Dig­i­tal projects and cam­paigns often come with a range of chal­lenges that can affect their suc­cess. And in lots of cas­es, prob­lems can be smoothed over by the use of a project man­age­ment tool.

One of the pri­ma­ry issues is the com­plex­i­ty of coor­di­na­tion across dif­fer­ent teams, plat­forms, and chan­nels. When cam­paigns involve var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, (e.g., design­ers, mar­keters, and devel­op­ers), there can be mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion and delays. How­ev­er, project man­age­ment tools allow stake­hold­ers to com­mu­ni­cate about their efforts, give updates, and adjust time­lines when needed.

There’s also the issue of mea­sur­ing and analysing the suc­cess of dig­i­tal cam­paigns. With so many met­rics to track across var­i­ous plat­forms, it can be dif­fi­cult to make sense of the data and extract action­able insights. Project man­age­ment tools allow you to inte­grate data from dif­fer­ent sources into a cohe­sive report­ing frame­work, help­ing you to accu­rate­ly assess per­for­mance and opti­mise future campaigns.

Projects can also be made dif­fi­cult by client expec­ta­tions and real-time feed­back, often lead­ing to last-minute or unex­pect­ed changes. This can be stress­ful, but project man­age­ment tools allow for a feed­back loop and com­mu­ni­ca­tion between stake­hold­ers in real time so that cam­paigns can be adjust­ed as quick­ly as possible.

By cen­tral­is­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion, tasks, feed­back, and resources, project man­age­ment tools alle­vi­ate many of the chal­lenges com­mon to dig­i­tal cam­paigns. This blog will explore 8 pop­u­lar tools and give you tips for man­ag­ing projects effectively.

Read on to learn how you can stream­line col­lab­o­ra­tion, avoid mis­com­mu­ni­ca­tion, track progress, inte­grate data, cre­ate automa­tions, and man­age client expec­ta­tions effectively.

8 tools for project management

There are many project man­age­ment tools on the mar­ket, each offer­ing unique fea­tures tai­lored to dif­fer­ent busi­ness needs. The best tool for your busi­ness will depend on fac­tors such as team size, project com­plex­i­ty, and spe­cif­ic cam­paign goals.

Whether you’re look­ing for enhanced col­lab­o­ra­tion, detailed ana­lyt­ics, or automa­tion, select­ing the right tool can make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in your cam­paign’s suc­cess. Let’s explore a few now:

1. ClickUp

Known for its ver­sa­til­i­ty, Click­Up pro­vides work­flow automa­tions, real-time ana­lyt­ics, and cus­tomis­able tem­plates. It inte­grates with over 1,000 tools, mak­ing it an excel­lent choice for man­ag­ing end-to-end mar­ket­ing campaigns.

Click­Up is par­tic­u­lar­ly well-suit­ed for teams man­ag­ing com­plex projects that require detailed task man­age­ment and col­lab­o­ra­tion. It works best for mar­ket­ing, IT, and cre­ative projects, where track­ing mul­ti­ple tasks, dead­lines, and work­flows is essen­tial. While it’s an excel­lent tool for small to mid-sized teams, larg­er enter­pris­es may ben­e­fit from the addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty and cus­tomi­sa­tion fea­tures offered in high­er-tier plans.

Click­Up offers sev­er­al pric­ing plans to accom­mo­date dif­fer­ent busi­ness sizes and requirements:

• The Free For­ev­er plan is ide­al for free­lancers and small busi­ness­es, pro­vid­ing unlim­it­ed users, tasks, and projects with basic features.
• The Unlim­it­ed Plan costs $7 per user per month (billed annu­al­ly) and is suit­able for grow­ing small busi­ness­es, offer­ing fea­tures like unlim­it­ed stor­age and integrations.
• The Busi­ness Plan ($12 per user per month) is best for mid-sized teams, pro­vid­ing advanced fea­tures such as time­lines and work­load management.
• For larg­er enter­pris­es, the Busi­ness Plus ($19 per user per month) and Enter­prise (cus­tom pric­ing) plans offer even more cus­tomi­sa­tion and secu­ri­ty fea­tures, such as API access and HIPAA compliance.

When using Click­Up, busi­ness­es should take advan­tage of its cus­tomi­sa­tion options, such as automa­tions and cus­tom fields, to tai­lor work­flows to your team’s spe­cif­ic needs.

