PM Tool Needs for Digital Marketing and Creative Firms

PM Tool Needs for Digital Marketing and Creative Firms
Page content

In the digital marketing and creative field, professionals tend to be very visual, and the work is typically relatively short task-oriented, the workflow involves numerous team members to get something done, and there is a premium on personal focus and productivity.  Let’s take a look at how these and other key needs are handled by project management tools or software that supports companies in the digital marketing and creative industry. 

This is the first part of a series of four articles on “PM Software by Industry”, where we explore the variation in needs and implementations of project management software solutions based on industry.  This article, Part 1 in the series, looks at the “Digital Marketing and Creative” industry and the specific operational needs of firms engaged in digital marketing and creative work, and how specific software features support those needs.  Part 2, the “Professional Services” industry, looks at the specific operational needs of professional services firms and how targeted software applications are delivering against these needs.  Part 3, focuses on the “Building and Construction” industry, providing a survey of the software feature needs of this large and unique market segment and the types of software products that support.  Finally, Part 4, on the “Software Development” industry, dives into the process needs and supporting software for better enabling those that develop software applications.

The following are eight key features that PM tools need to provide to support firms in the digital marketing and creative field: 

  1. Project Tracking:  Users can track each project using visual indicators, which can include automatic display of colors associated with status changes on a calendar. 
  2. Task list visualization:  Borrowing from agile processes, tasks as Kanban boards, where users can see them flow across the columns such as for new, in progress, and completed tasks. 
  3. Standard workflows:  Common types of projects are depicted as fill-in-the-blank ‘templates’, with the ability to customize standard process steps. 
  4. Online workspaces:  Common areas for teams to collaborate and share files are provided, and they typically integrate closely with most popular file management systems. 
  5. Blog tracking:  Important for situational awareness, it is a useful feature to track a list of blogs relevant to the industry the team is supporting. 
  6. Content planning calendar:  To support clients, it is helpful to have a built-in calendar for recording social media and content strategy. 
  7. Focus tasks:  Team leaders and team members can mark pivotal tasks for ‘focus’ – and leverage drag and drop task prioritization, time-tracking, and even a built-in timer - to improve personal productivity and effectiveness. 
  8. Schedule:  Naturally there would be the capability to enter a schedule of tasks and track milestones to ensure the overall project will be delivered on time, or indicate the need for course corrections. 

These features speak to the specific challenges of smaller projects, creative professionals, close teamwork, the importance of team productivity, and the ultimate objective of helping clients with their marketing.  In addition, it supports the need for information throughout the process for reporting back to clients with in process product reviews and deliverable forecasts to control and meet expectations. 

Can you see some of the unique needs of firms in the digital marketing and creative industry and how PM software can support them?

This Post is Part of the Series: PM Software by Industry

This series of four articles looks at the many variations and implementations of PM tools based on industry.

  1. PM Tool Needs for Digital Marketing and Creative Firms
  2. PM Tool Needs for Professional Services Firms
  3. PM Tool Needs for Building and Construction Firms
  4. PM Tool Needs for Software Development Firms