As of 2025, reports indicate that nearly 50% of marketing professionals work remotely, making remote team management a central challenge for marketing leaders. Remote work gives organizations access to broader creative talent pools and helps attract specialists who prioritize flexible work environments. But marketing teams face unique operational hurdles when working remotely. This guide explores marketing project management for remote teams, including:
- The primary challenges remote marketing teams encounter
- The best practices that improve alignment and execution, and
- The top marketing project management tools designed to support distributed creative and marketing workflows.
If you need to streamline campaign planning, reduce communication gaps, or improve project visibility for a distributed team, this overview provides a clear framework and toolset to help remote marketing teams operate efficiently and at scale.
Added Challenges of Remote Marketing Work
Of course remote marketing teams produce amazing work everyday. However there are additional challenges that require specific strategies or purpose built marketing project management tools.
1. Brainstorming Can be Harder Remotely – Brainstorming fuels campaign concepts, messaging angles, creative direction, and content ideas. In an office, these sessions happen naturally through whiteboards, spontaneous conversations, or quick team huddles. Brainstorming is a crucial part and that can be hard remotely
2. Marketing Work Is Highly Collaborative – Marketing requires constant collaboration between writers, designers, strategists, media teams, product teams, and external partners. Remote work increases the complexity of that collaboration.
Common challenges include:
- Communication spread across multiple tools (Slack, Asana, Google Docs, email).
- Misalignment on briefs when stakeholders interpret instructions differently.
- Feedback loops that stall because reviewers work in different time zones or channels.
- Approval chains that stretch longer due to lack of visibility.
Strong marketing project management tools becomes the glue. The right platform ensures everyone works from the same brief, understands timelines, and has a single source of truth.
Marketing Workflows are Complicated – Marketing projects rarely follow a simple linear process. Getting a project shipped include many dependencies, handoffs, and stakeholders. In a remote environment, this complexity becomes harder to manage because teams can’t easily check in informally or resolve blockers on the fly. Without a solid project management system, tasks fall through the cracks, timelines slip, and teams lose track of what’s needed to bring a campaign from concept to launch.
Marketing Work is Qualitative – Many types of remote work are task-based. Marketing is quality-based. A content piece, design, video, or campaign plan isn’t valuable just because it’s finished—it must be aligned, polished, and strategically sound.
7 Marketing Project Management Tools Compared
Now let’s take a look at the most popular project management tools to find the right one suited for remote marketing teams.
These are the key factors we’re considering:
- Platform Summary
- Marketing-Specific Features
- Collaboration Features
- Weaknesses
- Who These Tools are Best For
These are the tools we’re evaluating:
- Opal
- ClickUp
- Asana
- CoSchedule
- SmartSheet
- Monday
- Trello
Opal
Opal is a marketing project management and planning platform built specifically for brand and marketing teams. Instead of functioning as a generic task tool, Opal focuses on connecting strategy, planning, content creation, and approvals in one unified workspace. This makes it especially effective for remote or distributed teams who need shared visibility into campaigns, creative work, and timelines without jumping across multiple systems.
Marketing-Specific Features
Opal is designed entirely around marketing workflows, giving teams purpose-built tools instead of forcing marketing processes into generic project boards. Key marketing-specific capabilities include:
- A visual marketing calendar that maps campaigns and content across channels.
- A visual marketing planning space for connecting upstream planning to real work
- True-to-life content space that enables you to make content that looks exactly like it will for your audience.
Collaboration Features
Opal streamlines collaboration by giving distributed teams a shared operational environment for marketing work. Collaboration strengths include:
- Context-rich commenting and annotations directly on assets, drafts, and content.
- Role-based approvals that keep decision-making clear and predictable.
- Unified status visibility so stakeholders can see what’s in progress, what’s ready for review, and what’s blocked.
- Async-friendly workflows that reduce reliance on meetings and Slack conversations.
Remote teams benefit from having a single source of truth for communication, approvals, and campaign status.
Weaknesses
- A learning curve for users transitioning from general-purpose project tools.
- Setup requires thoughtful onboarding since workflows are structured for marketing precision.
Best For
Opal is the strongest fit for:
- Large marketing teams looking for a dedicated marketing operations platform.
- Brands with frequent cross-channel campaigns and multiple stakeholders involved in planning, creation, and approvals.
