Digital marketing involves a lot of moving parts — and a lot of team members wearing multiple hats. Collaboration is crucial to projects’ success.

Unfortunately, old-school apps and systems don’t lend themselves to collaboration. Have you ever worked on a digital marketing team where everyone was juggling multiple versions of files, getting hung up in the review process, or running out of space on their hard drive? I have.

That’s why I recommend these tools that will streamline your workflow and cut out the need to check a bunch of different apps or spend way too much time organizing email. Even better, most of these apps are web-based, helping you keep everything safe in the cloud.

The power of the Adobe Creative Suite has been transferred to the cloud and given a unified approach that enables collaboration. The apps, which include Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, now integrate with each other and allow easy sharing and commenting among team members.

You can gather your colors, fonts, and assets in “Libraries” that your entire team can access, and you can also track versions of files.

Pros:

Includes a comprehensive suite of apps for virtually any design project
Allows easy communication across apps
Offers tutorials and other resources

Cons:

Is initially challenging to learn

Airtable markets itself to digital marketing teams, and once you discover how flexible and powerful it is, you’ll want to use it to organize everything in your life. The concept is “spreadsheets on steroids” — Airtable offers a classic grid view, but instead of having data in rows, allows you to expand each “record” into an interactive document with customizable fields.

For digital marketing teams, this functionality is great because team members can attach images, PDFs, and even videos to records, then sort and filter them by customizable criteria. It’s a great way to build a content calendar, organise assets, or track project status.

Pros:

Includes templates for content calendars, marketing plans, and other project management tools
Is highly customizable and allows you to have different “views” for each set of data
Is based in the cloud so that your data is always safe
Offers a mobile app

Cons:

Can be very confusing at first, even with templates
Places some of its best features behind the paywall

Asana is a project management app that many digital marketing teams will find appealing, not only for its attractive design but also for its robust task management and customizable project views.

Unlike a lot of classic project management systems, Asana offers “Conversations” that enable teams to quickly chat about tasks, files, and plans.

Pros:

Offers task dependencies, milestones, and Gantt charts
Integrates with third-party apps
Allows clients to communicate with your team

Cons:

Takes time to set up

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Most digital marketing teams have a lot of content that they need to track, and you just can’t do that easily if the documents are scattered across hard drives or email accounts. Enter Bit, which allows you to gather your assets in one place and track engagement with them.

Even better, Bit allows team members and clients to work together on documents in real time. Your team has access to “Workspaces” that will notify them when documents are created or changed.

Pros:

Features a customizable, attractive interface
Offers document templates and the ability to make documents interactive
Permits you to track views, reads, and other engagement metrics on your documents

Cons:

A mobile app is not available.

For digital marketing teams, the ability to get answers and share files quickly is crucial to getting projects done, especially under tight deadlines. Brief allows team members to do just this.

Brief features the ability to turn any message into a task and provides a central place for chat, to-dos, and file sharing. For digital marketing teams, Brief can facilitate file review, collaborative copyediting, and video conferencing.

Pros:

Enables you to turn any message into a task with one click
Includes hubs to organize your teams, chats, tasks and files
Has a user-friendly, elegant interface
Allows you to share files of any size
Offers exceptional-quality video and audio calls through integration with Zoom
Is free for teams

Cons:

Has few integrations so far

Like Slack, Chanty is a messaging service with a dash of AI. If your team is on the talkative side, Chanty can save you time through predictive texting. Because it allows you to share and comment on files, it’s a great collaboration tool as well.

Chanty keeps tasks and conversation threads in the same place so that you don’t have to bounce between apps, but its real power for digital marketing teams is that it allows you to view rich media and code blocks right there in the app, which is great for reviewing content

Pros:

Allows you to search all conversations, tasks, and files
Is simple and easy to use
Includes a mobile app

Cons:

Has few third-party integration options

Dropbox is a well-known file storage solution, but its secret superpower is that it’s also a collaboration tool. Team members can comment on documents and request changes, and now Dropbox has a service called Paper that allows for cloud-based document creation and collaboration.

Of course, Dropbox is also great for digital marketing teams because it can store all the large images and videos that you need and makes them easy to access across your devices.

Pros:

Includes desktop notifications, a web-based platform, and a mobile app
Uses Office Online to allow fast editing of Word documents and PowerPoints
Offers version tracking and document recovery in case of mishaps

Cons:

Places some of its features, such as Dropbox Rewind, behind a paywall
Takes time to sync large files or folders

Don’t let the name fool you: Evernote can do much, much more than take notes. It allows you to share notes, in which you can embed images and PDFs. This makes Evernote great for digital marketing teams who need to bring different types of content together.

Evernote offers “Work Chat” to let you quickly discuss notes with your team, and you can always share notes outside your team. Evernote syncs quickly across multiple devices to facilitate easy collaboration.

Pros:

Includes ample storage space even on the free plan
Offers ability to organize notes by notebooks and tags
Features powerful internal search

Cons:

Only one person can edit a note at a time.
Requires paid upgrade for more synced devices and storage space

Facebook is used by digital marketing teams around the world, for obvious reasons. But did you know that it offers an intranet-like portal to help your team get organized? If you’ve ever been in a Facebook group, you know that you can share files or links and comment on them, as well as create polls and events. Facebook Workplace is like that, but a bit more robust.

For example, you can suborganize your teams, create company-wide updates, and use bots to automate the process. Facebook Workplace is great for digital marketing teams because it integrates with Facebook pages and regular groups that you’re likely already using.