How­ev­er, be pre­pared for a learn­ing curve; the plat­for­m’s many fea­tures can feel over­whelm­ing at first. Addi­tion­al­ly, for bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion, con­sid­er inte­grat­ing it with third-par­ty com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools, as Click­Up’s native col­lab­o­ra­tion fea­tures may not be suf­fi­cient for all teams.

2. HubSpot

Hub­Spot is not a ded­i­cat­ed project man­age­ment tool like Click­Up. It’s more focused on man­ag­ing cus­tomer rela­tion­ships, mar­ket­ing automa­tion, and sales process­es, but it can be adapt­ed to man­age cer­tain projects, espe­cial­ly those direct­ly tied to cus­tomer-fac­ing activ­i­ties like mar­ket­ing cam­paigns or sales initiatives.

As a pow­er­ful CRM (cus­tomer rela­tion­ship man­age­ment), Hub­Spot excels in track­ing mar­ket­ing cam­paigns and ana­lyt­ics, offer­ing fea­tures like dynam­ic per­son­al­i­sa­tion and omnichan­nel automa­tion. It’s ide­al for busi­ness­es need­ing advanced mar­ket­ing automations.

Hub­Spot is par­tic­u­lar­ly well-suit­ed for small to mid-sized busi­ness­es aim­ing to scale quick­ly and improve their cus­tomer life­cy­cle man­age­ment. Its ver­sa­til­i­ty makes it ide­al for projects across sales, mar­ket­ing, and cus­tomer ser­vice, pro­vid­ing tools for every­thing from email mar­ket­ing and pipeline man­age­ment to cus­tomer sup­port and ticketing.

Hub­Spot offers a range of pric­ing plans tai­lored to dif­fer­ent busi­ness needs:

• The Starter plan starts at $20 per month and is suit­able for small busi­ness­es look­ing to access basic sales, mar­ket­ing, and CRM tools.
• The Pro­fes­sion­al plan, at $890 per month, adds advanced fea­tures such as mar­ket­ing automa­tion, cus­tom reports, and more detailed ana­lyt­ics, mak­ing it ide­al for grow­ing mid-sized businesses.
• For large enter­pris­es, the Enter­prise plan starts at $3,600 per month, offer­ing top-tier func­tion­al­i­ty like advanced report­ing and pre­dic­tive lead scoring.

To get the most out of Hub­Spot, it’s essen­tial to invest time in set­ting up its automa­tion and CRM fea­tures effec­tive­ly. For more advanced users, the plat­for­m’s high­er-tier plans offer deep cus­tomi­sa­tion options, but these can require a steep learn­ing curve. Hub­Spot also charges addi­tion­al fees for onboard­ing at the Pro­fes­sion­al and Enter­prise lev­els, so be pre­pared for those upfront costs as you scale.

3. Hootsuite

Hoot­suite is a tool focused on social media cam­paigns, allow­ing for stream­lined con­tent sched­ul­ing, mon­i­tor­ing, and ana­lyt­ics across var­i­ous social plat­forms. It’s par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful for man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple accounts but lacks advanced project man­age­ment features.

Hoot­suite offers three pri­ma­ry sub­scrip­tion plans:

• The Pro­fes­sion­al plan costs £89 per month (billed annu­al­ly) and includes one user with access to 10 social media accounts, unlim­it­ed post sched­ul­ing, and analytics.
• The Team plan is priced at £249 per month and sup­ports up to three users man­ag­ing 20 social accounts. It adds fea­tures like auto­mat­ed link track­ing and shared social con­tent calendars.
• The Enter­prise Cus­tom plan, with cus­tom pric­ing, caters to larg­er teams and sup­ports up to five users with advanced fea­tures such as user per­mis­sions, approval work­flows, and cam­paign planning.

Hoot­suite is best suit­ed for small to mid-sized busi­ness­es and agen­cies that man­age mul­ti­ple social media accounts and need effi­cient con­tent sched­ul­ing and engage­ment tools. It’s par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fi­cial for busi­ness­es focus­ing on social media man­age­ment projects,

includ­ing con­tent cre­ation, audi­ence engage­ment, and adver­tis­ing cam­paigns across plat­forms like Face­book, Insta­gram, and LinkedIn.

