Project Management Software Guide for Freelancers
In the world of freelancing, every day is different. When you’re working on several projects with a number of clients at once, it can be easy to lose track of your notes and client information. There are many responsibilities to juggle as a freelancer, such as client work and projects, contracts, invoices, emails, and other administrative tasks. How can you juggle all of these things (and more) without dropping a ball or two? Project management tools can help you successfully manage your freelance business. With the right software in place, you can focus on the things that matter most, like staying organized and efficient, meeting deadlines, and delivering high-quality work for your clients. Benefits of project management tools for freelancers Why should you use project management tools as a freelancer? The right software offers a number of advantages, including: Automated organization: Working with many clients is hard. You’ll quickly lose important information if you don't have a system for managing and storing it in a way that’s quickly accessible and makes sense to you. Streamlined workflows: If you’ve ever walked through an overly complicated process, you know just how valuable streamlined workflows can be. Not only do they save you time, allow you to work more efficiently, and eliminate unnecessary work, developing solid processes can also make you look impressive to your clients. More manageable workload: With freelance project management software, you don't miss the forest for the trees and can see everything you're working on, rather than individual projects for one client at a time. Having a bird’s-eye view of your workload can allow you to better forecast availability and will give you insight into whether you need to clear your plate. Boosted earnings: Time is money, and project management software can save you time. Your earnings depend on your ability to get your work done and send high-quality deliverables to your clients. When you save time, you’re creating the opportunity to earn more. More consistency: If you present your own processes and tools to your clients, it can prevent you from having to work in their tools. With your project management software in place, you can onboard clients the way you want to, often without having to learn the ins and outs of a brand new, unfamiliar system. Features to look for in project management software for freelancers Project management for freelancers can look different from more traditional team-centric project management. Your freelance project management software needs to work best for you as the primary user. What should you look for in a project management software tool for your freelance business? Add these items to your must-have list: Collaboration and client access capabilities. One of the main benefits of using a project management app for freelancers is that you can centralize information and avoid bouncing between your inbox and other tools. To maximize this benefit, look for a tool that allows you to grant access to your clients so they can quickly and easily access shared documents and information on their end. Integrations with tools you’re already using in your business. What’s the second-best way to reduce the number of tools and software programs you’re using? Making sure they can integrate for ease of use across multiple products. Consider looking for a tool that will integrate with your email platform, instant messaging tools, and any other products you can’t live without. Different views. Maybe you want to see your entire workload at once using a calendar view, or perhaps you’re diving into a project in greater detail and prefer to use a Gantt chart for this one. Having the ability to change your view based on your needs can allow you to work quicker and digest the information you need in a way that resonates with you best. Time-tracking capabilities. If you aren’t integrating a time-tracking tool you’re already using, it’s beneficial to look for a tool that comes with a time tracker so you can keep an eye on how you’re spending your time. This tool will particularly come in handy if you’re charging hourly rates. But even if not, you need to get a handle on your time as a freelancer so you can get the best bang for your buck. How to organize your freelance projects with Wrike Wrike makes it easy to organize and manage all of your freelance projects and clients. It’s as simple as creating projects for every client or assignment you take on and then adding necessary tasks and due dates to keep yourself on track. Once you have those building blocks, these other features can help you level up your freelance business: Set up projects using client project templates and best practices. This pre-built professional services template allows you to plan projects from initiation through closeout, mapping tasks across an interactive timeline. Integrate your current tools. Wrike integrates with 400+ tools which means you don’t have to leave the current apps you love in the dust. Instead, you can integrate your favorite tools with Wrike and boost your productivity at the same time. Track and manage your time for each project. Increase visibility into how you’re spending your time so you can streamline your forecasting, communicate hours remaining to clients, or sync your tracked time to financial systems for easy invoicing purposes. Use the “my to-do” smart folder to manage your daily to-do list. Centralize your to-dos in one place. This list will contain all tasks and subtasks assigned to you and tasks that you manually add. It’s the perfect place to capture those sudden midday thoughts when you remember you forgot to respond to an email or need to finalize a deliverable by the end of the week. Why is Wrike the best project management tool for freelancers? With a robust feature list to meet your business needs, time tracking functionality, and an unrivaled integration list, Wrike is the best project management software for freelancers who want to get more done in less time. Time is money when you’re a freelancer, so don’t waste any more of it. Dive in and boost your productivity by signing up for a free trial of Wrike today.
More Tools for Marketers to Love: Introducing Side-by-Side Comparison & Wrike Publish for Bynder
We’re excited to announce two updates to our Wrike for Marketers’ platform that further support marketers and creatives to deliver amazing branded campaigns: Side-by-Side Comparison in Wrike Proof and Wrike Publish for Bynder.
How’s Your Enterprise Doing on Digital Transformation?
Where is your organization in its journey of digital transformation? Just beginning or well into the process? It’s not a simple path, and there’s no one “right” way for every organization to follow. Whether you’re just starting or it seems your organization has transformed, Wrike’s recent webinar can offer some food for thought.