Pros:

Allows more structure and work-oriented features than regular Facebook
Allows multi-way video calls

Cons:

Doesn’t offer third-party app integration

For digital marketing teams who do a lot of copywriting, Google Docs is a great solution. It provides fast, cloud-based document creation and storage, but its real superpower is that, unlike in many other apps, team members can work on a file simultaneously.

Google Docs is just one part of the “G Suite,” which helps teams collaborate in a variety of ways.

Pros:

Saves automatically and syncs quickly
Allows you to upload and export files
Offers a flexible commenting system

Cons:

Can be a little buggy when it comes to advanced document formatting or image embedding

Like other cloud-based file storage solutions, Google Drive syncs quickly and allows team members to share files with clients or guests. It displays “action items” such as comments or suggestions in the main file view so that you can see at a glance which items need attention.

Google Drive includes quick links to Calendar, Tasks, and Keep (notes), so it can be a quick, flexible project management system for digital marketing teams.

Pros:

Allows you to share files as view-only, comment-only, or edit-only
Is simple and easy to use
Has desktop, mobile, and web-based apps

Cons:

Does not offer a chat or messaging feature

Google Keep is a notes app that allows you to label, pin, and share notes, as well as add reminders and export to Google Docs. Keep can be a great way for digital marketing teams to discuss their Google Docs outside the confines of the comment section.

For example, users can add drawings and images to notes, which are easily accessible in the sidebar of Google Docs.

Pros:

Simple, easy-to-use interface
Allows you to archive old notes
Includes mobile apps and a Chrome extension

Cons:

Offers limited options to organize notes

GoToMeeting is a video conferencing and screen sharing program that enables collaboration even among people working remotely, which is common for many digital marketing teams.

GoToMeeting also allows you to record meetings and store the recordings in the cloud. And to make instant collaboration better, you can share your screen and “draw” on your files, which is great for discussing designs.

Pros:

Has desktop, mobile, and web-based options
Allows each user to have a personal meeting room
Integrates with calendar apps

Cons:

Is not free, and to have more users, you must have a higher plan
Needs a stable, fast Internet connection to work well

Digital marketing teams typically have a lot of high-resolution images, large PDFs, or even videos being shared among them. But emailing the files (if they’ll even send) can lead to confusion: “Which version is this?” “Where is that file?” Enter Hightail, which can share and store large files and allow team members to preview and comment on them in the browser.

Hightail is fast and has some useful features for short-term storage and secure sharing.

Pros:

Easy to use
Uploads and sends files quickly

Cons:

Requires paid tiers to send more, or very large, files

InVision is a design tool, but don’t worry, your entire team will end up using it. It allows your designers to create interactive prototypes that team members and clients can review and comment on.

InVision is easy to use and allows you to quickly share visual ideas among your team, gather feedback, and send designs to clients for review.

Pros:

Allows you to organize prototypes and see what they’ll look like on different devices
Includes a digital whiteboard for team brainstorming
Offers a full-featured free plan

Cons:

Has limited workspaces unless you upgrade
Does not include a chat function

MindMeister is a flexible brainstorming app that can help digital marketing teams sketch out project plans, brainstorm campaign ideas, or even draft infographics.

Although it includes templates, MindMeister is so intuitive and fun to use, you might just find yourself mapping out what’s in your house! You can easily obtain feedback on your maps, which makes MindMeister a great collaboration tool.

Pros:

Allows you to color-code maps and attach files
Can convert your maps to presentations
Is cloud-based

Cons:

Requires paid upgrade for more maps and certain other features

Like Asana, Monday.com is a full-featured project management system, but it doesn’t offer task dependencies. However, it allows you to create different dashboards so that you can see what’s happening at a glance. If your team is juggling a lot of projects, Monday.com is a great option.

Monday.com also lets you estimate the time that tasks will take, which makes it useful for evaluating your team’s workload.

Pros:

Suits a variety of project management methodologies
Includes a mobile app
Is flexible and customizable.

Cons:

Requires higher tier for more users.
Does not include chat or task dependencies.

Slack is fairly famous among digital marketing teams for its fresh design, fast file sharing, and bots that automate a lot of tasks.

Slack does as promised and helps reduce your email. It also helps your team organize its communication via channels, which you can divide up by project, topic, or whatever you’d like.

Pros:

Has desktop, mobile, and web-based apps
Offers extensive message search
Has a huge app directory of integrations and bots

Cons:

Requires paid upgrade to keep entire history of messages

Trello is a Kanban-style productivity app, but it’s flexible enough that digital marketing teams can use it to collaborate in a variety of ways. You can track tasks by status, you can upload digital assets and organize by project, and you can also map out marketing campaigns by moving the digital cards around.

Trello allows due dates and reminders to be added to any card, and its directory of “power ups” allows teams to expand the functionality of the cards and integrate other apps.

Pros:

Intuitive, easy-to-use interface with customizable backgrounds
Is fast-loading, which allows for quick collaboration
Permits you to attach even large files to cards and comment on them

Cons:

Requires paid upgrade for more “power ups” and boards

Zoho is a full suite of apps that includes email, marketing software, CRM, and many other useful apps. For digital marketing teams looking to centralize their software with one provider, Zoho likely has an app for them.

Zoho includes essential tools for collaboration such as a chat app, Cliq, and a web conferencing app, ShowTime. Its email is unique in that team members can tag other people in emails to instantly share messages with them.

Pros:

Offers an app for every crucial business function.
Combines calendar, tasks, and email
Is available in both web-based app and mobile apps

Cons:

Is cumbersome to set up
Is expensive

Conclusion

Digital marketing teams require fast, secure communication and file sharing, easy commenting and brainstorming, and the ability to connect with remote team members and clients. Having one of these web-based collaboration tools can help streamline your team’s workflow and make you more productive.