To get the most out of Hoot­suite, lever­age its inte­gra­tions with tools like Can­va and Gram­marly to enhance con­tent cre­ation and man­age­ment. Utilise its advanced ana­lyt­ics to track per­for­mance and opti­mise your social media strategy.

While Hoot­suite is fea­ture-rich, be aware that some capa­bil­i­ties, like advanced lis­ten­ing and report­ing, require add-ons or high­er-tier plans. You might like to start with a 30-day free tri­al to deter­mine which plan fits your needs best.

4. Asana

Asana is a super pop­u­lar and easy-to-use tool that helps teams organ­ise tasks, set time­lines, and track progress, Asana is ide­al for cam­paign coor­di­na­tion and man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple projects at once.

Asana is well-suit­ed for busi­ness­es of all sizes, but it shines for mid-sized to large teams han­dling com­plex work­flows and cross-team projects. It’s par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive for projects that require detailed task track­ing, report­ing, and col­lab­o­ra­tion across mul­ti­ple depart­ments, such as mar­ket­ing, IT, and prod­uct development.

When using Asana, it’s essen­tial to take advan­tage of its automa­tion fea­tures and cus­tom work­flows to stream­line your project man­age­ment. The plat­for­m’s user-friend­ly inter­face makes it easy to onboard new team mem­bers, but as your projects grow in com­plex­i­ty, you’ll find that Asana’s advanced fea­tures, such as rule-based automa­tion and work­load man­age­ment, become indispensable.

Asana offers sev­er­al sub­scrip­tion plans:

• The Per­son­al plan is free and best for indi­vid­u­als or small teams with up to 10 mem­bers, offer­ing core fea­tures like task man­age­ment, board views, and unlim­it­ed projects.
• The Starter plan costs £9.49 per user per month (billed annu­al­ly) and adds advanced fea­tures like time­lines, work­flow automa­tion, and report­ing, mak­ing it ide­al for grow­ing teams.
• The Advanced plan, at £20.99 per user per month, includes port­fo­lio man­age­ment, work­load views, and advanced inte­gra­tions with tools like Sales­force and Adobe Cre­ative Cloud, cater­ing to larg­er teams and com­plex projects.
• For enter­pris­es need­ing more cus­tomi­sa­tion and secu­ri­ty fea­tures, the Enter­prise plan offers tai­lored pric­ing with fea­tures like SAML, data export, and HIPAA compliance.

5. Teamwork

Team­work stands out with its flex­i­bil­i­ty in data host­ing, mak­ing it ide­al for teams that require com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al data pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions. It also offers strong cus­tomer sup­port and resource management.

Team­work offers a vari­ety of sub­scrip­tion plans:

• The Free For­ev­er plan is suit­able for small teams, offer­ing core project man­age­ment fea­tures for up to 5 users and 2 active projects.
• The Deliv­er plan costs £10.99 per user per month (billed annu­al­ly) and is ide­al for small to medi­um-sized busi­ness­es, pro­vid­ing fea­tures like 100GB of stor­age and up to 300 projects.
• The Grow plan is priced at £19.99 per user per month, sup­port­ing larg­er teams with 250GB of stor­age, advanced report­ing, and up to 600 projects.
• The Scale plan, £54.99 per user per month, includes advanced fea­tures like resource sched­ul­ing, prof­itabil­i­ty man­age­ment, and cus­tom reports.

Team­work is suit­ed to both small and large busi­ness­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly those that man­age client work, such as agen­cies, con­sul­tan­cies, and cre­ative teams. It’s great for projects that require detailed task track­ing, time man­age­ment, and col­lab­o­ra­tion across teams. Its fea­tures like built-in time track­ing, project tem­plates, and resource man­age­ment make it ide­al for man­ag­ing com­plex client-based projects.

To get the most out of Team­work, take advan­tage of its cus­tomi­sa­tion capa­bil­i­ties, such as cre­at­ing cus­tom fields, tem­plates, and automa­tions to stream­line work­flows. The plat­form is user-friend­ly, but it can become over­whelm­ing due to the exten­sive cus­tomi­sa­tion options, so it’s essen­tial to set up clear process­es from the start to pre­vent distractions.

