By Jamie Dalzell
The workplace of the modern marketing team is no longer a static thing. Instead? It’s now a fluid, connected environment that extends well beyond the office walls. Including collaborators, clients, projects, teams and team members from as close as across town to as far away as the other side of the world!
This connected workplace is presenting marketing teams with an increasing number of hurdles to overcome. Forced to somehow manage, track and utilise a vast array of resources, marketing channels and team members.
Technology may have presented these issues, but it’s also given us the exact tools we need to manage them!
Because when it comes to marketing? You have to fight technology with technology!
So whether it’s managing your integrated marketing campaign, tracking your marketing team, or keeping in contact with the people who matter: today we’re looking at the top 7 tools that will let you do just this. Saving you time, money, and ensuring your marketing results match your expectations!
Project & Marketing Management Platforms
1. Basecamp
With Basecamp’s recent November update, it’s easy to see why it’s the go-to project management tool for many businesses. With this update bringing with it a new design, user interface, and a host of exciting new features.
Chief among these is the ‘Clientside’ feature, which allows users to track and respond to client feedback directly from the Basecamp interface. Giving teams full control over their communications with clients, what they see, and when they see it.
And whether it’s a disgruntled client or overly-enthusiastic team member, answer emails at 2 in the morning are a thing of the past with Basecamp’s ‘Working Hours’ settings. Which ensure you can quickly check your emails without the fear of being stuck there for hours responding to work updates.
Leaving work at the office? What a novel concept!
Pricing: Free, with expanded subscription services on offer from $29US/Month.
Availability: Web, iOS & Android.
2. Simple
Simple’s focus is squarely on meeting the needs of marketing teams, boasting a suite of features that make it the perfect marketing performance platform for managing the many channels marketers are faced with.
The highlights here include easy access to the data that matters the most. Providing an all-in-one platform that allows for the easy management of resources, activities, budgets and metrics across the entire marketing team.
This ability to support marketing teams to take an idea from concept to campaign is what makes Simple such an agile environment. One where teams can work together effectively with each other, agencies, suppliers and other third parties.
Simple also includes built-in digital asset management, which makes managing images, video and other assorted media across the team that much easier. And when you add in the ability to assign, track and trace budgets and finances? Simple are onto a winner.
Pricing: On Enquiry.
Availability: On Enquiry.
3. Nutcache
Where other platforms focus on fostering communications, Nutcache differentiates itself by being one of few to offer a true all-in-one project management feature set. Providing users with the ability to track time, manage expenses and create and send invoices all within Nutcache itself.
You’ll find the regular suite of project management and communication tools on offer here too, of course. With Nutcache breaking these into specialised ‘Boards’ which offers a highly visual workspace for all involved.
Users can also easily reorganise these Boards to best match their individual workflow preferences. Including the ability to track progress, budgets and times for these with the press of a single button. Easy!
Pricing: Free, with additional features available from $14US/Month.
Availability: Web, with companion Apps available on iOS & Android.
4. Asana
Another to be bitten by the redesign bug, Asana launched its new look back in October. And what a flashy interface it is, too!
Clean, simple and understated, Asana’s strength is its seamless integration with an array of supporting platforms and services. From time tracking with Harvest through to direct integration with services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Chrome, Slack and Github, among others!
All of this helps to make managing projects – and the tools used to bring them to fruition – that much easier.
Users are also provided with their own personal workspaces, which lets them prioritize pressing tasks with the ability to create, track and organise these with ease. And the easy inclusion of guest collaborators makes working with external third parties or remote team members a cinch.
Pricing: Free, with premium features for larger teams available from $21US/Month.
Availability: Web, iOS & Android.
Communication & Discussion Platforms
5. Flow
Flow is first and foremost a communication tool. Built from the ground up to facilitate a creative, communicative environment for its users. Sure, the basic task and project management features are all here and accounted for. But it’s the unrivaled communication feature set that makes Flow one to check out.
Users can create any number of specialised chat rooms. Whether these be for office-wide chats, team brainstorming sessions or specific tasks. And from here? They’re able to create, assign and delegate task from directly within the chat interface itself.
This creates a place where discussions and the ideas that come from them are able to be refined, fleshed out and acted upon all within the one environment. And once a task is set? Flow’s Kanban Boards allow for easy visual planning, while top-level views keep users informed of current tasks, due dates and team workloads.
Pricing: 15 day free trial, with pricing starting from $19US/Month.
Availability: Web, Mac, iOS & Android.
6. Slack
If it’s a communication platform you need, look no further than Slack. Reminiscent of MIRC and other IRC chat clients of old, Slack provides you and your team with limitless ways to organize and structure your discussions and communications.
Whether you need public channels for group task, private channels for those top-secret projects or DMs for that quick check-in, Slack has it all. And with a sleek, modern interface, this has never been easier.
But it’s not all communication, either. With the added ability to share files, as well as connect to – and receive notifications from – a diverse range of compatible networksincluding Twitter and Asana.
Pricing: Free, with subscription options available starting from US $8/Month.
Availability: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android.
7. HipChat
Hipchat has your run-of-the-mill communication features covered. Group and private chat rooms? Check. File sharing? Check. Integration with other platforms? Check! But it also brings a few exciting features to the table that make it a worthwhile addition to your toolbelt.
Chief among these is the ability to video-chat with team members, which means those awkward silences and ‘No, you go!’ a thing of the past. In addition to this? HipChat features a super useful screen-sharing features which means it’s never been easier to work through projects, documents, or troubleshoot any issues.
Craziest of all? It even includes the ability to book Uber transport to events or locations for you and your team members. How’s that for functionality!
Pricing: Free, with subscription options available starting from US $2/Month.
Availability: Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.
Do You Have Any Go-To Marketing Tools? Let Us Know!
This might be my list of top marketing tools, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more out there! So if you have a favourite marketing tool, management platform or communication app that you couldn’t live without, let us know in the comments below!
