Is Asana a Good Project Management Tool for Marketing Agencies?

Asana is one of the most popular project management tools available, with many companies swearing by its broad range of features.

But does it meet the needs of a marketing agency? And is it worth the investment? See the answers to these questions below before signing up for Asana.

Asana’s Project Management for Marketing Agencies

The Pros

Asana is a resourceful project management tool, allowing you to create and assign tasks, organize them per goal, and set deadlines. Once you set up a project, you can follow it through three different views on the top menu: Board, Calendar, or Timeline view (though the latter only becomes available after signing up for the Premium plan).

You can also see files related to the project by opening a tab in the top menu of your project. You can integrate Asana with GDrive, Box, Dropbox, and One Drive. This same top tab gives access to a project chat and reports. Reports are basic with the free version, but you can have better insights with the paid plans.

project management for marketing agencies

Another interesting feature makes your projects more flexible is the ability to turn a single task into a project, and create subtasks within an existing task. This can be useful if the job takes a different turn, e.g. if your client makes a new request.

The Cons

Many project managers complain that it takes a while to learn how to use Asana. And on-boarding support is available only with the Business plan. So, if you choose this project management tool, don’t depend on it until you have taken the time to understand it and train your team.

Asana also defines projects as a series of tasks, which is great for day-to-day task management but limits the amount of information you can track within Asana. For marketing agencies that are constantly managing a large amount of small, repetitive projects, it can be hard to get the big picture—not to mention scale your production.

It also doesn’t come with a feature to track invoices or expenses and link both to your projects. Neither allows you to connect your projects to their respective clients. As a marketing agency, these functionalities would be crucial to making your management more efficient.

project management for marketing agencies

Many of the features mentioned here are restricted to paid plans: Premium, Business, and Enterprise. Meaning that companies with larger budgets are the ones with access to the full package and its valuable features, such as custom field and advanced search reports.

The Verdict

Asana is a great project management tool, but it won’t give you everything your marketing agency needs. The lack of scalability makes it difficult for many agencies to continue to use Asana while they continue to grow, especially given that many of its features are more suitable for small agencies only.

Before adding a new fixed cost to your budget, you need to be sure of the cost-benefit. But you can’t be sure about Asana until you have tested all features, which isn’t possible with the free plan.

project management for marketing agencies

You can choose to go for a free trial, but then you need enough projects at hand and time to test out Asana features within 30 days—two things you probably don’t have the luxury to spare.

The Best Alternative

A more suitable solution for marketing agencies is Gryffin. This project management tool doesn’t charge you more just because you want to access certain features. You get the full package even with the free version.

With Gryffin, each project has a hub where you can see your files, emails, chats, calendars, milestones, invoices, and expenses—all at a glance! And to avoid the need for a learning curve, you can upload a template and use the drag-and-drop functionality to customize it. You will be ready to start within minutes.

Gryffin’s email integration is far superior to Asana’s. You can compose, send, or attach emails to your projects directly from your project hub. On the same screen, you will see what emails have been sent, when, and by whom. Files can also be shared, attached, or connected to Google Docs at the same place.

It’s also suitable for agencies of all sizes. Gryffin utilizes a project hierarchy that allows you to group together different types of projects so you can get a clear overview of your scope of work, and quickly scale your operations. Large agencies can track large-scale operations, while small companies can start on Gryffin without worrying that one day they will outgrow the platform and have to start from scratch on a new one. Gryffin will be with you from day one.

project management for marketing agencies

To save more of your time, you can automate workflows, check pending tasks at a glance and in real time, and add unlimited projects within your workspaces. Your team can work on more than one project simultaneously, and you can attach projects to their respective clients.

All the above make Gryffin a better option to marketing agencies compared to Asana. And it won’t cost you anything to give it a try — learn more today!