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Email marketing is one of the oldest and best tricks in the communication playbook, and newsletters are an excellent tool for brand awareness, audience engagement, and lead nurturing. But newsletter planning is challenging. Coming up with and delivering fresh ideas...
Dec 6, 2024
There’s quite a gap between planning the seemingly perfect marketing strategy and having it actually deliver the expected results — budgets can be off, clients might change their minds, your team may hit bottlenecks, or you’ve got so much content to post you can’t find room for it in your marketing calendar. This is where marketing management software can help close that gap.
I’ll walk you through some of the best marketing management software solutions, while highlighting each tool’s key features and ideal use case. But first, let’s see what you need to consider when picking the right tool for your needs.
The tools in this list focus on specific use cases — some help you plan marketing strategies from a project management perspective, others focus more on content collaboration, while a few prioritize resource management.
Here’s a brief rundown of some of the key features you should look out for, regardless of your choice:
Marketing campaign management processes are time-sensitive. The platform of your choice should let you plan campaigns through calendar views — preferably with drag-and-drop functionalities, with the option to organize projects via labels and publish posts on multiple social media accounts for added convenience.
Look for tools that allow you to work on and approve marketing collateral. Marketing software tools with in-document feedback capabilities and multi-layered approvals are ideal for establishing thorough yet seamless review processes.
Speaking of feedback, marketing software with built-in client and stakeholder collaboration features make a huge difference in external review processes. Pick tools that let you set up separate workspaces for each client, allow for easy client onboarding, or make it simple to invite external stakeholders to collaborate. The option to hide internal team comments away from your view would also be ideal.
Planable is a marketing management software solution that focuses on content planning and collaboration.
Approvals, planning, publishing, media library, and collaboration in Planable
The platform’s Universal Content feature lets you work and collaborate on all sorts of marketing collaterals — be it email, landing page, or blog copy — and plan it through an intuitive drag-and-drop calendar. Planable’s color-coded labels and ample filter set let you easily organize and track your marketing campaigns — perfect for marketing managers keeping an eye on multiple projects.
Content calendar view in Planable
Planable also doubles as a highly capable social media management platform. You can publish cross-network or network-specific social media posts across most social channels (Threads included). The option to schedule recurring posts is also a nice touch.
Recycle settings in Planable
Planable’s content collaboration tools are among its key differentiators. Team members can review and approve documents through in-context comments, annotations, and clear text suggestions. The platform’s comments also extend to videos and images.
Collaboration on a newsletter in Planable
You can also take things up a notch through fully customizable approval workflows. You can either skip the approval process entirely, make it optional or required, or set up thorough multi-layered approval workflows.
Multi-level approval workflow in Planable
The latter allows you to split approval processes into multiple levels — each level designated for a specific department, for instance. Content won’t publish unless it passes through each distinct layer.
For example, a blog post would first need approval from the lead editor, then it passes down to the SEO manager, while the client decides whether to finally roll it out.
Key features
Set up workspaces dedicated to each client and invite external stakeholders via email or sharable links — no account setup needed. Assign custom permissions (viewer, approver, editor, etc.) and mark comments — or complete posts — as internal to keep them away from your client’s view.
Setting workspace roles and permissions in Planable
Organize your work through feed, list, grid (for Instagram), and calendar views. Approve work within your selected view with just one click and leave or view comments without opening new windows.
Mockup social feed view with post previews in Planable
Automatically post social media content upon approval. Publish the same post across multiple social media channels in one go and use the platform’s content recycling feature to put recurring posts on auto-pilot.
Scheduling a social media post in Planable
Edit visuals for marketing assets through a broad filter selection. Fine-tune images by adjusting brightness, contrasts, vignetting, and gamma — or make specific objects pop by blurring the background. Trim videos and store all your media assets in the platform’s media library.
Image and video editing in Planable
Track engagement, impressions, and interactions across all your social media accounts at a glance or get into the details and see how each specific post performs. Get insights on your social follower base through dedicated audience demographics reports.
Social media analytics in Planable
Drawbacks: The platform currently doesn’t include social media listening capabilities.
Pricing: Paid packages start at $33 per month per workspace (annual billing). You can also schedule your first 50 posts completely for free.
