Boost Your Content Strategy: The Ultimate Guide to Top Content Marketing Tools in 2023

content marketing tools

If you’re a content marketer looking to up your game, you’re in luck because in this article, we’ve compiled a big list of the best content marketing tools out there … so you can crush your goals and take your content strategy to the next level!

To help with that endeavor, we’re going to take a deep dive into the top content marketing tools available today, organized by type. We’ll cover everything from all-in-one platforms to SEO tools, project management software, and more.

Whether you’re a one-person operation or part of a large marketing team, there’s something here for everyone. So, buckle up and get ready to discover the tools that will transform your content marketing game!

But first, let’s take a quick look at why these tools are such game-changers for content teams …

The Value of Content Marketing Tools in Today's Digital World

The Value of Content Marketing Tools in Today’s Digital World

In today’s fast-paced world, content marketing has become more important than ever. As consumers increasingly rely on the internet for information, entertainment, and decision-making, businesses must provide valuable, engaging content to capture their audience’s attention.

High-quality content not only helps you build trust with your target market but also enables you to position your brand as an industry leader, driving traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, increasing conversions.

The challenges of managing content without the right tools

Managing a successful content marketing strategy can be a daunting task, especially without the right tools in place. Content marketing teams often juggle multiple projects, platforms, and deadlines simultaneously, leading to disorganization and inefficiency.

Some common challenges include:

  • Collaboration and communication: Coordinating with team members, stakeholders, and external collaborators can become a messy and disjointed process, resulting in miscommunication and missed deadlines.
  • Content planning and organization: Developing a consistent content calendar and keeping track of various content types, such as blog posts, social media updates, and email campaigns, can be time-consuming and confusing without a centralized management system.
  • Performance tracking and analytics: Manually monitoring the performance of your content across multiple channels and platforms can be tedious and may result in overlooking critical insights that could help optimize your strategy.
  • Resource allocation: Juggling multiple content projects may lead to the inefficient use of resources, including team members’ time, talent, and even budget allocations.

How content marketing tools can streamline your strategy and boost success

Investing in the right content marketing tools can significantly streamline your strategy, helping you overcome the challenges mentioned above and ultimately, drive better results.

Here’s how:

  • Improved organization and planning: Content marketing tools help centralize your content calendar, making it easier to plan, schedule, and manage various content types across different channels and platforms.
  • Enhanced collaboration and communication: These tools facilitate seamless collaboration and communication among team members, allowing you to efficiently assign tasks, share feedback, and track progress, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.
  • Data-driven decision-making: With built-in performance tracking and analytics, content marketing tools allow you to monitor the success of your content and make informed decisions to optimize your strategy.
  • Resource optimization: By streamlining your content marketing processes, these tools help you make the most of your time, talent, and budget – ensuring that every effort contributes to the overall success of your strategy.

Best Content Marketing Tools

Best Content Marketing Tools – Free and Paid

From all-in-one marketing platforms to social media management tools, email marketing software to SEO analysis platforms, there’s a content marketing tool for every need!

Even better, most of the tools on the market have multiple pricing tiers, so you’re bound to find one that suits your budget and requirements.

In this guide, we’ve listed the lowest cost for each tool to provide you with a starting point. However, we encourage you to explore the various pricing options and features available to find the plan that best meets your needs.

All-In-One Content Marketing Tools

1. HubSpot: The All-In-One Marketing Powerhouse

HubSpot is the Swiss Army knife of marketing platforms, with everything you need to create, manage, and measure your content marketing efforts.

Even better, the platform has a user-friendly content management system (CMS) that makes it easy to publish high-quality content on your website – no coding experience required!

Plus, with features like lead generation, social media management, email marketing, and analytics, HubSpot helps you manage every aspect of your content strategy in one place.

Pricing: Free plan available

2. CoSchedule: Streamline Your Content Marketing Calendar

If you’re in search of an effective solution to streamline your content marketing efforts, CoSchedule is definitely worth a look.

This all-in-one marketing calendar makes it easy to organize, plan, and manage all your various marketing channels in one convenient location. For example, you can use CoSchedule to manage your social media, email, and blog content.

One of CoSchedule’s key strengths is its collaboration capabilities, which enable your team to work together smoothly, exchange feedback, and assign tasks in real-time. It also offers data-driven insights that can help you evaluate the performance of your marketing campaigns and make informed decisions.

Pricing: Free plan available

3. ClearVoice: High Quality Content Creation Made Simple

ClearVoice is a comprehensive content creation platform designed to help you produce high-quality, engaging content. It simplifies the entire content creation process, from brainstorming to publication, making content management a breeze.

What sets ClearVoice apart is its marketplace feature, where you can connect with skilled freelance writers, editors, and designers to collaborate on creating the ideal content for your needs.

Moreover, ClearVoice’s workflow management tools streamline your content creation process, enabling you to produce top-notch content more efficiently. Given these benefits, ClearVoice is a solid option for content teams looking to optimize their workflow.

Pricing: Starts at $99/month

SEO Content Marketing Tools

4. SEMrush: Comprehensive SEO & Marketing Analysis

SEMrush is a powerful all-in-one marketing toolkit designed to help you optimize your company’s online presence.

With SEMrush, you can conduct in-depth SEO research, track your website’s performance, and analyze your competitors’ strategies.

Additionally, SEMrush can be used for keyword research, site audits, backlink analysis, and social media management.

Pricing: $119.95/month billed monthly or $99.95/month if billed annually

5. Ahrefs: In-Depth Insights & Competitor Analysis

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset that can help you improve your company’s online visibility by providing in-depth insights into your competitors’ strategies.

With Ahrefs, you can conduct keyword research, track backlinks, analyze content performance, and monitor your website’s search engine ranking.

Ahrefs also offers a wide range of features, including site audit, content explorer, and site explorer, making it a one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs.

Pricing: $99/month billed monthly or $83/month if billed annually

Email Marketing Tools

6. Mailchimp: Optimize Email Campaigns for Maximum Impact

Mailchimp is the go-to email marketing tool if you’re looking to create engaging email campaigns that resonate with your audience.

With a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, you can create professional-looking emails in minutes with Mailchimp, complete with personalized messaging and eye-catching graphics.

But Mailchimp is more than just an email marketing tool. It also offers a suite of helpful features like advanced analytics and A/B testing, as well as social media management, landing pages, and audience insights to help you grow your business.

Pricing: Free plan available

7. ConvertKit: Streamlined Email Marketing Tailored for Creators

ConvertKit is the ideal email marketing tool for creators seeking to build meaningful connections with their audience.

Emphasizing automation and personalization, ConvertKit lets you segment your audience based on their interests and behavior, ensuring you send targeted emails that truly resonate.

Additionally, ConvertKit provides robust features like landing pages, forms, and seamless integrations with your preferred tools, simplifying the creation of a comprehensive marketing workflow.

Even better, ConvertKit makes it a breeze to craft visually appealing emails and landing pages — no coding expertise required!

Pricing: Free plan available

Project Management Tools

Project Management Tools

8. Teamly: Enhance Productivity & Streamline Task Management

Teamly is our go-to task management tool for content teams that want to manage their workflows more efficiently, while improving productivity.

With its user-friendly interface and robust collaboration features, Teamly makes it a breeze to manage tasks, monitor progress, and work together as a team in a unified space.

Beyond being a mere to-do list, Teamly also provides cool features like Kanban boards, project templates, and time tracking, offering content teams the flexibility to tailor their workflow and stay on top of tasks.

Additionally, Teamly’s video screen recording feature makes it simple to give feedback on content drafts or collaborate on creative projects remotely.

Suitable for small blogs and large content agencies alike, Teamly equips you with everything your content team needs to manage tasks and deliver high-quality results efficiently.

Pricing: Free plan available

9. Asana: Adaptable Project Management for Team Collaboration

Asana is a top-notch project management tool designed for teams that want to optimize their workflows and boost productivity. Its user-friendly interface and potent collaboration features enable easy task assignment, deadline setting, and progress tracking in a single location.

Asana also provides advanced features like project templates, timelines, and workload management, allowing you to customize your workflow and adjust to shifting priorities. Its seamless integration with many popular tools ensures your team remains connected and focused on the tasks at hand.

Pricing: Free plan available

Social Media Content Tools

10. Hootsuite: Social Media Management & Scheduling

Hootsuite is ideal for content marketing teams looking to streamline their social media strategy and maximize their engagement.

With its user-friendly interface and advanced scheduling features, Hootsuite makes it easy to manage multiple social media accounts and publish high-quality content consistently.

Additionally, Hootsuite offers powerful features like content curation, social listening, and analytics, giving content marketing teams the flexibility to customize their social media strategy and stay ahead of the competition.

Pricing: Free 30-day trial, then $99/month

11. Sprout Social: In-Depth Social Media Analytics & Strategy Optimization

Sprout Social is the ultimate social media analytics tool for content marketing teams looking to measure the effectiveness of their social media strategy and optimize their content marketing efforts.

With its comprehensive reporting features and advanced analytics, Sprout Social makes it easy to track your social media performance and identify opportunities for growth.

But Sprout Social is more than just an analytics tool. It also offers features like social listening, audience insights, and message tagging, giving content marketing teams the flexibility to customize their social media strategy and engage with their audience effectively.

Pricing: Free trial, then $249/month

Content Creation and Optimization Tools

Content Creation and Optimization Tools

12. BuzzSumo: Uncover Top-Performing Content & Gain Industry Insights 

BuzzSumo is a content discovery and analysis tool that helps marketers identify top-performing content in their industry. It enables businesses to find popular topics and influencers, analyze competitors’ content strategies, and track social media shares.

With BuzzSumo, you can quickly find out which types of content are resonating with your audience, so you can create and optimize your own content accordingly.

Pricing: Free trial, then $119/month billed monthly or $95/month if billed annually

13. Articus.ai: Design Eye-Catching Visuals with Ease

Articus.ai is a graphic design tool that helps businesses create professional-looking designs without any prior tech or design experience.
To do that, Articus offers a huge library of premium stock photos, illustrations, and icons.

Plus, with its drag-and-drop interface and customizable templates, users can easily create graphics for blogs, social media posts, YouTube thumbnails, infographics, and more.

However, its real stand-out feature is an AI-powered image creator. By simply describing the image you want, Articius can generate a custom, eye-catching visual for you … making this tool a real no-brainer for content teams.

Pricing: $49/month billed monthly or $41/month if billed annually

14. Grammarly: Enhance Writing Quality with AI-Powered Assistance

Grammarly is a writing tool that helps users improve their writing skills by checking for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style errors.

It can be used as a browser extension or as a stand-alone application, making it easy to proofread any type of content.

With its AI-powered suggestions and personalized feedback, Grammarly can help businesses create more polished and professional content.

Pricing: Free plan available

15. Hemingway Editor: Streamline Writing for Improved Readability

Hemingway is a writing tool that helps users simplify their writing and make it more readable.

It analyzes the user’s text and highlights complex sentences, adverbs, and passive voice, making it easy to improve the clarity and readability of the content.

Hemingway also provides a readability score, so users can quickly see how easy their content is to understand.

Pricing: One-time payment of $19.99 for the desktop app

16. SurferSEO – Optimize Your Content for Maximum Search Visibility

SurferSEO is an AI-driven content optimization tool that helps marketers create content that ranks higher in search engines.

By analyzing the top-performing pages for a given keyword, SurferSEO provides data-driven recommendations for keyword usage, content structure, and other on-page factors.

With its easy-to-use editor and real-time feedback, you can optimize your content as you write, ensuring it’s both engaging for readers and well-positioned for search engine visibility.

Pricing: $49/month

17. Lumen5 – Create Engaging Video Content with Ease

Lumen5 is a video creation platform designed to help marketers produce captivating video content that resonates with their audience — no tech skills required!

With its AI-powered technology, Lumen5 can automatically transform your blog posts or articles into professional-quality videos. Even better, you can customize your videos with a vast library of stock footage, images, and music, or upload your own assets.

Pricing: $29/month billed monthly or $19/month if billed annually

Analytics and Tracking Tools

Analytics and Tracking Tools

18. Google Analytics: Monitor Website Traffic & User Engagement

Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that helps businesses track website traffic and user behavior.

It provides detailed insights into website visitors, including demographics, traffic sources, and engagement metrics.

With Google Analytics, businesses can easily track their website’s performance and make data-driven decisions to improve their online presence.

Pricing: Free plan available

19. Hotjar: Gain Insights into User Interactions & Optimize Websites

Hotjar is a user behavior analytics tool that helps businesses understand how users interact with their website.

It provides heatmaps, click maps, and scroll maps, allowing businesses to see how users engage with their content.

Hotjar also offers feedback polls and surveys, so businesses can collect valuable feedback from their users and improve their website accordingly.

Pricing: Free plan available

20. Parse.ly: Optimize Content Marketing with Data-Driven Insights

Parse.ly is an analytics platform specifically designed for content marketing.

It provides valuable insights into content performance, helping content teams understand which topics, formats, and distribution channels resonate best with their audience.

With Parse.ly, you can track metrics like page views, engaged time, social shares, and conversions, enabling you to make data-driven decisions to optimize your content marketing strategy.

Pricing: Starting from $12,000/year

Content Curation Tools

Content Curation Tools

21. Pocket: Curate & Organize Relevant Content

Pocket is a content curation tool that allows users to save articles, videos, and web pages to read later.

It enables businesses to collect and organize relevant content in one place, so they can stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and news.

With its user-friendly interface and offline reading mode, Pocket is a useful tool for content creators who need to stay informed and inspired.

Pricing: Free plan available

22. Feedly: Aggregate Custom Content Feeds & Collaborate

Feedly is a powerful RSS feed reader that allows you to aggregate content from all over the web into one central location. This is particularly useful for content marketers who need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and news in their industry.

With Feedly, you can create custom feeds based on keywords, topics, or specific websites, so you never miss a beat.

Feedly also has collaboration features that make it easy for content teams to collaborate on content discovery and curation.

Pricing: $8/month billed monthly or $6/month if billed annually

23. Quuu – Discover & Share High-Quality Curated Content

Quuu is a content curation platform that provides handpicked, high-quality content suggestions tailored to your industry and audience.

By connecting Quuu to your social media management tool, you can automatically share relevant articles, videos, and images with your followers, saving time and keeping your social media presence fresh.

Quuu also offers a feature that lets you collaborate with your team to curate, review, and approve content before it’s shared.

Pricing: Free plan available

Collaboration and File Management Tools

24. Google Drive: Collaborative Cloud Storage & File Management

No top content marketing tools list would be complete without Google Drive! For the uninitiated, Google Drive is a cloud-based storage and collaboration platform that allows you to store and share files with your team.

It’s an essential tool for content marketers who need to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and other files.

With Google Drive, you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real-time, making it easy to collaborate with team members in different locations. You can also share files with specific team members or groups, set permissions for editing or viewing, and access your files from anywhere.

In addition, Google Drive integrates seamlessly with other Google tools, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, making it easy to manage all your work in one place.

Pricing: Free plan available

25. Evernote: Organize Ideas & Enhance Team Brainstorming

Evernote is a powerful note-taking and idea organization tool that can transform the way you plan and brainstorm for future content.

It provides a central hub where you can store your thoughts and ideas, giving your entire team easy access and the ability to collaborate seamlessly.

With Evernote, you’ll never lose track of your creative sparks, and you’ll be able to work together more efficiently to turn those ideas into engaging content.

Pricing: Free plan available

How to Choose the Right Content Marketing Tool for Your Needs

How to Choose the Right Content Marketing Tool for Your Needs

Choosing the right content marketing tool can make or break your strategy. But with so many options out there, it can be overwhelming to make a decision. Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a content marketing tool.

Identifying your content marketing goals and objectives

Before you start searching for a content marketing tool, you need to identify your goals and objectives. Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your content marketing strategy.