6. Basecamp

Known for its sim­plic­i­ty and user-friend­ly inter­face, Base­camp pro­vides tools for project organ­i­sa­tion and team col­lab­o­ra­tion. It’s a sol­id choice for small to medi­um-sized teams need­ing a cen­tralised platform.

Base­camp is ide­al for teams work­ing on projects that pri­ori­tise com­mu­ni­ca­tion and coor­di­na­tion over advanced task man­age­ment fea­tures. Cre­ative teams, mar­ket­ing depart­ments, and con­sul­tan­cies can par­tic­u­lar­ly ben­e­fit from its simplicity.

Base­camp offers two main sub­scrip­tion plans:

• The Base­camp Per­son­al plan is free and geared towards free­lancers, star­tups, or small teams. It includes essen­tial project man­age­ment fea­tures like mes­sage boards, to-do lists, and 500MB of storage.
• The Base­camp Pro Unlim­it­ed plan costs $299 per month (or $349 if billed month­ly) and pro­vides unlim­it­ed users, unlim­it­ed projects, 5TB of stor­age, real-time chat, and 24/7 sup­port. This flat pric­ing mod­el is cost-effec­tive for larg­er teams as it cov­ers the entire organ­i­sa­tion with no per-user fees.

For effec­tive use, lever­age Base­cam­p’s real-time com­mu­ni­ca­tion fea­tures, like Camp­fire (instant mes­sag­ing) and mes­sage boards, to keep every­one on the same page. It’s an easy-to-use plat­form, but it lacks advanced tools like Gantt charts or resource man­age­ment, so con­sid­er third-par­ty inte­gra­tions if you need those functionalities.

7. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a go-to for email mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, offer­ing drag-and-drop builders, tem­plates, and ana­lyt­ics. While it excels in email mar­ket­ing, it has lim­i­ta­tions in advanced seg­men­ta­tion and reporting.

Mailchimp is best suit­ed for small to mid-sized busi­ness­es, espe­cial­ly those focused on dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing and email cam­paigns. It’s par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive for projects that require email mar­ket­ing, cus­tomer seg­men­ta­tion, and automa­tion, mak­ing it a go-to plat­form for mar­ket­ing teams, eCom­merce busi­ness­es, and agencies.

When using Mailchimp, it’s impor­tant to mon­i­tor your con­tact lists care­ful­ly, as pric­ing can esca­late quick­ly with large num­bers of con­tacts, espe­cial­ly if unsub­scribed con­tacts are includ­ed. And while Mailchimp inte­grates with over 300 apps, busi­ness­es with more advanced needs might need to upgrade to high­er-tier plans to access fea­tures like mul­ti-step automations.

Mailchimp offers four pri­ma­ry sub­scrip­tion plans:

• The Free plan is suit­able for indi­vid­u­als or star­tups, pro­vid­ing basic email mar­ket­ing tools for up to 500 con­tacts and 1,000 month­ly email sends.
• The Essen­tials plan starts at $13 per month, offer­ing more fea­tures like A/B test­ing, email tem­plates, and sup­port for up to 50,000 contacts.
• The Stan­dard plan begins at $20 per month and is designed for grow­ing busi­ness­es, with advanced automa­tions, enhanced report­ing, and sup­port for up to 100,000 contacts.
• The Pre­mi­um plan starts at $350 per month and includes pri­or­i­ty sup­port, advanced seg­men­ta­tion, and unlim­it­ed audiences.

8. Trello

Trel­lo is a visu­al project man­age­ment tool that uses boards and cards to man­age tasks and work­flows. Trel­lo is par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful for teams that pre­fer a sim­ple, visu­al approach to project track­ing. Its four main sub­scrip­tion plans are as follows:

• The Free plan is ide­al for indi­vid­u­als or small teams just get­ting start­ed, allow­ing up to 10 boards per work­space, unlim­it­ed cards, and basic task man­age­ment features.
• The Stan­dard plan costs $5 per user per month (billed annu­al­ly) and adds fea­tures like unlim­it­ed boards, advanced check­lists, and 250MB file attach­ments, mak­ing it suit­able for small businesses.
• The Pre­mi­um plan, at $10 per user per month, includes time­line and dash­board views, Gantt charts, and enhanced secu­ri­ty, mak­ing it best for expand­ing teams.
• The Enter­prise plan costs $17.50 per user per month (with a min­i­mum of 25 users) and is designed for larg­er organ­i­sa­tions requir­ing advanced admin con­trols and security.