How to Plan a YouTube Marketing Strategy
There are 2.3 billion YouTube users worldwide, and the platform’s popularity has continued to increase significantly in the past few years. This, combined with the fact that the site is the fourth most visited on the internet, only proves just how much incredible marketing potential YouTube has. Most social media marketers don't spend enough time on video marketing on YouTube. It's often overlooked by those trying to create a successful content strategy because of how complex it is to manage this type of project. There are, however, lots of tools and methods for creating a YouTube marketing strategy that is both competitive and easy to execute. Here’s a guide on making and executing a YouTube marketing strategy that any brand can do. What is a YouTube marketing strategy? YouTube is a powerful platform for marketing. Whether you’re looking to create a video for your audience or to promote your brand, it has plenty of opportunities to achieve your goals. That being said, you do have to create a strategy for your YouTube marketing itself. The YouTube marketing strategy you create should be a carefully executed plan that involves consistent posting and a strong understanding of where you fit into your niche landscape on the platform. Your YouTube marketing strategy can be as detailed or as simple as you need it to be. It often involves planning out what you will create and how you'll create it. Your strategy will also heavily rely on target audience information for decision-making. Many YouTube strategists conduct competitor research at the beginning. You’ll also want to factor in search engine optimization for both YouTube and Google. Other factors go into YouTube marketing strategy off-site that you should be aware of. They include your other online properties such as your website, social media, and other content marketing channels. These will help with promotion and, if you already have an audience built up in one area, it will be easy to translate them to YouTube. If you don't already have an audience of one thousand or more highly engaged participants, you can build one from scratch. Whether you're a startup or an established business, a strong YouTube marketing strategy will help you identify who your content is meant for and what kind of content will help them out the most. In other words, what content will have the most engagement long-term? In a nutshell: a YouTube marketing strategy is a roadmap to achieving your goals for this channel. It should be attainable, realistic, and well-researched. How do you create a YouTube marketing campaign? In 2021, YouTube is full of amazing creators who have figured out how to conquer the algorithm and have been doing so for many years. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for one more brand. The good news is that a lot of the legwork has been done for you in terms of learning from beginner mistakes on the site. Here’s the simplest and most effective way to create a YouTube marketing campaign that will cut through the noise. Follow these steps to assert your brand as an expert for your topics, no matter what the competitor landscape looks like: 1. Think long-term You can set a ten-year goal, but this step should be done in a way that works for you. As a general rule of thumb, it takes an average of one to two years to achieve YouTube monetization, which requires a certain amount of watch hours and subscribers for approval. 2. Choose a target audience Who do you think is most likely to find and benefit from your videos? Even if you attract other audiences, your north star for content brainstorming, formatting, and editing will be clear if you nail this from the beginning. Age range, gender identity, and interests are good starting points for your research. Pro tip: If there’s a group of people you can easily reach now with your YouTube content, use them as a jumping-off point for faster channel growth. You’ll eventually reach your long-term audience, but growth is slow in the beginning, so reaching more people immediately is a good idea if it’s easier for you. 3. Strategize distribution Use your channel niche to create a promotion strategy that works best for your brand. Popular promotional channels include: Social media Facebook groups Instagram Stories TikTok teasers Reddit Forums Quora answers Niche blog communities LinkedIn Free virtual and in-person workshops Don’t forget about optimizing for YouTube SEO. This can be done in every aspect of your video, from your topic to your title and description. 4. Consider your content Think about what your target audience wants to see, what your brand needs to promote, and what kinds of topics will do best on this specific marketing channel (hint: education and entertainment are consistently top performers). Then, decide on what type of video you’ll produce. For example, this can be unedited live stream playbacks from virtual events on your other platforms. Or it could be highly edited and original comedy sketches made specifically to rank on YouTube, given what you’ve seen competitors do on the platform already. Whatever format you choose, make sure it aligns with audience expectations based on what’s already out there and also shows off your unique brand of YouTube content. 5. Use a project management tool YouTube video production and distribution is a complex process, which is why a creative project management tool like Wrike is so important to have when you first get started. Whether you’re a solo marketer or working with a hybrid team, the organization and communication features offered by this type of solution are priceless. What is the best way to plan a YouTube marketing campaign? The best way to plan a YouTube marketing campaign is to understand your audience and see what has worked for your brand on other channels in the past. To understand your audience, you need to know what they are looking for when they go on YouTube. Consider what other pieces of content you've published in the past have gone viral for your niche. Look at what topics you've covered on your blog or website and identify what has resonated with them. Then, build your strategy around that. Alternatively, if you're creating a YouTube marketing campaign specifically for a launch, you want to create a series that teases, promotes, and explains what your new product or service does. You also want to consider how your target audience will use the product or service. Then, create content that directly addresses questions they've asked your customer support team. You can also search for comments you've seen on social media that need further explanation or highlight interesting uses for your product they might want to know before buying. Your YouTube marketing campaign planning should begin as soon as you have a launch date. You’ll want to post at least once a week for a month leading up to any important dates that coincide with your campaign. If the campaign is ongoing, make plans to consistently create and post your videos before ever going live on your channel. Consistency is key for establishing an audience when you're just starting on YouTube and for the algorithm itself. Having systems and tools in place now will pay off in dividends in the future. Additionally, you need to consider what's realistic for your team. Plotting out what you need to do and when for each element of your campaign will help everyone visually see the workload they're taking on. This is a prime opportunity for your project management skills to shine. For example, a Gantt chart may help you understand and justify the expense of investing in a contracted video editor now rather than stretching your team too thin later. Decisions like these can only be made if you first have a marketing campaign management strategy in place before moving on to the next phase of your campaign creation. How to assess your YouTube competitors with a SWOT analysis A competitive analysis is a great way to identify areas of improvement and opportunities for your channel. To identify the right competitors to analyze, start with three to five primary keywords. Search for them on YouTube and see which channels come up the most. Then, once you know who you’re comparing your strategy too, you’ll need to do a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that helps identify the various factors that could affect a person or organization's business operations. This procedure involves analyzing multiple layers of the company. It helps identify the potential threats and opportunities that could arise from a business venture or project. For YouTube, this means identifying video content gaps and looking for ways you can do what competitor channels are doing, but better. YouTube managers use the following framework for their analysis: Internal strengths. This can include having a strong project management tool or an in-house team member who has YouTube experience. Build and enhance each of these over time. Internal weaknesses. Time poverty is a common example of this. Mitigate the risks of anything on this list getting in the way of YouTube goals before you launch. Eliminate any you can upfront. External opportunities. You may find that there aren’t direct competitors in your niche on YouTube already, or if they are, they may be producing low-quality content. That’s where you come in. External threats. There may be a lot of competition for your chosen keywords. Problem-solve around these and consider what new problems may arise in the future that you can safeguard against. Can you promote YouTube video campaigns? Yes, you can promote YouTube video campaigns using offsite channels, providing incentives for engagement, and with paid ads. First, create a website or social channels that include links to your video. Blogs with freebies, shops, and behind-the-scenes information are a popular way to attract viewers from your channel to your other branded properties. Next, consider how you’ll reward channel visitors for engaging early and often. YouTube marketing expert Cathrin Manning suggests being engaged with your audience in the comment section of your video the first full hour it goes live. This helps build community and gives people a reason to tune in right