Do you want to increase website traffic, generate more leads, or build brand awareness? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals and objectives, you can narrow down your search to tools that can help you achieve them.

Evaluating the tool’s ease of use and learning curve

The last thing you want is to spend hours learning how to use a new tool. That’s why it’s important to evaluate the tool’s ease of use and learning curve.

Opt for tools that are user-friendly and intuitive, and offer resources like tutorials and customer support to help you get started.

Assessing integration capabilities with other software

If you’re already using other software or tools, it’s important to choose a content marketing tool that can integrate with them. This will help streamline your workflow and avoid the need to switch between multiple platforms.

Look for tools that offer integrations with other popular software like social media management tools, email marketing platforms, and project management software.

Considering your budget and pricing models

Content marketing tools can range from free to hundreds of dollars per month. When choosing a tool, consider your budget and the pricing model of the tool.

Some tools offer free plans with limited features, while others offer paid plans with more advanced features. Make sure to choose a tool that fits within your budget and offers the features you need.

Teamly

How Teamly Can Support Your Content Marketing Strategy

As we mentioned, Teamly is our powerful remote team management tool that can help content teams streamline communication, maximize productivity, and stay on top of deadlines.

Here are just some of the ways Teamly can support your content marketing strategy.

Streamlining communication with team chat and file sharing

Teamly offers real-time team chat and file sharing, making it easy to collaborate with team members and keep everyone on the same page. With Teamly, you can easily share files, brainstorm ideas, and get feedback from your team members.

Maximizing productivity with time management and employee monitoring

Teamly offers time management and employee monitoring tools, making it easy to track team productivity and identify areas where your team can improve. With Teamly, you can set deadlines, track progress, and ensure that everyone is working efficiently.

For more information about how Teamly can help your content team, visit Teamly.com.

Conclusion: Elevate Your Content Marketing Strategy with the Right Tools

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve explored the value of content marketing tools in today’s digital landscape and showcased the top tools available to help elevate your content marketing strategy.

By leveraging these tools, you’ll be able to streamline your workflow, enhance collaboration, make data-driven decisions, and optimize your resources, ultimately leading to better results and greater success.

Remember that selecting the right content marketing tools is crucial for maximizing your efforts. Carefully consider your unique needs and goals, as well as the specific challenges you face in your content marketing journey, to identify the best tools to support your strategy.

And don’t forget that Teamly can be a valuable ally, offering powerful features to help you manage content tasks and boost productivity.

Now, it’s time to take action. Equip yourself with the right tools and watch your content marketing strategy thrive, setting your brand apart in the ever-evolving digital world!

The Top 19 B2B Marketing Tools to Delight and Convert Your Audience

b2b marketing tools

Repetitive tasks eating up your time? Struggling to engage your audience effectively? Feeling overwhelmed with the challenges of B2B marketing?

Even in the face of these problems, there is a solution that can transform your marketing efforts and drive exceptional results.

Introducing the power of B2B marketing tools. With these smart tools, you can improve your processes, captivate your audience, and achieve your goals like never before.

In this blog post, you’ll get the top marketing tools for B2B classified into seven important categories. From automation software to team collaboration platforms, every marketer will find the right fit on this list.

Marketing Automation

Looking for ways to boost your marketing campaigns? Start using B2B marketing automation tools today. These tools offer robust CRM capabilities, advanced email functionalities, and personalized customer journeys. Below are the top tools that’ll help you scale your business.

1. HubSpot’s Marketing Hub

HubSpot’s Marketing Hub

Designed for businesses of every size, HubSpot’ Marketing software helps to manage your contacts and track your leads. You can also create landing pages, social media ads, and email campaigns. Plus, the reporting tools will give rich insights into what works and what doesn’t.

What’s more, HubSpot provides a user-friendly interface and powerful automation features. Without them, it would be hard to make your marketing processes efficient and attract paying customers. So, use HubSpot to attract, engage, and delight your B2B audience for the best business results.

Pricing

Here’s the pricing breakdown for HubSpot’s Marketing Hub. The Starter plan is $45/month, while the Professional plan is $800/month. An Enterprise plan is offered at $3,600/month. By the way, HubSpot offers a free plan that covers basic CRM needs, making it a great option for startups or small businesses.

2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Suite

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Suite

If you’re seeking powerful B2B internet marketing tools, look no further than Salesforce. As a leading CRM platform, Salesforce offers a range of features that are invaluable for B2B marketers. It gives them what they need most – the ability to better define and understand their customers. Use this tool to track leads, manage customer data, and analyze your sales process.

With Salesforce, you’ll open new channels for reaching your customers. It allows you to automate processes and find effective messages using the power of data and AI.

In short, Salesforce empowers marketers to build strong relationships with their customers. And that’s where business growth starts!

Pricing

The pricing will depend on which marketing product you choose. They offer three products: Marketing Cloud Personalization, Engagement and Account Engagement. They cost $100,000 org/year, $1,250 org/month, and $1250/month (for up to 10,000 contacts), respectively. Given the price range, Salesforce is better suited for larger businesses with more complex CRM needs.

3. ActiveCampaign for Marketing

ActiveCampaign for Marketing

What if you could segment your customers, understand the value of each lead, and send effective emails? ActiveCampaign is a user-friendly marketing automation tool that covers all this.

You can automate your workflow and engage your B2B audience effectively. ActiveCampaign will help you discover the triggers, such as website interactions or email opens. Then, you’ll be able to send targeted messages and build meaningful connections.

It may take a little time to get the hang of the initial settings. But once you do, it becomes intuitive and simple to use. The dashboard is well-organized and easy to navigate, making your marketing efforts a breeze.

Pricing

They offer three plans: Plus, Professional, and Enterprise. The Plus plan is the right fit if you’re a small team ($49/mo for 3 users). For 5 users (the Professional plan), it’s $149/mo. And you should contact ActiveCampaign’s team to get the quote for the Enterprise plan.

B2B Marketing Tools for Market research

Now, how to gather valuable insights and understand your B2B audience better? Here’s when market research tools come into play. They help to understand your marketing environment and pick the best strategies. Introducing two popular tools in this category:

4. Typeform

Typeform

With Typeform, you can design simple yet beautiful surveys and collect feedback from your B2B audience. It’s a user-friendly survey and questionnaire tool. Besides being interactive, it can include multiple-choice questions, dropdown menus, and rating scales.

Typeform allows you to collect more data. And it ensures the data is useful and actionable. How? You can embed forms on webpages, emails and more to ask the right questions at the right time.

Pricing

Aside from the Free plan, Typeform also offers the Basic, Plus, Business, and Enterprise plans. The Basic starts at $25/mo if billed annually.

5. Startquestion

Startquestion

Meet Startquestion – another market research platform that offers survey solutions for businesses. It has pre-designed survey templates and advanced survey logic so that you ask only the necessary questions.

What’s more, Startquestion allows you to create surveys specifically for your market research needs. For example, you can build quizzes, assign points to each answer, and set a time limit for completing a knowledge test. Once you collect responses, you can analyze the data and make informed decisions.

Pricing

You can enjoy a free 14-day trial. After that, get started with one of the paid options: Start, Business, Team, or Enterprise. The Start plan begins at $49/mo. For simple and quick research, a Free plan is also available.

Content marketing

B2B content marketing tools are perfect for creating high-performing content. Plus, they help you improve your online visibility and better understand what content your audience loves. Consider these popular software in this category:

6. Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that helps you analyze website traffic and user behavior. For example, it provides valuable insights into how visitors find and interact with your content. You can track metrics like page views, bounce rates, and conversion rates. This, in turn, helps you optimize and improve your marketing efforts.

Pricing

Google Analytics offers both free and paid versions to track website metrics. The free version provides essential analytics for small and medium-sized businesses. The paid plan, on the other hand, offers advanced features at a cost of $150,000 per year or $12,500 per month.

7. SEMrush

SEMrush

Among the tools for B2B marketing, SEMrush is one of the most comprehensive platforms. While Google Analytics is great for understanding user behavior on your own website, SEMrush takes it a step further. It not only helps you analyze your own site but also provides valuable insights into your competitors’ websites. You can compare strengths and weaknesses, track results, and create customized reports.

But there is more. SEMrush’s SEO tools allow you to improve your website’s visibility and backlinks. Last but not least, you can optimize your content for search engines and discover new content ideas.

Pricing

You can try SEMrush for free. But the paid plans (Pro, Guru, and Business) start at $129.95 per month. The prices depend on the number of projects, keywords to track and results you get per project.

8. Rebrandly

Rebrandly

If you want to take your game to the next level, Rebrandly is the tool for you. It’s a link management platform that allows you to create branded links for your content. And this means short URLs that are sleek, clean, and oh-so-manageable!

In the world of character limits, like social media posts, these shorter links shine brighter. They catch the user’s eye and look more appealing, which means one thing – higher conversion and click-through rates. Plus, they’re easier to remember and type manually if needed. Well, who doesn’t love simplicity?

Pricing

If you want to get started for free, they have a Free plan for 25 branded links/month. After that, Lite, Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise plans are available. They start at $13/mo for 250 branded links and 1 custom domain name.

Email marketing

Wanna create and send targeted email campaigns? B2B email marketing tools help you do just that!

Create and optimize engaging email campaigns for your B2B audience. What’s more, design visually appealing emails, segment your audience, and track email performance.

9. Intuit Mailchimp

Intuit Mailchimp

One of the top performers in the field, Intuit Mailchimp is a widely-used email marketing platform. B2B marketers love it because it provides user-friendly email editors and customizable templates. With Intuit Mailchimp, you can create emails, manage your subscriber lists, and track the success of your campaigns. If you need a trusted assistant to help you drive results, look no further.

Pricing

The Premium plan comes at $87.50/mo if paid for 12 months, while the Standard starts at $5/mo. Aside from the paid plans, a Free option is also available to help you create email campaigns.

10. Constant Contact

Constant Contact

Running a small business? Constant Contact has all the B2B marketing tools you need. It’s easy to use, includes a variety of templates and can help you automate your processes. Constant Contact allows you to build high-performing email lists that hit inboxes without fail. Whether it’s through email, e-commerce, SMS, or social media, this suite of tools helps small businesses to grow.

Pricing

As you start, you can use the Lite version of Constant Contact starting at $12/mo. Then, you can choose between the Standard and Premium options, which cost $35/mo and $80/mo, respectively.

11. MailerLite

MailerLite

With its simple user interface, MailerLite is a top choice for many small businesses and startups. Once you have the tool, you can create personalized emails, automate campaigns, and track engagement. Also, it integrates with popular tools like Zapier, Shopify, WooCommerce and more. It’s like having a handy toolbox that helps you reach your B2B audience without any fuss.

Pricing

If you’re looking for cost-effective email marketing tools for B2B, MailerLite has got you covered. If billed yearly, MailerLite costs $18/mo for the Advanced plan and $9/mo for the Growing Business plan. A Free plan for a single user is also available.

12. Moosend

Moosend

Tools for B2B marketing can be as efficient as Moosend – an email marketing platform and automation software.

Here’s what you get with Moosend. An easy-to-use email builder, a landing page builder, marketing automation, and in-depth reporting. Plus, you can run A/B tests for your content and subject lines.

If you want to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time, Moosend is the tool you need.

Pricing

Moosend is a budget-friendly option, starting at $9/mo. A 30-day free trial is available to help you try all of its features.

Social Media Marketing

How to effectively manage your social media presence? How to engage with your business partners on social platforms and measure the impact of your efforts? B2B online marketing tools have the answer.

13. Hootsuite

Hootsuite

In today’s world, social media is where people go to discover, learn, and make purchasing decisions. It has become an essential space for building brands and connecting with customers. That’s why you’ll need a social media command center that helps you stay organized.

Hootsuite will help with content planning, social media listening, analytics and more. It’s a social media management platform that allows you to schedule and publish content across channels.

Hootsuite’s customer messaging platform combines the power of conversational AI with the human touch of your team. This dynamic duo ensures that you can provide 5-star customer experiences at scale. Finally, you can engage in real-time conversations, address inquiries, and provide top-notch support.

Pricing

For the Professional and Team plans, Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial. After that, they cost $99/mo and $249/mo, respectively. You can manage as many as 10-20 social accounts with these plans. For larger companies, Hootsuite has Business and Enterprise options.

14. Zoho Social

Zoho Social

With its rich history starting in the 90s, Zoho has established itself as a reliable player in the industry.

Zoho Social allows you to plan and publish your social media content and engage with your audience. Besides, you have the tools to track the performance of your social media campaigns. Among B2B marketing tools, this SMM platform offers the “whole package”. You get collaboration tools, calendars, and analytics that highlight any problematic posts. The best part? Zoho allows you to bundle Zoho Social with their other services. This helps you create a seamless and integrated experience.

Pricing

Zoho offers a 15-day free trial so you can experience its full capabilities risk-free. Their plans range from $10/mo for the Standard plan to $40/mo for the Premium plan.

B2B Marketing Tools for Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is all about getting more bang for your buck. CRO helps us squeeze every bit of value out of our website visitors by boosting the number of people who take action. Plus, CRO focuses on making our website a delightful place to be. When we optimize for conversions, we’re creating a win-win situation for both our customers and our business.

Here are some popular tools in this category:

15. VWO Testing

VWO Testing

VWO Testing is a powerful tool that allows you to conduct A/B tests to optimize your website and landing pages. It enables you to compare different versions of your web pages and analyze which version performs better. With VWO Testing, you can make data-driven decisions to improve user experience and drive higher conversions. It’s like having a virtual laboratory where you can experiment and refine your B2B website for optimal results.

But that’s not all. Like the best B2B marketing tools, VWO takes security and compliance seriously. It’s fully GDPR compliant and prioritizes security measures by design. You can rest easy knowing your data and marketing experiments are in safe hands.

Pricing

VWO Testing offers different price plans for web, mobile apps, new product launches, personalization and more. For website testing, for example, they offer three paid plans starting at $286/mo if billed annually. A Free plan is also available. Check out their pricing page for more information.

16. Instapage

Instapage

Instapage is a user-friendly landing page builder that helps you create effective B2B landing pages. The best part about it? You don’t need to be a coding genius or a design wizard. Their drag-and-drop interface makes building stunning landing pages a piece of cake. Just pick a template, customize it to your heart’s content, and you’re ready to go live in no time.

What’s more, Instapage plays well with others. Connect it with over 100 marketing tools and platforms, from email service providers to analytics and more. Plus, with features like dynamic text replacement, you can tailor your ads to match your landing pages in real time.

Finally, Instapage provides features like A/B testing and heatmaps to understand what works on your landing page and what doesn’t.

Pricing

This B2B marketing tool comes with two simple plans: Build and Convert. The Build plan costs $199/mo. You should contact their team to get a customized price for the Convert plan.

17. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels

With ClickFunnels, you can see your pages laid out like a funnel. This allows B2B marketers to map out their customer’s journey from start to finish. Say goodbye to starting from scratch. ClickFunnels provides pre-built sales and webinar funnel templates at your fingertips. As a result, you can create entire funnels without any hassle.

Want to expand your reach and incentivize others to promote your products or services? ClickFunnels lets you set up your own affiliate program, giving you the power to grow your business through a network of affiliates.

Pricing

Aside from the free 14-day trial, ClickFunnels offers three plans: Basic, Pro, and Funnel Hacker. The prices start at $127/mo if billed annually.

Team Collaboration

You might think that B2B marketing tools are solely focused on generating leads and analyzing data. However, there’s another aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked: the power of teamwork.

In the world of B2B marketing, communication tools are key to success. And if teams are spread across different channels and locations, they become nothing but mandatory. So, don’t deprive your team of the opportunity to collaborate efficiently, share ideas, and stay connected.