Teams that want strategy, content, and execution connected in one space instead of fragmented across tools.
ClickUp
ClickUp is an all-in-one project management platform known for its flexibility and deep customization capabilities. For remote teams, ClickUp provides a centralized environment where work, communication, and documentation can all live together, reducing the need for multiple disconnected tools.
Marketing-Specific Features
- Templates for content calendars and campaign planning
Collaboration Features
ClickUp provides a wide range of collaboration options designed for distributed teams:
- Real-time editing in docs, tasks, and whiteboards.
Inline comments, threaded discussions, and task-level chat for async communication. - Assigned comments and tagging that make ownership clear.
- File attachments and integrations for sharing creative assets.
Dashboards that help teams visualize progress, workloads, and KPIs.
Weaknesses
Despite its strengths, ClickUp does have trade-offs, especially for marketing teams with complex workflows:
- Steeper learning curve due to the platform’s depth and customization options.
- Workspace clutter can occur if teams over-customize or lack governance.
- Performance slowdowns are occasionally reported in large workspaces.
- Not built specifically for marketing, meaning teams must configure much of the workflow manually.
- Some creative review processes can feel less structured compared to marketing-focused platforms,
Best For
ClickUp is best for:
- Remote teams who want a highly customizable project management hub.
- Teams looking for an all-in-one solution that includes tasks, docs, whiteboards, and dashboards.
Asana
Asana is one of the most widely used project management platforms, known for its clean interface, structured task management, and flexible project views. It’s designed to help teams organize work, track progress, and manage deadlines across simple or complex workflows. While not tailored exclusively to marketing, Asana’s clarity and ease of use make it a popular choice for distributed teams who need reliable task coordination and project visibility.
Marketing-Specific Features
- Campaign and content calendar templates for planning deliverables and timelines.
- Forms to standardize creative requests or briefs from stakeholders.
Weaknesses
Asana has several limitations to consider, especially for marketing organizations with complex creative workflows:
- Less specialized for marketing—teams often need to create their own processes manually.
- Not ideal for deep content production workflows, such as multi-step versioning or creative reviews.
- Limited visualization of cross-channel marketing campaigns compared to dedicated marketing platforms.
- Scalability challenges for very large teams without strong process governance.
- Advanced features like portfolios, workload, and automation require higher-tier plans.
Best For
Asana is an excellent fit for:
- Teams who want a straightforward, easy-to-learn task and project management tool.
Asana works best when marketing operations are moderately complex and teams prioritize structured task tracking.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule is a marketing-focused project management and content scheduling platform designed primarily for content, social media, and editorial teams. It offers an integrated marketing calendar that helps teams plan campaigns, schedule posts, and manage content production in one place. Compared to general project tools, CoSchedule leans heavily into workflows that support content creators, social media managers, and small-to-mid-sized marketing teams looking for simplicity and structure.
Marketing-Specific Features
- Marketing Calendar for visualizing campaigns, blog posts, newsletters, and social media content.
- Social Publishing & Automation to schedule posts, build queues, and manage social channels in one platform.
- Headline Studio to optimize content performance with SEO- and engagement-focused scoring.
- ReQueue to automatically recycle top-performing social posts.
Collaboration Features
While not as robust as enterprise PM tools, CoSchedule provides solid collaboration features for content-oriented remote teams:
- Task assignments, checklists, and status tracking for clear ownership.
- Shared campaign calendars that keep marketing activities visible across the team.
- Comments and attachments on tasks and content pieces for async communication.
- Integrated workflows that connect content creation to scheduling and publishing.
Weaknesses
CoSchedule has clear limitations when compared to broader project or marketing operations platforms:
- Narrower focus – strong for content and social, but not ideal for full campaign operations.
- Limited creative review workflows, especially for teams with heavy asset production.
- Weaker cross-channel visibility for teams running complex marketing campaigns.
- Not built for large enterprise teams with extensive approvals, governance, or multiple channels.
Best For
CoSchedule is a great fit for:
- Content and social media teams needing a unified calendar and publishing workflow.
- Small-to-medium marketing departments that want straightforward planning, scheduling, and content coordination.
- Agencies managing client editorial calendars and social channels.
Teams that prioritize content cadence over complex creative production or multi-channel campaigns.
