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Any creative endeavor needs to be well-organized to reach its full potential. That goes double for marketing teams – in marketing, you often need to handle several projects at the same time, like social media campaigns, video production, and web design.
With the right project management (PM) software, you can break down complex tasks into much simpler, interconnected steps. Good PM software will also help to improve communication in your team and help you get actionable data for clients.
The problem is, if you look up “project management software” online, you’ll find an overwhelming number of options. And while all claim to be the best, most are largely indistinguishable from the next. That’s where I come in.
After testing dozens of different options, I found the 6 best project management software for marketing teams. These tools will help you to better manage your team and streamline the creative process so you can focus on creating stunning campaigns for your clients.
Overall, my top recommendation is monday.com. It offers 20+ different project views to help you break down complex projects, so you can fully customize your workspace to suit your needs. Plus, its customizable user dashboards are second to none.
What We Look For in the Best Marketing Project Management Software
Besides the essential features every project management software should offer, marketing agencies and professionals will have some additional requirements. Specifically, you’ll need software that can help you organize your teams and plan campaigns while still being flexible enough not to stifle your creativity.
I made sure that every PM software on this list offers:
Great value. Does your agency have a Scrooge McDuck-like pool of money? If so, go wild. Otherwise, you’ll want a PM solution that offers excellent value for money. That’s not to say that every option on this list is free to use, but I made sure that each one has the features to justify its price.
Useful collaboration tools. Marketing is a highly collaborative enterprise. Even small agencies will need a tool that facilitates effective communication between team members.
Multiple views and workspace customization. Having the option to view your project in different ways will help you stay on track. Being able to adapt the software to the way you work (and not the other way around) will also help your creative process.
Reports and dashboards. You’ll often need to get a snapshot of your project’s status at a glance. It’s important that your PM software offers tools for visualizing your project’s health, your spending, your team’s workload, and so on.
monday.com has a friendly UI and a robust set of features.
monday.com hits the sweet spot of PM software. On the one hand, it’s an easy-to-use tool with an attractive interface. On the other, it offers robust-enough features to handle just about any aspect of your business.
Its highly customizable interface makes monday.com ideal for creative teams. You can customize the software to adapt to your work style, instead of having to change the way you work to fit the software. Impressively, monday.com offers over 20 different views1 (dynamic ways to see your project – like a Gantt chart or a Kanban board). It also gives you access to custom automations and over 30 integrations with third-party apps.
Besides that, you’ll find almost every other feature you’d expect from PM software (with the notable exception of built-in chat). That said, its invoicing features aren’t the best. But if you don’t mind handling finances and direct communication with external apps like Slack and Stripe (both of which offer in-app integrations with monday.com), you’ll be hard pressed to find a better solution than monday.com.
If you manage a smaller agency, I recommend starting with the basic plan and upgrading as you grow. The Pro plan is perfect for larger enterprises, though it does cost considerably more.
Features
Incredible variety of views. As well as the classic Gantt, Kanban, and table views, monday.com lets you visualize your project in specialized views like “collaborative whiteboard”, “calendar”, “globe,” and more.
20+ column types. The table view allows you to add over 20 different column types. In each column, you can input anything from basic text to more specialized data types like dates and dropdown boxes.
30+ integrations. monday.com offers built-in integrations with a host of popular digital tools including Slack, Mailchimp, and Google Drive. It also offers numerous third-party integrations to extend its functionality even further.
Incredible dashboard customization. monday.com offers one of the most customizable dashboards out there – if not the most customizable. You can easily add and rearrange different widgets, which allow you to do things like view charts of your project data, show files, and even display your Spotify playlist.
ClickUp’s highly visual templates are perfect for creative professionalsTime is often of the essence with marketing, so optimizing your workflow is vital. With over 150+ templates just for marketing1, ClickUp can help you set up a new marketing project within minutes. With so many options, you’re bound to find something that suits your particular work style – and if not, each one is fully customizable. ClickUp’s biggest strength lies in giving you more time each day to dedicate to your team. With ClickUp’s automations, you can set a series of “if this, then that” rules to handle the administrative work for you. You can also use the Bulk Action Toolbar to edit multiple tasks or documents at once, which will also help you to cut down on your administrative time. While it has one of the steepest learning curves I’ve come across, it’s a fantastic option for almost all kinds of marketing teams and agencies. Its per-user pricing is great value for money, particularly when you consider you’ll get unlimited storage and guest seats, even on the cheapest plan.
Features
Multiple assignees. Need your entire team to focus on one part of your project? With ClickUp, you’re not limited to only one assignee per task. This means you won’t have to type up the same task details multiple time, giving you more time to work on what matters.