18. Teamly

Image of Teamly Dashboard

No more spinning in circles or wasting time on non-essential stuff. Teamly isn’t just any ordinary tool – it’s the ultimate game-changer for marketers!

First of all, Teamly gives you a crystal-clear view of your projects and helps you focus on your daily tasks. With Teamly’s multi-functional Kanban boards, you can see the big picture as well as the nitty-gritty details. You can then set up workflows collaboratively and sort tasks by due date, priority, and labels.

What’s more, Teamly saves you time and money with its automation tools and templates. The platform streamlines your work and boosts efficiency. Plus, its user-friendly interface ensures a smooth onboarding process.

Communication is key, especially in remote teams. That’s where Teamly shines! It brings everyone together in a central hub on the cloud. You can have video chats, send direct messages, share screenshots, and even capture screen videos. With everyone on the same page, it’s easy to go back to important conversations whenever you need to.

Pricing

Teamly offers a Free plan for unlimited users. Perfect for solopreneurs or small companies, this plan gives you access to departments, automations, and 2.5 GB storage. Starter and Business plans are also available if you’re ready to scale your business. They cost $37 and $67/mo, respectively, if billed annually.

19. nTask

nTask

nTask is not your average project management tool. It’s a hidden gem that has everything you need to ace your projects.

With nTask, you get a full set of features that cover all the essentials. It integrates risk management, issue tracking, meeting tools, and even time tracking. Plus, you’ll have complete visibility and control over your projects. Now, see yourself that nothing ever falls through the cracks!

Pricing

Prices start at $3/mo billed annually for the Premium plan. The Business plan costs $8/mo if billed yearly. A 7-day trial is available.

Let’s wrap it up!

Without B2B marketing tools, managing your marketing campaigns manually can be a real hassle. It’s time-consuming, prone to errors, and difficult to scale. But with the right tools by your side, you can automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and focus on what matters most.

The best B2B marketing tools don’t let inefficiencies creep in. You’ll have a unified platform that brings everything together. As a result, you can manage data, track interactions, and gain insights to scale your efforts.

Why Does Diversity Matter? Top Benefits of Team Diversity and 10 Activities to Build It

team diversity

Team diversity is a superpower. And companies are starting to recognize the great value of it.

They understand that when you have a mix of skills and backgrounds, magic happens.

But why is diversity important in a team? Why should we put so much effort into welcoming a mix of talents? And how exactly does diversity strengthen a team?

In this article, we’ll answer these questions using research data. We’ll first find out the top 6 benefits of building team diversity. Plus, you’ll get eight creative activities to help you improve diversity in your workplace.

Let’s dive in.

What is team diversity

What is team diversity?

Team diversity means having a variety of people with different backgrounds, skills, and ideas. It’s like having a delicious buffet of ideas where everyone brings something unique to the table.

When you have a diverse team, it looks like a colorful tapestry woven with different threads. Each person adds their own color, making the team stronger and more interesting.

Why is diversity important in a team? Five benefits of team diversity + statistics to back them up.

We often hear that diverse organizations perform better. And it turns out there’s a good reason behind this claim. The impact of DEI initiatives (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is highly beneficial. Let’s find out why:

1. Team diversity ignites innovative sparks.

When teams are too focused on conformity, they tend to stick to familiar ways of thinking and doing things. They may hesitate to challenge the status quo or explore new ideas. Soon, things can get boring and stagnant.

But with diverse team members, there’s a mix of perspectives, experiences, and ideas. This diversity sparks creativity and fuels the innovative spirit of the team. Different viewpoints collide and merge, creating a rich blend of ideas.

Research shows that companies that focus on inclusivity are 1.7 times more likely to lead the market in innovation.

2. Diversity in management teams leads to higher revenue.

Did you know that companies that have diverse management teams generate higher revenue?

In fact, diverse companies earn a higher cash flow per employee compared to less diverse organizations.

But there is more.

Organizations with strong ties to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have better chances for success. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), they can see a revenue increase of up to 19%.

Here is the explanation. When companies have diverse management teams, they make more money from innovative ideas. This increase can reach an impressive 45% of their total revenue. In contrast, companies with less diversity in leadership only reach 26%. That’s a difference of 19 percentage points!

BCG Diversity

3. Elevate employee satisfaction with diversity.

How does diversity strengthen a team? Well, one way is to make them feel a strong sense of belonging.

According to Harvard Business Review, having a high sense of belonging can skyrocket job performance by 56% or even more. Not only that, it can also slash turnover rates by 50% and significantly reduce the number of sick days taken.

It’s clear that when team members feel a deep inclusion within their work environment, they become more motivated. This, in turn, leads to increased commitment.

What’s more, inclusion initiatives can have a great impact on employee engagement. Millennials are especially attentive to these practices. Research shows that 83% of millennials are more involved in their work when their employers support diversity.

Deloitte

4. Make better choices through diverse perspectives.

But it’s not just about engagement and satisfaction.

Diverse teams have a unique advantage when it comes to focusing on facts. Their diverse perspectives allow them to examine each other’s actions more closely. This helps them avoid the trap of groupthink, where everyone in the team thinks alike.

So, team diversity makes sure we don’t miss important pieces of information. When we work with people from different backgrounds, we get a chance to learn about their viewpoints. It’s like traveling to different countries without leaving the room! It broadens our horizons and helps us become more empathetic and understanding human beings.

Research highlights the power of diverse teams in making better decisions. In fact, diverse teams come out on top 87% of the time. Their ability to stay unbiased adds to their effectiveness in making decisions.

5. Team diversity elevates your corporate image.

In today’s competitive business world, the importance of diversity goes beyond internal dynamics. In fact, it also significantly impacts a company’s corporate image.

Companies that put diversity first are viewed as more attractive places to work. Just think of it. A significant 76% of job seekers consider diversity when assessing job opportunities.

Ultimately, embracing diversity isn’t only the right thing to do. It’s also a strategic decision that positively impacts a company’s success and public perception.

Promoting diversity: Team-building activities for your workplace

Wanna make the most of diversity and inclusion? Team-building activities that are fun and engaging can be really helpful. The goal of these activities is to foster a sense of belonging, empathy, and understanding among team members. Let’s have a look at the best examples:

Cultural Exchange Fair

Organize a cultural exchange fair. Here, team members can set up booths representing their cultural backgrounds or countries of origin. Encourage them to bring traditional food, music, artifacts, or displays. Team members can visit each booth, learn about different cultures, and ask questions. This activity promotes cultural awareness, understanding, and appreciation.

Diversity Appreciation Wall

Next, you can create a physical or virtual appreciation wall. It’s a space where team members can express their appreciation for the diversity within the workplace. Provide colorful sticky notes or an online platform for people to write messages of gratitude. Let them recognize and praise their colleagues’ diverse contributions.

Diversity Bingo

Diversity Bingo

Create a bingo card with different characteristics. For example, your card may include languages spoken, hobbies, or travel experiences. Team members mingle and talk to each other to find someone who matches each characteristic. Then, they write their name in the respective square. The first person to complete a row or the entire card wins! This activity encourages communication and learning about each other’s diverse backgrounds.

Inclusion Puzzle

Provide each team member with a puzzle piece. Instruct them to decorate their piece in a way that represents their individuality. By the way, they can use colors, symbols, or words. Then, have the team come together to assemble the puzzle. This symbolizes the importance of every unique piece in creating a complete and inclusive team.

Cross-Cultural Team-Building

Assign each team member a different cultural background or identity. They research and prepare a short presentation about their assigned culture. What customs, traditions, or values did they learn about? Each member then shares their presentation with the team.

Empathy Walk

Now, meet our last diversity team-building activity.

Divide the team into pairs or small groups. Each group is given a prompt or scenario that highlights a specific challenge or experience faced by a marginalized group. Participants take turns sharing their feelings as they imagine themselves in that situation.

Team diversity example

Team diversity examples: Companies that are embracing diversity in a big way

Hilton: With a strong commitment to creating an inclusive workplace culture, Hilton sets the bar high. The company has Team Member Resource Groups (TMRGs). These are created to provide support and a sense of community to disadvantaged groups. Plus, they have programs focused on diverse talent acquisition and leadership development.

Cisco: Innovation thrives in an environment that celebrates diversity, and Cisco knows it well. They actively build a culture that promotes collaboration and helps employees to bring their best to work. And they do this through employee resource groups, mentorship programs, and diversity training.

American Express: This company has been featured on Forbes’ “America’s Best Employers for Diversity” list. Their commitment to diversity and inclusion starts from the top. American Express leaders focus on diversity. And they make sure it’s incorporated into the company’s values, policies, and practices. What’s more, the company provides a platform for employees to connect, support, and advocate for various communities.

Conclusion

Many organizations still have a long way to go in creating an inclusive environment. One reason is that managing a diverse team can be tough in today’s workplace.

Luckily, Teamly, an online project management tool, is here to help. With Teamly, you’ll navigate the challenges of diverse teams, no matter where they are. It’s the perfect tool for easy collaboration, task management, and keeping your team in sync.

So, say goodbye to delays and difficulties. Together, we can build a future where team diversity is not just a buzzword but a way of life.

Top Easy to Use Email Outreach Tools for 2023 and Beyond

email outreach tools

The life of a salesperson can feel like an endless race against the clock. Whether you’re an ambitious start-up hustling to build your client base, or an established enterprise aiming to expand your reach, time is a precious commodity.

In the past, sales and outreach efforts would be consumed by manual tasks – meticulously sending one email after another, organizing follow-ups, and juggling customer relationships. It was exhausting, time-consuming, and prone to error.

But the 21st century has brought a revolutionary solution to your outreach woes – email outreach tools.

The challenge of traditional outreach is no more. No more losing time on manually sorting through lists, meticulously crafting individual emails, or tracking responses one by one. The advent of email outreach tools has reshaped the landscape of how businesses connect with their potential customers, saving tons of time, money, and effort.

Email outreach tools are software platforms that automate the process of reaching out to prospects via email. They are particularly great for businesses looking to grow and expand their customer base, drive sales, and foster meaningful relationships.

But, with so many email outreach tools on the market, how do you choose the right one for your business?

Worry not.

We’ve compiled a list of the best email outreach tools available today, factoring in specific features like cold email capabilities and user-friendliness.

So, whether you’re on the lookout for the best cold email outreach tools or just the easiest to use, we’ve got you covered.

A Closer Look at Email Outreach Tools

A Closer Look at Email Outreach Tools

At the heart of any successful business is a clear and strategic line of communication.

Salespeople, marketers, business developers, and even customer service professionals know that in today’s fast-paced digital world, keeping up with countless emails and follow-ups can be a daunting task.

This is where the best email outreach tools come into play.

What Are Email Outreach Tools?

Email outreach tools are software that help automate, manage, and optimize your email communications. They streamline your workflow by automating the repetitive tasks involved in email outreach, such as sending cold emails, scheduling follow-ups, and tracking responses.

But they’re not just about saving time; they’re about enhancing your overall strategy, too.

These tools provide a wealth of data, including who opened your emails, who clicked on links, and how often they engaged. With these insights, you can make data-driven decisions and constantly improve your outreach strategy.

Plus, they allow for personalization at scale – an essential feature for making your prospects feel valued.

Who Benefits from Email Outreach Tools?

Just about anyone who has to deal with email outreach on a regular basis will benefit from these tools. From sales and marketing teams to PR and business development professionals, email outreach tools can significantly boost productivity and effectiveness.

How Do Email Outreach Tools Work?

Consider a cold email campaign.

In the past, you’d manually send each email, track responses, and schedule follow-ups. Now, with cold email outreach tools, you can automate the entire process.

You start by crafting your email and uploading your list of contacts. From here, the tool takes over. It schedules and sends your emails, sets automatic follow-ups for non-responders, and even personalizes each message for you. The tool provides analytics like open, click, and response rates, which help you understand the effectiveness of your campaign.

Also, the best cold email outreach tools come with features that protect your sender reputation, ensuring your emails avoid the spam folder and reach the recipient’s inbox.

The Difference Email Outreach Tools Make

So, why are these tools such a game-changer for the sales team?

For one, they make your email outreach manageable, allowing you to reach more people in less time. They reduce the chance of human error and offer useful analytics that guide your outreach strategy.

And, importantly, they make it possible for you to focus more on developing stronger relationships and closing deals rather than drowning in administrative procedures.

By finding the best email outreach tools or the easiest to use email outreach tools, you can revolutionize your sales process, making it more efficient and effective than ever before.

The Advantages of Email Outreach Tools

The Advantages of Email Outreach Tools

In an era where digital communication is king, email outreach tools bring a multitude of benefits to the table.

Let’s highlight some of the key benefits these game-changing tools offer:

Time-Saving Automation

  • Streamlined Workflow: Email outreach tools automate your entire email campaign process – from sending initial emails to scheduling follow-ups. No more manually sending hundreds or thousands of emails.
  • Automated Follow-Ups: One of the most time-consuming parts of any outreach is follow-ups. These tools ensure that if a recipient doesn’t respond, a follow-up email is automatically sent, saving you from tracking each prospect’s status.

Improved Efficiency and Productivity

  • Bulk Emailing: Need to send the same email to hundreds of prospects? No problem. Email outreach tools can distribute the same email to a large audience with a few clicks, significantly boosting your efficiency.
  • Multi-Campaign Management: Managing multiple email campaigns simultaneously can be a logistical nightmare. With email outreach tools, you can easily manage and monitor several campaigns in one place.

Enhanced Communication Strategy

  • Personalization at Scale: Personalization is key in email outreach. These tools allow you to personalize mass emails, ensuring each recipient feels personally addressed.
  • Analytics and Insights: With the analytics provided by these tools, you can gain insights into open rates, click-through rates, and more. This invaluable data can help improve your email strategies.

Increased Effectiveness

  • Improved Deliverability: The best email outreach tools come with features that ensure your emails bypass the spam folder and make it to your recipient’s inbox.
  • Higher Response Rates: By automating and personalizing your email outreach, you are likely to see a higher response rate. This increases the overall effectiveness of your outreach campaigns.
  • Better Customer Relationship Management: With automated tracking and follow-up systems, you can nurture relationships with your prospects more effectively.

These are just a few of the myriad benefits offered by email outreach tools. By leveraging these advantages, businesses can revolutionize their email outreach strategy, making it more streamlined, efficient, and effective.

Now let’s take a deeper look into the easy to use email outreach tools that will light a fire under the productivity of your sales team.

SmartReach

1. SmartReach

SmartReach is a sales engagement platform that empowers businesses to automate their cold outreach across multiple channels, including Email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Calls, and SMS.

How SmartReach Helps Sales

SmartReach is designed to help sales teams increase their productivity and efficiency. It allows businesses to automate their sales engagement sequence of email outreach, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Calls, and SMS. The platform also provides AI assistance for content creation, ensuring that your outreach messages are engaging and effective.

With SmartReach, you can schedule tasks such as LinkedIn profile views, connection requests, messages, and InMails, thereby increasing your engagement rates.

Key Features of SmartReach

  • Automate sales engagement sequence across multiple channels
  • AI assistance for content creation
  • Personalize content with prospect’s name or other custom columns using merge-tags
  • Maximize email deliverability with Soft Start, Spam Test, and built-in free email validation
  • Unlimited workflows
  • Integration with CRM tools like HubSpot, Zoho, PipeDrive, and Salesforce
  • Detailed reporting on open, click, reply, bounce, and unsubscribe rates
  • Shared Inbox for sales teams to collaborate and improve response times
  • Ability to invite team members and assign them granular roles and permissions

Pricing Details

SmartReach offers several pricing plans to cater to different business needs:

  • Email Outreach: For cost-sensitive businesses to run email-only B2B outreach. This plan costs $29 per seat/month, billed monthly for a minimum of 10 seats.
  • Sales Engagement: For businesses to run multi-channel outreach with an emphasis on team collaboration. This plan costs $49 per seat/month, billed monthly for a minimum of 5 seats.
  • Agency: This plan is used by agencies of all sizes and includes features like single login to manage multiple clients, API & Webhook support, and dedicated success manager. Pricing details are available upon request.
  • Enterprise: For large sales teams with complex processes. This plan emphasizes security, compliance, customization, lead & team management. Pricing details are available upon request.

