26 Project Management Tools For Creative and Marketing Agencies

In this evolving digital world, having the right project management software is a crucial advantage. Ironically, as per the findings of the 2018 Agency Growth Report, more than 40% of creative and marketing agencies still manage their projects on Excel spreadsheets and are dissatisfied with the results they get using a project management tool.

It’s sad, but the only reason these agencies don’t feel happy with the current implementation of their project management tools is that they picked the wrong tool or failed to understand how it works. This brings us to an important question – Which project management tool would work best for your agency? Well, the answer to this question is right here.

In this post, we’ve compiled a list of tools that are known for helping creative and marketing teams stay up-to-date on their to-dos, tasks, and projects. Every project management software or tool listed here has an easy-to-use interface, is packed with unique features, and offers regular updates. Just go through the list and see what tools are likely to address the challenges you face at your agency.

1. ProofHub

ProofHub , an all-in-one project management software that is designed to overcome all the challenges that are faced by a growing organization or team. With users like NASA, Disney, Netflix, Taco Bell and more, ProofHub surely stands out as an amazing tool for creative and marketing agencies who are looking to make managing work simpler.

Top features:

• Ultimate control over projects and time collaboration
• Better task management with Kanban boards and Gantt charts
• Better work satisfaction

2. Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a tool used by more than 20 million users for project management, resource management, and portfolio management.

Top features:

• Better project scheduling & costing
• Reporting and business intelligence
• Built-in project templates to save time

3. Asana

Asana is a web and mobile application that combines all the elements of project management, file storage, and collaboration to help teams manage projects better.

Top features:

• Projects with multiple users, tasks, and subtasks                       
• Smooth communication between teams                                               
• Custom calendars and views for better scheduling

4. Basecamp

Basecamp is a go-to project management tool for teams that are looking for a simple, easy-to-use tool for effective communication and task management.

Top features:

• Assign to-do tasks to multiple people
• Message boards for project discussions
• A chat function for better team collaboration

5. Trello

Trello is a creative tool that allows teams to visualize tasks and everyday assignments on a cardboard-like dashboard.

Top features:

• Better task management
• Creating multiple task lists
• Organizing and filter task lists by date or priority

6. Workzone

Workzone is a tool designed to help experienced ad executives and creative teams to bring more visibility into their work process.

Top features:

• Personalized to-do lists
• Set permissions to access projects, tasks, and files for certain users
• Monitor project statuses with Gantt charts

7. Redmine

Redmine is a free and open source, web-based project management tool that is designed to help teams smoothly run multiple projects and associated subprojects.

Top features:

• Gantt chart and calendar for better project planning
• Centralized files and documents
• Better project estimation management

8. Float

Float is a versatile tool that allows creative and marketing agencies to keep track of everyone’s schedule.

Top features:

• Better project planning on a visual interface
• Setting individual availabilities
• Efficient project reporting

9. Workbook

Whether it’s projects, customers, or budgeting, Workbook is the kind of tool that outlines everything associated with your creative or marketing agency.

Top features:

• Client portal for collaborating with clients
• CRM with activities, follow-up lists, and pipeline forecasting
• Comprehensive accounting features and reporting

10. Harvest

Harvest is known as one of the best time tracking tools with timesheet and invoicing features. It’s the kind of tool you need to keep your business ticking.

Top features:

• A simple and intuitive user interface
• Clear insights for projects with powerful reporting
• Create and send accurate invoices online

11. FunctionFox

FunctionFox is known for its simple user interface and power-packed project management features. This tool offers everything you need to create a successful marketing project.

Top features:

• Comparing estimated budgets for projects with actual figures
• Calendar view for better scheduling
• Interactive real-time project reports

12. Hub Planner

Hub Planner is a tool designed to help project managers successfully plan and schedule their team’s time across multiple projects.

Top features:

• Time tracking and timesheets
• Team dashboard with project reports
• Flexible workflow with admin approvals

13. Workamajig

Workamajig is a tool that brings all the departments in an organization(and their tasks) under one collaboration platform.

Top features:

• Templates for accurate estimating
• Clarity over team’s availability for resource planning
• Track time and tasks per retainers

14. FunctionPoint

FunctionPoint is a productivity tool built for creative agencies. It’s an all-in-one solution that helps teams gain better visibility into projects and budgets.

