Productivity is the love language of modern marketing. An agency’s ability to manage projects, stay on track, work as a team, and communicate seamlessly is crucial in maintaining strong client relationships and achieving great marketing campaign outcomes.
With this in mind, the Aproove team has put together 12 key project management features that will increase the productivity of your marketing agency team.
- Task Management and Assignment
Any project management software must include robust task management software functionality. This enables team members to create, assign, and prioritize tasks. All tasks are described along with a due date and priority level. This helps everyone know what to do and when and enables marketing team members to focus on their particular tasks without confusion and overlap.
- Kanban Boards
Kanban boards are visual representations of tasks and their status. They often have columns to show the various stages of a project (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Completed). Tasks can be dragged from column to column as they progress through the project. This provides information at a glance within the agency project management software regarding the project's status and where the bottlenecks are.
- Gantt Charts
A Gantt chart is a visual representation of a project by showing a timeline of the starting and ending dates of tasks, dependencies, and milestones. This is very useful for project managers in planning and tracking the overall accomplishment of projects within the agency project management software, ensuring project completion remains on track and resources are utilized effectively. Gantt charts are suitable for complex marketing projects with many dependent tasks and stages.
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- Time Tracking
Time tracking within project management software helps to record the hours a team has worked on a given task, recording useful information for all parties involved when it comes to assessing their productivity, planning their workloads, and billing the clients. Time tracking reports will help marketing managers discover which aspects of the workflow can be optimized, helping team members to work smarter, not harder.
- Collaboration Tools
Any project that relates to marketing will have processes within it – the more influential the processes, the higher the chances are of a better outcome. Built-in chat, @mentions, commenting sections, and file-sharing functionality in a single application means team members can discuss ideas in real-time without switching between different applications. This is a massive step towards achieving a more productive and collaborative working environment.
- Resource Management
Having a resource-management functionality within agency project management software can assist managers in planning, scheduling, and allocating the right resources (including the right staff) to the suitable activity at the right time and for the right amount of time to avoid situations where people are overloaded with work. Effective workload management and resource allocation within task and project management software can promote high levels of operational productivity for agencies and help reduce the risk of staff burnout.
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- Automated Workflows
Automated workflows remove monotonous loops and repetitive steps, such as approvals and notifications. For example, once a task is marked as done within the task management software, an automated email might get sent to the project manager for approval. Reduce manual effort and execute processes consistently, allowing the team to focus on more valuable work.
- File Management and Sharing
Depending on the nature of the marketing project, there might be hundreds of files to keep track of and share – design assets, content drafts, and much more. Great agency project management software will handle file management well; team members can upload, organize, and access files without undue effort, and others can version-control a draft document, for example, so all are working on the most up-to-date version.
- Customizable Dashboards
Dashboards within project management software give an at-a-glance view of project status, team performance, and key metrics that can be customized to include information relevant to the user’s role. Task management software can be tailored to show individual task completion rates, project timelines, and resource utilization, helping managers make fast decisions and adjustments.
- Client Access and Collaboration
Features that give clients access to project updates, input, and approval for deliverables can boost transparency and help create trust. From a client’s perspective, involvement in the project management process can help them manage and feel more in control of what goes into a project – from start to finish. Such features can give clients access to project updates, input, and approval for deliverables, which can help boost transparency. Being involved in the project processes can help manage client expectations as well.
- Reporting and Analytics
Comprehensive reporting and analytics features within project management software can give you an overview of project performance, your human resources productivity, and your agency’s efficiency. You can customize your reports to represent the most important figures, such as task completion percentages (using your task management software), the time spent on tasks, and the resources you’re using in percentages. These will help you identify and remove productivity bottlenecks.
- Integration with Other Tools
An all-in-one project management software tool, such as Aproove, connects with any other apps and tools that your organization already uses (such as customer relationship management, email, and design tools), making working life easier. Integration reduces the need to enter data or risk errors manually. Instead, everything connects, moving and working together, so team members can work smarter and faster.
Adhering to these 12 project management tips can help your marketing agency work more productively, collaborate better, and achieve greater project success, increasing your chances of meeting marketing goals.
You, your client, and your marketing agency can take charge of every step and manage the project more efficiently, meet client expectations, and get better results. Give your marketing agency the gift of agency project management software that helps track tasks, measure progress, and deliver outstanding results – speak to a member of the Aproove team today to book a demo!