Woodpecker

2. Woodpecker

Woodpecker is an email outreach tool that automates personalized emails and follow-ups, helping businesses to scale their outbound sales, recruitment, and link building processes.

How Woodpecker Helps Sales

Woodpecker enables sales teams to automate and personalize their email outreach efforts. It allows salespeople to focus on crafting compelling messages while the tool takes care of sending them out at optimal times. By automating follow-ups, Woodpecker ensures that no potential lead falls through the cracks, increasing the chances of conversion.

Key Features of Woodpecker

  • Email Automation: Woodpecker automates the process of sending out personalized emails and follow-ups, saving time and increasing efficiency.
  • Campaign Customization: Users can customize their campaigns based on various factors such as the recipient’s response, time zone, and more.
  • Email Tracking: Woodpecker provides detailed tracking of emails, including open rates, reply rates, and bounce rates, allowing users to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
  • CRM Integration: Woodpecker can be integrated with various CRM platforms, enabling users to manage their contacts and campaigns more effectively.
  • Team Collaboration: The tool allows team members to collaborate on campaigns, share email templates, and track team performance.

Pricing Details

  • Cold Email Plan: Starts at $39 per month. Ideal for businesses seeking to automate email outreach with features like condition-based campaigns, manual tasks, and free warm-up & recovery for each slot. Includes real-time email verification by Bouncer and unlimited follow-ups & team members.
  • Sales Assistant Plan: Starts at $49 per month. Designed for businesses that require multi-channel outreach. Includes all features of the Cold Email plan, plus LinkedIn automation via Dux-Soup Turbo, scheduling of sales calls via an Android app, and personalized text messages sent straight from your phone.
  • Agency Plan: Starts at $44 per month. Tailored for agencies managing multiple clients. Includes all features of the Cold Email plan, plus a single panel for managing all clients’ campaigns, deliverability monitor for all clients’ accounts, and the ability to connect an email from any provider.

Klenty

3. Klenty

Klenty is a sales engagement platform that can help you send personalized emails at scale, automate follow-ups, and track all engagement metrics.

How Klenty Helps Sales

Klenty is designed to streamline the sales process by automating repetitive tasks, allowing sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals. Sales teams can automate their email outreach, follow-ups, and even track engagement metrics. This not only saves time but also ensures that no potential lead falls through the cracks.

Key Features of Klenty

  • Email Automation: Klenty allows you to send personalized emails at scale, ensuring that your outreach feels personal and relevant to each recipient.
  • Follow-up Automation: With Klenty, you can set up automated follow-up emails to ensure that you’re always in touch with your leads.
  • Engagement Tracking: Klenty tracks all engagement metrics, including opens, clicks, and replies, giving you a clear understanding of how your outreach is performing.
  • CRM Integration: Klenty integrates with popular CRM platforms, allowing you to sync your outreach with your existing sales processes.
  • Cadence Playbooks: Klenty provides intent-driven playbooks to execute intelligent outreach.
  • Email Deliverability: Klenty ensures that your emails land in inboxes, not spam folders.

Pricing Details

  • Startup Plan: Starts at $50 per user/month (billed annually). Ideal for small teams getting started with sales email outreach. Includes features like Email Cadences, Custom Domain Tracking, and API access.
  • Growth Plan: Starts at $70 per user/month (billed annually). Designed for growing teams scaling outreach with multi-channel sales engagement. Includes advanced features like CRM Integrations, Multichannel Outreach, and Intent Score.
  • Pro Plan: Starts at $100 per user/month (billed annually). Tailored for larger teams using advanced outreach strategies. Includes advanced features like WhatsApp integration, Account-based Prospecting, and Sales Operations Dashboard.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing. For teams needing advanced reporting and access control. Includes features like IP based Login Restrictions and Deliverability Reports. Pricing details are available upon request.

Overloop

4. Overloop

Overloop designed to help businesses generate more revenue through personalized outbound campaigns that combine cold emails and LinkedIn automation.

How Overloop Helps Sales

Overloop assists sales teams by providing a platform for multi-channel outbound campaigns. It allows businesses to engage prospects and close deals faster by nurturing leads and creating new ones simultaneously. With Overloop, sales teams can manage their entire sales process, from prospecting to closing, in a single app.

Key Features of Overloop

  • Multi-channel campaigns: Engage your prospects through various channels.
  • Cold email campaigns: Send personalized emails to potential customers.
  • LinkedIn campaigns: Automate your LinkedIn outreach for better engagement.
  • Email Finder: Automatically search for email addresses.
  • LinkedIn extension & automation: Extend your LinkedIn capabilities and automate tasks.
  • Deals & pipelines: Manage your entire sales process in one place.
  • API & CRM integrations: Connect Overloop with your existing systems for seamless operations.
  • Professional services & support: Get access to Overloop’s team of outbound specialists to help you get started.

Pricing Details

  • No-Brainer Plan: $99/user/month (billed annually). This plan includes all features, such as multi-channel campaigns, cold email campaigns, LinkedIn campaigns, 250 Email Finder credits/user/month, LinkedIn extension & automation, deals & pipelines, unlimited contacts, API & CRM integrations, and professional services & support.
  • Agency Pricing: Overloop offers special features, volume discount pricing, and professional services for agencies. More details are available upon request.
  • Email Finder Credits: Additional credits for the Email Finder can be purchased separately, starting at $39/month for 250 credits up to $499/month for 10,000 credits.

Please note that Overloop offers a 14-day free trial for new users to explore the platform.

Mailshake

5. Mailshake

Mailshake is a sales engagement software designed to help salespeople create, run, and analyze email outreach campaigns.

How Mailshake Helps Sales

Mailshake provides a suite of tools that streamline the sales process, allowing sales teams to focus on what they do best: selling. Mailshake automates your email outreach, personalize your messages, and track your campaign performance. This not only saves time but also ensures that your outreach is effective and your sales efforts are maximized.

Key Features of Mailshake

  • Email Automation: Mailshake allows you to automate your email outreach, ensuring that your messages reach your prospects at the right time.
  • Personalization: With Mailshake, you can personalize your emails to make them more engaging and relevant to your prospects.
  • Performance Tracking: Mailshake provides detailed analytics that allow you to track the performance of your outreach campaigns.
  • Integration: Mailshake integrates with your existing CRM and sales tools, allowing you to streamline your sales process.

Pricing Details

Mailshake offers two main pricing plans:

  • Email Outreach: For businesses looking to automate and track their email outreach. This plan costs $59 per user/month, billed annually.
  • Sales Engagement: For businesses that need a more comprehensive solution, including features like task management, phone dialer, and SMS. This plan costs $99 per user/month, billed annually.

Mailshake also offers extra credits through its Data Finder plans which are as follows:

Free Trial

  • Cost: $0
  • Credits: 50 (one time)
  • Cost per credit: $0.00
  • Features: Search by job title, company, industry, and location, find names, email addresses, and more, browser extension (coming soon), export download.

Starter

  • Cost: $49/month (billed annually)
  • Credits: 1,000 per month
  • Cost per credit: $0.05
  • Features: All the features of the Free Trial, push directly to campaigns with Mailshake’s Engagement Products, customer support.

Pro

  • Cost: $99/month (billed annually)
  • Credits: 2,500 per month
  • Cost per credit: $0.04
  • Features: All the features of the Starter plan.

Enterprise

  • Cost: $249/month (billed annually)
  • Credits: 12,500 per month
  • Cost per credit: $0.02
  • Features: All the features of the Start and Pro plans.

Ninja Outreach

6. Ninja Outreach

Ninja Outreach provides a platform for finding influencers, crafting personalized outreach emails, and managing your campaigns.

How Ninja Outreach Helps Sales

Ninja Outreach can boost your sales efforts by providing a platform that simplifies the process of finding and reaching out to influencers and leads. With its extensive database of influencers and businesses, you can easily identify potential partners or customers. The tool also allows you to craft personalized outreach emails, ensuring your communication is effective and engaging.

Ninja Outreach provides detailed analytics to help you monitor and optimize your campaigns, leading to better sales outcomes.

Key Features of Ninja Outreach

  • Extensive influencer and business database
  • Personalized email outreach
  • Campaign management and tracking
  • Detailed analytics and reporting
  • Social media promotion and engagement
  • Integration with various CRM and email marketing platforms

Pricing Details

Ninja Outreach offers several pricing plans to cater to different needs:

  • Flex Plan: Priced at $155 per month (billed annually), this plan is suitable for individuals. It includes one seat, one connected email, full access to the influencer search, and the ability to send up to 1,000 emails and run 5 campaigns per month.
  • Silver Plan: For professionals, this plan costs $255 per month (billed annually). It offers the same features as the Flex plan but allows for 1,000 influencer outreaches and 10,000 emails per month.
  • Silver Plus Plan: Designed for businesses, this plan is priced at $459 per month (billed annually). It includes three seats, four connected emails, and allows for 4,000 influencer outreaches and 15,000 emails per month.
  • Gold Plan: This is a premium plan offering more features and options. For pricing and more details, you are encouraged to contact Ninja Outreach directly.

Quickmail

7. Quickmail

Quickmail is an advanced email outreach solution designed to help sales teams and marketers engage prospects and close more deals in less time.

How Quickmail Helps Sales

Quickmail helps to automate your email outreach efforts, allowing you to send cold emails and follow-ups effortlessly. It’s ideal for busy sales teams, providing a platform to manage all sales conversations in one place, whether you have one or many email addresses. Quickmail also offers advanced metrics, moving beyond vanity metrics to provide real insights that can help improve your campaigns.

Key Features of Quickmail

  • Send cold emails and follow-ups automatically
  • Manage all your sales conversations in one place
  • Increase performance with actionable metrics
  • Monitor and maintain the health of your inbox to ensure emails land in your recipient’s inbox
  • Works with Gmail, Outlook, or any other inbox
  • Provides native integrations with CRMs like Hubspot, Pipedrive, and more
  • Offers a clean API and Webhook for 13 different live events

Pricing Details

Quickmail offers three pricing plans:

  • Basic Plan: For $49 per month, you get 30,000 emails monthly, 10,000 active prospects, 10 email addresses, unlimited team members, and free AutoWarmer with MailFlow.
  • Pro Plan: For $89 per month, you get 100,000 emails monthly, 50,000 active prospects, 50 email addresses, unlimited team members, free AutoWarmer with MailFlow, HubSpot & Pipedrive CRM, and API.
  • Expert Plan: For $129 per month, you get 300,000 emails monthly, 100,000 active prospects, 100 email addresses, unlimited team members, free AutoWarmer with MailFlow, HubSpot & Pipedrive CRM, API, Advanced Analytics, and AI & Sub-Campaigns.

All plans come with a 14-day free trial. For agencies, Quickmail offers a free agency portal where you can manage all your clients under one roof.

SendPulse

8. SendPulse

SendPulse is a multi-channel marketing automation platform that offers email, web push, SMS, and chatbots for various social media platforms, all integrated into a free CRM.

How SendPulse Helps Sales

SendPulse helps sales teams by reaching out to customers and leads across multiple channels. With its email marketing, web push notifications, SMS, and chatbots, sales teams can engage their audience wherever they are. The integrated CRM allows for easy tracking and management of customer interactions, helping to streamline the sales process and improve conversion rates.

Key Features of SendPulse

  • Multi-channel communication: Reach your audience through email, web push notifications, SMS, and chatbots on Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
  • Integrated CRM: Manage your customer interactions in one place, helping to streamline your sales process and improve conversion rates.
  • Email Campaigns: Create and send email campaigns with a drag and drop editor and manage subscription forms.
  • Transactional Emails: Send transactional emails for specific customer actions, helping to improve engagement and retention.
  • Campaign Analytics: Track the performance of your campaigns with detailed analytics, helping to inform future strategy and improve results.
  • Email Verifier: Ensure your emails are reaching the right people with the email verifier feature.
  • Landing Pages: Create landing pages to drive traffic and conversions.

Pricing Details

SendPulse offers pricing plans to cater to different business needs:

  • Free Plan: Ideal for small businesses or those just starting out, this plan offers up to 1,500 emails per month, three sender email addresses, one domain, one landing page, and 100 email verifications.
  • Standard Plan: Priced at $6.40 per month, this plan provides unlimited emails, 100 sender email addresses, three domains, three landing pages, full A/B testing, and allows for three users per account.
  • Pro Plan: For $7.68 per month, users get unlimited emails, unlimited segments, 300 sender email addresses, five domains, ten landing pages, 1000 email verifications, and allows for ten users per account.
  • Enterprise Plan: At $10.75 per month, this plan offers unlimited emails, advanced segmentation options, 300 sender email addresses, unlimited domains, unlimited landing pages, unlimited users, and unlimited tags.

GMass

9. GMass

GMass is an email outreach tool that integrates directly with Gmail, providing users with the ability to send mass email campaigns directly from their Gmail account.

How GMass Helps Sales

GMass helps sales teams to send personalized mass emails, schedule follow-ups, and track campaign performance directly from their Gmail account. This can help sales teams to reach more potential customers, maintain engagement with existing clients, and ultimately drive more sales.

Key Features of GMass

  • Direct integration with Gmail for seamless email outreach
  • Ability to send mass emails with personalized content
  • Automated follow-up emails to boost engagement
  • Detailed campaign analytics for tracking performance
  • Integration with Google Sheets for easy data management
  • Breaks Gmail’s sending limits with proprietary technology
  • Free email address verification to avoid unwanted bounces
  • Custom tracking links with SSL for secure and effective tracking
  • A/B testing to optimize campaign performance

Pricing Details

  • Standard Plan: Priced at $19.95 per month or $199 per year, the Standard Plan includes features like unlimited contacts and campaigns, mail merge personalization, free email address verification, custom tracking links with SSL, sequences and follow-ups, and email support.
  • Premium Plan: Priced at $29.95 per month or $299 per year, the Premium Plan includes all the features of the Standard Plan, along with API access through Zapier and A/B testing..
  • Enterprise Plan: Priced at $49.95 per month or $499 per year, the Enterprise Plan includes access to high-priority support.

Vocus.io

10. Vocus.io

Vocus.io is a full-stack email outreach platform that integrates with Gmail and G Suite to enhance your email campaigns.

How Vocus.io Helps Sales

Vocus.io helps you to send personalized mass email campaigns, automate follow-ups, and sync with your CRM for seamless data management. The platform also provides detailed analytics, giving you insights into your campaign performance and helping you make data-driven decisions.

Key Features of Vocus.io

  • Personalized mass email campaigns
  • Automated follow-ups
  • CRM synchronization
  • Team collaboration
  • Email tracking for opens and link clicks
  • Templates and snippets for repetitive blurbs
  • Email scheduling and reminders
  • Integration with Salesforce, Pipedrive, and other CRMs

Pricing Details

Vocus.io offers three pricing plans:

  • Basic Plan ($5/month): This plan includes unlimited email tracking, templates and snippets, send later and snooze features, and 50 automated follow-ups.
  • Starter Plan ($10/month): In addition to the Basic Plan features, the Starter Plan offers 100 automated follow-ups and CRM integration.
  • Professional Plan ($20/month): The Professional Plan includes all the features of the Starter Plan, with an increase to 500 automated follow-ups, campaigns with follow-ups and attachments, branded URLs, and support for up to 10 inboxes.

For higher limits, Vocus.io also offers a Growth Plan at $80/month with external SMTP support.