away, which is a great ranking boost. YouTube ads are also a great way to reach audiences on other related and non-competing channels. Along those same lines, working with an influencer to create a brand presence on YouTube when you’re just starting may speed up your initial growth. What are YouTube best practices? YouTube best practices are critical to know for business marketing teams who want to overcome common beginner mistakes. Here are the top ones to be aware of: Create a brand account. A brand account is better than a personal account because it allows multiple users to log in at the same time. This is a great way to keep everyone up-to-date with everything that's happening behind the scenes of your channel. Use the analytics. It can be overwhelming at first, but YouTube provides a great dashboard with historical channel data for you to keep tabs on your progress and audience. Their reports include data about your audience size, age range, and viewing preferences. It also shows where the majority of users live, as well as their preferred language and how they engage with your videos down to the second they typically click off. Create for your audience. Go to the comments section of your videos and read through them to see what viewers have to say. Use this data to identify the types of content that your audience is most likely to consume. Then, create video content that fits their needs. Monitor channel growth. Track key metrics such as subscriber count and viewership to see how they measure up against your goals. We recommend tracking these stats at least once per month. Block competitor ads. You can prevent your competitors from displaying ads on your videos by using the Ad Manager feature in Google. Be smart about keywords. Identify the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors in YouTube search based on which keywords they use and the new keywords you’ve chosen. Fill in their knowledge gaps within your content wherever possible. Use every YouTube feature. Maximize the word count for your description and keyword input. Include CTAs in your script and on the video itself. Add posts to your community board to engage your audience in between videos. How to optimize for YouTube By optimizing your channel, you'll be able to attract more followers and appear higher in search for target keywords. This 11-step strategy will help you get started on the right foot with YouTube marketing. Conduct research Watch channels by your favorite brands or competitors and start thinking about how you can use YouTube to promote your product. This will help you develop a content strategy that fits your brand and the landscape your future viewers are already participating in. Understand the algorithm Like Google, YouTube uses various unknown factors to rank videos. Then, it uses an algorithm to recommend the best ones. Even though no one knows for sure which factors affect YouTube SEO, we do know that high-quality production, interesting topics, and entertaining or educational content will rank highly in every category. Over time, you can conduct A/B testing to see which site formats, keyword combinations, and other video elements help your channel get discovered. Create channel art Even before titles, thumbnails are the first thing people see when they search for a video. Using custom art will help your video's thumbnail stand out more. Make sure that the image and title make sense together. And don’t forget your banner. It’s a great place to summarize the primary focus of your channel and introduce your hosts. This space can also be used to promote events or new products. You are also able to link out to your website, social channels, and landing pages at the bottom right-hand corner so design your banner with this in mind. Film a channel trailer A good channel trailer is like a teaser movie for your YouTube brand. It’s best to create one that’s specifically for YouTube and your specific goals for the platform. The entire purpose of a channel trailer is to create a compelling brand statement that will entice new viewers. Draft a content calendar Although you may only post once per week, there are many steps in between coming up with the idea and hitting publish. Relying on memory or habit for this portion, especially if you have a big team, is a recipe for disaster. A content calendar should organize every pre-production, production, and post-production task you have to complete for the coming week, month, and quarter. It should include individual timelines for each phase and some form of accountability among your team. Your content calendar should also be very easy to understand at a glance so that everyone knows the status of these various moving pieces at any given time. Plan out playlists Playlists make your channel easier to navigate but they also help boost your YouTube SEO. Design playlists so that they are cohesive and have a definite progression. For example, you can set up tutorials from beginner to advanced levels. You can also create playlists for partner videos. Outline your videos At the very least, you need to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Prioritize saying a brief description of your video topic in the first few lines of your script to help with SEO and to let audiences know what to expect. Create a production workflow Templatize your production workflow with a simple task list or within your marketing project management software. YouTube video creation tasks are often repetitive. Some key ones to keep in mind for any video you create are: Brainstorm idea Outline script Define top-of-video CTA Define the end-of-video CTA Create shot list Secure or prep your location Gather props or supplementary inserts Film A roll footage Film B roll footage Edit your video Create your thumbnail Add an SEO optimized title, description, and keywords Schedule your video for publication Promote your video release online Engage with your audience during and after video publication Strategize when and how you post A good time to post is when there’s a high amount of engagement and viewership. This step can be easily done using your channel analytics. You can also schedule videos for release in advance from the Creator Studio or another tool like Hootsuite. Tools like these help keep your videos consistent and on auto-pilot. Add supporting features Adding captions to your videos will make them accessible to non-native speakers and those with hearing impairments. YouTube offers a Creator Studio feature that allows you to view the top languages your subtitles are typically used by subscribers which helps with market research too. If you’ve put the time and effort into creating a video, having your transcript translated is worth it. You can also add clickable links through cards and end screens that give additional information or offers. Assess your performance Take a moment to review your past videos and subscriptions to see what drives your audiences’ attention. Make a note of patterns you see among your top-performing video topics, thumbnails, and formats. Later on, you can replicate your most successful elements in future videos. Not sure what other KPIs to look out for? Changes in subscriber count, audience demographics, and video playback locations are a great place to start. Comments sections are also ripe with audience feedback. Some are more helpful than others but tracking constructive criticism over time will help reveal creative new ideas. Although time-consuming, it’s important to learn how people are talking about your video and what they think about your channel to help make decisions in the future. How does the YouTube algorithm work? YouTube relies on its algorithm to identify high-quality videos that best match each search query. How does it determine quality and match? Every element of your video is a factor in its ranking. That includes everything from what you say in the video to what colors you use in your thumbnail. It also includes direct audience feedback from the number of likes, comments, and subscriptions your channel as a whole earns. If a video doesn’t immediately gain traction after it’s posted, the good news is that YouTube may begin showing it more in search results later on once your reputation with the algorithm is established. Pro tip: If you're familiar with Google SEO, you’ll find that a lot of these optimization practices still apply here on YouTube. How to manage your video marketing campaign with Wrike Wrike is a professional services management software that can handle the complexities of a YouTube marketing strategy for a single person or large teams. Wrike makes it easy to visually break up your entire production process into separate phases. You can use color coding and Gantt charts to illustrate your project roadmap. This is especially helpful if you’ve got more than one video in production at a time, which is often the case for creators who choose to batch shoot. Wrike also offers workflow templates that make it easy to carry out miniature projects within your projects. For example, you may find that your YouTube video editing process involves cutting out pauses, cleaning up audio, and color correction. You can add all of these steps to a repeatable workflow template specifically for video editing that teams and partners can reference for every new project. And because there are many different tasks involved with YouTube video creation, you’ll want to stay on top of each of them with individual task assignments that include details such as descriptions, approvals, and individual due dates. The tasks within Wrike are also great communication tools because users can chat in one central location about the task they're referring to in that very same task assignment. That way if anyone else joins the conversation later on they easily catch up with what's been said and everyone stays on the same page. And finally, Wrike offers useful app integrations such as Adobe Premiere that make it easy to provide proofing and approval for every new video. Ready to get started on your YouTube marketing strategy? Begin Wrike’s two-week free trial to set your channel up for success with organization and communication tools that will put you ahead of the competition.
