Imagine marketing projects as intricate puzzles, each with its unique set of content and images. However, managing these "puzzle pieces" without the right tools can be like trying to complete a puzzle without the picture on the box—challenging and often frustrating.
Here's where project management tools can come in handy. Whether you're allocating resources for an upcoming campaign, or creating workflows for individual team members, a PM tool can help you centralize such processes and seamlessly collaborate with other team members.
To simplify the software search for you, this article highlights the five top project management software for marketing professionals based on user reviews, sorted in alphabetical order. For each project management tool, we include overall user ratings along with the highest-rated parameter, review excerpts from industry professionals, and product pricing. Read more.
1. Airtable
To present the most up-to-date information, the product information below shows the latest real-time ratings, which may differ from the ratings values at the time this report's analysis was conducted, since new reviews may have been left in the meantime.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Highest-rated parameter
Starting price
Device compatibility
Here are some review excerpts from marketing professionals who have used Airtable:
"I like the application's flexibility of use and it can be modified for many use cases. I also like the different display methods, which makes it easier to use, schedule data and records, and save time wonderfully."
"There is a slight learning curve, but I found Airtable to be really customizable to your unique needs and also your unique perspective on how to use the software. Being able to change the views a zillion different ways and filter accordingly makes it easy for anyone on our team to jump in, find the information they need and organize their own work in a way that makes the most sense to them."
"Airtable helps SO much with project management and design requests. It allows my team to store events, assets, and marketing contacts. I especially like the project lead and status features. It lets my team know who is working on what and how far they are in the process.We also use Airtable to allow other departments to submit requests."
Read all Airtable reviews here.
2. Asana
To present the most up-to-date information, the product information below shows the latest real-time ratings, which may differ from the ratings values at the time this report's analysis was conducted, since new reviews may have been left in the meantime.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Highest-rated parameter
Starting price
Device compatibility
Here are some review excerpts from marketing professionals who have used Asana:
"I love that Asana is very easy to customize and leverage in communicating with team mates. It makes it very easy to organize and prioritize our project tasks."
"I love that you can plan your projects as broadly or as specific as you want. Having a progress and activity tracker is one of the best features which help keep you as a user on track. I like the email reminders that lets me know when things are past due and need to be attended to."
"The versatility and flexibility of Asana ,when it comes to project management , is what I like most about this software. Asana's flexibility has allowed my organization to successfully customize Asana , to fit into the project management needs of the different departments , teams and their unique use-cases across my organization."
3. ClickUp
To present the most up-to-date information, the product information below shows the latest real-time ratings, which may differ from the ratings values at the time this report's analysis was conducted, since new reviews may have been left in the meantime.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Highest-rated parameter
Starting price
Device compatibility
Here are some review excerpts from marketing professionals who have used ClickUp:
"My first experience with clickup was was at my work place and it was splendid. I was not involved with the admin set up, but was engaged as a user. The tool has really been instrumental for the timely delivery of projects in my company. Also , I have been using it for my personal projects. Several cool features. The customisation option gives huge flexibility in terms of creating ,custom views, tags and status. Click is a great software and has been working for me."
"ClickUp is a very unique and robust tool for project management and time tracking. I like how it enables me and my colleagues to collaborate on work assignments.It is quite easy and fast to implement and set up. Also, the customer support team is readily available anytime you need help."
"It has a lovely user interface and tabs that are simple to navigate. Many cool features that I use on a daily basis include keeping track of my daily tasks, taking notes on documents, and managing my marketing campaigns. It easily handles all of my demanding workload, and the best part is that I don't have to switch between different apps for each task; everything is in one place."
Read all ClickUp business here.
4. Clockify
To present the most up-to-date information, the product information below shows the latest real-time ratings, which may differ from the ratings values at the time this report's analysis was conducted, since new reviews may have been left in the meantime.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Highest-rated parameter
Starting price
Device compatibility
Here are some review excerpts from marketing professionals who have used Clockify:
"This tool was pretty easy for our staff to pick up and still has high adoption rate over 3 years later. The product is constantly improving which has made it more user friendly. It has been enormously helpful to track time spent on projects which helps us evaluate the costs of completing them and therefore adjust our pricing for clients."
"I love that clockify allows me to get on with my tasks at hand by being so seamless to use. I can just click a button and get on with what I need to do safe in the knowledge that my time is being recorded. I also love that you allocate projects and put notes against your time for easy reference later on."