Choosing the Best Email Outreach Tool for Your Needs

Choosing the Best Email Outreach Tool for Your Needs

Selecting the right email outreach tool can significantly impact the success of your email campaigns and, ultimately, your business growth.

Here are some factors to consider when choosing the best email outreach tool for your needs:

  • Understand Your Requirements: Before you start exploring different tools, it’s crucial to understand your specific needs. Are you looking for a tool that can handle mass email campaigns, or do you need one that can personalize emails for targeted outreach? Do you need advanced features like CRM integration, or are you looking for a simple, easy-to-use tool?
  • Features and Functionality: Look for a tool that offers the features and functionality you need. This could include email tracking, automated follow-ups, CRM integration, email scheduling, and more. Make sure the tool you choose can handle your email volume and offers the level of customization you need.
  • Ease of Use: The tool should be user-friendly and easy to navigate. You don’t want to spend hours trying to figure out how to use it. Look for a tool with an intuitive interface and good customer support.
  • Pricing: Pricing is another important factor to consider. Many tools offer different pricing plans based on the features and number of emails you can send. Make sure to choose a tool that fits within your budget and offers good value for money.
  • Integration: If you’re already using other tools for your business, like a CRM or marketing automation platform, you’ll want to ensure your email outreach tool can integrate with them seamlessly.
  • Reviews and Reputation: Finally, consider the tool’s reputation. Look at reviews and testimonials from other users to see what they like and dislike about the tool. This can give you a good idea of the tool’s reliability and performance.

Take the time to research and compare different tools before making a decision.

Happy emailing!

5 Soft and Hard Skills to Crushing It as a Clinical Trial Project Manager

clinical project management

Even if you already know all the ropes of project management, clinical trials can throw a curveball. With all its procedures and protocols and phases, a clinical trial is a world unto its own. It’s exciting to be a part of the research that goes into a major medical breakthrough, but for anyone new to clinical trial management, the process can be bewildering and overwhelming. From research to budgeting to timelines, how does a project manager keep track of it all?

While clinical trials do pose a challenge, a good plan ensures success. The right approach requires its own assortment of soft and hard skills. In this article, we’ll break down some of those skills. But first, let’s go over the basics with a brief overview of a clinical trial.

Clinical Trials Defined

Clinical Trials Defined

Let’s briefly define the components and stages of a clinical trial, including the purpose, the method and the stages of one.

The Purpose

Just what is the objective of a clinical trial? Essentially, it’s a method for determining whether or not a new medical treatment is safe and effective.

Every medical breakthrough in recent history began as a clinical trial. Everyday drugs like ivermectin, ibuprofen, and Tylenol came onto the market after passing through the phases of a clinical trial. It’s also the method doctors utilize in order to research a cure for cancer, and to study the effects of smoking.

The Method

Clinical trials utilize the scientific method of starting with a hypothesis, then testing the hypothesis to determine whether or not it is correct.

In its most basic terms, the process goes something like this: Scientists develop a drug or treatment for a specific condition, then try it out on a sample group with the intent to understand its risks and benefits. Based on the results from this sample, the team determines whether or not the treatment works. If it does, then the drug or treatment is brought to the market. If it does not, then they either pivot and modify the treatment, or abandon the endeavor altogether.

While this brief description makes clinical trials sound simple and straightforward, the reality is that the process is long and entails numerous complex protocols and procedures. Clinical trials can last as long as a decade. They can be pricey, costing into the millions of dollars. Generally, they are sponsored by drug companies or else by the government.

The Four Phases of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are completed in four distinct phases. Let’s briefly describe each phase, and the objectives and desired outcomes for each.

Phase 1: During phase one, scientists develop a novel agent in a laboratory. They then cautiously proceed to test the new treatment or drug. Oftentimes, preliminary testing is conducted on animals before it’s tested on a group of volunteers. The desired objective at phase one is to discover any negative side effects of the treatment, and to establish a safe dosage.

Phase 2: During phase two, eligibility for the trial group is narrowed down to specific criteria, in order to more accurately study the effects and impact of the dosage.

Phase 3: In order for a new drug to come to market, it must perform better than the current standard of care. And so at phase 3, the treatment is used in several studies where it is compared to this current standard. These studies are strategically established to make them as objective as possible. Sometimes, in order to eliminate any bias in reporting, they are “blinded,” meaning that neither the patient nor the doctor knows what type of treatment the patient receives.

Phase 4: By phase 4, a drug that has proved suitable is already on the market. This stage is about gathering more information on the drug’s effectiveness, and making modifications to increase its safety and efficacy.

With this brief background on clinical trials, let’s now dive into the ins and outs of managing one.

The 5 Soft and Hard Skills of a Clinical Trial Manager

The 5 Soft and Hard Skills of a Clinical Trial Manager

Clinical trials come in various shapes and sizes. Some organizations have fewer than 100 people, while others have ten thousand or more. Some organizations utilize a matrix-based structure, where the team doesn’t report to the project manager, but rather to the leader of their functional groups (the medical team reports to the medical manager, the safety team to safety manager, etcetera).

While the challenges and skills vary depending on the nature of the clinical trial, in any organization the project manager’s central duty is to stay abreast of everyone through emails and frequent meetings. A few other skills apply across the board as well. Let’s go over five of them.

1. Know Clinical Study Protocol

The role of a project manager entails a specific set of skills, and any project manager must be sharp in the fundamentals.

With clinical trial management, it’s necessary to develop industry knowledge as well. This includes things like knowing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies (who can be included and who cannot), and the FDA guidelines. It also means knowing the adverse event reporting requirements, and understanding the procedure that’s being tested.

Gaining some of this basic understanding is gained by talking to doctors, or shadowing them during surgeries and other procedures.

2. Develop Tool Proficiency

So many of the components to managing a clinical trial are completed with the assistance of a tool. For some simple projects, an Excel spreadsheet is sufficient for keeping track of the budget, while a complicated trial requires something more sophisticated. Here are a few things to look out for when selecting tools.

Easy to Understand

Gaining buy-in is critical to keeping a project on schedule and within budget. Communication is part and parcel to this buy-in. A software that makes it easy to identify milestones and dates keeps the forward momentum strong. A convoluted software, on the other hand, turns people off, and no one knows what is going on but you.

Attractive and Intriguing

When presenting data and key research to stakeholders and executives, it’s necessary to put your best foot forward. Developing proficiency in a tool like Powerpoint, and supplementing images with editing software such as Canva, makes it possible to put together a presentation that keeps everyone’s attention and brings them up to speed quickly.

3. Be a Servant Leader

Developing team momentum is critical in order to bring a clinical trial over finish lines. This momentum is cultivated through strategic leadership. Understanding how you come across and communicating in a way that validates and supports every individual keeps rapport strong. A likable leader listens to frustrations and works to remedy difficulties.

4. End Endless Emails

Email is a useful tool, but when used to resolve issues or make big decisions, it more often than not leaves the team stuck.

As much as possible, a successful manager builds regular communication around face-to face communication. This allows tone and body language to come across. When emails must be used, it’s helpful to format them with bullets and headlines for quick and easy understanding.

5. Monitor Fixed Costs

Fixed costs include things like rent and overhead. And they eat away at a budget at every stage in the clinical trial. Monitoring the schedule minimizes these fixed costs and keeps things within budget.

The pacing of the trial, then, is key. Promptly getting all of the patients enrolled for each trial allows the trial to move onto the next stage. A slow enrollment, on the other hand, means that the trial drags on into another month or quarter, and the fixed costs increase. One strategy to keep tabs on the budget is to refresh the budget monthly or quarterly.

Conclusion

If you’re completely new to clinical trials, the process can seem complicated. But just by mastering a few skills, success can be yours in no time.

What is your biggest challenge to managing a clinical trial?

How Operational Planning Skyrockets Your Business Success

operational planning

You’re here because something sparked your interest. It’s that twinkle in your entrepreneurial spirit, a craving for knowledge, and a thirst for business success. Maybe you’ve heard about operational planning, or perhaps it’s a new term. Either way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we?

Why Operational Planning is Your Business’s Secret Weapon

Why should you care about operational planning?

Just think about it. You’re at the helm of your business, steering the ship through the rough waters of the corporate world. You’ve got a destination in mind—a prosperous port, let’s say—but how do you get there? You wouldn’t set sail without a reliable map, would you? That’s where operational planning comes in.

Operational planning is your business’s compass. It’s a detailed roadmap guiding you towards your goals, helping you avoid potential obstacles along the way. When you’re navigating uncharted territory, you’ll be thankful for this invaluable tool.

The connection between your business success and operational planning

What’s the secret sauce behind successful companies like Amazon, Google, and Tesla? It’s not just about innovative products or charismatic leaders. At their core, these companies excel at one thing—exceptional operational planning.

Operational planning is like a backstage pass to the world of business success. It pulls back the curtain, revealing a carefully choreographed dance of tasks, resources, and timelines.

It’s not always glamorous, but it’s the hard work behind the scenes that ensures the show goes on, and the audience (a.k.a. your customers) keep coming back for more.

The statistics don’t lie. Companies that invest in operational planning have a much higher success rate than those that don’t. In fact, a study by The Hackett Group revealed that companies with mature operational planning processes outperform their peers by 20% on key financial metrics. Now, that’s a statistic you can take to the bank.

Next time you’re wondering why your business isn’t reaching its full potential, take a closer look at your operational plan. You might find the missing piece of your success puzzle.

So, welcome aboard, mate! Let’s hoist the anchor and set sail towards a brighter business future. Are you ready? Great! Next stop, understanding the fine line between operational and strategic planning. So hang tight, you’re in for a ride.

Operational vs. Strategic Planning Where's the Beef

Operational vs. Strategic Planning: Where’s the Beef?

Ever get confused about the difference between operational and strategic planning? You’re not alone. Even seasoned business veterans can mix them up. It’s like trying to distinguish between fraternal twins. They may look similar and share a lot of DNA, but they have their own unique quirks and roles. Let’s see if we can clear the fog a bit.

Understand the Crucial Difference Between Strategic and Operational Planning

The quickest way to distinguish the two is by their time horizons and detail levels. Strategic planning is your company’s high-level, long-term game plan. It’s about setting your business vision, mission, and key goals for the next five, ten, or even twenty years. You’re looking at the big picture here, not worrying about every little detail.

Contrarily, operational planning is more like the weekly shopping list for your household. It’s detailed, it’s immediate, and it’s crucial for the smooth functioning of your household, or in this case, your business. It lays out the daily, weekly, or monthly tasks needed to meet the objectives laid out in the strategic plan.

Think of the strategic plan as the GPS coordinates for your business expedition. In contrast, the operational plan is the detailed trail guide, complete with potential obstacles and alternate routes.

The unique roles of strategic and operational planning in your business

Each type of planning plays a crucial role in your business. The strategic plan sets the course, but it’s the operational plan that gets you there.

Let’s take a coffee shop business as an example. Your strategic plan might involve opening 50 stores across the country over the next five years. It’s ambitious, it’s grand, and it’s a little bit intimidating. But that’s what strategic plans are all about.

The operational plan, on the other hand, zooms in on the nitty-gritty. It lays out tasks like hiring baristas, sourcing coffee beans, setting up the store, and designing the menu. Each of these tasks is crucial to opening just one store, let alone fifty.

How these two types of planning interact and overlap

Like peanut butter and jelly, strategic and operational planning are different, but they blend together to make your business run smoothly. The strategic plan provides the vision, while the operational plan provides the action steps to make that vision a reality.

Remember that opening 50 coffee shops goal? The operational plan makes it manageable. Instead of being overwhelmed by the thought of fifty stores, you focus on one store at a time. Each successful store opening is a step towards your strategic goal.

In other words, without an operational plan, your strategic plan is just a dream. And without a strategic plan, your operational plan lacks direction. They’re two halves of a successful business recipe.

Now that we’ve got that sorted, you’re well on your way to becoming a master of business planning. So, let’s keep this train moving and dive into how to create a killer operational plan. It’s easier than you might think. So, stick around, this journey is just getting started.

Creating a Rock-Solid Operational Plan

Creating a Rock-Solid Operational Plan: Step-by-Step Guide

Now that we’ve shed some light on the difference between strategic and operational planning, let’s get down to brass tacks. We’re going to dig into the nitty-gritty of operational planning. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back every step of the way.

So, What Exactly is an Operational Plan and Why Do You Need One?

An operational plan is like your business’s cookbook. It’s got all the recipes and ingredients you need to achieve your business objectives. It outlines the day-to-day tasks, who’s responsible for them, and when they should be completed.

Why do you need one? Without it, your business could look like a ship without a captain, drifting aimlessly in the open sea. A well-crafted operational plan keeps everyone focused, on track, and paddling in the same direction.

The basic anatomy of an operational plan

So, what does an operational plan look like? Here’s the skinny:

  1. Objectives: These are derived from your strategic plan. You’ve got to know where you’re going to figure out how to get there.
  2. Key Tasks: These are the steps you need to take to achieve your objectives. They’re like your recipe instructions.
  3. Responsibilities: Who’s doing what? Assign tasks to your team members based on their skills and roles.
  4. Timelines: When should each task be completed? A good timeline keeps everyone accountable and helps manage workload.
  5. Resources: What tools, equipment, or other resources are needed to complete the tasks? Think of this as your shopping list for your recipe.

Key reasons why your business should have an operational plan

You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint, would you? Same principle applies to your business. An operational plan brings structure, clarity, and direction. It helps everyone understand their roles, improves accountability, and ensures your team is working towards the same goals.

From Vision to Action: Crafting Your Operational Plan

You’ve got your strategic vision – now it’s time to turn it into action. Let’s break down how you do that.

Start with your strategic plan: turning your grand vision into actionable steps

Your strategic plan is like your destination. The operational plan is the roadmap to get there. Break down your strategic objectives into bite-sized tasks. Let’s say your strategic goal is to increase sales by 20% in the next year. An operational task might be to launch a new marketing campaign, improve customer service training, or introduce a new product.

Prioritizing your tasks: focusing on the big wins first

Not all tasks are created equal. Some have a bigger impact on your goals than others. Prioritize your tasks based on their potential impact on your strategic objectives. Remember, it’s not about being busy; it’s about being effective.

The Magic of Metrics: Navigating Your Progress

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Tracking progress is crucial in operational planning.

Using leading indicators to keep your plan on track

Leading indicators are like your GPS. They help you see if you’re on track to reach your objectives. If your goal is to increase sales, a leading indicator might be the number of new leads generated.

The importance of early identification of potential roadblocks

No plan is perfect. There’ll always be hiccups and roadblocks. But if you can anticipate them, you can mitigate their impact. Regularly review your plan and adjust as needed.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Getting Your Team Onboard

A successful operational plan isn’t a one-person show. It involves your whole team.

The importance of team involvement in the planning process

Get your team involved in crafting the operational plan. They’ll provide valuable insights and will be more committed to a plan they helped create. After all, who knows their job better than they do?

Tips for effective communication within your team during operational planning

Keep communication open, clear, and consistent. Ensure everyone understands the plan, their roles, and the overall objectives. Regular check-ins and updates can keep everyone in the loop and foster a sense of teamwork.

Remember, your operational plan is a living document. It will evolve and change as your business grows. But with this guide, you’ve got a solid foundation to start building a plan that can turn your business dreams into reality.

The Ups and Downs of Operational Planning

The Ups and Downs of Operational Planning

Now that you’re well-acquainted with what goes into making an operational plan, let’s chat about the highs and lows. Just like a roller coaster ride, operational planning has its moments of thrilling success and stomach-dropping challenges. But don’t worry, we’re buckled in together for this ride.

Sailing Smooth: How Operational Planning Elevates Your Business

Let’s start with the good stuff. The sweet, sweet benefits of operational planning. It’s like the secret sauce that can take your business from good to great. Let’s spill some of that sauce, shall we?