Top features:

• File sharing and workflow approval
• Scheduling/assigning tasks and managing individual workloads
• Project and task dashboard for better project management

15. 10,000ft

10,000ft is a project management and planning tool with an easy, interactive user interface. The tool provides features that make it easy for teams to plan, execute, and course correct projects on-time and on budget.

Top features:

• Drag-and-drop interface
• Dashboard with each project’s status based on time, fees, and expenses
• Visual reporting for how teams, clients, and projects are doing against goals

16. Teamwork

Teamwork is a team project management, help desk and chat software that is known for helping project managers manage remote teams like a pro and achieve a goal in the most efficient way possible.

Top features:

• Customizable navigation
• Gantt chart for visualizing milestones and changing project timelines
• Private messaging to individuals or a group

17. Zoho Projects

Finance, HR, sales, marketing, and project management, Zoho Projects is the kind of tool that provides features to match a variety of different business functions. With this tool, creative teams and agencies get an easier way to track progress and manage communication when working on a project.

Top features:

• Ability to track the time it took to complete specific projects/milestones
• Public and private project chat rooms
• Employees log billable and non-billable hours

18. WorkflowMax

WorkflowMax is a full-featured project management system that provides agencies with the ability to manage finances, sales, and productivity from one central place.

Top features:

• Reporting feature to track inefficiencies and profits in projects
• Ability to create customized fields to match the individual needs of the agency
• Ability to create and send accurate quotes to prospects

19. Brightpod

Brightpod is a project management software with easy-to-use board interface, providing teams an easy way to track projects, ideas, and tasks.

Top features:

• Custom workflows for projects
• Individual dashboards for team members
• Ability to log time per task and create recurring tasks

20. DoInbound

DoInbound is a project management tool that provides a framework for creative agencies and focuses on improving the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their teams.

Top features:

• Manage projects by campaign, task, deadlines, and deliverables
• Share files, track time and streamline communication for a specific campaign or task
• Ability to create templates for a more predictable work product

21. Workfront

Workfront is a customizable project management solution that allows creative agencies to organize, prioritize, and manage projects better. It also streamlines the feedback and approval process, thereby making it easy for teams to get their content/product approved and delivered.

Top features:

• Built-in approval paths for getting work done quickly
• Working backlog for organizing creative requests
• Ability to mark teams as Agile and organize work into stories/points

22. Podio

Podio is a project management tool that brings all project communication into one central place and allows teams to customize them as per their specific needs.

Top features:

• Tons of integrations and the option to build custom integrations
• Automated workflows that are triggered by task completion
• Custom web forms for managing data to be sent directly to the tool

23. LiquidPlanner

LiquidPlanner is a tool that practices a different methodology for project management. It gives teams a clear view of both best-case and worst-case scenarios in a project. In addition to that, it provides them with the ability to schedule projects better and get everything completed and delivered on time.

Top features:

• Time tracking integrated with rate sheets
• Note features for getting projects done faster
• Task-specific communication boards

24. TrafficLIVE

TrafficLIVE is a project management tool that works to give creative agencies and teams the ability to serve their clients better and be more productive.

Top features:

• Visual dashboard representing over-runs, deadlines, deliveries, and more for each project
• Custom rate cards for new client projects
• Utilization charts for staffing needs

25. Advantage

For creative professionals or teams that seek in-depth training and support services, Advantage is the best project management tool available.

Top features:

• Preset templates for creating schedules
• Change schedules and tasks for multiple projects at the same time
• Burn rate charts and risk analysis summary

26. Clients & Profits

Clients & Profits is software for creative businesses. It’s designed to help creative businesses and teams better manage people, projects, media, and money.

Top features:

• Jobs 360 project dashboard
• Web portal for job status, calendar, and reports            
• Cloud-based database (The C&P MAINFRAME)

Wrapping up

If you are looking for a project management tool that will help you run your agency better in the coming year, you will definitely find the perfect tool for your creative team from the above list.

In case you are already using a project management tool/app and you believe we should include it in our list of the best project management tools for creative and marketing agencies, tell us about it in the comments!

Guest author: Vartika Kashyap runs the marketing team at ProofHub – a project management software for teams of all sizes. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship.