Trel­lo is best suit­ed for small to medi­um-sized busi­ness­es and teams look­ing for an easy-to-use, visu­al­ly-ori­ent­ed project man­age­ment tool. It’s espe­cial­ly effec­tive for projects that

ben­e­fit from Kan­ban-style task track­ing, such as mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, cre­ative projects, and team col­lab­o­ra­tions that need to be man­aged in a straight­for­ward, visu­al way.

To get the most out of Trel­lo, start with its free plan and explore its pow­er-ups (inte­gra­tions) to extend its func­tion­al­i­ty. If your team needs more advanced fea­tures like automa­tion and report­ing, upgrad­ing to the Stan­dard or Pre­mi­um plans will unlock those capa­bil­i­ties. How­ev­er, note that Trel­lo may not have the depth of fea­tures like some of its com­peti­tors, so it’s best used for sim­pler project man­age­ment needs.

Top tactics for using project management tools

To ensure smooth col­lab­o­ra­tion and effi­cient progress in your dig­i­tal projects, there are sev­er­al best prac­tices you can fol­low. Con­sid­er the fol­low­ing tac­tics before div­ing in:

1. Cen­tralise com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Use your project man­age­ment tool to keep all com­mu­ni­ca­tions in one place. Instead of rely­ing on sep­a­rate email threads or mes­sag­ing apps, utilise the plat­for­m’s built-in chat, com­ments, and mes­sage boards to keep con­ver­sa­tions relat­ed to spe­cif­ic tasks or projects cen­tralised and acces­si­ble to the whole team.
2. Lever­age tem­plates for effi­cien­cy: Many project man­age­ment tools offer tem­plates for recur­ring tasks or work­flows. Save time and main­tain con­sis­ten­cy by cre­at­ing and using tem­plates for stan­dard process­es, such as launch­ing a dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing cam­paign or onboard­ing a new client.
3. Pri­ori­tise task assign­ments and clear dead­lines: Assign spe­cif­ic tasks to team mem­bers and set clear dead­lines to ensure account­abil­i­ty. Most project man­age­ment tools allow you to track progress, mak­ing it eas­i­er to iden­ti­fy bot­tle­necks and redis­trib­ute tasks if necessary.
4. Utilise automa­tion fea­tures: Take advan­tage of automa­tion fea­tures to reduce man­u­al work. For exam­ple, set up automa­tions that move tasks to the next phase when a pre­vi­ous one is com­plet­ed, or trig­ger reminders for upcom­ing dead­lines. This can help stream­line work­flows and improve efficiency.
5. Encour­age reg­u­lar check-ins: Sched­ule reg­u­lar check-ins or stand-up meet­ings direct­ly through the tool’s cal­en­dar or sched­ul­ing fea­tures. This keeps every­one on track, allows for quick adjust­ments, and ensures that the team stays aligned with project goals.
6. Time­box non-tra­di­tion­al tasks: Time­box even the most mun­dane tasks, like answer­ing emails or check­ing social media, to keep the team focused and dis­ci­plined through­out the day.
7. Use gam­i­fi­ca­tion: Turn project mile­stones or small tasks into a game. Award points, badges, or small prizes to team mem­bers who achieve cer­tain goals, cre­at­ing a fun, com­pet­i­tive atmosphere.
8. Embrace “unplan­ning”: Sched­ule unstruc­tured time into your project cal­en­dar. Allow team mem­bers to focus on cre­ative think­ing, prob­lem-solv­ing, or learn­ing some­thing new with­out the pres­sure of deadlines.

The true pow­er of these tools lies not just in their fea­tures, but in how they are used. By thought­ful­ly inte­grat­ing project man­age­ment soft­ware into your work­flow, you can fos­ter a cul­ture of col­lab­o­ra­tion, agili­ty, and innovation.

The key is to con­tin­u­ous­ly refine how you and your team engage with these plat­forms. Exper­i­ment with automa­tions, push the lim­its of cus­tomi­sa­tion and make data-dri­ven adjust­ments as you go. The right tool isn’t just a sta­t­ic solution—it’s a dynam­ic part­ner in your ongo­ing quest for effi­cien­cy and creativity

To get help with your project man­age­ment efforts, reach out to us here at purpleplanet.

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