Marketing departments are made up of various teams: email, content, PR, product, etc. Though each is charged with different tasks, they all have something in common: they must manage projects and deliver work on time.
How do most marketing teams do this? They follow the progress of projects and make sure work is delivered on time using scary-complicated spreadsheets, and sharing updates by email. And shared assets? Fuhgettaboutit. These live all over the place, in multiple programs and on different devices.
It means one thing: the information marketers need to do their jobs is scattered. This leads to roadblocks, bottlenecks, and _____ (insert marketing cliche here.) In a word, delays.
What if marketing teams had a better method? A single source of truth? (That’s more marketing speak but, really, what if?) What if each marketing team had a tool that helped manage projects by keeping all information in one place so that everyone had visibility into the progress of each task, including access to all assets?
Jira Core – built with non-tech teams in mind
Right away, you can use Jira Core to track work. Try a simple workflow with steps from “to-do,” “in progress,” to “done.” Then start enhancing your workflow with more specifics of your process, and add your team’s tasks. You can keep track of the status of a blog, for example, or email requests, the development of a piece of collateral, a press releases – you name it. Every needed step until done. Add necessary information and everything exists in one place.
In the workflow below, when the marketer is finished with their draft of the blog, they can move the task to “under review” for a manager to approve or reject.
Below is another workflow example. Remember, workflows can be customized to show more specific steps that pertain to each marketing team. This workflow showcases the steps for publishing a blog. Check out the added step to the process, “Add Web Tasks.” This is a way to add analytic tags and make sure the blog receives SEO treatment.
Below is an example of fields that your blog team may want to include in their task details so they know what the goals are, who the target audience is, and when the blog needs to be published. Other marketing teams may want to add their own fields, such as specifications for graphics, video or a URL for the landing page.
How specific marketing teams can manage their projects with Jira Core
5 examples of how marketing teams can track work in Jira Core
1. Email marketing
It’s the email marketer’s job to ensure that the messages sent to your inbox are relevant to you. These teams can use Jira Core to gather the information needed to manage their email pipeline and ensure that the messages, like new feature announcements, are sent to the right audience. For example, if 3 marketers want an email sent in the same week, the email team can review the requests and (using information provided in the Jira Core task details) segment customers and make sure each customer receives 1 email – the one that’s relevant to them.
2. Social media
Have one account but multiple marketers, products, and topics to address? Tracking these with email is a nightmare. In Jira Core, social media teams can track and analyze these requests by looking at the task details. With the post information in one place, they can fact check the post, check the date and social channel pipeline before it goes through the workflow for approval and posted.
3. Product marketing
Managing a feature or product launch requires a lot of coordination with various teams and getting the timing right. Jira Core can help product marketing teams track people, tasks, and statuses so launches happen on time. With everything related to a project in Jira Core, PMs always have a pulse on updates, collateral, videos, screenshots… all the details that require approval, QA, and review before the launch date.
4. Creative
Creative briefs and deadlines drive creative teams. They need to know what graphic, .gif, or video to create. Using Jira Core to manage the multitude of creative marketing projects lets teams gather the pertinent information – guidelines, spec requirements and feedback – in one place to make sure what’s delivered is what was asked for. In addition, review cycles are easier to manage with status signs like “In progress,” “Under review” and “Rejected.”
5. Content and PR
Words are a marketer’s best friend. Whether a blog, brochure, presentation, or press release, getting the right message to the right audience is the name of the game. When the PR team is managing the spread of a company’s message, it requires building great relationships with media channels and analysts. And when a company must deliver a compelling story, it requires the feedback of subject matter experts. By tracking the press release drafting process in Jira Core, you can rest assured the right people see the work and approvals are done in a timely manner.
These are just a few examples of how various marketing teams can track work and manage their projects in Jira Core. How you set up Jira Core for your various marketing teams is up to you.