The post 26 Project Management Tools For Creative and Marketing Agencies appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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How to Get the Content Marketing Salary You Deserve



Recently, Tatiana Morand, a content and SEO manager, asked her employer for a raise. She got it.

Content marketer Allison Gagliardi asked for 10% raises at two previous employers. Both times, she got the salary bump.

How? Both of them say they didn’t just ask for a raise. They made a case for it. They spent the time evaluating the market, understanding their worth, and making a well-documented persuasive case to their supervisors.

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Don’t ask for a raise. Make the case for it. @AnnGynn #marketing
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“Compensation rates are based on two factors – the value you are able to provide to your company, and the competitive landscape and salary in your field,” says Stacy Caprio, founder of Growth Marketing.

Should your compensation be higher? If so, how should you get it?

Let’s tackle both questions to see if and how you should address the salary conversation in 2019.

Know the content marketing salary benchmarks

Start your search by investigating what others in your industry, role, and region are making. What’s the average? How does your salary measure up?

The Creative Group 2019 Salary Guide is a good place to start. It details how companies are finding it challenging to hire for content marketing roles in this competitive landscape. The gated content also covers 85 positions in the creative and marketing industry and details the highest, middle, and lowest compensation rates for each job.

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Median salary for a #content manager is $62,750, @CreativeGroup 2019 #salary guide. #marketing
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You can also use The Creative Group’s Salary Calculator to customize the figures for your city.

Tatiana, who successfully asked for a raise at Wild Apricot, suggests pulling market data from your area. She looked at Glassdoor and LinkedIn when making her case.

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Before asking for a raise, pull local market data using sites like @glassdoor or @linkedin, says @queen_morand.
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Maximize and prove your value to the business

Simply doing your job likely isn’t enough to earn a compensation increase. Long before you ask for a salary bump, ask your supervisors about the business’s goals and the key performance indicators related to your role.

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Before you ask for salary bump, ask about the business’s goals & KPIs related to your role, says @Ayothewriter.
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“Dazzle them and try to go well beyond their expectations,” says Ayodeji Awosika, director of digital marketing, MLT Group – Creative Solutions. “Follow the rules of writing great content for marketing and SEO. Match searcher intent with your posts. Write 10-times content nobody can replicate and provide real insights – me-too content doesn’t impress search engines or your supervisors.”

Think about ROI. For example, “track the leads you receive from inbound marketing on Google Analytics, assign value to those leads (total revenue produced/total number of quality leads), and give them a clear picture of exactly how your content marketing is growing the business,” Ayodeji says.

Tatiana took a similar approach when she made her pitch for a raise. “I prepared a full report showing my value to my organization, focusing on the metrics I knew were most important to them,” she says. “This showed I understood our overarching business metrics and can connect my role to a larger strategy rather than focusing solely on content.”

TIP: Don’t go for the fluff. Instead of saying, “I published 10 blog posts this month,” say how those blog posts influenced business results.

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Use what you know

As a content marketer, you already appreciate the value of knowing your audience and crafting a story that resonates with it. Do the same for your compensation story, says Graham Shorr, who got his start as a copywriter and is now director of growth at SquareFoot.

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Use #contentmarketing to ask for raise. Know the audience. Craft a story that resonates. Graham Shorr @TheSqFt
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“Some managers are highly analytical and solely focused on measurable results,” Graham says. In these cases, you should use data to explain your impact at each stage of your funnel.

“Other managers really value the fact that you can start and finish projects without handholding,” he says. “An emphasis on hitting deadlines and your cadence of getting high-quality work out the door will go a long way.” 

TIP: Don’t think of your request for higher compensation as a one-off campaign. Build a regular cadence of measuring and reporting success.

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Make a presentation

Allison says she made her case to two employers, both internet marketing agencies, in the annual review process.

With the first employer, she had been a content editor for three years and had received the annual 3% raises most everybody received. Then she made her case for and received a 10% increase. She took a similar tactic a few years later as a senior content manager at another agency. In her first-year performance review there, she asked for and received a 10% raise.

How did she make the successful presentations? She wrote a letter outlining her compensation request and listed her accomplishments to date in a bullet format. She signed the letter – with an actual pen – and put it in a two-pocket folder. In the other pocket, she included emails/letters from clients and co-workers singing her praises. “It’s proof they just can’t argue with,” Allison says.