The Ultimate Guide to IT PMOs
Companies with large IT departments and projects have complex needs that require advanced solutions. IT project management offices, also known as IT PMOs, offer oversight, guidance, and tools that will make your organization more productive and make it easier to scale. But what exactly is an IT PMO? What are the core IT PMO objectives and how can your IT department adopt best practices? Here’s everything you need to know to get started. What is an IT PMO? An IT PMO is a project management system that delivers high-quality results in the most efficient ways possible. Any project that involves information technology, no matter the size or urgency, will fall under the responsibility of an IT PMO. All PMOs involve a combination of goal setting, strategy, and organization. These qualities are essential when it comes to IT because of this department’s unique needs. Issues such as standardization and reducing task repetition across departments are all resolved when teams use an IT PMO. Businesses may opt to have an overall organization PMO and an IT PMO. This makes it easier to drill down on the specific technical aspects of IT that only experts fully understand. An IT PMO has experience working with a wide range of IT-specific tasks. But, more importantly, they have enough of an understanding about the challenges, potential obstacles, and resources required to complete nearly any given IT project. They can also keep up with IT project management trends while maintaining established initiatives. This leads to more accurate forecasting and smarter planning. And when trial and error isn’t an option (which is the case for most businesses), combining the powers of a business PMO with an IT PMO can ensure alignment between overall business goals and specific IT project needs. The most common uses for an IT PMO include updating tools and software. It’s also used for scaling workloads without increasing team sizes. And when new regulations or compliance issues arise, IT PMOs can strategically slip these tasks among ongoing or long-term projects without significant disruption to delivery timelines. What are the objectives of an IT PMO? The main objectives of an IT PMO include: 1. Policy creation Policy creation for project management means creating big-picture guidelines for all IT projects. These guidelines dictate expectations for what is accomplished and how it should be executed. There may be separate policies for more complex or sensitive tasks, which is another reason why having a dedicated IT project management team is so beneficial. 2. Team training New team members and third-party contractors may need help developing the skills needed to complete their assignments. An IT PMO will not only schedule and set up team training, but they may also provide one-on-one consulting wherever needed. 3. Resource allocation and distribution IT PMOs ensure that each project has exactly what it needs while maintaining a balance of resources across all other active projects. If there are competing needs, it’s the IT PMO’s job to prioritize them. And when unexpected problems arise, the IT PMO will be responsible for shifting resources in order to keep everything on track. 4. Process development A large part of why it’s important to hire experienced IT professionals to command your IT PMO is because they’ll largely be responsible for outlining workflows. These processes will range from small tasks, such as submitting deliverable approvals, to large ones, such as onsite hardware installations. 5. Standardization To keep teams aligned with clients, legal, and HR, there will need to be some standardization in place. Not only will the IT PMO find a way to consolidate these various sources of input into one cohesive list of practices, but they’ll also be in charge of monitoring and adjusting as needed. 6. Adherence to protocol Whether it’s safety standards or intellectual property development, IT PMOs ensure adherence to protocol by monitoring performance across all active department projects. This also means providing solutions to possible breaches before they happen. 7. Improved collaboration and communication In general, an IT PMO is the head of all projects, which means they can oversee important day-to-day team needs. Improved collaboration comes from having strong guidance and a clear path forward. What’s more, improved communication relies on having a system in place that makes sense with how IT operates. An IT PMO will provide both. 8. Detailed reporting and data insight One of the most important functions of an IT PMO is to continuously improve their department. That can mean everything from improving how they work to the products they produce. Would an IT PMO benefit your company? If your company has ever had issues with project delivery, decision-making, or resource management, an IT PMO would be beneficial. Without an IT PMO, projects may not be delivered on time or on budget. Or, if they do meet those initial benchmarks, quality might be wavering from project to project. An IT PMO uses the power of data insight and organization to predict the success of a project, given the other obstacles departments may already be facing. That includes certain task dependencies, employee workloads and scheduling, and roadblocks from one project that may domino into others. IT PMOs also help with decision-making. They have a clear understanding of what the business needs and what the IT department needs better than anyone else. They also have access to facts and figures that can help C-Suite executives better understand which goals are realistic. And as experienced IT consultants themselves, IT PMOs can provide advanced insight on reports that general PMOs might miss. In regards to resource management, an IT PMO is trained to work with what they have to achieve their goal. For example, this means working with the teams they have while limiting hiring, saving money long-term. This also means having a more accurate understanding of how long certain IT tasks realistically take and scheduling them accordingly. What is an IT PMO organizational structure? An IT PMO organizational structure outlines the flow of communication and command within the department. It’s often depicted as a flow chart. There are various ways teams can organize their IT project management teams, but the most common ones often include the head of the organization at the top, followed by the PMO, with each department division underneath. Interdepartmental IT PMO organizational structure will often flow from IT directors to IT managers to IT project managers. An organization can choose between placing business PMOs and IT PMOs side by side or deferring to the IT PMO as head of their department while still under the larger organization’s PMO umbrella. What are IT PMO metrics? IT PMO metrics are used to measure the success of an IT project. The information used is quantifiable and aligns with established goals. The metrics themselves may vary project to project. They also vary business to business depending on what information they have access to and what they’re striving to achieve. In general, IT PMOs can count on using PMO metrics that cover three essential categories: strategy, process, and deliverables. IT PMO metrics should be defined both for the department as a whole and for each new project. The metrics are used for creating smarter goal benchmarks for improvement later on. They also gauge progress against past performance. IT PMO metrics, in particular, offer additional insight into how the department functions in comparison to other departments so that executives can be sure their relative success is on par with the rest of the organization’s standards. What are the IT PMO best practices you need to know? 1. Focus on hiring talent that is highly skilled and collaborative. While the former has historically been the only top recruitment priority, studies and anecdotal evidence found in modern texts such as Brotopia by Emily Chang provide a strong case for myth-busting the ‘lone wolf’ ideal in IT. 2. Have a continuous growth mindset. Not only is an IT PMO responsible for daily operations and big-picture goals, but they are also responsible for implementing helpful changes along the way. These changes can be small or large, but they must all align with strategy, be monitored for effectiveness, and be adjusted as needed. 3. Educate other departments and executives on IT projects. Helping other decision-makers understand what your department does and how it affects the greater ecosystem of your organization can go a long way towards improved collaboration long-term. The key is to strike a balance between empowering your audience and talking down to them about the more technical aspects. 4. Be proactive at every level. Look ahead for ways to improve repeatable tasks. Forecast potential project delays or resource depletion before they come up. Anything the IT PMO can do now to mitigate risk and delays will pay off in dividends almost immediately. 