11 project views. On top of the usual project views you’d expect (like Gantt charts, lists, boards, and more), ClickUp offers a unique Mind Map view for brainstorming ideas.
Co-edit documents. ClickUp’s Docs are a great way to work on project specifications as a team. You and your team can edit documents and add comments in real time, helping you to keep track of everyone’s contributions.
Built-in chat. You won’t need to integrate a third-party chat app with ClickUp. Instead, you can use the Chat widget on your shared dashboard to keep project communication in one place.
Smartsheet offers fantastic templates for marketing campaigns
At first glance, Smartsheet’s old-fashioned interface and muted colors might not seem ideal for a creative agency. Add to that its focus on spreadsheets (called grids), and you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s better suited for an accounting firm than a creative agency.
Look under the surface, however, and you’ll find that Smartsheet is not only an incredibly powerful project management software in general – it has many features that make it ideal for marketers.
For example, Smartsheet offers advanced proofing tools and pre-made templates1 for content calendars, campaign rollouts, and client satisfaction tracking. Besides that, Smartsheet is ideal for large-scale campaigns where you want to attack on multiple fronts.
The large variety of views, column types, and functions will enable you to create a custom grids for virtually every aspect of your campaign. When you want to review these together, Smartsheet reports let you create custom documents that contain information from any number of grids. This makes Smartsheet the best choice for handling large amounts of information from a central hub.I recommend the Business plan for marketing agencies, but only if you don’t have an especially large team. This might sound counterintuitive, but there’s a significant leap in price from the Pro plan to the Business plan, and you pay per user.
Features
Reports and dashboards. Reports allow you to create custom documents with select information from multiple grids. When you change the data on a report, this is automatically updated in the source grid (and vice versa). Dashboards, on the other hand, give you a customizable graphical view of selected information.
Advanced file proofing. Smartsheet allows you to place comments on top of various file formats. If you’re commenting on a video file, for example, you can timestamp your comment and place it directly where you want it.
Useful & intuitive workflows. Workflows are actions that automatically occur when you make changes to a grid. You can edit these automations through an intuitive visual interface, so you don’t need to be a coding master to use them.
Powerful forms. If you need information from a client, Smartsheet lets you create custom forms. Whenever someone fills in a form, the information is automatically added to the corresponding grid.
Jira offers a good variety of project views, but it’s a little limited compared to the competitionBy combining Jira Work Management and Jira Confluence, larger marketing teams will get a flexible, well-rounded project management solution that suits almost any project. It’s one of the easiest platforms to get started with, and the built-in onboarding means you can leave your interns to find their way around without sacrificing the time of another team member. Both Jira Work Management and Confluence have powerful user permission systems, allowing you to carefully manage which members of your team can access different parts of the project.As a project manager, you can set permissions on a global scale, or create customizable groups to determine access levels. For example, you could give clients and stakeholders view-only access to your roadmap while hiding meeting notes and other documentation. Don’t get me wrong, Jira isn’t perfect. With only 5 project views and 20+ project templates, you’ll have to spend more time setting up your project to make it suit your workflow. However, if you’re willing to put in the time to make your Jira workspace fit your team’s needs, you’ll be rewarded with a great tool that’ll serve you for years to come.
Features
Discounts for larger teams. Not only do both of these tools have a super affordable per-user price, but you’ll get a discount if you have over 100 users. If you pay annually, you’ll also get two months for free, helping you to bring the cost down even more.
Free trial. Put both Jira Work Management and Confluence through their paces with a free trial. You can try Jira for 7 days, or Confluence for 14. And if you need more time to see if it works for your team, you can always ask for your trial to be extended to 30 days.
3,000+ integrations. Seamlessly connect your Jira workspace to tools like Slack, Google Workspace, Adobe, and more. You’ll also get Jira’s fantastic developer kit to build custom integrations.
Optional security add-on. For an extra monthly fee, you can get Atlassian Access to give you more control over who can access your project. By using the included identity provider, you can see which users are logged in and connected devices. Given that marketing teams typically work with sensitive data, it’s a worthy investment to prevent data breaches.
Teamwork is an intuitive software that will help improve your agency’s productivity
Teamwork might not be as feature-packed as some of the other software on this list, but it covers all of the essentials. Where Teamwork really excels, though, is in its incredible ease of use, friendly UI, and attractive pricing plans. This makes Teamwork a great option for agencies that are just getting up and running and need easy software they can start using today.
Depending on the plan, Teamwork offers Gantt, table, and board views, plus custom dashboards and basic options for billing and invoicing. Besides offering over 20 predesigned templates, Teamwork lets you create your own custom templates from an existing project that you can re-use whenever you need to.
If you’re wondering which plan you should go with, I recommend the Deliver plan. It offers more than enough features for small agencies. It lets you create up to 20 custom project templates, and it comes with 11 integrations for third-party apps.