Based on her success, Allison offers a few tips for making your presentation:

• Ask for a percent increase vs. a dollar figure. Sometimes a percentage request is “easier on the eyes.”
• Use numbers to impress. Include percentages, hours worked, money saved, people hired, etc.
• Be ready with a consolation prize. Be prepared with a counter offer such as, “I’m hearing you can’t meet my request this year. I think adding five paid-time-off days to my account is comparable.”

Be creative about your consolation prize suggestions. Allison offers some suggestions: a bonus if a certain benchmark is achieved, permission to bring your dog in the office on certain days, a standing desk, an air card (for Wi-Fi wherever you go), an improved title, a continuing education plan, or even control of the AC unit in your department (no, for real).

Keep in mind

Jordan Wan, founder and CEO of CloserIQ, offers a few more tips to keep in mind when negotiating a raise:

• Negotiate each term independently. If you bring out all your demands right from the start, you’ll overwhelm your employer. Instead, dole them out one demand at a time. Start with your biggest priorities.
• Emphasize that you value this job. Remind your employer that you enjoy working with them. Otherwise, they’ll think you only care about getting more money. Sprinkle these reminders throughout tough conversations to reassure your employer that, in spite of your demands, you’re still passionate about the company mission and team.

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Remind your employer you enjoy working there. Don’t make a #salary conversation all about money. @jordanxwan ‏
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And if your employer can’t or won’t boost your salary? Consider moving along. That’s what Growth Marketing’s Stacy did awhile back. “When I left an agency marketing company to go to a finance company to do their marketing, I received a $30,000 instant raise.”

When you’re negotiating, consider asking for a continuing education benefit like a trip to Content Marketing World Sept. 3-6. Use the code BLOG100 and save $100. Register today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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How to Use Customer Journey Mapping to Transform Frustration Into Conversion

One of the biggest problems faced by businesses and brands is that they see their product from their own perspective; they’re too obsessed with the bells-and-whistles of the backend, and neglect to consider customer experience.

Customer Journey Mapping is fundamentally designed to address that – to give companies the ability to get a customer’s eye view of the user experience and to heed off problems as a result. This has two main benefits for business:

• Tailoring your UX more for the consumer, giving them a better all-around experience.
• Losing fewer customers as they engage with your brand (and therefore increasing profit).

Building a physical Customer Journey Map is important for knowing how your business works, spotting potential weaknesses and allocating resources effectively. It will help you to constantly improve and streamline your customer service, as well as identifying (and removing) weak links.

According to Forbes, there is a critical disconnect in the use of Customer Journey Map, as 63% of marketers believe them to be important, but only 55% of senior marketers do not think their company fully understands their customers’ journey.

Things like bounce rates provide important metrics to quantify a Customer Journey Map, although a true map is broader than just that. It’s important to also consider all channels for your brand. Therefore, a journey map should take into account social media accounts, the function of your website, your app, as well as any email/phone communication you undertake with customers.

Identifying and integrating each of these will streamline your customer service (potentially saving money, but certainly improving customer experience).

Building a Customer Journey Map doesn’t need to be a complex process, involving external consultants, or multi-page documents. Instead, you need to truly engage and empathize with the customer’s experience through all five stages of engagement with your business:

• Discover
• Research
• Purchase
• Delivery
• Aftercare

In creating a Customer Journey Map for your business, there will be some variance on what specifics to include (for example, a service company will require different information than a B2B software company). However, there are five key rules to follow if you are to produce a meaningful and useful template for assessing, then improving your UX.

1. Look from the outside in

As stated above, the danger with any assessment of a business is that those who work in the business are often too close to the ‘coal face’ to see the true nature of a user’s experience. The most important part of creating a Customer Journey Map is thinking like your customers, not like someone who works in the business. This is one of the most obvious, yet the most difficult aspects.

Here is one example of goal setting from a customer’s point of view:

Image Source: Tandemseven

It’s extremely difficult to forget aspects of your business (such as that new easy order feature on your website) and to approach your brand with fresh eyes. However, this is critical if you are to anticipate a customer’s needs and potential areas of weakness. As this article states, you need to build your customer map for your ideal customer, which may not be the customer type you have at the moment (or may only be one segment of your market).