5. Choose starting where you are over reinventing the wheel. Many IT departments have some level of project organization established even if they don’t call it that. It’s easier to adapt systems that are working well rather than force the entire team to take on entirely new habits. Perform a teamwide diagnostic before implementing new practices when switching over to IT PMO leadership. What should you expect from an IT PMO tool? Simply put, you should expect an IT PMO tool to make your projects faster and easier. You can templatize past successful projects for new work. This will decrease the time spent planning recurring tasks and projects so teams can focus on higher ROI activity. You can also find ways to automate notifications such as task dependencies so that your team is always on top of what’s due next. An IT PMO tool can even automate administrative tasks and streamline team communication. Collaborators will chat directly within the tasks themselves so that everyone who participates can view the history and get caught up. You can also loop other voices in simply by using @ mentions. Additionally, your IT PMO tool will have visual graphs, charts, and task allocations. This makes information easier to understand at a glance. IT PMO tools such as Wrike also offer personal dashboards so that each team member can focus on information that’s most relevant to their role when logging on. Reporting and data analysis across all active projects is another key benefit of an IT PMO tool. You can quickly pull reference numbers in meetings, provide statistical backup for client calls, and make better, more informed decisions on the fly. How to set up and maintain your IT PMO with Wrike Brands like Dish, Fitbit, and Solera use Wrike as their set up and maintain their IT PMO. Here’s how they do it: Onboard and train users. The executive teams at Dish said that their expectations for adoption were exceeded thanks to the support they received from the Wrike team. Establish your one source of truth. Wrike offers IT teams a space for organizing projects but it also offers advanced data reporting capabilities so teams can make better decisions. Share timeline reports. Communicate with business PMO and key stakeholders using timeline reports that clearly and accurately set expectations for project deadlines. Centralize project management. If you have projects being managed under a variety of different tools, Wrike can help consolidate all active and new assignments while also providing a clear view into interdependencies. Try dynamic timelines. Fitbit used Wrike to plan, prioritize, and assign work without taking away necessary resources from other projects. Full transparency across all assignments means you’ll know how these changes will affect the IT department and the company at large. Defend against burnout. Wrike gives users like Fitbit the ability to view and strategically use employee availability so that managers can assign tasks based on skills needed and their other active projects. Optimize processes. Solera uses Wrike’s request forms, Calendar function, and project status reports so the entire global team can keep track of what’s going on at any given moment. Take advantage of Wrike’s helpful project management features to get your entire IT department aligned with your goals. Sign up for a free two-week trial and discover why world-renowned IT companies trust Wrike to manage and execute their projects.
Top Tools for Maximizing Marketing Productivity & Efficiency in 2021 (NEW)
There are dozens of tools out there for every facet of marketing team productivity, but in this article, we’ll just look at the top tools that every member of your marketing team can use to boost their effectiveness. Here are the top 40 tools for maximizing the productivity of your marketing team.
The Essential Guide to IT Ticketing Tools
If a problem crops up at work, who do you turn to for help? Technical issues are typically handled by teams known as the customer service desk, help desk, support team, service desk, and IT support. The information technology or IT team is important in every workplace, and especially in an IT project management setup. They help in promptly resolving any tech or IT-related issue that a team member may face, boosting individual, team, and organizational efficiency. Ticketing tools are a great way to help your IT team do their best work. In this guide, we'll discuss what a support ticketing system is, its benefits, and how to identify the best ticketing tools for your company. What is an IT ticketing tool? Whether a company comprises two employees or two hundred thousand, each one needs robust ticketing tools to deliver an outstanding experience for their internal and external customers. IT ticketing tools help record, manage, and resolve customer issues, user requests, or technical problems. How do IT tickets work? An IT ticketing system centralizes all support tickets and their related information in one unified hub, making the entire process easier to manage. Here is the typical process followed by a service request or user support ticket: Tickets are generated from user requests, created automatically by computer systems, or manually entered by customer support agents. All tickets come into a single consolidated queue, where they're prioritized by urgency and the company's internal rules for ticket resolution. Tickets are assigned to different IT support agents for resolution. Once the IT support agent receives the ticket, an automated receipt notification is sent to the user. The agent performs the activity needed to resolve the request or asks for additional information. They may choose to escalate it if they aren’t able to resolve it at their level. All ticket-related information and records are stored in the ticketing software and can be used for upcoming process improvements and data analysis or to support team performance reviews. Does your company need an IT ticketing tool? If your customer support team struggles with issue management and is overwhelmed by the number and scope of support tickets, installing a ticketing tool makes perfect sense. Your team members are probably handling multiple and diverse external or internal support requests. Introducing a powerful IT ticket system can help streamline their workloads, enhance customer satisfaction, and improve internal work efficiencies. Ticketing system best practices you need to know There's no point in introducing new software if your team cannot measure the results. By setting up important parameters and key performance indicators (KPIs), your IT service desk will be able to resolve customer issues, maintain high satisfaction rates, and meet service-level agreements. Here are the ticketing system best practices to know before you start your search for the best one. Provide self-service options Most customers choose to use knowledge bases over any other kind of customer service option. Encourage self-service for support requests that can be easily resolved. Provide multiple forms of content to help them, including community forums, video tutorials, blog posts, and more. Apart from reducing costs, your team will be able to cut the overall number of support tickets and help customers find answers faster. Add support portals Did you know that more than 71% of customers want to solve their own issues? Creating a simple support portal can provide the tools your customers need to solve problems quickly and review ticket resolution progress. Your chosen IT ticketing software should have a customizable support portal to handle diverse requests and allow customers to upload any additional information easily. Create a superior customer experience According to a 2015 Gartner study, 89% of companies are competing on the quality of the customer experience. With customer experience the new marketing, managing customer requests becomes a business-critical process that can't be taken lightly. Investing in ticketing software that allows your team to support an omnichannel experience, gain consistency in communication, and resolve customer issues across touchpoints could be a wise decision for your company. Robust analytics and reports Leading ticketing system tools support real-time analytics and reports that help you gain visibility into help desk operations. This, in turn, allows you to discover opportunities to improve service outcomes and KPIs. Using Wrike's Ticketing and Help Desk Template, for example, can help your IT organization achieve best practices for ticketing management while eliminating any service requests slipping away unnoticed. Security A secure ticketing system is a must-have. Even if tickets do not contain confidential or customer-sensitive information, you'll need to establish secure networks between browsers and the server using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Getting HIPAA compliance will give you and your customers immense peace of mind and ensure no leakages happen anywhere in the ticket resolution process. Integrations and customization If customers need to include data from other software or programs, having a tool that integrates with your IT help desk workflows will make their experience smoother. Identify if the software can be customized for your organization — this can help you increase your support team's turnaround times. For example, incorporating multi-lingual and translation support can be a wonderful add-on service for customers in diverse countries like Canada or the US. [caption id="attachment_465487" align="alignnone" width="749"] Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash[/caption] What are the benefits of IT ticketing software? Are you still wondering if your organization needs IT ticketing software? Let's evaluate if the benefits of ticketing tools outweigh the costs. Improve team productivity with automation We all know that automating specific tasks