Monday is a marketing project management software solution that stands out through its customization capabilities. The platform’s template library includes a large selection of marketing-specific templates — from event management to content or social media planning, and more.
You can also set up fully customizable dashboards to track project progress based on your specific goals and KPIs and visualize ongoing work through an ample choice of views (timeline, calendar, charts, etc.).
Key features
Leverage the platform’s built-in whiteboards to let marketing teams generate campaign ideas and set up their strategies. Share files and collaborate on documents directly within the platform via comments.
Set up custom dashboards to track your campaign’s total budget spend, how much budget goes to each specific channel, campaign progress, and more. Use the platform’s workload management tools to see who works on what, and when to prevent employee over-working.
Group multiple projects under the same dashboard and get a high-level overview of each project’s status, priority, deadline, and so on.
Drawbacks: Entry-level plans lack key features — time tracking, task dependencies, automation, timeline, calendar, and chart views are not available.
Pricing: Monday starts at $9 per user per month (annual billing). There’s also a free version that allows for up to two users.
Trello is a straightforward Kanban-based marketing project management software solution. You can set up a marketing workflow through boards split into multiple columns — each column signifies different stages of your project’s progress, like work-in-progress or completed.
You can then assign tasks to team members via cards. The cards will move along the board as they’re completed.
Key features
Collaborate with team members on tasks through comments and attachments. Leave comments under each attachment for more precise feedback.
Automate basic tasks like moving cards across the board, setting due dates, and adding assignees.
Set up checklists for each task to get a more granular approach to your marketing projects. Use color-coded labels to organize tasks or prioritize urgent work.
Drawbacks: Trello is quite limited in features compared to other marketing project management tools in this list — it lacks advanced automation and document management capabilities.
Pricing: Trello offers a free version, while paid plans start at $5 per user per month (annual billing).
ClickUp is an all-in-one marketing project management tool with powerful project planning features. You can plan marketing projects and hold brainstorming sessions via the platform’s collaborative whiteboards.
Its Mind Maps feature also helps your marketing team map out crucial project details via a visual interface — each Mind Map item will automatically turn into a task, so teams can get to work right away.
As for project tracking, ClickUp lets you set custom goals, milestones, and KPIs — the platform will then measure your project’s progress against your goals and display results in real time.
Key features
Leverage the platform’s time tracking and workload management tools to optimize workflows and prevent bottlenecks. See task completion rates and workloads — both on an individual or team level — via graphs, charts, and more.
Collaborate with team members through group chats and discussion tracks. Stay informed about everything that happens via unified message inboxes.
Store all your documents under a centralized dashboard and keep things organized with folders and sub-folders. Collaborate on internal documents or media assets through comments and annotations.
Drawbacks: The platform lacks native approval functionalities — you can only set up approval workflows through third-party integrations or templates.
Pricing: ClickUp starts at $7 per user per month (annual billing). There’s also a free forever plan available.
Airtable is an excellent choice for those who love working with spreadsheets. The platform compiles spreadsheet data and turns it into fully customizable interfaces via the Interface Designer.
For example, you can set up reporting dashboards with interactive graphs or charts, document repositories, knowledge bases, and more — all powered by your spreadsheet’s data.
And of course, the platform comes with a solid set of project management features, like task dependencies, Gantt charts, and so on.
Key features
Create project-specific workspaces and assign custom permissions (editors or commenters). Collaborate with team members via real-time comments and attachments and track any workspace tweaks via the platform’s version control.
Set up custom OKRs or calendar and timeline views to streamline marketing management processes. Optimize resources through the platform’s budget reporting and forecasting tools.
Store and manage all your digital assets under a unified interface. Set color-coded tags and leverage the platform’s file previews and filtering options to quickly find key assets.
Drawbacks: Making the most out of what the platform has to offer requires a bit of technical expertise — fully customized automation workflows require some JavaScript knowledge, for example.
Pricing: Airtable starts at $20 per user per month (annual billing), with a free forever plan available.
Asana‘s automation tools eliminate any repetitive work that might hinder your team’s productivity.
The platform’s WorkFlow Builder lets you set up automated approval workflows that range from simple to complex, via a visual interface — from delegating tasks to specific team members to sending out Slack or email notifications and adding tasks to your calendar.