What this means in practice:

• Research websites similar to your own. See what they do. You will engage with a customer’s eye view. Then, revisit your own website. See what’s different, what’s the same, what works, what’s easy to find. Count how many clicks it takes you to find a particular piece of information, and compare that with other websites. 

2. Be holistic

When you’re creating a Customer Journey Map it can be easy to ‘segment’ the process. However, in order to truly replicate your customer’s experience, you need to be holistic. For example, if a customer experiences three points of annoyance in the ordering process, they are unlikely to proceed with the purchase. Each of these points of annoyance may seem small when you add them into the map. However, they are cumulative in the customer’s eyes.

This Customer Journey Map shows how detailed and segmented it may be, still holistic.

Image Source: Chris Risdon 

What this means in practice:

• Segment when you’re collecting information (for example by subdividing work between teams). However, when it comes time to display and analyze information, be sure to display the information holistically. This will give you the chance to evaluate and think holistically about your customers. 

3. Identify ‘pain points’

Identifying ‘pain points’ is the core rationale for creating a Customer Journey Map. Find areas where your business is performing below expectations (perhaps where customers are reporting a negative experience or even areas where their experience is neutral). In other words, find out why people are leaving your website. These may not necessarily be where you expect them to be (after all, presumably if you knew where they were, you’d have already removed them).

What this means in practice:

• Create a line graph of ‘customer satisfaction’ through the process of engaging with your website. Where the line drops below a certain threshold, you’ve found a ‘pain period.’ Another metric you can use is the stage at which potential customers leave your sales funnel. Finding these points is the first stage in addressing them.

Image Source: Plusnet Community

4. Quantify

One of the difficulties of creating an effective Customer Journey Map is that you are dealing with fundamentally subjective and often intangible concepts, such as customer emotion, decision-making, and overall perception of your brand. However, you can mitigate these difficulties by using metrics wherever possible, and, once you have your information, by testing and quantifying it. Treat this research as the opportunity to develop a hypothesis; once you’ve done that you can measure whether it’s correct.

Image Source: Paul Boag

This visual above shows how the Samaritans were able to integrate more social media use into the way they serve their users. The application of a Customer Journey Map for an organization like the Samaritans shows that they are applicable in all forms of institution.

What this means in practice:

• Take your results and give yourself a set of goals to test (for example, what if we reduce the number of clicks required to order from 5 to 4). Then, make that change and see what impact it has on sales. If your sales increase, further reduce the number of clicks. Eventually, you will reach an optimal number as your customers are fully satisfied with their experience. Then you can move onto a different factor. 

5. Implement

Once you have your results, you need to amend your website, your app, and your overall social media and content strategy to work out how best your customers can enjoy an improved experience. You will need to think in terms of both micro and macro simultaneously. The macro is the overall sense of wellbeing your customer has when they engage with your brand. The micro refers to the tiny details you provide to shape that experience.

What this means in practice:

• Develop an overall, one sentence strategy for how you want your UX to be (for example, ‘luxury branding with a high premium on customer satisfaction,’ or ‘efficient and intuitive to use.’) Then work through each aspect of your Customer Journey Map and determine how you can make each step better reflect this overall goal. You can look to successful examples from other companies to get a sense of what works. 

Key takeaways

Creating a Customer Journey Map is often easier in the abstract than in practice. Businesses (and customer experiences) are complex, often driven by multiple factors. Remember the following tips to keep on track:

• Keep it simple. Remember, you are using a macro view to identify micro problems. If it can’t fit on a single sheet of paper, it won’t work as a diagnostic tool.
• Think like the customer. You need to truly understand how and why a customer interacts with your brand. Don’t rely on what you think your company does – ask the customers. Market research is the first step in a Customer Journey Map.
• Find the areas you can improve. Define a standard of quality you want to instill in your business. Start by removing the negative parts of a customer’s experience and then turn the ‘neutral’ parts into positives. This is the fundamental reasoning behind a Customer Journey Map, so this goal should supersede all others.

Guest author: Melissa Burns is an independent journalist and business consultant. Marketing, business innovations, and technology are central topics of her articles. She started writing with a single goal of sharing her expertise with other people. Melissa also provides workshops for start-ups and small businesses.