or job elements can improve individual productivity. Centralizing all tickets helps keep any additional information (such as screenshots, images, documents, and more) in the same place. Automating routine tasks and having a ticket trail can boost your IT team's productivity and keep all customer processes streamlined. Deliver a superior customer experience US companies face an estimated $62 billion loss each year due to poor customer service. No one wants their organization to be on that list! Many customers require help with multiple issues, but with an organized and centralized IT support system, these problems can be resolved quickly. Resolve and centralize all business issues All organizations have diverse internal and external stakeholders, including investors, customers, vendors, and other third parties. Service level agreements (SLAs) ensure that the company meets business obligations towards these stakeholders. So how do IT ticketing tools help businesses meet SLAs? Setting up SLAs can be a good way to hold your team accountable and ensure they are meeting the expectations noted in the agreements. A simple help desk software can help manage diverse SLAs, gain compliance insights from custom reports, and keep the organization’s relationships thriving. List of IT ticketing tools Managing key performance indicators (KPIs) like resolution time or ticket response time can help optimize the customer experience. Let’s see which IT ticketing tools could be a great fit for your team. Servicenow Reduce software, hardware, and cloud costs with Servicenow, a specialized digital workflow management platform that centralizes IT support workflows to transform your business. Deliver a modern and experiential IT service experience to your customer with secure, automated, and consistent digital operations. Connectwise Quit missing tickets with Connectwise, which lets you create, maintain and operate an efficient helpdesk team. Keep your tech agents busy with smart features, including multi-channel ticketing, mobile access, automated escalations, time entry management, and intelligent dispatching. Jira Service Desk Established in 2013 by Atlassian, Jira Service Desk helps IT support teams reduce manual effort, slash customer wait times, and get more done in their workday. Get various industry-leading features such as an intuitive self-service portal, conversational ticketing, and integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams. SolarWinds Web Help Desk An affordable web help desk solution, SolarWinds is also an asset management software that helps IT teams automate ticketing, develop a centralized knowledge base, integrate with LDAP and Active Directory, and generate custom reports for measuring SLAs. Happy Fox Reduce chaos with Happy Fox's all-in-one helpdesk ticketing system that lets your team get things done faster. Improve your SLA goals and boost your return on investment with Happy Fox's ability to create an actionable self-service knowledge base, efficient support ticket system, and powerful community forums. Features to look out for in an IT ticketing system Not all IT teams are created equal. Since each has diverse needs and ticketing solution requirements, the tools they choose will vary. Even as the urgency and number of incoming tickets differ, the core goal of installing an IT ticketing solution remains the same — to respond to customer queries promptly and effectively. Here are some features that will help them do just that. Incident management Incident management is an issue management process that focuses on restoring company operations as soon as possible by quickly resolving any existential issues. Quite similar to firefighting, incident management involves identifying a problem, diagnosing it, and fixing it immediately. Multi-channel support When more than 80% of organizations deploy an omnichannel customer experience strategy, no one wants their organization to be left behind. Today’s IT project management trends confirm that companies need to be where customers are. The ticketing solution you choose should have the flexibility to create help desk tickets from phone calls, emails, live chat, and social media. You should be able to manage all this from one single intuitive dashboard. Usability and self-service function Ticketing software attributes should include features that improve efficiency, such as automation elements, structured routing of tickets, and provision for simple workflows. User experience for both the agent and the customer should be simple, easy, and intuitive. Adding self-service components can drastically reduce the number of tickets while enabling a quicker resolution. [caption id="attachment_465493" align="alignnone" width="750"] Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash[/caption] Multi-lingual support Does your organization have customers in countries around the world? Why not consider a ticketing solution that has language translation inbuilt? Unique and genuinely customer-focused features like this one will increase your support teams' turnaround times and keep your customers happier. Knowledge base Create a powerful and self-serving knowledge base that lets customers evaluate and resolve more straightforward queries without actually creating a ticket. Include customer FAQs, service and product updates, video tutorials, and blog guides to reduce ticket volume and support costs for the organization. Scalability Every organization grows. When you are debating ticketing solutions, pick one that lets your business scale faster and more effectively. Data storage, number of teams allowed, number of customers managed, and user accounts are just a few features that will help you pinpoint the ticketing software options that best fit your needs. Reports and analytics A powerful reporting and analytics function should be a must-have on your IT ticketing system shopping list. You can match actual performance with predefined SLAs with the availability of real-time data around support agent performance, the number of tickets resolved, and the average time taken to resolve issues. Integrations Modern help desk solutions will give you multiple integration options with existing enterprise applications. With integrations, your team can use powerful data-sharing and automation features and boost the system's overall productivity. How to successfully implement an IT ticketing tool A tool is only as good as its implementation. To implement an IT ticketing tool successfully, make sure to follow the seven steps outlined below. Define your end goals Before you implement ticketing tools, make sure the team knows why you’re doing it in the first place. Setting clear and actionable goals helps employees visualize the direction in which team efforts are directed. Additionally, they stay focused on specific goals such as offering consistent customer support, reducing support costs, or improving service level agreement compliance. Clarify user expectations Ask the right questions to delve deeper into your customers' needs, expectations, or pain points. Do they prefer interacting with a live agent or having self-service options? Did they find the process of registering a ticket simple? Build your support team Delighting your customers is simple. Just make sure that your support team is knowledgeable, appropriately skilled in using the company service/product, and confident in resolving customer queries. Estimate the ideal IT project support team size by quickly reviewing the average number of service queries your team gets in a week and the average resolution time per ticket. Set up an automated workflow Automate as many tasks as possible to boost support team productivity and save time that your IT agents can spend on critical issues. Features like automatic ticket assignment using round robin, sending automated feedback mails, or having predefined SLA rules can be helpful. Create an actionable knowledge base More than 60% of customers prefer a readily available self-service tool that helps them solve their own problems. Knowledge bases are the tool that they most frequently use. To create an actionable knowledge base, ensure it is optimized for mobile and updated regularly, with the most popular content easily accessible. Target predefined KPIs If your organization has an IT helpdesk, you'll need to measure specific metrics to ensure its smooth operation. Identify key parameters that are simple to monitor — these can include user satisfaction, ticket resolution time, and levels of escalation of more complex tickets. Test and implement the IT ticketing tool No IT system can be implemented without testing it multiple times to minimize the risk of problems and ensure that your team is prepared. Before going live, give your team time to explore all features and confirm that they are comfortable using the ticketing tool in their daily workflows. Why use Wrike as your IT ticketing tool? Help your people adapt to changing IT project management and evolving customer needs by giving them a flexible ticketing tool to match their needs. Using Wrike's premade template can help your teams effortlessly organize, manage, and track incoming IT tickets, whether they're coming from internal users or external customers. Empower your teams with real-time work visibility, custom ticket dashboards, and simple automated workflows to set them up for IT ticketing system success. Want to get started? Try a two-week free trial today.