You can also set up work request and feedback forms, while each submission will display within your dashboard.
Key features
Group multiple projects under portfolios. Set up task dependencies, automated dues dates, and recurring tasks. Create custom goals and milestones to get quick overviews of your projects’ progress. Quickly spot what projects are on track, off track, or at risk.
Invite stakeholders to review PDF, GIF, PNG, JPG, and BMP files directly onto the platform. Collaborate via comments and annotations, and have feedback automatically turn into sub-tasks.
Build custom reporting dashboards to monitor team workloads, project progress, project spending, and more. Set up custom goals and OKRs to track metrics that are more relevant to specific projects.
Drawbacks: Time-tracking on entry-level packages is only available via third-party apps. Storage is also limited to 100MB per document, which can make file-proofing a challenge.
Pricing: Asana’s paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month (annual billing). Its free forever plan also lets you work with up to 10 team members.
Wrike‘s AI-powered tools make managing complex marketing projects a breeze. The platform’s AI Risk Detection feature analyzes your team’s workload and notifies you whenever your projects are at risk of missing deadlines.
You can also use the cross-tagging tool to have a specific task, sub-task, folder, or entire project visible across multiple workspaces or departments — no copy/pasting required.
Key features
Get overviews of each employee’s availability and workload capacity, and compare them against your project’s estimated demands to delegate work evenly across your organization. Track each project’s progress along with its remaining budget under unified dashboards and generate employee productivity reports.
Leave feedback via comments and leverage the platform’s built-in document editor to modify attached files directly within the platform. Set up internal and external approval processes, and use file proofing to review and collaborate on media assets.
Set up benchmarks then generate team productivity reports to compare expectations against actual results in real time. Pick between numerous ready-made reporting templates to easily visualize data.
Drawbacks: The platform’s large pricing gaps between packages will make scalability a challenge. Entry-level plans lack cross-tagging, file-proofing, and approvals.
Pricing: Wrike starts at $9.8 per user per month (annual billing) with a free forever plan available.
HubSpot is an advanced software solution that helps businesses handle all marketing, sales, and customer service activities.
The platform’s marketing-specific functionalities are available in the Marketing Hub, where you can manage all your marketing campaigns in the same place. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub includes features for email marketing, ad campaign management, SEO, and more.
Key features
Use the Marketing Hub and its built-in CRM to set up automatic personalized email campaigns that pull in customer details from your contact lists. Segment customers based on lifecycle stages, subscription membership tiers, and more.
Get a 360-degree overview of all your marketing campaigns within a unified dashboard. Gauge website traffic and see how much of that traffic comes from organic search results, ad campaigns, or social media platforms, for instance.
Handle keyword research and set up topic clusters. Build webpages via HubSpot’s dedicated website builder and get AI-powered SEO recommendations to boost rankings.
Drawbacks: HubSpot is lackluster in team collaboration features. Steep gaps between pricing packages also make scalability a challenge.
Pricing: HubSpot starts at $15 per user per month (annual billing). You can also use some of HubSpot’s marketing tools for free.
Notion is a project management software solution with excellent internal documentation capabilities. Marketing teams can create and manage all sorts of internal documents — from meeting plans and notes to product launch plans, creative briefs, and more.
The platform also lets you create fully-fledged wikis and centralized knowledge bases that contain multiple documents, notes, and digital assets — all easily searchable through the search bar and collapsible navigation menus.
This feature is ideal for storing all the relevant company details to onboard new employees or set up client-specific documents, like brand guidelines and branded assets.
Key features
Work on internal documents with team members in real time — collaborate through comments, annotations, and suggestions. Add collapsible toggles, tables of contents, and search bars for better navigation. Publish documents as web pages to improve accessibility for remote employees.
View projects under timeline views to get high-level overviews of their progress. Set up tasks and subtasks, dependencies, and priorities for easy task management. Easily gauge project progress via dedicated progress bars.
Easily plan meetings directly within the platform — set your availability, send out meeting links, and get notified whenever a meeting is due. Visualize your workday across different time zones to better synchronize with remote employees.
Drawbacks: Notion is quite complex — users report a steep learning curve, which can be overwhelming for new users.
