Log in
Noticed you’re on an iOS device. Get our mobile app for effortless planning on the go.
Log in with planable.io
Noticed you’re on an Android device. Get our mobile app for effortless planning on the go.
Log in with planable.io
Planable is the best client-facing social media tool we’ve ever used and we’ve used a lot.
Is your LinkedIn strategy out-of-date or missing entirely? Time to fix that! Far from being just a job-search tool, LinkedIn has grown into a powerful platform for both employer branding and lead generation. Continue reading to discover my best practices and expert...
Jan 23, 2025
Have you ever had to manage a full project from start to finish? I remember the first time I was put in charge of delivering an important content project. It was stressful. And while I understood what was needed, I was learning about how to build a project management workflow on the fly.
Back then, I was too focused on tasks and (full disclosure) micromanaging too much.
But when you move beyond simple task management toward a clear view of how the entire project should go, you set the foundation for real creativity. Especially when you make use of marketing workflow tools. These tools help you identify and overcome bottlenecks, while escaping constant admin.
That allows your team’s talents to shine and helps you produce unique, compelling marketing campaigns.
A project management workflow is a custom-built process that details all the necessary steps for completing a specific project. It can vary in complexity depending on project scope and organizational needs, but it’s a strategic, systematic approach that covers project progress from planning and execution all the way to measuring results.
The benefits of a good marketing workflow will be appreciated across the entire business. There’s less stress for project team members, clear expectations and timelines for contributors, and better use of all kinds of resources.
The result? Your agency or marketing team can produce more unique, high-quality work that builds brand and attracts new customers.
Project management workflows let everyone on the team see project tasks, processes, and timelines. Visibility is crucial for nurturing consensus between colleagues, so it’s not just about project managers being aware of everyone’s tasks. It’s also about folks knowing what their teammates are working on and how they can support each other’s creativity.
The main issue with a lack of transparency is that it generates endless admin. You’ll have people firing off multiple emails just to check on the status of certain materials or to ask where they might find specific info. Marketing projects experience a drop in quality when the process is clunky, while a solid project management workflow allows ideas to bloom.
We all have different preferred communication styles. That’s why efficient workflows also include protocols for communication. People need to know when, where, and in what form to share crucial project-related info, which is essential for keeping folks on the same page.
Most marketing teams are likely to include someone with a slight tendency toward micromanagement, someone who’s quiet and shy, or someone who’s new to the organization and a bit wary of communicating in the wrong way. Comms protocols allow people to track progress without worrying about whether they’re doing it right.
Efficient and, most importantly, predictable communication is one of the biggest indicators of a project’s success.
Effective project management workflows also create space for accountability. There’s clarity when it comes to assigning tasks and responsibilities, timelines and deadlines are straightforward, and everyone’s contribution to larger goals is visibly mapped out. This means there’s no area without a dedicated owner and nothing slips through the cracks.
If task ownership is fuzzy in a marketing project, people are left to prioritize by themselves. Creative autonomy is an important thing to integrate into your project workflow, but it works best when final goals are well-defined and shared with everyone.
Precise boundaries for every task also ensure efficient resource management – you won’t have multiple people working on the same thing and you won’t need to cut corners for elements that turn out to be incomplete right before a deadline.
Here are the steps for designing a project management workflow that serves your goals and your team while lowering your stress levels.
This is especially for project managers who are just getting started with workflow management and dedicated tools. If that’s you, you’re on your way to more efficient project planning.
Start by setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, so SMART goals. This approach can help you turn business goals and marketing goals into smaller chunks that fit with every stage of the project. I also recommend attaching KPIs to each goal. This allows you to monitor progress and track performance.
Here’s how to narrow things down:
Your project scope begins to take form when you list your deliverables. Also consider every resource you’re using, from budgets and assets to the bandwidth of each team member involved. List the project tasks that correspond to each deliverable, but also include task dependencies that might influence prioritization.
An important thing to look out for is scope creep. This can crop up within any project management workflow. Surprise requirements and changes that affect lots of moving parts will derail timelines and stress people out. It’s a good idea to define what is out of scope for each new initiative but also to have a process in place for implementing changes that actually improve the project.
Project workflow success depends a lot on choosing the right tool. The way it’s built can save everyone a lot of time, or exactly the opposite – overburden people with unnecessary features and too much of a learning curve. Consider the size of your organization and project costs, but also look into project management tools that cater to creatives and marketing teams specifically.
Think about your team’s communication styles: do they do better with meetings or async communication? Will most updates happen over Zoom or via collaboration tools like Slack? Also, once you assign tasks, how will people see them mapped onto timelines? Your answer could be a calendar tool, a Gantt chart, a Kanban board, and so on.
The strongest collaboration tools for marketing also double as approval software. Since the absolute most common bottleneck happens in the approval stage, project management software that lets you set custom permissions for review and feedback will keep things flowing efficiently.