What You Need to Know About Work Order Management
Offices aren’t exempt from needing work done every once in a while. Maybe you’ve needed the printer repaired, made a standard maintenance call such as an air filter replacement, or appliances in the breakroom stopped working suddenly. These are just a few examples of times when a work order — the connecting communication between you as the customer, the work that needs to be completed, and the vendor — comes in handy. We’ve pulled together everything you need to know about work order management and how a work order management system can help your business thrive. What is a work order? A work order (sometimes referred to as a WO) is a document that describes in detail the work between a customer and a contractor. It’s the bridge between a customer’s needs and the work they want to have done to get them from where they are to where they want to be. Contractor work orders are the backbone of service and maintenance industries. Generally speaking, a work order includes a description of the job, with cost estimates that include labor, materials, and other applicable fees. Special instructions or other agreed-upon terms may also be included depending on the type of work, along with customer information for invoicing purposes. These documents are useful in scheduling and assigning work and for managing resources and deploying them to execute the work. You may be most familiar with work orders for maintenance requests — think about when you’ve needed a maintenance service, such as work completed by a mechanic on your car. But work orders come in handy for other industries, especially for facility management, maintenance technician requests, computer services, and ultimately any other work completed by general contractors. Who receives work orders? Once a work order gets created, whether by hand or through an automated system, it gets assigned to a technician or contractor who will be executing the work. The person or team responsible for completing the job receives a work order, accepts it, and then schedules or assigns the job out as needed. Using maintenance requests as an example, a technician generally receives work orders from a maintenance supervisor or manager. This is how work gets assigned to the right people. Once assigned, the technician can prioritize the work order against their current list of requests. In some cases, the work order might not be sent outside of the organization if the request was created internally and is going to be fulfilled by someone with the organization. Think of the IT team as an example. Perhaps an employee needs assistance with their work equipment that the IT department can provide. In this case, your organization should define who should be responsible for receiving work orders and assigning them out. Are there different types of work orders? Not all work orders are the same or serve the same purpose, and there are a few different ways to think about work orders based on the job that needs completing. Let’s break down some of the types of work orders you might encounter based on the need. But keep in mind, work orders can be flexible based on the industry and type of work. Where is the work coming from? Internal work order: The request originated within the organization and will also get assigned to someone within the organization. Your contractor, in this instance, is another direct employee rather than an external contractor. Internal resource planning is key for this type of work order. External work order: The request originated outside of the organization. If the request originated outside of the organization, you may or may not be aware of the issue beforehand. Was the problem planned for? Planned work order: The work was planned for and may deal with preventative maintenance or a recurring schedule of work. Routine maintenance checks in the office, such as testing fire alarms, would appear on planned work orders. Unplanned work order: The work was unexpected or unknown in advance. In these instances, we can think about things like a laptop crashing and needing repairs or replacement. How is the work going to be scheduled? Manual work order: As the title suggests, this type of work order is scheduled manually, often following a work request. This might require making a phone call or reaching out via email to set up a timeframe to complete the work. Automatic work order: These work orders can be automatically scheduled using work order software. If you know when the next work order will need to be planned or collect data that could indicate that it’s time for another work order to be placed, scheduling software can take the manual scheduling off your hands. Free work order template Work orders don’t need to be overly complex. In fact, keeping your work order simple and straightforward is the best way to go. So, what should you include in your work order? Here are the nuts and bolts sections that an effective work order needs. Company contact information: All work orders should include the company name, address, phone number, email address, and other critical contact information. This is especially important if your work order will be sent to an external contractor. Work order number and title: Designate a unique number to assign to the work order. This is key for organizational and reference purposes. You can also add a title for an added layer of description. Key dates: Include all of the dates associated with the work — meaning when the work is expected to start, finish, and space for the actual completion date when the work order is closed out. This helps prevent deadline issues or confusion about when work should be completed by. Priority level: When handling multiple work orders, assigning a priority level can help determine which contractor work orders take precedence over or have dependencies on others. Setting a priority can be helpful for the contractor assigned to the work too. They’ll need to know if your request is urgent, and they should bump your work order to the top of their to-do list. Who is performing the work: Name the assignee, vendor, or internal team member responsible for finishing the job. Job description: Arguably, the most important part of your work order is the description of the job. Lay it all out in this section. Describe the work that needs to be done, requirements needed to complete the job, materials required, and the total cost. Don’t forget to add in labor charges, taxes, and fees. You can also include billing and payment information as you see fit for invoicing purposes. Location-related details: If applicable, include the location where the contractor or vendor should complete the work. Perhaps the work needs to happen in a specific office space, for example. Include the office number to ensure the work occurs in the right place. Work order best practices Work order management can be inefficient and ineffective if the right processes and systems aren’t in place. From how to organize work orders to prioritizing requests accordingly and everything in between — establishing work order best practices ensures you’re setting your team up for ongoing success. Here are some best practices to keep in mind when building out your work order processes in your business. 1. Designate approving authorities for various types of work orders It’s important to identify staff members who can approve work orders and for all team members to have a clear understanding of who the approving authorities are. Especially for contractor work being completed by an outside vendor, having approving authorities in place can help prevent bottlenecks in work not being completed on time. 2. Establish priority definitions for your work orders and categorize them accordingly Work order prioritization helps ensure that any critical issues are taken care of prior to any other work, preventing them from getting lost in a backlog. If your organization handles a lot of internal work orders, prioritizing these requests will also allow you to guide your team’s workload and allow you to better manage your internal resources. 3. Assign tasks to appropriate team members If you’re pushing work orders through your organization and your team is fulfilling requests, be mindful when assigning the work orders out. Learn and know your team’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can use their capabilities to your advantage, making the entire work order process more seamless. 4. Organize all of your work orders for quick reference Once you close your work order, it should be stored with other files in an organized system. Maybe you store your work orders by request type, vendor name, or by month of completion. No matter what method you choose, ensure that all work orders are closed out and stored accordingly. 