members rely on Nifty for planning, task management, progress tracking, and collaboration needs, regardless of their location.
Despite being a relatively new entrant in the market, this platform has already gained the admiration of numerous marketing managers seeking a scalable and user-friendly project management solution.
Nifty consolidates project-related elements such as tasks, documents, and files into a single, centralized location, allowing teams to concentrate on their projects. It offers convenient task boards that offer flexibility in organizing and prioritizing work, simplifying the management of deadlines and feedback.
A Gantt chart is also available here. While it may not be as feature-rich and user-friendly as GanttPRO’s offering, it still serves as a useful tool for creating effective marketing project timelines.
Nifty is recognized for its reliability among Windows users and is highly regarded as project management software for Mac. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices, ensuring accessibility across various platforms.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Gantt charts.
- Kanban board.
- To-do lists.
- Calendars.
- Portfolio management.
- Deadline management.
- Budget management.
- Alerts/notifications.
- Customizable reports.
- Video conferencing.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.7/5, G2 – 4.7/5.
Quick review:
5. Scoro – best combination of project management and CRM
Essential: starts at $26 user/month (billed annually).
Standard: starts at $37 user/month (billed annually).
Pro: starts at $63 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial: available.
Scoro is a comprehensive business management software that offers a range of features to streamline various aspects of marketing agency business operations. The CRM module in Scoro allows for managing customer contacts and tracking interactions, which can be valuable for marketing purposes.
You can also use Scoro for planning and tracking marketing campaigns, assigning tasks to team members, and monitoring campaign progress and results. The reporting and analytics capabilities in this platform enable teams to measure marketing metrics such as campaign performance, lead generation, and sales conversions.
Scoro has many integrations that are available without extra licenses.
Top features:
- Professional CRM.
- Task management.
- To-do lists.
- Work planner.
- Task prioritization.
- Time management.
- Sales functionality.
- Team collaboration.
- Goal tracking.
- Reporting.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.6/5, G2 – 4.5/5.
Quick review:
6. Smartsheet – best project management tool with convenient spreadsheets
Pro: starts at $7 user/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $25 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Spreadsheets do also matter in marketing agency project management.
If you’re wondering how to present a project with a handy spreadsheet, try Smartsheet. This simple and trustworthy online tool provides big-sized spreadsheets and a set of essential features for planning, controlling, and delivering marketing projects without pain.
Smartsheet also provides multiple view options. You get a Gantt diagram, calendars, grids, and other useful charts.
Top features:
- Online spreadsheets.
- Task management.
- Gantt chart.
- Kanban board.
- Portfolio management.
- Resource management.
- Budget management.
- Reporting.
- Time tracking.
- File sharing.
- Customizable templates.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.5/5, G2 – 4.4/5.
Quick review:
7. Workzone – best for teamwork and communication
Team: starts at $24 user/month (billed annually).
Professional: starts at $34 user/month (billed annually).
Enterprise: starts at $43 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial: available.
Workzone is a project management solution that helps agencies to improve teamwork. It offers a range of features designed to facilitate collaboration and streamline workflows. With Workzone, teams can effectively manage their tasks, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.
The software also provides a centralized platform for document sharing and collaboration. Team members can collaborate on files, leave comments, and track document versions, promoting efficient teamwork and eliminating the hassle of scattered files.
Project dashboards and reporting features provide visibility into project progress and resource allocation. This helps marketers stay informed about project status, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions. Workzone can send email notifications and reminders for upcoming deadlines, task assignments, and updates, ensuring that team members are kept informed and can stay on top of their responsibilities.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Planning.
- Budgeting/forecasting.
- To-do lists.
- Calendar management.
- Time tracking.
- Resource management.
- Commenting/notes.
- Reporting.
- Planning templates.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.7/5, G2 – 4.2/5.
Quick review:
8. CoSchedule – best for managing marketing agency calendars
Pro: starts at $29 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Marketing managers use CoSchedule to organize and control events and activities, making it easier for teams to collaborate and stay on track.