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3 Tools to Make Your Editorial Calendar More Effective



A few short years ago, simply writing useful articles regularly was enough to keep your audience engaged and see your SEO rankings steadily grow.

Now, consumers are more demanding and the Google algorithm is more advanced. To accommodate both, you need to be always testing new tools and tactics.

With content marketing becoming more complicated and integrated, your editorial calendar should grow up too. It’s no longer enough to document your planned content assets. Today’s editorial calendar should involve team collaboration aspects and advanced analytics steps to make higher-level content management possible.

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Your editorial calendar should involve collaboration, analytics #tools, and more, says @seosmarty.
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This roundup features three innovative tools to create a new content marketing routine to better adapt to an ever-changing digital marketing world.

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1. Use ContentCal to diversify content you market

Creating and marketing diverse content is a necessity. You always must surprise your audience, as well as find new ways to engage your readers. Some out-of-the-box content types include:

• Twitter interviews, influencer-driven content or Reddit AMAs (to engage your audience on Twitter by having a well-known influencer talk to them in real time)
• On-demand content like webinars, demos, video lessons, etc.
• Original research based on survey results (visualized through graphs)
• And many more formats and ideas

With all those multiple and diverse content assets being created and so many (remote) teams being involved, how can you ensure that each of them is marketed effectively?

ContentCal (free and paid versions) is a good way to keep your team involved as well as to ensure that your weekly and monthly calendars are diverse and balanced:

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.@ContentCal_io can help ensure that your weekly & monthly editorial calendars are diverse and balanced, says @seosmarty
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• Your team can add updates to your calendar using the “Pinboard,” then you (or your social media manager) can drag and drop updates throughout the calendar ensuring both content diversity and balance. It’s helpful because the Pinboard can be the central point for each team member to craft updates for each content asset they are responsible for (press releases, interviews, videos, articles, etc.).
• The calendar uses color coding to help you quickly see how your content types and assets are spread out throughout a week or a month.

Once updates go live, you see your content tags in the reports and can filter your reports by the content type, making it easier to distinguish the most successful content formats based on social media engagement:

Overall, ContentCal provides a clutter-free dashboard encouraging you to build both diverse and balanced editorial calendars.

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2. Use Rankedy to track all your content changes and updates (and their impact)

Content marketing involves so many tasks and steps (e.g., planning, outreach, writing, link acquisition outreach, social media promotion), that it can be hard to identify the steps that really impact your ROI. Not many solutions can collect, aggregate, and analyze all your data in a way that allows you to understand which of your micro-tactics work.

The only solution I have found is Rankedy’s Journal feature, which records all the little things happening to your site and content and shows Google ranking movements after each change.

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Rankedy lets you see how Google rankings change when you make changes to your site & content. @seosmarty #tools
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To use Rankedy Journal for content analysis:

• Record all your changes and updates to your site and content you are implementing
• Watch the Google position movement for your keyword

Rankedy also uses color coding to help you easily distinguish between content formats you created and change types you implemented.

This feature makes it easy to find micro-tactics that work for your content and capitalize on those.

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3. Use Alter to personalize in-content CTAs and learn from engagement metrics

Content marketing offers great lead-generation opportunities. Many customers who discover your brand through your content are not ready to buy but may be willing to opt in to download your brochure or white paper.

How can you catch or keep their attention? Advanced (content) personalization is the answer. In fact, Segment found that half of consumers expect a personalized experience when interacting with brands. Personalizing your content means meeting your customers’ expectations.

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50% of consumers expect a personalized experience when interacting w/ brands via @segment.
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Yet, a report by Pure360 revealed that most brands still fall behind in marketing personalization, so now is a good time to boost your digital marketing performance with personalization.

Alter (paid version) is a new solution for small businesses allowing you to easily create and integrate personalized user experience sitewide (including your home page, landing pages, content pages and more).