Features
Built-in time tracking. Teamwork includes a tool to track the time that your team members spend on a task. This can help you to create custom invoices, more effectively manage your team’s time, and get a better sense of who’s contributing what.
Unlimited client users. Teamwork allows you to create as many client users as you want. Client users can’t create or modify tasks, but they can see and complete them.
Notebooks. Teamwork allows you to create custom notebooks to store project information. Inside these notebooks, you can add text documents for you and your teammates to record any relevant data.
Basic invoicing tools. Teamwork allows you to create basic invoices to send your clients after a successful campaign. It’s not the most advanced invoice creator, but it gets the job done.
Zoho Projects includes great tools for remote project management and communicationZoho Projects is the clear choice if you’re already a user of Zoho’s marketing solutions, as it integrates seamlessly with the rest of Zoho’s ecosystem. That doesn’t mean it has little to offer outside these integrations, however. Zoho Projects is a great standalone solution for fully remote teams.I was particularly impressed by Projects’ communication tools. For example, the built-in chat is great for commenting on the go, while the page and forum features provide fantastic platforms for broader and long-running discussions. What’s more, Projects letsyou comment under tasks, projects, milestones, and more.
It has a bit of a learning curve, and the UI can be a little awkward to navigate at times. Still, Zoho Projects’ communication features are second to none. I recommend the Premium plan for most agencies, as it offers robust features for a very reasonable price.
Features
Issue Tracking. Issue tracking can help you resolve issues faster and improve your efficiency. You can assign custom users to solve issues, upload files, add comments, and more.
Forums and Pages. Asynchronous communication is one of Zoho Projects’ strong suits. Pages and forums let you open up different aspects of your projects for discussion with the rest of your team.
Zoho’s integrations. Zoho Projects has numerous tools for integrating with the rest of Zoho’s ecosystem, including all of its marketing solutions.
Task hierarchy. You can get really specific with the different levels of priority and organization for each task. Zoho Projects lets you create milestones, tasks, subtasks, and issues. This can help you keep your projects’ priorities in clear sight and work toward your larger goals more efficiently.
Conclusion: Take Your Marketing to the Next Level With Proper Project Management
Effective project management, along with reliable project management software, can significantly enhance your agency’s performance. Whether you operate in a local or remote setting, or oversee a large team or a small startup, utilizing the appropriate tools can boost productivity, attract superior clients, and alleviate a considerable amount of stress from your workload.
If you need a feature-packed tool that will adapt to your style and grow with your business, monday.com is the best choice1. Its high flexibility, useful integrations, and intuitive UI make it the best option for managing a campaign from beginning to end.
ClickUp is the best option1 if optimizing your marketing workflow is your priority. With over 100 templates for marketing alone, you can set up a new project in just a few clicks. Plus, you’ll get great built-in automations that mean you don’t have to spend as much time on admin.
Finally, if you handle complex campaigns or work with several clients at the same time, Smartsheet is the way to go1. Its powerful spreadsheet tools and vast template selection make it ideal for bigger, more complex projects.
For a quick overview of how all the different software fared in my test, take a look at the comparison table below:
Free Plan
Best Feature
Best For
Starting Price
monday.com
✔
Highly customizable workspace
Teams looking for software that adapts to their work style
Project management software helps you to manage each and every step involved in completing a project, such as planning tasks, communicating with your team, and identifying potential pain spots. Marketing project management software also includes features such as file proofing, client management, and integrations with external apps commonly used by marketers.
Which is the best marketing project management software?
The best marketing project management software will depend on your team, your projects, and your personal work style. Generally, I recommend monday.com for marketers, as it offers powerful features for marketing while still being extremely intuitive and easy to use. If you want to review your options, you can check out our list of the best project management software in 2024.
Can I manage a marketing project for free?
Sure! There are plenty of project management tools that offer free plans. I’d particularly recommend ClickUp, as its free plan offers unlimited tasks, unlimited members, real-time chat, and access to Kanban boards. That being said, premium plans will give you superior features, more users, and access to more specialized tools for marketers like file proofing and creative software integrations.
Do marketing teams need project management software?
While not always essential, good project management software can help elevate the performance of virtually any marketing team. Marketers need to produce high-quality content in several formats, communicate clearly with clients, visualize data, and more. Project management software can help you do all of this by organizing your team, your goals, and your progress in an accessible format that you can share with others.
Andrés writes about a variety of topics aimed at helping business owners and merchants grow and manage their ventures. These topics include (but are not limited to) website building, web hosting, project management software, and credit card processing. Andrés has 3+ years of experience as a writer and content creator. He’s also worked as a project manager, website designer, and social media manager for a variety of science communication groups.
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