New technology has radically altered how marketing teams function, not only in terms of on what and where they work but also how they work. Progressing from spreadsheet Gantt charts and basic early programs, online project management tools have become an essential piece of every successful marketing team’s operations.
With most marketing departments moving towards adapting Agile practices, teams rely on clearer communication, faster decision-making and greater visibility on tasks and direction, which are all best provided by project management tools.
How Project Management Tools Help to Manage Marketing Workflow
- Getting to the essential information quicker
Marketing projects can often become a mess of similarly named charts, reports and emails which waste time and cause confusion and inaction. With the right tools, such as Planview AdaptiveWork’s Agile-focused Planview AdaptiveWork Go, all projects and information can be sorted and filtered instantly to give you exactly the information you need. In Planview AdaptiveWork Go, for example, you can filter tasks by Doing to see what the team is currently working on or campaigns by To do to identify the projects closest to completion.
- Smoother collaboration
For an Agile team to be successful, the sharing of information needs to be made simple and obstructions to communication need to be removed as much as possible. With the right project management tools, discussing projects inside specific message boards allow team members to find and refer to individual project information, while holding all project files in a centralized location means that no time has to be wasted requesting or sorting documentation or assets.
- Creating distinct marketing workflow workspaces
The ability to create multiple discrete workspaces means that Agile teams, often comprised of disparate skills and focuses, can unite and work together in one online location. In this way, project management tools allow Agile to flourish and function as it is supposed to, with flexible team compositions being facilitated to hit the ground running and launch straight into collaborating together.
- Getting immediate project insights
The creation of automatic and highly customizable reports means that stakeholders can get instant insight into project progress and any issues which may be affecting it. This automation of a standard marketing workflow frees up time from an unavoidable and draining task but also means that everyone involved in the project is regularly kept in the loop.
- Planning resource usage better
Sorting team members by tasks they have on their plate or projects by their resource requirements can give an Agile project manager a huge advantage when it comes to resource planning. Whether it’s the immediate day-to-day functioning and task load of a team or long-term capacity estimation with implications for future projects and hiring, being able to see how and where resources are being employed makes teams more flexible and capable of handling everything that’s necessary.
The advantages of project management tools for marketing teams are inarguable, though the only question remaining is which specific tool to choose. With all of the advantages mentioned here and many more, Planview AdaptiveWork has established itself as one of the world’s leading PM tools. To see how our software can enable Agile to blossom in your organization, contact us here to organize a personal demonstration.