The benefits of operational planning: increased productivity, profitability, and competitive advantages

  1. Increased Productivity: When everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and when, things just run smoother. Tasks get done faster, there’s less confusion, and your team can work like a well-oiled machine.
  2. Boosted Profitability: With an operational plan, you can identify cost-saving opportunities, streamline processes, and allocate resources more efficiently. All these can help increase your bottom line.
  3. Competitive Advantages: Operational planning can give you the edge over your competition. It helps you anticipate market trends, respond to changes faster, and deliver value to your customers consistently.

Potholes on the Road: Potential Challenges in Operational Planning

But it’s not all smooth sailing. Operational planning has its share of challenges. It’s like navigating through a city with unexpected potholes and traffic jams. Let’s take a closer look at some of these bumps.

The drawbacks of operational planning: potential for human error and issues with interdependencies

  1. Human Error: Mistakes can happen, especially when plans are complex or when communication is not clear. This could lead to delays, increased costs, or even failure to meet objectives.
  2. Issues with Interdependencies: In an operational plan, tasks often depend on each other. If one task is delayed, it can cause a domino effect on the others.

Strategies to mitigate these challenges

But you’ve got this. These challenges can be mitigated with a few smart strategies:

  1. Clear Communication: Keep everyone in the loop about the plan and their roles. Regular updates can prevent misunderstandings and errors.
  2. Contingency Planning: Plan for delays and setbacks. Having a backup plan can keep you on track even when things go wrong.
  3. Regular Reviews: Regularly review and adjust your plan based on progress and changes in the business environment. Flexibility is key.

Conclusion Operational Planning: Not a Luxury, but a Necessity

To sum it up, operational planning is your business’s secret weapon. It increases productivity, boosts profitability, and gives you a competitive edge. Sure, it has its challenges, but with the right strategies, you can navigate through them.

Operational planning is not just some fancy business jargon. It’s a critical tool that helps you turn your vision into reality. It’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

So, here’s your call to action. Don’t wait for the perfect moment or the perfect plan. Start crafting your operational plan today. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be a clear roadmap that helps you and your team move towards your goals.

The Four Functions of Management: Your Secret Sauce to Effective Leadership

four functions of management

Ever felt like you’re trying to juggle water? That’s what management can feel like when you’re trying to balance planning, organizing, leading, and controlling – the four essential functions of management. Let’s unravel this bundle and put your management puzzle together piece by piece.

Now, don’t get discouraged if these four functions seem as elusive as a four-leaf clover. Just as every clover field hides that special four-leafer, every manager has the potential to master these four key functions. So, buckle up and get ready for a deep dive into these essential facets of effective leadership.

Stay tuned for the rest of the article where we’ll take you through each function in detail. But first, let’s jump into the world of planning. It’s a fun place, we promise. Not too much algebra involved.

The Art of Planning

1. The Art of Planning: Your First Step to Successful Management

Did you know that the first step to management success is effective planning? But it’s not just about setting objectives and saying, “Go get ’em, team!” No, it’s about paving a strategic pathway, setting milestones, and giving your team the tools to achieve them.

Mastering Strategic Delegation

Think of your team as a toolbox. You wouldn’t use a wrench to hammer a nail, would you? Each member of your team has their own unique skills and abilities, like tools in a toolbox. Strategic delegation is about recognizing these abilities and assigning tasks accordingly. It’s about empowering your team to put their best foot forward.

Creating Realistic Timelines

Sure, we’d all love to have our cake and eat it too—right now, if possible. But in reality, great work takes time. A realistic timeline gives your team the space they need to produce quality work without the stress of an unreasonable deadline. We’ll guide you on how to gauge the time needed for a task, taking into consideration the complexity, resources, and potential roadblocks.

Balancing Long-term Goals and Short-term Objectives

Climbing a mountain starts with the first step, but without an eye on the peak, you could wander off the path. Your long-term goals are that peak, while your short-term objectives are the steps you take to reach there. You need to juggle both without losing sight of either. Sound tricky? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.

Organizing

2. Organizing: The Second Function of Management

Organizing is not just about keeping your physical workspace tidy; it’s about aligning your team, your resources, and your processes for maximum efficiency. It’s a bit like a game of Tetris, where every piece has its place.

Setting Up Efficient Internal Processes

Processes are the railways on which your business runs. Efficient processes keep your team on track and ensure that your operations run smoothly. We’re here to help you design a streamlined workflow that simplifies tasks and minimizes bottlenecks.

Responding to Challenges with Graceful Reorganization

Ever watched an acrobat juggle? They start with three balls, then four, then five. And when one drops, they don’t panic. They smoothly integrate it back into their pattern. This same skill applies to management. When challenges crop up, you’ll need to adjust and reorganize. We’ll show you how to do it with grace, keeping your team confident and focused.

Leading

3. Leading: The Third Key to Management Mastery

You might’ve heard that a boss says “Go!” while a leader says “Let’s go!” Let’s explore the subtle yet powerful distinction as we dive into the third function of management: leading.

Projecting Confidence Amidst Change

Here’s a little secret: change is just as inevitable in business as it is in life. But here’s the catch: while change might seem scary, it’s also an opportunity for growth and innovation. As a leader, your job is to help your team navigate these changes with confidence and resilience. It’s about saying, “Yes, this is new, but we’ve got what it takes to handle it.”

Becoming a Master Communicator

It’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it. Communication in leadership goes beyond instructions and updates. It’s about creating a dialogue, encouraging feedback, and making sure everyone feels heard. Because when your team feels valued and informed, they’ll move mountains for you.

Controlling

4. Controlling: The Final Piece of the Management Puzzle

The word ‘controlling’ might bring to mind someone with a stern face and a pointing finger, right? Well, let’s change that perception. In management, controlling is all about making sure your team’s efforts align with your organization’s goals. It’s about keeping the ship on course.

Monitoring Performance without Breathing Down Necks

No one likes a micromanager. It’s about checking in, not checking up. Keeping tabs on your team’s performance isn’t about constant surveillance. It’s about fostering an environment where progress can be openly discussed and challenges can be addressed.

Ensuring Quality Without Sacrificing Morale

It’s a delicate balance, isn’t it? You want top-notch work, but you also want a team that’s enthusiastic and motivated. The key is in setting clear expectations, providing the right tools, and celebrating successes. And when improvements are needed, it’s about constructive feedback, not criticism. It’s about saying, “We can do even better.”

Developing Your Management Skills

Developing Your Management Skills: Your Roadmap to Mastering the Four Functions

So, you’ve dipped your toes into the world of management. You’ve explored the four functions and their role in successful leadership. But you’re probably wondering, “How do I develop these skills?” Let’s chart out your journey.

Formal Education vs Real-life Experience

It’s the age-old debate, isn’t it? Classroom learning or on-the-job experience? Theory or practice? Well, here’s the thing: they’re both valuable in their own ways. Formal education can provide you with foundational knowledge and theories. On-the-job experience, on the other hand, throws you into the deep end, giving you a firsthand understanding of real-world scenarios and challenges.

The Value of Mentorship in Management

There’s something incredibly powerful about learning from someone who’s been there, done that. A mentor can provide guidance, share experiences, and offer valuable insights that can shape your journey as a manager. So, don’t hesitate to seek mentorship. It’s like having a backstage pass to a wealth of knowledge and wisdom.

Overcoming Common Obstacles in Management Functions

Overcoming Common Obstacles in Management Functions

We’ve traversed the terrains of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. But it wouldn’t be a complete journey without acknowledging the bumps along the way. You’re bound to encounter hurdles as you implement these management functions. Fear not, though, we’ve got some useful advice on overcoming these common obstacles.

Balancing Act between Autonomy and Control

When it comes to leading, the scale often tips towards either extreme—complete control or total freedom. Neither, in isolation, works well. Your goal as a leader should be to find the right balance. How do you do it?

Try this: Set clear expectations and boundaries, but within that, give your team the freedom to explore and experiment. Let them know you’re there to guide, support, but not hover. It’s a bit like training wheels on a bicycle—they provide safety and support but still allow the rider to pedal independently.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Change is a constant in the business world. But with change often comes resistance from the team. It’s your job as a leader to help your team embrace change, and it starts with communication. Be transparent about what the change entails, the reasons behind it, and its anticipated benefits. Address their concerns, involve them in the process, and make change a collaborative effort.

Navigating Through Uncertainty

Whether it’s market volatility or a project not going as planned, uncertainty is part of the management package. Here’s a mantra for you: plan for the best, prepare for the rest. Have contingency plans in place, foster a culture of adaptability, and remember—uncertainty isn’t always a bad thing. It can lead to unexpected opportunities and drive innovation.

Decision-Making Paralysis

As a manager, decision-making is part of the job description. But too often, fear of making the wrong decision leads to decision-making paralysis. In these moments, remember: not making a decision is a decision in itself, and often not a good one. Gather as much information as you can, weigh your options, and trust your judgment. And if a decision doesn’t pan out as hoped, see it as a learning opportunity, not a failure.

Now that you’re equipped with strategies to overcome these common obstacles, you’re ready to put the four management functions into action. So, go ahead, flex those management muscles, and remember—every challenge is a stepping stone to becoming a more effective leader.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. The mystery of the four functions of management, unraveled. From planning to controlling, each function plays a crucial role in effective leadership. But remember, it’s not just about understanding these functions. It’s about putting them into action, developing these skills, and continuously learning and growing as a leader.

And as you embark on this journey, don’t forget the power of a positive attitude, effective communication, and the willingness to adapt and grow. After all, great managers are made, not born. So, here’s to you and your journey to becoming the best manager you can be. We’re rooting for you!

Top Wrike Alternatives for Project Managers in 2023

Wrike Alternatives

Wrike offers a suite of features that project managers are forever searching for; to streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, and boost productivity.

However, it may not be the perfect fit for every team or organization.

Some may find its extensive feature set overwhelming, while others may seek specific functionalities that Wrike doesn’t offer.

Teams may struggle to navigate a tool that feels too complex, leading to reduced efficiency rather than the promised productivity boost. The absence of desired functionalities can lead to workarounds that complicate workflows. Budget constraints can force organizations to make do with subpar solutions that don’t fully meet their needs.

This article aims to address these challenges by exploring alternatives to Wrike.

Each alternative brings unique strengths to the table, potentially offering the features, pricing, or user experience that better align with your specific needs.

Whether you’re a small team seeking a more streamlined tool, a large organization looking for specific functionalities, or a budget-conscious business, this article is designed to guide you towards the project management software that fits your unique requirements.

Why People Choose Wrike

Why People Choose Wrike

Wrike is a project management software that has gained popularity for its versatility and robustness. It is trusted by over 20,000 organizations worldwide and is designed to boost productivity and focus on work that drives ROI. Here are some reasons why people choose Wrike:

  • Team Coordination: Wrike allows for increased productivity within teams and organizations by bringing all work into a single platform. It helps focus priorities and adapt workflows, serving as a single source of truth.
  • Collaboration and Automation: Wrike provides tools for real-time collaboration, like @mentions and comments, and a powerful automation engine. This helps teams clearly outline targets and exceed their goals.
  • Visibility: Wrike offers fully customizable dashboards that increase visibility across teams and departments. This transparency allows for the early identification of potential bottlenecks.
  • Integration: Wrike integrates with over 400 popular apps, making it a versatile tool that can fit into a variety of workflows. Some of these integrations include Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
  • Customization: Wrike offers features like custom item types and dynamic request forms powered by conditional logic, allowing for a tailored work experience.
  • Resource Management: With features like project resource planning, Wrike enables the planning and allocation of resources for timely delivery.
  • Mobile & Desktop Apps: Wrike provides a robust app experience that allows work from anywhere.

Wrike is designed to serve various teams including marketing, professional services, project management, and IT. Each of these teams can benefit from custom workflows, dynamic reports, resource management tools, and more.

Why Teams May Pivot Away From Wrike

Every project management tool has its strengths and weaknesses, and Wrike is no exception. While it offers features designed to streamline workflows and enhance collaboration, it may not be the perfect fit for every organization.

For smaller teams or startups, the extensive feature set of Wrike might seem like navigating a labyrinth. They might find themselves yearning for a more straightforward tool, one that offers simplicity without compromising on the essentials.

Then there are those teams that have unique needs, needs that Wrike might not cater to. They might be on the lookout for specific functionalities that are critical to their workflows, nudging them to explore alternatives that offer these features.

Budget is another factor that can influence the choice of a project management tool. Wrike’s offer comes with a price tag that might not align with the budget constraints of all organizations, particularly smaller businesses or startups. For them, a more budget-friendly alternative might be the need of the hour.

While Wrike integrates with over 400 popular apps, there could be specific tools that your team relies on, tools that Wrike does not support. In such cases, a tool that supports those specific integrations would be more beneficial.

Lastly, user experience is a subjective matter. Some users might find that a different user interface or user experience aligns more closely with their work style or organizational culture, prompting them to consider other options.

In the following sections, we will explore some alternatives to Wrike that address these potential needs and considerations, helping you find the project management tool that fits your unique requirements like a glove.

Teamly

1. Teamly

Teamly is a project management software specifically designed for remote teams, offering features to enhance collaboration, streamline tasks, and boost productivity.

Why Choose Teamly

In the era of remote work, Teamly stands out as a beacon of productivity and collaboration. Designed with remote teams in mind, Teamly is a comprehensive project management tool that offers a suite of features to keep your team connected, engaged, and productive, no matter where they are in the world.

Real-Time Team Chat: Stay Connected, Always

One of the standout features of Teamly is its real-time chat. This feature ensures that your team stays connected and communication lines remain open. Whether it’s sending a quick message, sharing a file, or starting a video call, Teamly’s chat feature fosters a collaborative environment that is crucial for remote teams. It’s like having your team in the same room, even when they’re miles apart.

Task Management: Organize, Assign, and Track

Task management is at the heart of any project management tool, and Teamly excels in this area. With Teamly, you can assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress all in one place. This feature keeps your team organized and ensures that everyone is on the same page. It’s like having a personal assistant for your team, keeping track of what needs to be done and when.

Screen Capture: Enhance Understanding and Collaboration

Teamly’s screen capture feature is a game-changer for remote teams. It allows team members to share their screens during meetings or discussions, fostering better understanding and collaboration. Whether it’s a design discussion or a code review, screen sharing can make the process smoother and more efficient.

Time Tracking: Boost Productivity and Efficiency

Teamly’s time tracking feature is a boon for remote teams. It allows you to track the time spent on tasks, ensuring that your team is productive and that work is being done efficiently. With this feature, you can ensure that your team’s time is being used effectively, leading to better productivity and results.

Teamly’s Pricing

Teamly offers a range of plans to suit different team sizes and needs:

  • Free Plan: Ideal for small teams or startups, offering basic features like 2.5 GB storage, 1,000 active chat messages, and 1 project.
  • Starter Plan ($47/month): For growing teams, providing enhanced features such as 5 GB storage, unlimited active chat messages, and 5 projects.
  • Business Plan ($97/month): Perfect for larger teams requiring advanced features, including 10 GB storage, unlimited projects, and unlimited active chat messages.

All plans come with a free 14-day trial, allowing you to evaluate Teamly’s features. Start your free trial today.

Asana

2. Asana

Asana provides teams with a centralized platform to organize, track, and manage their work efficiently.

Why Choose Asana

Asana is ideal for project management, task tracking, and workflow organization. It’s used by marketing teams to plan and track campaigns, operations teams to streamline processes, and product teams to manage shipping and launches. It’s also a popular choice for remote teams, providing a platform to collaborate and manage work from anywhere.

Key Features

Asana offers a range of features to enhance team productivity and project management.