Approval workflow options in Planable
The information you’ve gathered so far should be unified into a project roadmap. Take all the important goals and milestones, then place them on a project timeline. This is also the point where you should consider things through the lens of risk management – what could compromise schedules or quality and how can you safeguard against said risks?
Planable’s calendar view (with its filters and color-coded labels) can be used to map out due dates for tasks (plus deliverables) and to indicate important project milestones. The calendar is also your dashboard for managing all types of content, with your visuals neatly stored in a unique media library for each workspace.
Content calendar view in Planable
With your scope clarified and your deliverables listed, it’s time to assign tasks. Start by considering the availability and expertise of each team member you want to include, but also take into account communication styles and who collaborates best with who. For a project management workflow to be truly complete, zero in on tasks for all project phases (so not just execution, but also planning, review, approval, and reporting).
It’s obvious that successful projects depend on how well team members collaborate. Project management tools that foster teamwork and keep communication flowing efficiently create the conditions for different talents to truly shine.
Planable has heaps of features that are useful for a marketing project manager, including the ability to treat each comment as a task (plus mark it as resolved) and to leave internal comments that aren’t visible to clients or infrequent collaborators.
Collaboration on a Facebook post in Planable
Tracking a project’s progress is much easier to do through visualization, so create a workflow diagram that’s easy to understand at a glance. It could take the form of a mind map or whiteboard, as long as it brings a detailed overview of the project’s status.
Visual aids can be much easier to remember than just text, especially when people are juggling multiple projects. They simplify complex project data, provide instant reminders of changes and updates, but also generally improve communication.
The best way to make sure a new project workflow will deliver when it counts is to test it out first. You wouldn’t want to experiment with large campaigns or deliverables that have deadlines in a few days. Choose a project with smaller stakes or gentler deadlines, then get stakeholders and team members on board.
I’ll say it again: get feedback from everyone. Seniority isn’t the only thing qualifying people to offer useful suggestions, so make sure you create space for all team members to express their opinions.
Beyond received suggestions, trace the implementation of your new workflow beginning-to-end and see if there are oversights, bottlenecks, or missing assets/resources. Use all this info to adjust as needed.
To be clear, sussing out what can be tweaked for a more efficient process isn’t limited to testing before a big project begins. It’s a continuous part of good workflow management.
Documentation helps a lot, so keep detailed records while completing tasks. Being able to look at a clear history of changes, contributions, and project management decisions will be crucial for future iterations of the same workflow.
Consistent review and optimization should rely on the project objectives you set in the beginning. Tracking your KPIs and metrics will reveal if there are any major deviations from your plan, but also illuminate areas that could benefit from more time or slight budget adjustments.
While steering clear of unnecessary meetings is always a good idea, many project managers swear by the importance of a good kickoff meeting. Clearly, your invite list should start with stakeholders and people directly involved with execution. But also include someone who can advocate for the end user, plus someone who can represent different teams in your organization that will be impacted.
Talk about the general purpose of your project, then run through smaller goals and milestones. Be honest about constraints and how they might impact day-to-day activities. Most importantly, run the meeting like a conversation. This is exactly the time for people to ask questions, voice concerns, and clarify anything they need for smooth collaboration.
You’ve gotten a feel for what it takes to create a project management workflow from scratch, so let’s look at a few tips that help it run smoothly all the way to the deadline and beyond.
Keep the guesswork out of the way information flows. Make sure team members know where, how often, and with who they need to talk.
They’re important for figuring out what needs to be adjusted on the fly but keep them short and snappy.
An efficient workflow includes input from relevant team members regardless of seniority. Make sure there’s room for juniors and newcomers to suggest improvements.
It’s important for your approach to workflows to be fluid, and you’ll likely tweak them multiple times from one project to another. But consider the times when changes would create new, overly complex tasks.
Approvals, planning, publishing, feedback, media library, and cross-company collaboration in Planable
Planable is a project management tool made with marketing teams in mind. It helps with planning, creating, and collaborating on all kinds of written content, but also lets you set up a review and approval process just the way you need it. Below are some of the features that keep project execution super smooth:
You create an effective project management workflow when you incorporate feedback from your team and balance a detailed overview with autonomy for everyone involved. Such a workflow helps deliver on your project goals. So match these steps and tips to your everyday operations, then watch complex projects run smoothly.
A great way to do that? Take Planable out for a spin, it’s free.
Irina is a freelance senior copywriter & content writer with an advertising agency background. If she’s not rummaging for good synonyms, she’s probably watching a sitcom or listening to radio dramas with plucky amateur detectives. She loves collage, doing crosswords on paper and shazamming the birds outside her window.
Create
Approve
Plan
Schedule
Collaborate
Analyze