CoSchedule is known for its professional calendars that are widely used among marketing agencies around the world. These calendars simplify work and provide great benefits. For example, they can easily connect content and social media accounts in one view.
The ability to assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress within the calendar system promotes team accountability and facilitates efficient project management.
Furthermore, the platform integrates with various popular marketing tools, such as social media platforms and content management systems, enabling seamless integration and automated publishing.
You also get professional analytics and reporting features that allow for measuring the performance of marketing efforts, identifying trends, and making data-driven decisions.
Top features:
- Advanced calendars.
- Task management.
- Planning and scheduling.
- Content management.
- Portfolio management.
- Automated publishing.
- Social media monitoring.
- Reporting.
- Analytics.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.4/5, G2 – 4.4/5.
Quick review:
9. Workamajig – best for managing marketing agency budgets
In-house: starts at $37 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Workamajig is a famous marketing project management solution designed for teams of different sizes. It provides marketing agencies with task management, planning, email integration, time and expense tracking, and many other professional opportunities.
Workamajig has professional calendars that provide insights into time spent on different projects, possible bottlenecks, and when customer feedback is required. The platform enables users to come up with invoices with details such as specific rates, time, and materials.
Workamajig acts as a data processing center for a marketing agency’s financial health and performance, providing essential reports. A full accounting package provides business insights marketing specialists need to grow a profitable agency.
You can easily track which clients are the most profitable and where you can improve your margins with flexible financial reports. It’s possible to allocate overhead here by hours, labor costs, or total bills to see true client profitability.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Planning and scheduling.
- Advanced budget management.
- Document management.
- Calendar management.
- Resource management.
- CRM system.
- Time tracking.
- Friendly templates.
- Custom reporting.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 3.7/5, G2 – 3.6/5.
Quick review:
10. ClickUp – best free project management software for marketing agencies
Unlimited: starts at $5 user/month (billed annually).
Business: starts at $12user/month (billed annually).
Business Plus: starts at $19 user/month (billed annually).
Free trial and free version: available.
Another reliable tool among the best project management software for a marketing agency is ClickUp.
The platform is known for its advanced free plan that sets it apart from popular ClickUp alternatives. It offers a set of powerful features and opportunities to plan and manage tasks of different complexity.
Marketing agencies often use ClickUp to manage their clients, advertising campaigns, standard operating procedures, and more. The tool allows for collaboration with team members, working with contractors and clients through guest permissions, and connecting data all in one space. It offers an appealing user experience and comes with an interactive interface.
If you need help getting started, ClickUp proposes neat templates for various marketing workflows.
Top features:
- Task management.
- Planning.
- Task prioritization.
- To-do lists.
- Document management.
- Recurring tasks and reminders.
- Calendars.
- 1000+ integrations.
- Advanced free plan.
Rating as of July 2023: Capterra – 4.7/5, G2 – 4.7/5.
Quick review:
Bonus: marketing project management templates
Work processes of any marketing agency can be challenging. Luckily, there are handy marketing project management templates that significantly simplify the efforts of managers and specialists.
The templates in GanttPRO facilitate the work of marketing teams and save time. They contain ready-made schedules that let teams plan, execute, and control various aspects of their future projects. These templates streamline work and ensure consistency in project documentation.
You can pick up any option from GanttPRO’s set of free marketing project management templates:
- Marketing campaign.
- Social media marketing.
- Digital marketing plan.
- Marketing strategy plan.
- Marketing budget.
- SEO marketing plan, and more.
Empower your marketing agency in terms of project management
There are no identical marketing agencies. All of them have their own unique rules, characteristics, work technologies, and software used.
Choosing the best marketing agency PM software may require time and patience. However, after reading this article, you can do a lot.
All online solutions listed above offer unique properties, depending on your agency’s needs. Test them and identify your middle ground to make project management a signature of your business.