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.@AlterSoftware lets you easily integrate personalized user experiences sitewide, says @seosmarty. #tools
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It’s a good idea to use Alter in two ways:

• To personalize your best performing content pages (to test, collect data, and boost their performance)
• To use the collected data to better plan your content (Alter tracks which personalization tactic drives more engagement)

To use Alter, simply create a trial account, add its tracking code to the site, and use the visual editor to personalize your pages. Alter has an incredible number of parameters to define your audience for personalization. Examples include traffic sources, users’ interaction with the site (e.g., how many pages they viewed), users’ interaction with a specific link or call to action, their devices, etc. You can combine any of these parameters to create even more tailored experiences.

The reports are enlightening, giving you a glimpse into what helps and what hurts content performance:

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Bonus: Use Serpstat to include these tools in your content planning routine

ContentCal, Rankedly, and Alter are new tools in the industry and provide a fresh look into how you can manage and analyze content. Adding these micro-management tasks to your regular to-do list is the best way to ensure that the tools will help you rethink and reestablish your content marketing routine to the maximum capacity.

If your team is smaller, you can manage this system with a reusable planner in Google Spreadsheets or simpler to-do list management tools.

For larger team management, you may need a more advanced collaborative solution. I use Serpstat (paid versions) checklists. You can create and reuse a template for each upcoming content asset and the team can check off their tasks until everything is done.

In-team collaboration makes content asset planning easier because:

• A new checklist – based on the same template – is set up for each project (e.g., an article, an infographic, an influencer interview).
• You can break each checklist into sections to cover all the steps before, during, and after the publication process (e.g., keyword research, writing, designing graphics, proofreading, social media marketing, and outreach). Once everything gets checked off, the project is considered complete.

You can read more about Serpstat checklists here.

Are there innovative content marketing tools you’ve discovered lately? Which ones get you most excited? Please share them in the comments.

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• 7 Content Marketing Tasks to Automate Right Now
• 11 Content Curation and Collaboration Tools to Save You Time

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 3 Tools to Make Your Editorial Calendar More Effective appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Reasons Behind the Failure of Your Social Media Marketing and What You Need to Do

You witnessed several companies succeed because they focused on social media marketing. Using social media for boosting the popularity of your business is an excellent idea. However, it is far from being a guarantee. You need to work hard for this strategy to succeed or else nothing will happen; or worse, your strategy could backfire and hurt your brand. These are the reasons why some social media marketing techniques fail, and what you need to do to improve.

You always take a free ride

The good thing with social media is that you can post anything, and you don’t need to pay to do it. However, since everyone is now advertising using social media as a platform, you need to take it to the next level. You have to pay for additional promotion and reach more people. You need to be smart in deciding where you spend your money though.

You opt for flashy strategies

Your strategies usually include games, gimmicks, and promotions. They might work well for a while, but they won’t last long. You need to diversify the kinds of ads you put out there if you want people to feel enticed to follow your page; otherwise, they will feel overwhelmed. They might also remain interested because of the gimmicks and not because of the products and services you offer.
Failure to understand the data

The good thing about social media marketing is that you can get information regarding the status of your marketing campaigns. You will know how many people saw your ads. You will also know if your post became a hit or people ignored it. You can target the right demographics too. If you don’t analyse the data that you can easily obtain, you won’t know what strategies to use as you move forward.

You think like you are a big brand

Don’t compare yourself with major brands. If they have unique strategies to promote themselves, it is up to them to do it. You can’t set the same goals and standards as these brands since you are still trying to introduce your company to the market. If you are too ambitious in your plans, you could end up failing. It does not mean you can’t set huge goals in the long run, but you need to start with something small and achievable.

You commit lots of gaffes

You need someone controlling your social media posts. You need a professional to do it, and not some intern who will treat the page like a personal account. Their immaturity could lead to negative posts or harsh comments. You don’t want it to happen because you need to be diplomatic when talking to your target audience.

Your strategies might work or not depending on how hard you work them. Don’t forget to use offline marketing techniques like rollerbanners. You need them to reach people whom you might not reach if you stick only with an online campaign.

Original post: Reasons Behind the Failure of Your Social Media Marketing and What You Need to Do

This post is courtesy of: https://www.dailyblogtips.com

4 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Video Marketing Trends You Need To Be Aware Of This Year

Have you noticed how much more prevalent video has become on LinkedIn?

That’s no fluke. Throughout 2018, LinkedIn ushered in a suite of changes that made video content a first-class citizen. From its video advertising rollout to the ability to upload videos natively to company pages, it’s obvious that LinkedIn is really pushing and rewarding B2B video content on their platform.