These include:

  • Asana Intelligence: AI for Asana to amplify your team’s impact
  • Workflow Builder: Create automated processes to coordinate your teams
  • Timeline: Build a Gantt chart in minutes
  • Boards: See and track your work on Kanban boards
  • Calendar: View your team’s work on one shared calendar
  • App Integrations: Asana brings apps together to support your team
  • Reporting: Get real-time insight into progress on any stream of work
  • Goals: Set strategic goals and track progress in one place
  • Forms: Submit and manage work requests in one place
  • Automation: Streamline processes, reduce errors, and spend less time on routine tasks

Pricing and Free Trial

Asana offers a free version for teams of up to 15 people.

Their paid plans include:

  • Premium: $10.99 per user per month when billed annually and $13.49 per user per month when billed monthly. This plan is ideal for teams that need to create project plans with confidence.
  • Business: $24.99 per user per month when billed annually and $30.49 when billed monthly. This plan is suitable for teams and companies that need to manage work across initiatives.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing. This plan is for organizations that need additional security, control, and support.

Asana also offers a 50% discount for eligible nonprofit organizations on an Asana Premium or Asana Business annual plan.

Nifty

3. Nifty

Nifty brings all aspects of project planning, tracking, and collaboration into one neat package.

Why Choose Nifty?

Nifty is versatile and can be used by different teams for various purposes. Agile development teams can use it to manage sprints and backlogs, while client management teams can use it to keep track of client interactions and deliverables. Digital agencies, legal teams, marketing teams, and product teams can all benefit from Nifty’s comprehensive suite of tools.

Key Features

Nifty offers a range of features designed to facilitate project management:

  • Discussions: Facilitate communication within your team.
  • Roadmaps (Gantt Chart): Visualize your project timeline and progress.
  • Tasks: Assign and track tasks.
  • Forms: Collect and manage data.
  • Docs & Files: Store and share documents and files.
  • Time Tracking: Monitor the time spent on tasks.
  • Reporting: Generate reports to analyze performance.
  • Project Home: Centralize all your project information.
  • Project Portfolios: Manage multiple projects at once.

Pricing and Free Trial

Nifty offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time. Here are the pricing plans:

  • Free: Best to get you started. It’s free forever for unlimited members. It includes 100 MB storage space and 2 active projects.
  • Starter: Includes all core features. It costs $39 per month for 10 team members. It includes 100 GB storage space, 40 active projects, and unlimited guests & clients.
  • Pro: Great for growing teams. It costs $79 per month for up to 20 team members. It includes 500 GB storage space, unlimited active projects, and unlimited guests & clients.
  • Business: Best for advanced teams. It costs $124 per month for up to 50 team members. It includes 1TB storage space, unlimited active projects, and unlimited guests & clients.
  • Enterprise: A fully scaled solution. It costs $399 per month and includes unlimited team members. It includes unlimited storage space, unlimited active projects, and unlimited guests & clients.

nTask

4. nTask

An all-in-one project management tool that offers comprehensive features to streamline your tasks, projects, and team collaboration.

Why Choose nTask?

nTask has a deep range of features designed for project managers to be more effective in their duties. It’s designed to be user-friendly so busy teams can pick it up and get started. Teams of all sizes will find it easy to collaborate and stay organized. With nTask, you can manage tasks, projects, meetings, issues, risks, and more, all in one place.

Key Features

  • Task Management: Create, assign, and track tasks with ease.
  • Project Planning: Plan and manage your projects with Gantt charts and other project planning tools.
  • Collaboration Tools: Collaborate with your team in real-time with built-in communication and file-sharing tools.
  • Meeting Management: Schedule and manage all your meetings in one place.
  • Issue and Risk Management: Track and manage issues and risks to ensure your projects run smoothly.
  • Time Tracking: Keep track of the time spent on tasks and projects.

Pricing and Free Trial

  • Basic Plan (Free): Unlimited tasks and workspaces, 100 MB storage, limited features available at this level.
  • Premium Plan ($2.99/user/month): All features of the Free plan, unlimited projects and team members, 5 GB storage, advanced features like Gantt charts, custom roles, and priority support.
  • Business Plan ($7.99/user/month): All features of the Premium plan, 10 GB storage, additional features like risk management, issue tracking, and custom fields
  • Enterprise Plan (custom pricing): All features of the Business plan, unlimited storage, additional features like API access, custom onboarding, and dedicated support.

nTask offers a free trial for its Premium, Business, and Enterprise plans. You can try out the features of these plans for free before deciding to upgrade.

The Pros & Cons of Jira

5. Jira

Jira by Atlassian is a powerful project management tool that helps teams plan, track, and manage agile software development projects.

Why Choose Jira

Jira is a tool for teams of all sizes. It is designed to improve team collaboration and work management. With Jira, teams can plan, track, and manage all their agile software development projects in one place. It offers customizable workflows, advanced reporting, and a multitude of integrations, making it a versatile tool for project management.

Key Features

  • Customizable Workflows: Every team has their own style for moving work from ‘to do’ to ‘done.’ Jira allows you to create a custom workflow that helps your team work as efficiently as possible.
  • Advanced Reporting: Jira provides access to more than 12 default reports with real-time, actionable insights into how your team is performing over time.
  • Automation: Automate any task or process in a few clicks. With global and multi-project automation, you can automate across as many projects as you need with a single rule.
  • Project Archiving: Archive projects and their associated issues when they’re no longer active to keep projects tidy, helping ensure everyone on your team has the most updated information.
  • Admin Insights: Gain visibility and a better understanding of your product usage with data such as level of security and access and activity over time.
  • IP Allowlisting: Bolster your team’s security by limiting your site access to trusted IP ranges.
  • Sandbox & Release Tracks: Prepare, test, and experiment with products and apps before making changes to your live production environment.

Pricing and Free Trial

  • Free Plan: For small teams looking to get started with Jira. It includes basic features like backlog management, scrum and kanban boards, and agile reporting.
  • Standard Plan: Priced at $7.75 per user/month, this plan includes all the features of the Free plan, plus additional features like advanced permissions, custom fields, and project roles.
  • Premium Plan: Priced at $15.25 per user/month, this plan includes all the features of the Standard plan, plus advanced features like global and multi-project automation, audit logs, and unlimited storage.
  • Enterprise Plan: This plan is designed for larger organizations and includes all the features of the Premium plan, plus additional features like data residency, 24/7 premium support, and unlimited global and multi-project automation.

Jira offers a 7-day free trial for the Standard and Premium plans.

ProofHub

6. ProofHub

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and team collaboration software.

Why Choose ProofHub

ProofHub brings all your projects, tasks, and team collaboration needs under one roof. It eliminates the need for multiple tools, saving you time and money. You’ll plan, track, and manage projects of any size, from simple to complex, across your team from one platform. It offers custom workflows to map your team’s process from start to finish, keeping everyone on the same page as work progresses.

Key Features

  • Gantt Chart: Set dependencies, pinpoint roadblocks, and stay ahead of deadlines.
  • Board View: Visualize project progress, spot bottlenecks, and create unique workflows.
  • Table View: Easily update the status, resources, comments, and progress of multiple projects.
  • Calendar: See events, reminders, tasks, and milestones all in one place.
  • Time Tracking: Accurately track your team’s time and create time reports in one place.
  • Proofing: Review and proof files with markup tools and approve them right where you are.
  • Chat: Have quick one-on-one and group chat with teams and clients.
  • Custom Roles: Create custom roles and decide who gets to access what.
  • Project Templates: Save time by adding project templates and use them to later create similar projects.

Pricing and Free Trial

  • Essential Plan: $45 per month (billed annually) or $50 per month (billed monthly). This plan includes 40 projects, unlimited users, 15GB storage, and core features.
  • Ultimate Control Plan: $89 per month (billed annually) or $99 per month (billed monthly). This plan includes unlimited projects, unlimited users, 100GB storage, and additional features such as custom roles, white labeling, workflows, project manager, IP restrictions, API access, advanced activity logs, and priority support.

ProofHub offers a 14-day free trial with unlimited projects and no credit card required. They also offer discounts for non-profits.

Why People Choose Basecamp

7. Basecamp

Basecamp is a simple platform designed to reduce complexity and make project management more of a joy.

Why Choose Basecamp?

Basecamp stands out in the project management space due to its simplicity and user-friendly design. Basecamp’s design avoids the trap of feature overload that can make some project management tools overwhelming to use. Simplicity in this way makes it a suitable choice for businesses that need a straightforward solution to project management.

Key Features

  • Message Board: A central place for team discussions, reducing the need for lengthy email threads.
  • To-dos: Clear visibility of tasks for the whole team, helping everyone stay on track.
  • Docs & Files: An integrated solution for file sharing, eliminating the need to switch between apps.
  • Campfire: A chat tool within each project, providing a focused space for real-time communication.
  • Schedule: A built-in tool for managing key dates, making it easier to keep track of project timelines.
  • Card Table: A visual way to track progress, reducing the need for status update meetings.

Pricing and Free Trial

  • Basecamp: This plan is designed for freelancers, startups, or smaller teams. It includes all the essential features, 500 GB of storage for files & documents, and costs $15/user per month. You can also invite guests at no extra cost.
  • Basecamp Pro Unlimited: This plan is ideal for larger businesses and groups. It includes all available features, a 1:1 onboarding tour with the Basecamp team, 10x file & document storage (5 TB), priority support, and additional administrative controls. This plan costs $299/month for unlimited users when billed annually, or $349/month if you prefer to pay month-to-month.

Both plans include a 30-day free trial, and no credit card is required to sign up.

Hive

8. Hive

A flexible project management tool that adapts to your team’s workflow.

Why Choose Hive?

Hive is a project management tool that is designed to meet your team’s unique workflow. It offers a range of features that can be customized to fit your team’s needs, making it a great choice for teams of all sizes and industries. Hive’s flexibility allows it to be used for a variety of use cases, from managing simple tasks to coordinating complex projects.

Key Features

  • Task Management: Assign and manage tasks and sub-tasks with ease. You can assign multiple team members to a task and set up recurring tasks for regular work.
  • Collaboration: Hive offers unlimited notes for team collaboration. Share and collaborate on notes with your team members.
  • Project Management: With Hive, you can manage unlimited projects. Track progress across all your initiatives with ease.
  • Forms and Pages: Streamline your project intake with unlimited forms. Highlight important elements of your projects with unlimited pages.

Pricing and Free Trial

  • Free Plan: This plan is free forever and includes up to 10 users, 200MB storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited notes, and 10 projects. It also includes 5 forms and 2 pages.
  • Teams Plan: This plan costs $12 per user per month and includes unlimited users, unlimited storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited notes, and unlimited projects. It also includes unlimited forms and pages.
  • Enterprise Plan: For teams that need a full suite of add-ons, extra support, and enterprise security. The pricing for this plan is available upon request.

A 14-day free trial is available for those looking to try the Teams plan before committing.

Scoro

9. Scoro

Scoro is a work management solution designed to streamline work and eliminate routine tasks.

Why Choose Scoro

Scoro offers features for project management, billing, and reporting. It’s designed to bring your team, projects, sales, and reports together in one place, making it easier for businesses to manage their work more efficiently. Scoro is highly customizable, allowing it to fit into your workflow seamlessly.

Key Features

  • Project Management: Scoro allows you to manage each project from a single page, including time spent and billed, planned tasks and meetings, invoices and expenses, comments and files.
  • Work Scheduling & Tracking: Scoro provides a real-time overview of everyone’s workload, realistic deadlines, potential overbookings & available slots.
  • Financial Management: From the first hello to the final invoice, Scoro sets your mind at ease about every aspect of your business.
  • CRM & Quoting: Track all sales opportunities and deals, and manage your sales pipeline with comprehensive CRM tools.
  • Reporting & Dashboard: Scoro’s highly customizable dashboards and reports allow you to monitor exactly what you need.
  • Task Management & Time Tracking: With Scoro, you can schedule tasks and track time with ease.

Pricing and Free Trial

Scoro offers a free trial and four different pricing tiers, each with its own set of features. There is also a minimum requirement of 5 users for each plan:

  • Essential Plan: Starting at $26 per user per month, features include projects, calendars, task lists, contacts & customers, quotes, invoices & receipts, bills, dashboards, detailed work reports, and summary financial reports.
  • Standard Plan: Starting at $37 per user per month, includes everything in Essential, plus Gantt charts, time tracker, project templates, purchase orders, expenses, recurring tasks, multiple currencies, triggers & actions, and detailed financial reports.
  • Pro Plan: Starting at $63 per user per month, includes everything in Standard, plus planner, project budgets, timesheet & time locking, track billable time, task matrix, sales pipeline & report, margin and markup, labor cost, supplier management, late invoice reminders, and utilization report.
  • Ultimate Plan: Custom pricing, includes everything in Pro, plus single sign-on, unlimited custom fields, budgets & forecasts, orders & contracts, customer portal, supplier management, WIP report, and multi-account reporting.

How To Choose the Right Project Management Tool

How To Choose the Right Project Management Tool

Choosing the right project management tool is an important decision that could lead to years of collaboration. Finding a tool that aligns with your team’s needs, work style, and budget is an essential quest for project managers and their teams.

Here are some key factors to consider:

  • Ease of Use: The tool should be user-friendly and intuitive, minimizing the learning curve for your team.
  • Features: Look for features that are essential for your team’s workflow. This could include task management, time tracking, real-time chat, and more.
  • Pricing: Consider your budget and the pricing structure of the tool. Some tools offer a flat rate, while others charge per user.
  • Scalability: As your team grows, your project management tool should be able to scale with you.

We think all these boxes are ticked by Teamly.

Designed with remote teams in mind, Teamly offers a suite of features including real-time chat, task management, screen capture video & audio recording, and employee time tracking. It’s easy to use, even if you’ve never worked with team software before, and it’s completely free.

With Teamly, you can bypass steep learning curves, skip endless onboarding sessions, and get your team up to speed lightning-fast. Plus, it’s scalable and integrates well with other tools, making it a versatile choice for any team, any time.

Remember, the right project management tool can significantly enhance your team’s productivity and efficiency.

So, take your time to explore your options and choose wisely.

Best Practices for Project Management in the Manufacturing Industry

manufacturing project management

They say that change is constant, but for manufacturing, change is both constant and rapid. It wasn’t so very long ago that agile, kanban, lean and the theory of constraints took manufacturing plants by storm, and everyone was focused on pull workflows, continuous improvement and systems built around the weakest link in a process.

Now, it’s an entirely new can of worms. Phrases like the 4th Industrial Revolution, digital twin, and predictive maintenance are more than buzzwords that float around the office. They’re concepts that pose to upset the entire manufacturing industry.

For a project manager this poses a real challenge. You may have received your training in one set of skills, yet the current landscape demands something entirely different. It’s a bit like being on a treadmill that’s going faster than you can run. Yet if you can’t keep pace with change, the organization becomes obsolete.

With the right focus, however, things needn’t spin out of control. Managing projects in the manufacturing industry requires many of the same systems and processes as before. And with the dawn of this 4th Industrial Revolution, there’s a few more skills besides. Let’s consider some of these changes, the challenges they pose, and the skills and tools required to assist with managing a project in manufacturing.

Manufacturing The New Landscape

Manufacturing: The New Landscape

Automations, artificial intelligence and robots pose significant changes to the manufacturing industry. While no one knows the full impact of these changes, some experts believe that they will upset the entire current systems of manufacturing. Others believe that many production processes will remain the same, but the overall efficiency will increase.

Many of these changes are already taking place. According to some statistics, the number of robots used in factories around the world has more than doubled over the last decade. In manufacturing industries like India and China, digitization is the top priority for upper management.

Let’s look at some of the components of this manufacturing revolution, and consider how each might impact current processes.

3-d Printing (Additive Manufacturing)

3-D printers have been around for some time, but it’s only in the past few years that they have become sophisticated enough to incorporate into a manufacturing system. These printers re-create objects out of plastics using a computer model. Their key advantage is the ability to create complex items that couldn’t be created by hand.

