4 project management tools to get back on track

Feeling overwhelmed, disorganized and out of the loop? You’re not alone. Our 2024 content planning trends survey found that the three biggest challenges among survey respondents were:

• Getting subject matter experts (SMEs) involved in creating content (39%)
• Interviewing and getting approval from SMEs (34%)
• Selecting topics (32%)

With that in mind, we wanted to share some of the best tools we’ve used for collaboration and project management. We hope these tools can help.

Our favorite project management tools

We pulled together four of our go-to tools that help keep projects organized and on track. These tools have well-designed interfaces and are intuitive, so your team can jump on board and ramp up productivity.

Plus, a couple on our list are free or have free versions available.

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the most popular project management tools available today. And WG Content is no stranger to the platform.

The platform helps us communicate with team members about projects. We can do this through to-do lists and message boards. We can also upload files to send drafts to team members and editors or to share final versions with clients.

Salesforce also makes it easy to see what’s happening across your projects. You get updates on project activity and daily recaps in your inbox.

2. Asana

While Asana isn’t our in-house project management tool, it’s grown to become one of the leaders in organization and task management. And although it’s a robust tool, its interface is well-designed and intuitive.

Asana allows you to collaborate on projects or track milestones for your team and clients.

You can also do the following tasks:

• Upload files
• Ask questions
• Start discussions within individual tasks

One of our favorite features of Asana is the timeline. With this tool, you can better visualize your project plan.

You can also set deliverables so that they depend on the completion of tasks and sub-tasks.

3. Trello

We’ve mentioned Trello in the past as one of our favorite tools for content marketing. But it’s also one of the best project organization tools today.

It’s easy to use. It also helps us better visualize complex projects.

Trello is a Kanban-style collaboration tool you can use on your own or across teams. After creating a board, you can organize “cards” into lists.

Each card also allows you to perform the following tasks:

• Leave comments
• File attachments
• Add links and images
• And more

You can also color-code and categorize individual cards. Trello works for the following stages in the content creation process:

• Campaign planning
• Customer journey mapping
• Editorial calendar development

If you’re managing a blog, you could create lists of articles in progress, completed or under review. Each card can also include details about the article and any relevant attachments or links.

Above is an example of what a (small) editorial calendar could look like in Trello.

4. Google tools

The WG Content team often uses the following tools available through Google:

• Drive
• Sheets
• Docs

These free Google tools make it easy to collaborate on an internal project or brainstorm ideas. When it comes to editing, Docs allows collaborators to hop in and leave comments or suggest edits.

Plus, users get email notifications. They come when someone responds to a comment or suggested edit.

Docs and Sheets also come in handy for an editorial calendar “parking lot.” With this setup, anyone on your team can contribute ideas for your editorial calendar.

We also like Google Docs for passive brainstorming. This allows team members to contribute solutions or ideas. It does this without restricting the time to one meeting or session.

Is it time to rethink your project management processes?

Think about your current project procedures. Is there room for improvement?

Take stock of the tools you use and the pain points in your organization. Find spots where you can adjust and optimize.

While you may not need an entirely new project management system, a few small tools here and there could help smooth out some bumps in your process.

Which tools are you hoping to try out? Do you have some favorites you’d like to share with our readers?

Project management pros to the rescue!

We manage content marketing projects for clients across the country. No matter if you need someone to help with a website overhaul or a physician bio project. Our project management expertise can help you reach your goals. Drop us a line to learn more.

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