5. Automate your work orders to reduce human errors and improve efficiencies Managing work orders the old-fashioned way on paper and spreadsheets leaves room for human error and inefficiencies. Centralizing the entire process using work order software or a work order management system helps ensure that your team is highly productive, efficient, and accurate. What to look for in a work order management system Gone are the days of traditional work orders. Written requests on paper are subject to getting lost or misfiled. Spreadsheets can be helpful, but they still require a great deal of manual entry and aren’t always ideal for moving quickly. What’s a work order management system, and how can it help? Put simply, it’s software that can help you organize your work orders and streamline processes for your teams. Known for enhancing operational practices, work order management systems are finding their place within organizations. Research suggests that the work order management systems market is expected to reach $836 million in 2026 as the demand for these systems continues to increase. These systems vary in capability, which means you can choose one that works best for you and your organization. Not sure where to start? Here are a few things to think about when selecting a work order management system. Is the system easy to use? Remember that the purpose of implementing a work order management system is to streamline processes and create efficiencies, which means the system should be user-friendly. You want to manage work orders with a few simple clicks, not a lengthy process that will bog your team down. What information are you looking to house in your work order management system? Clearly define your goals and expectations of the system before you begin your search. Know what your non-negotiables are, such as having the ability to track all work orders, no matter what type. Perhaps you’re looking to run certain kinds of reports. Specific requirements identification will set you on the right track to finding the best system for you and your team. How necessary are customization and flexibility for you and your team? No two organizations manage and organize work orders in the same way, and no two work order management systems are identical either. There are a variety of systems available, and some come with more customization and feature options than others. Consider your short and long-term plans to determine how flexible a system you need to fit your team’s current needs and potential future needs. What’s your budget? Understanding all costs associated with a work order management system will help you determine whether it falls in your budget or not. Learn about the cost to purchase the system, whether there are individual licensing charges, training fees, support costs, and any additional monetary considerations that need to be accounted for. It’s important to know who will be using the system now and how that might grow and affect future costs. Understand the ROI of implementing a system versus manual work to manage the work orders. How to organize your work orders with Wrike For teams that are looking for a work order management software that is flexible and easy-to-use, Wrike is a great option for streamlining and organizing processes. Wrike makes it easy to set up request forms that both internal and external teams can use to submit project or work requests. Those forms are easily customizable so that you can get all of the information you need. The best part? Wrike can automatically create a templatized project from that request form, meaning that you and your team can spend less time understanding the work request or order — and more time working. R
65 Essential Tools for Digital Marketers
Marketers are a busy bunch. Every day they manage a slew of projects, campaigns, and clients, all while coordinating efforts with other teams and immediately reacting to change. The right tools can make a marketer's life a lot easier, but with the overwhelming number of options, where do you start? Take a look at our list of top marketing tools and marketing project management software that will help you build leads, opportunities, and revenue. Inbound & Content Marketing Inbound & content marketers work to attract, nurture, inform, and entertain potential customers to earn their business and loyalty. They examine how today’s consumers make buying decisions and place helpful, interesting content at each stage of that process. Hubspot's inbound marketing platform Up Close & Persona to help generate marketing personas A/B testing tools like Optimizely to analyze and tweak your current inbound strategy Google Analytics to examine where your traffic is coming from and how customers are interacting with your website Content discovery tools like ContentGems, Scoop.it, Triberr, or Trapit Collaboration tools like Wrike for brainstorming, writing, peer editing, and task delegation Online publication tools like Paper.li, Flipboard or Kuratur to organize and distribute your content Disqus to respond to readers who comment on your blog Tools to help recruit and recognize brand advocates, like Influitive Graphics & Multimedia Did you know that YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network? As the content landscape grows increasingly crowded, more marketers are turning to engaging visuals and videos to grab customers' fleeting attention and stand out from the competition. Video platforms like Brightcove or Vidyard Webinar platform like GoToMeeting or BrightTALK Piktochart to create infographics Canva to make instant graphics for web or print Slideshare, List.ly, YouTube, and Pinterest accounts for distributing and curating content AdWords for Video and YouTube TrueView for creating video ads Search Engine Marketing & SEO Search engine marketers increase a site’s visibility in search results pages, either through search engine optimization (SEO) or paid advertising. SEO experts determine the top keywords that people are searching for about your topic or market and then include those keywords in strategic spots on the website and blog. Google Keyword Planner to find top keywords, as well as long-tail and niche keywords Yahoo Search Marketing or Bing Ads to post ads on search results pages, blogs and websites Optimization, reporting and link building tools like Moz, Raven SEO Tools or SEMRush Social Media Marketing & Social Advertising Social media networks help marketers increase brand awareness, engage with customers, and direct traffic to the company website. Marketers package and post updates readers will want to share, manage online communities, and run paid advertising campaigns to reach new customers. Social media accounts or pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. for sharing internal and curated content Sprout, Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule social media posts, determine the best times to publish, and discover the most popular types of posts Followerwonk breaks down followers into specific demographics Mention and Social Mention track where brands — or certain keywords — get mentioned across the web, including social media sites, discussion forums, and blogs NinjaOutreach identifies influencers based on keyword. Filter by tags to find bloggers, influencers, and companies to refine your search Sprinklr or SocialBakers analytics tools to determine click-through rates, cost-per-click, and overall reach and engagement Viral Content Buzz account to share stories that interest you, and earn tweets and likes on your own content Mobile Marketing Mobile is overtaking desktop internet usage, as more customers are defaulting to digesting content on smartphones and tablets. And because people carry their devices with them, marketers can send personalized messages directly to them via SMS, push notifications, in-app ads, QR codes, and more. Digital Advertising Alliance Principles to check opt-in and privacy guidelines MailChimp Mobile to manage your MailChimp email campaigns while on the go Mogreet Express or Textus.biz to exchange SMS messages with customers Mobile ad creation and distribution tools, like Huzzah Media and Adagogo Location-specific mobile marketing tools like MobSav and Thumbvista Mobile app creation and testing tools, like BuildFire and TestFlight Email Marketing & Marketing Automation 82% of consumers open marketing emails, and 66% of them have made a purchase as a direct result of an email. In order to attain that success, email marketers must send helpful, relevant messages to recipients and respect customers’ inboxes by not sending spammy emails. AWeber, MailChimp and Constant Contact are popular tools to manage email marketing Hubspot, Marketo, ExactTarget, Eloqua, and Customer.io are marketing automation tools to help with email campaigns as well as other marketing channels MailChimp's subject line suggestion tool to refine your all-important subject line copy Email Spam Test checks to make sure messages are compliant with applicable SPAM laws See how the email looks on various clients and devices with Litmus The marketing landscape is constantly shifting as new strategies and tools arise. Stay ahead of the curve with these 6 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch.
How to Choose the Best Project Management Software for Your Company
The best project management software for small businesses should include a few key features. Find out some core capabilities you’ll need whether you’re looking for project management software for startups or another type of organization.