How we use Trello to keep track of our marketing schedule

Trello is a simple project management app which has taken the world by storm. It is not a complex SaaS (Software as a Service) by any means and does what it claims to do and nothing else.

Here at Liquid Light, we use Trello for a lot of things - ranging from keeping track of project tasks (its primary usage), to organising our Hack Day, writing up our conference notes or keeping track of who can do what on the office hoverboard.

One of the uses we have for Trello is keeping track of our marketing activity - specifically blog posts and case studies. Each marketing item (blog post, case study) has a Trello card. This allows us to categorise by marketing activity, move through task lists, assign to members of the team and keep track of the status of the item.

Keeping track of the status

We use Trello lists to keep track of all of our marketing output. As posts and case studies progress, the card of the item moves across the board between lists. The lists on our board are:

Ideas

This is our bucket for blog post ideas. If we think of any interesting topics throughout the week they get added to here so we don't forget.

Planning

Once we've decided on the blog post we want to write next, it gets moved into planning. This lets the team know who is thinking about what - so they can keep an eye open for relevant links & articles.

Writing

Fairly self explanatory - if you're in the full swing of writing your blog post you move your card into this list.

Review

Once you've written your post, it gets reviews by someone else in the team - at this point it shows it's "written" but not ready. From here, the card can either go back into Writing or progress onto...

Ready to Go Live

This list is filled with cards representing finished blog posts and case studies which aren't yet live on the site.

Live

Once live, the marketing piece gets moved into the Live list to keep track of what has gone live on the site.

Who's responsibility is it?

With each marketing ticket, the author/person in charge gets assigned so we all know who's responsibility the task is. Anyone else helping or reviewing the piece of work also gets assigned to the card - so they get notifications and the team can see who else is involved with the ticket.

Labels and filters

When the card gets created, we assign a few labels to help categorise the marketing piece. The labels are split into two categories - type and audience

What is it?

Adding the type label allows us to filter the Trello board, letting us see exactly what we want. Our "types" include:

• Blog Post
• Micro Post
• Case Study
• Newsletter (if you haven't already - you should sign up to our newsletter)

Who is it for?

We also use labels to identify the target audience for each marketing ticket. This allows us to see as an overview which direction our blog is taking, to make sure it doesn't end up one way or the other. Our target labels are:

• Peers
• Prospects
• Clients (past and present)

So at a quick glance we can establish what type of piece the card is and who it is aimed at.

When is it being published?

By default, Trello lets you put a due-date on each card. We use this to schedule when each post is supposed to go live. This is done to ensure we don't have several posts going out on the same day or in quick succession. It also serves as a log of when articles, case studies and newsletters went live.

Power-Ups

Trello also offers several power-ups to use with any board for free. If you paying for the Business Class version of Trello, the power-ups available expand immensely to include Mailchimp, Github and Slack. Two out of the three power-ups available on the free plan are really handy for keeping track and offering influence.

The power of voting

We've enabled voting on the Marketing trello board to allow other team members to offer their guidance with regards to ideas. If you see an idea added that you would quite like written, voting for it lets the author know this one is more preferred over the others

Dates

As mentioned, we use the due date to keep track of the schedule. Using the Calendar add-on gives us a visual representation of when articles went live and where we have gaps in upcoming months.

Conclusion

Setting up a Trello board to keep track of your marketing activities is a great way of having an overview of everything that's going on. It has certainly helped keep everyone to up-to-date with what other people are doing for marketing.