SmartSheet
Smartsheet is a powerful work management platform built around spreadsheet-style project planning. It’s designed for organizations that need highly structured, data-driven workflows, resource planning, and cross-functional visibility. However, it was not created specifically for marketing.
Marketing-Specific Features
- Marketing templates for campaign planning, content calendars, and event management.
Collaboration Features
Smartsheet is built for cross-functional collaboration through structured project visibility and automated workflows. Key collaboration features include:
- Comments and threaded discussions directly within rows and tasks.
- Real-time updates and shared sheets accessible to distributed teams.
- Automated reminders and alerts to keep projects moving.
- Multiple project views including grid, Gantt, card, and calendar.
- Shared dashboards for leadership reporting and multi-team alignment.
Weaknesses
While powerful, Smartsheet comes with several limitations for marketing teams:
- Not inherently marketing-focused, so teams must build many workflows manually.
- Heavier operational feel, which can feel rigid for creative or highly iterative marketing teams.
- Limited creative review features, especially around content versioning or multi-channel previews.
- Can become complex and overwhelming without strong governance.
- The spreadsheet-style UI isn’t ideal for visually driven creative work.
These barriers mean marketing teams often supplement Smartsheet with additional creative or content tools.
Best For
Smartsheet is best for:
- Cross-functional organizations where marketing collaborates closely with operations, finance, or product teams.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a flexible work management platform designed to help teams plan projects, visualize workflows, and manage cross-functional collaboration. Its modular Work OS allows users to build custom boards, automate tasks, and create dashboards tailored to a wide variety of use cases. Monday.com offers a broad set of templates and features but is limited for marketing use cases.
Marketing-Specific Features
- Creative request forms to capture briefs and requirements consistently.
- Campaign planning templates for mapping deliverables, channels, and timelines.
Collaboration Features
- Real-time editing and updates on boards, tasks, and workflow components.
- Comment threads, file sharing, and tagging for async collaboration.
- Multiple project views (Gantt, Kanban, calendar, timeline, workload) to accommodate different working styles.
- Automated notifications that help remote teams stay aligned without relying on meetings or Slack pings.
- Team dashboards and reporting that summarize progress, resources, and campaign status in one place.
Weaknesses
- Not purpose-built for marketing, so deeper creative workflows require customization.
- Asset and content management features are less robust compared to marketing-specific platforms.
- Automation limits on lower-tier plans can restrict advanced workflow design.
- Some teams find that cross-board visibility becomes challenging at scale.
Best For
Monday.com is an excellent choice for:
- Small-to-large teams that want a flexible, visual project management system.
- Organizations using one tool across multiple departments (marketing, HR, ops, product).
- Teams that value automation and ease of use over marketing-specific depth.
Trello
Trello is a simple, visual project management tool built around Kanban boards. It’s known for its ease of use, clean interface, and card-based task system that helps teams organize projects at a glance. While Trello is not specifically designed for marketing teams, its straightforward structure makes it a popular choice for small teams, freelancers, and content creators who need a lightweight way to manage tasks and track progress.
Marketing-Specific Features
- None
Collaboration Features
Trello is built to make collaboration simple. Collaboration features include:
- Card comments, mentions, and attachments for async discussions.
- Shared boards accessible to entire teams or external collaborators.
- Checklists and due dates to clarify responsibilities.
Weaknesses
While Trello is easy to use, its simplicity comes with significant limitations—especially for marketing teams with complex workflows:
- Not built for marketing, so teams must create most workflows manually.
- Limited scalability, especially for large teams or multi-layered campaigns.
- Minimal native features for creative review, asset management, or campaign visualization.
- Too simple for advanced marketing ops, lacking dependencies, workload management, and integrated planning features.
- Heavy reliance on Power-Ups, which may require additional fees or setup.
These limitations often push growing marketing teams toward more specialized tools.
Best For
Trello is best suited for:
- Small marketing teams or freelancers that need a task tracker.
Choose Opal for Dedicated Marketing Project Management
Remote work has redefined how marketing teams plan, create, and execute campaigns. While distributed teams benefit from greater flexibility and broader access to talent, they also face unique challenges: complex workflows, fragmented communication, slower feedback loops, and the need for consistent visibility across teams and channels.
That’s why a dedicated marketing project management tool for remote teams is such a necessity. See how Opal can transform your work right here.