This capacity to recreate objects in 3-D, also known as additive manufacturing, is utilized for small items and will improve overall efficiency in the manufacturing process. It also allows for greater customization. They can also create 3-dimensional models from a 2-dimensional image, which offers a wealth of new opportunities to designers. Similarly, manufacturing software development plays a key role in enhancing these technological advancements.

Digital Twin

A digital twin simulates a manufacturing process. It is similar to business process modeling which allows managers to test changes to manufacturing processes without making the changes in real life.

Digital twin has many practical applications to manufacturing. For example, it has been used in designing self-driving cars. Using digital twins, a traffic situation is simulated, which allows designers and manufacturers to design and program these cars for ultimate safety.

Predictive Maintenance and Analytics

Predictive maintenance is a process of fixing problems before they start. It collects and analyzes data to identify maintenance or repair issues and assign resources to the right equipment in real time. Naturally, this technology should save time and resources in the manufacturing process. Predictive maintenance is possible in part due to the internet of things, which we’ll define next.

Internet of Things

Smart technology has connected so many of our everyday devices. It allows our phone to speak to the refrigerator and our computer at the same time. And this technology has a huge impact on manufacturing. It allows for remote asset monitoring, as explained above. With technology like this, gemba walks are a thing of the past. Plant managers needn’t peruse the plant to oversee the production line. Rather, technology can conduct this surveillance and report it back to the manager.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI), as the name suggests, is a computer-based intelligence. It allows computers and robots to perform tasks that formerly could only be performed by a person. It’s abundantly clear how AI poses to upset the manufacturing industry. As robotic technology replaces human labor, it could lead to massive redundancies and complete transformation of manufacturing processes.

As you can see, the 4th Industrial Revolution presents many new possibilities, and with each comes its own set of challenges. It compels organizations and project managers to incorporate strategic agility, and to develop new skills to adapt to changing landscape. Now let’s consider some of these challenges.

New Processes & Challenges in Manufacturing

New Processes & Challenges in Manufacturing

Manufacturing has been slower to adapt to automation and smart technology than other industries like IT. This is probably due to the many challenges that it poses. Let’s review some of these central challenges.

Implementation & Resistance to Change

While the leaders in manufacturing are enthusiastic about the possibilities of a digitization, implementation is the real stumbling block. Age old processes develop deep grooves, and upsetting these processes inevitably encounters resistance. Fortunately, resistance to change can be navigated. Getting the top brass on board with big changes and identifying change evangelists within the organization are two key methods to successful implementation.

No Data

It’s so common for processes to operate through memory, and to have no paper trail or proper documentation. This makes it difficult to identify how and where digital technology would benefit the current system. Documenting processes and gathering data are two initial steps that help identify where automations improve the bottom line, and where things can remain as they are.

Little Skilled Labor

At the same time that executives embrace new technologies, the skill sets necessary to apply this technology are still somewhat rare. Oftentimes manufacturing plants aren’t located in glamorous California coastal cities, but rather in remote and obscure places. This makes it harder to recruit niche talent to do the job.

Placing an emphasis on educating current employees helps to mitigate this challenge. When current employees are brought up to speed, it allows for a more fluid transition into the changes brought about by the 4th Industrial Revolution.

An Unknown Landscape

Things like 3-D printing, AI, robots and digital twins are so fresh and new that manufacturers still don’t know their full capacity. And this unknown translates to a lot of experimentation, trial and error. Nor have any of these technologies actually performed the real manufacturing. And so the disparity between the AI model and real life also poses challenges. As a possible solution, companies can set aside a portion of its budget to think tanks and experimentation, hedging their bets that the investment, ultimately, will pay off.

And this presents just some of the challenges that the 4th Industrial Revolution poses to the manufacturing industry. Let’s now turn to some of the skill sets that a project manager might develop in order to effectively navigate these challenges.

New Skills for Project Managers

New Skills for Project Managers

At the same time that many things have changed for manufacturing, plenty of things still remain the same. The skill set for a project manager, then, requires some of the old and some of the new. Let’s consider some of the strategies a project manager utilizes in order to successfully navigate manufacturing in the current era.

Use Strategic Agility

Strategic agility refers to an organization’s ability to adapt and change. This includes decision agility, which means understanding the new opportunities and challenges in the market, and execution agility, which is applying this knowledge. And so a project manager must understand both how AI technology can benefit the bottom line of his or her organization, and then execute on these changes as well.

Strategic agility is a component of the company’s culture, and so integrating this skill means incorporating its principles into the mission statement and everyday life of the workplace.

Broaden Skill Sets

The role of project manager has many responsibilities and requires specific skills. However, implementing new technology often requires a thorough knowledge of the manufacturing process as well. If the industry produces airbags and seat belts for cars, then a successful project manager understands all of the materials and equipment required for this process. Understanding the ins and outs of the manufacturing process is at the crux of a forward-thinking project manager.

Consider Both Team and Customer Perspectives

The customer comes first in any organization, naturally. But cultivating a healthy culture and functional team is part and parcel to delivering value to the customers. And so a project manager needs to have his or her eye on both the team and the customer in order to make good decisions and keep quality the number one priority.

Coach for Autonomy

An effective project manager cultivates a sense of autonomy and ownership within all members of a team. Rather than entering a work situation and dispensing advice, this approach entails asking lots of questions. A project manager asks workers about the processes they use, what assumptions those processes are based on, and encourages collaboration across teams to share and increase knowledge and best practices. With this approach, employees become conditioned to think and act for themselves.

Gather Comprehensive Feedback

Knowledge is power. When a project manager makes a practice of speaking to everyone in a manufacturing process, it provides a complete picture of the strengths and weaknesses in a current system. Questions like “What is the best part of the company?”, “What would you improve, if you could” and “What are the tools that you need to better do your job?” help to tease out critical information, and highlight areas for improvement.

Lead Transparently

No one likes being spoken down to. And an organization that conceals important information and never discloses income or revenue cultivates an obsequious environment where hard-working employees feel they’re treated like children.

A transparent work culture, however, immediately changes the tone. Exposing numbers, revenue goals and targets makes employees feel like stakeholders. This empowerment elevates enthusiasm and rapport. It increases the team’s adaptability and decreases its resistance to change.

Share Best Practices

Anyone who does the same thing over and over again year after year becomes proficient in their profession. They discover efficiencies and develop a high level skill. However, if everyone works in silo, this expertise is hidden under a blanket. Making a practice of collaborating and sharing knowledge cultivates synergy. People can learn from each other, and the growth of the company compounds.

And this covers some of the top skills required for managers in the manufacturing industry. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools to assist as well. Let’s look at those next.

Manufacturing Software for Project Managers

New technologies like digital twin, robotics and AI can be intimidating. But fortunately, plenty of smart manufacturing softwares are ready at hand to provide assistance. Some of these softwares are decades old, while others are up and coming. Some operate on the cloud, while others are downloaded to a hard drive. All of them provide a sophisticated system for incorporating new technologies into your current manufacturing process. Let’s look into three of the top softwares.

Tebis

1. Tebis

Tebis is a decades old software that started in Germany. Its forward-thinking team of executives has positioned it as a leader in computer aided machinery (CAM). Tebis provides tools to assist with quality assurance, reverse engineering, and manufacturing planning and design. It offers many of the advancements of the digital revolution, including digital twin and preventative maintenance.

For project managers who are still getting up to speed with the advancements of the 4th Revolution, Tebis provides consulting services that highlight those areas for development and improvement. Plus, this software has an active online community for sharing best practices. Its numerous video tutorials and articles make it easy to get up to speed quickly on the software as well.

Fusion 360

2. Fusion 360

Fusion 360 is a computer aided design (CAD) software developed by Autodesk. It operates off of the cloud, and is the first software of its kind to do so.

Fusion 360 is suitable for many professions including machinist, industrial designer, mechanical engineer and industrial engineer. Its capabilities include 3-D design and modeling, team collaboration, additive manufacturing (3-D printing) and simulations. All these tools create more efficient processes and keep manufacturing plants interconnected.

Fusion offers a 30-day free trial. It provides several plans, including a one year subscription for $300-$500 a year, or bundle options that are either monthly or tri-yearly. This software is also suitable for educational and personal purposes.

Siemans

3. Siemans

Siemens is a software company based out of Plano, Texas that offers simulations, 3-D printing and data management. This software is suitable for manufacturing in multiple industries, including aerospace and automotive supply chain, agricultural machinery, medical devices and robotic devices.

The website provides helpful example videos that serve as tutorials and models to determine whether the software is right for your business.

Siemens is available both in the subscription model, or as a software to purchase with a perpetual license. For anyone interested in trying them out, they offer a 30-day free trial.

These sophisticated softwares are just the thing for a project manager looking to up his or her game in the manufacturing industry.

Conclusion

For manufacturing, the good old days aren’t so very long ago. It’s been just a few decades since everyone was learning how to incorporate scrum and agile into its systems, and now it’s a whole new ballgame.

Project managers still face the same problems of yesterday, and so need to master skills like fast tracking, crashing and network diagrams. Yet the 4th Industrial Revolution poses a whole new set of advancements, including digital twin and 3-D printing. And with them come new challenges.

Some of the skills for navigating these challenges include strategic agility and transparent leadership. And it’s necessary to be forward thinking and develop a broad knowledge base not only of project management, but of the manufacturing process as well. Many sophisticated tools, fortunately assist with this.

As a project manager, What is your greatest hope for new technology? What is your greatest challenge?

No Show? Here’s How to Politely & Impactfully Email Someone Who Missed a Meeting.

Sample Email to Someone Who Missed a Meeting - Teamly

You show up for a scheduled call. Five minutes go by. After ten, you can decide to call it. Whoever you’re waiting for has probably missed the meeting. Ugh.

Whether it’s an employee, colleague, manager, client, or potential client, this can be a frustrating roadblock, especially if it’s recurring. When someone misses a meeting, not only is it a poor use of your time. It can make it harder to move whatever you’re working on according to schedule. But take a minute before following up with a message you’ll regret. Keep in mind that there are plenty of reasons someone might not have showed, and by politely sending a well-written email to someone who missed a meeting, you give yourself a better shot of maintaining the relationship and reaching your ideal outcomes.

If you’re someone who already struggles with writing emails, figuring out how to navigate an email when you’re frustrated or stressed might prove to be especially challenging. That’s why today, we’re covering some best practices for professional emails, offering a structure, and sharing some email templates to someone who missed a meeting.

Best practices for professional emails

Best practices for professional emails

Let’s start with some best practices for any kind of professional email.

Some of these go without saying, but they’re worth reiterating. Bottom line: no one likes getting a passive-aggressive email! Nor a long one. Nor one that’s missing context. And this is rarely the best way to get the point across. So before you draft your email to someone who missed a meeting, remember these tips.

  • Be polite and direct. First things first – keep the purpose of this email to communication. Save any frustrations or feelings for your next conversation. Avoid passive-aggressive phrases like “as you weren’t in the meeting,” and keep your message to the point. They might have a valid reason, or there was a misunderstanding. By giving them the benefit of the doubt, you take a solution-oriented approach to moving forward.
  • Short and organized. Choose an email format that’s easy to understand. Short sentences, clear headers, and consistent formatting will make it easier for the person who missed the meeting to follow. Include key takeaways as bullet points or suggest a time to follow up when you can go over the topic in more detail. If the email gets too long, consider linking to additional documents that support your message rather than including everything in the body of an email.
  • Give context. It can also be useful for the person who missed the meeting to have context around the purpose, tone, or key roles of the meeting. Start with a summary before dropping into the action items.
  • Call to action or next steps. Rather than wasting more time on an unending email chain or unclear follow-ups, ensure that your email has a clear call to action or next steps. What would you like them to do after reading and reviewing the email? Schedule another call? Action something on the project? Give clear deliverables so the person who missed the meeting can make it up.

Writing an Email to Someone Who Missed a Meeting

Writing an Email to Someone Who Missed a Meeting

Sending your follow up? Here are some of the most important sections to include.

  • Introduction
  • Context
  • Important points
  • Supporting links or documents
  • Next steps – how to reschedule, follow up, or move forward with the project

While the exact contents of the email will be determined on a case-by-case basis, this structure serves as a good foundation for any professional email you write!

Email Templates to Someone Who Missed a Meeting

Below are some email templates to someone who missed a meeting, along with context about when you might use them. The key is to use these as a framework, while adapting to your tone or situation.

Reschedule request to an external who missed a call

Hi {NAME},

Wanted to follow up on the {purpose of meeting} we had scheduled for {time of meeting}. Know your schedule is probably packed, but would love to share some ideas about how we can work together on {their project} like {interesting idea}. Are you still interested?

If you’re up to reschedule, you can book an appointment {booking link}. Speak with you soon.

{your name}

Reschedule request to a team member or current client

Hi {NAME},

We missed each other for the {purpose of meeting} we had scheduled for {time of meeting}.

Are you free to reschedule {suggested times}? I’d like to discuss {topic} and a meeting would go a long way. You can book an appointment {booking link}

Let me know?

{your name}

Meeting Summary, reschedule

Hi {NAME},

We had a {purpose of meeting} meeting {time of meeting}. Wanted to send a follow up with some key points.

  • {Key point}
  • {Key point}
  • {Key point}
  • {Any supporting documents, more about the project}

Let’s plan to schedule another call {time} so we can go over these? You can take a look at my calendar to reschedule {booking link}. Be in touch soon!

{your name}

Meeting Summary, no reschedule

Hi {NAME},

We had a {purpose of meeting} meeting {time of meeting} and I wanted to send a follow up with some key points.

  • {Key point}
  • {Key point}
  • {Key point}
  • {Any supporting documents, more about the project}

The next steps are {next steps}. Please let me know if you have any questions and we can have a brief call to discuss?

{your name}

Frequently missed meetings

Hi {name},

I noticed you haven’t been at our {purpose of meeting} the last couple times. Is there another time or format that will work better for your schedule?

It’s important that we cover {topic} and this {timeframe} check-in will be of significant help. You can take a look at my calendar to reschedule {booking link}

{your name}

Ongoing scheduling issues

Hi {name},

Sorry we keep missing each other! Would still love to speak about {topic} when it works out. The gist is {quick summary}.

You can pick a time that works for you {booking link}, but if our schedules don’t match, let me know and I’ll find another time that works for you.

Thanks and looking forward to connecting!

{your name}

You can check some more follow up email templates on skrapp.

How to improve meeting scheduling

How to improve meeting scheduling

If missed meetings are a recurring problem for you or your team, there are a few steps you can take to improve things! Here are our best suggestions…

Use a scheduling tool

Rather than relying on phone tag or getting lost in email limbo, having a scheduling tool with your up-to-date calendar is a powerful and efficient way to manage your meeting schedule. Modern booking tools like Calendly, Acuity, etc., allow clients to view bookable time slots, automatically showing your availability and updating your calendar when booked. Your client management software might also have this function built in.

Calendar invitation with agenda and joining information

People are more likely to show when they know what to expect from a meeting. By adding event details to the calendar or sending an email ahead of the call with agenda items, both parties are more accountable and have an opportunity to prepare. The meeting becomes a better use of everyone’s time!

The same goes for adding join information to the calendar event. Make sure it’s obvious how and when to join the call when the scheduled time arrives.

Reminder Emails

And to have the very best chance of someone showing up for a meeting – use reminders! This can be an automated email with joining information 24 hours before the event or a quick email in the days leading up, noting that you’re looking forward to the meeting and what you’d like to achieve.

In summary…

No one likes getting stood up for a meeting. But a passive-aggressive or disorganized email will get you no closer to restoring the relationship or completing your project!

Use these email templates to someone who missed a meeting to guide a productive and tactful follow-up so you can get back on track.