When Facebook started to lean into being “video first” a few years ago, the early adopters who did video well were rewarded with enviable reach, engagement, and shares – think Buzzfeed and The Dodo. Expect this to happen all over again, but this time on the largest professional network known to man.

Here are the video trends you can expect to see from savvy B2B marketers in 2019.

1. Trending news will get eyeball share

With LinkedIn focusing on professional content, marketers who are able to jump on trending business news will receive more eyeball share.

LinkedIn is similar to Twitter in that trending news dominates much of the conversation. And like  Twitter, viewers want to share quality content. However, LinkedIn’s feed is less busy than Twitter’s and more dialed into professional content.

For example, the video above represents the type of content you can expect to perform well on LinkedIn in 2019. It unpacks a recent California law that requires publicly traded companies to have at least one female board member. Marketers who keep their eyes peeled for stories that are relevant to their brand (personal or otherwise) can swiftly generate shareworthy video content using stock imagery and copy.

And remember: when it comes to video content, a pretty good video at the right moment is better than the perfect video a few days too late.

2. Video content will be optimized for mobile feeds

While Instagram and Facebook are starting to invest more heavily in their Stories functionality, LinkedIn is still very much a feed. The best practices that were established for Facebook’s News Feed still hold true on LinkedIn. This includes being mobile-friendly with video content and uploading video natively.

More than half of LinkedIn content is viewed on a mobile device. According to LinkedIn, 57% of their B2B content is consumed on mobile.

What does this mean for marketers? It means, as Facebook dictates, that marketers should “design for sound off but delight with sound on.” About 80% of videos on LinkedIn are watched with the sound off, so having text to guide the viewer through content is paramount.

Mobile-friendly square videos are also encouraged. Mobile videos take up 78% more space on desktop and mobile screen than landscape. And as we already noted, over half of LinkedIn content is consumed on smaller mobile screens.

3. Expect these 6 types of videos

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions collaborated with Animoto to create 6 video templates for B2B marketers. These templates were based on what LinkedIn has seen work on their platform.

The 6 types of videos that you can expect to see on LinkedIn are:

1.     Industry Insights
2.     Trending News
3.     Webinar Event Promo
4.     Event Recap
5.     Company Values
6.     New Launch Promo

With the Webinar Event Promo, LinkedIn underscores how they are a platform to promote professional education content. The Event Recap demonstrates how on-site brand events can and should live online in video form.

The type of editorial content I showed in the first section of this article, and that you can also find below, is what you can expect to see shared the most. People like sharing Trending News and Industry Insights because it makes them look knowledgeable and “in the know.” Brands (personal or otherwise) can and have been built off of shareworthy content like this.

Company Values can be used by recruiters to build a brand around a company’s culture and approach to work (more on this later). Lastly, with video advertising being unlocked in 2018, it’s clear why LinkedIn would be encouraging promo videos for launches to live in their feed as adverts.

4. Recruiters will become video marketers

Arguably the most active people on LinkedIn are recruiters. Their job is to make their company attractive to the best talent available. Just like marketers who are selling something to consumers or businesses, recruiters will find that having a strong brand behind them will make their job a whole lot easier.

In 2019, look for video to become a tool used among recruiters on LinkedIn in a big way. Video is the best way to showcase people and company cultures, while also communicating a brand’s values and background. For instance, recruiting software, Lever, found that video gave them 2x the click-through rate of a similar static ad.

Conclusion

Video will become more and more common on LinkedIn in 2019. Optimizing for a sound-off mobile feed is key.

Regularly creating video content on LinkedIn that makes other people look good when they share it will always win. For recruiters, communicating the human side of a company has never been more achievable on LinkedIn, thanks to video. Creating quality content aligned with your goals, whether that is hiring, brand-building, event-related or otherwise, has never been easier on LinkedIn.

Guest author: Rebecca Brooks specializes in communications, PR, events, and influencer marketing as Animoto’s Director of Communications. She thrives in environments where her impact is tangible, the vibes are good, the passion for the work is palpable and the work ethic is strong.

The post 4 Eye-Opening LinkedIn Video Marketing Trends You Need To Be Aware Of This Year appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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