"With the move to remote work is really impactful to have a clear idea of how your team is fulfilling their tasks. Clockify allows managers to do this and helps employees be aware of their productivity with a simple interface and unobstructed features, making their job easier and time tracking second nature."
Read all Clockify reviews here.
5. Confluence
To present the most up-to-date information, the product information below shows the latest real-time ratings, which may differ from the ratings values at the time this report's analysis was conducted, since new reviews may have been left in the meantime.
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Highest-rated parameter
Starting price
Device compatibility
Here are some review excerpts from marketing professionals who have used Confluence:
"I like the version control features of Confluence, it's very easy to use and visibly see changes.Being able to build account dashboards with tasks from various business reviews was also a nice feature though had some limitations."
"It is a great tool to include content related to different projects and share with the rest of departments.I like the templates included that makes easy to document depending on the content"
"Really easy to use to manage knowledge sharing, as a repository for work, information updates etc.I mainly use it like a blog to showcase the work I've done, reporting, etc."
Read all Confluence reviews here.
What features does project management software offer?
The core project management software tool features are:
Collaboration tools: | Provide a channel for team members to share media files, communicate, and work together. These channels include chat, file sharing, commenting, and alerts and notifications. |
Reporting/project tracking: | Generate project performance reports using the analytics dashboard to understand the status of a task/project, costs, or other key information. The feature allows visualizing project performance metrics using charts, graphs, and tables to highlight key points such as upcoming or pending tasks. |
Task management: | Plan, organize, and track tasks associated with the projects. The feature allows creating a list of tasks within the parent project and assigning them to team members with due dates. |
Besides these core features, the marketing project management software also commonly offer:
Billing & invoicing
Budget management
Client portal
Cost-to-completion tracking
Customizable templates
File sharing
Gantt chart/timeline view
Idea management
Kanban board
Percent-complete tracking
Project planning/scheduling
Resource management
Time & expense tracking
How to choose the right project management software for your business
Here are some key considerations to help you find the best project management software for your marketing team.
Consider the types of projects handled: Different marketing projects have distinct requirements, workflows, and collaboration needs. You must identify the typical marketing campaign project needs, including content, social media, creatives, email, and product launches. Determine which projects are high-impact and frequent versus the occasional or less critical ones. Doing this will ensure that your selected marketing project management software aligns with your team’s requirements, streamlines workflows, and reduces the cost of buying multiple tools.
Assess approval workflows: Workflows play a pivotal role in ensuring that marketing materials and campaigns are reviewed, approved, and executed smoothly. You need to understand the types of approvals required in your marketing projects. Also, assess whether the software supports both simple and complex approval workflows, such as single or multiple stages. Lastly, check if you can customize your approvals workflows to align with your marketing team’s structure and processes.
Evaluate communication with clients and stakeholders: Project management involves seeking approvals from clients and stakeholders within and outside the organization. With that, you must look for a tool that allows secure document sharing and communication with the internal and external team members. You can also look for features such as guest accounts and client portals to enable checking updates at their convenience.
Common questions to ask software vendors before purchase
These are some common questions you can ask vendors when assessing project management tools options for your team’s project needs:
What team collaboration features are offered by the software?
Many project management tools offer built-in messaging and chat functionality for marketing teams to communicate in real-time, ask questions, and discuss projects. You can use the file sharing feature to upload, access, and collaborate on documents and assets with both internal and external team members. Furthermore, project management tools notify team members via notifications and email about task updates, @mentions, upcoming deadlines, and other important events.
Does the software allow creating custom workflows and dashboards for tracking project progress?
Custom workflows align the project processes, task sequences, recurring tasks, and approval workflows with your unique team structure, project criticality, and deadlines. Custom dashboards, on the other hand, provide a personalized view of project data and the key performance metrics. These features enhance project visibility, efficiency, and decision making by allowing you to focus on the most relevant project information and tracking.
Does the software integrate with other marketing tools used by the business?
Project management software used for marketing often integrates with a variety of tools to share data. Check whether the software offers API-enabled integrations with any third-party tool or if integrations are limited to a set of tools listed on the vendor website. These include CRM to track leads, segment audience, and personalize marketing campaigns based on customer data, email marketing to plan schedules, and track email campaigns from the projects dashboard, CMS to manage website content, blogs, and landing pages, and social media to schedule posts, track engagement, and manage multiple social media accounts.