Pricing: Paid packages start at $10 per user per month (annual billing). There’s also a free plan available.
Teamwork is a marketing project management software solution that stands out through its time-tracking and resource management capabilities.
The platform lets you easily track billable and non-billable hours for all your employees, while its dedicated time reports reveal exactly who worked on what, when, for how long, and how much of your total budget was allocated to each specific team member.
You can also get in-depth overviews of your team members’ workloads to allocate tasks evenly across your company.
Key features
Seamlessly onboard clients onto the platform and set up dedicated workspaces for each. Track project progress for each client and manage workloads, as well as invoices and retainers.
Set time and financial budgets for each project or split a budget for multiple projects. Track resource allocation via visual dashboards. Set custom notifications to receive alerts whenever your marketing budgets exceed specific thresholds.
Set project milestones and task dependencies. See your team’s average task completion rates via Burndown reports and group multiple projects under portfolios.
Drawbacks: The platform’s large gaps between pricing packages and minimum user cap make scalability quite pricey.
Pricing: Teamwork starts at $10.99 per user per month (annual billing) for three users minimum. There’s a 30-day free trial available.
Basecamp is a straightforward project management software that stands out through how easy it is to monitor all of your projects’ progress. The platform offers unified dashboards where you can see how all of your projects are going at a glance via needle-based progression bars.
If you want to get into the details, you can use Basecamp’s Hill Charts — visual overviews of a project’s complete history presented under a chart-based format. You can also monitor what team members are up to through real-time activity feeds. The option to set up automatic check-in polls is also a nice touch.
Key features
Set up to-do lists and manage tasks via Kanban boards. Eliminate bottlenecks by placing specific tasks on hold and get back to them once everything clears up. Set up project milestones and schedule recurring tasks.
Collaborate with team members via one-on-one messages, group chats, or message boards. Set up custom notification options to automatically filter through any unnecessary distractions.
Store and organize files by dragging and dropping them onto the dashboard. Link Google Docs files and collaborate on them directly on Basecamp.
Drawbacks: Basecamp lacks file-proofing and approval capabilities.
Pricing: Basecamp offers two subscription plans. The annual plan costs $299 per year, while the monthly plan’s price tag is $15 per user per month. There’s a 30-day free trial available for both packages.
With a free plan that allows for up to 10 users and paid packages starting at $3 per user per month, Hive packs quite a punch.
The platform’s entry-level packages include everything a small marketing team needs to boost productivity — task dependencies, goal-based reporting, collaboration tools, you name it. The platform also includes a handy AI assistant that can generate task descriptions, sub-tasks, emails, and more.
Key features
Keep workflows organized through task dependencies, sub-tasks, and custom priority levels — or, if you’re an Agile team, turn tasks into story points. Automate recurring tasks and turn emails into tasks to boost productivity.
Collaborate with team members through one-on-one messages, group chats, task comments, news boards, or via the platform’s native Zoom integration. The Enterprise package also includes file proofing for multiple formats (video, image, PDF, etc.).
Leverage the platform’s AI assistant to generate projects, email responses, and text translations, as well as create fully-fledged documents and images.
Drawbacks: Entry-level packages include limited reporting and customization capabilities — you don’t have access to time-tracking or custom task labels, for instance.
Pricing: Hive starts at $3 per user per month (annual billing) for up to 10 users, with a free plan available.
Trello, Asana, Airtable, ClickUp, Hive, Notion, and Wrike are excellent marketing management software solutions for smaller marketing teams on a budget — you can get started with these platforms for free and later upgrade to paid packages.
In contrast, HubSpot is a great choice if you seek an all-in-one solution that lets you manage campaigns across multiple channels from the same place.
Planable is an excellent marketing management software for campaign planning and content collaboration across the board. Its multi-level approvals, client-specific workspaces, and ample set of content collaboration features ensure your campaigns roll out as polished as possible. Plus, it also comes with built-in social media management features.
Try it out and schedule your first 50 posts for free!
Digital marketing enthusiast, language nerd, and content writer. Horea loves writing about SaaS and anything that involves boosting online presence – from SEO to social media, web design, and more. His content is allergic to fluff and eats research for breakfast.
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