To run a global content strategy, telephones and emails are not good enough. There are better tools for collaboration, project management, and research. Naturally, we’re biased about using CONCURED for content strategy but we’re just one piece of the puzzle. Here are some of the top tools we think will work best for rounding out your global content strategy.
Communication
Email is too scattered, and Skype has significant limitations when compared to what the market currently offers. Instead, we’d prefer to use Slack or Discord for global communication. Discord may seem like a surprising choice, but it has features like easy voice chat and more flexible video chat that make it a strong Slack competitor despite its gamer focus.
This post from Chanty goes into great detail about the differences, and both systems have free plans that you can use to experiment with the software prior to use. Chanty, incidentally, is also a competitor in this space but has a good number of unbiased write-ups about their competitors.
Team Management
Managing a global team is more than just communication. Tracking tools are also necessary. That’s where programs like Asana, Basecamp, Wrike, Trello, and Ryver come into the mix. These are all team management tools. Which one is the best really depends on how you like to manage things, what your budget is for software, and what kind of content projects you have.
It’s quite likely that none of the tools listed will have every project management feature you could want or need. Some of the tools are also rather opinionated, which is software-design speak for “you will approach your problems the way we think works best.” That said, you just might agree with the opinion!
Trello is probably the fastest and cheapest way to get started and integrates with many other tools. However, it has limitations. The per-user cost is quite high, and you’ll want to use the paid version because Trello project boards are publicly viewable with the free account. It also lacks several important tools like a calendar, though due dates can be set on each card and they do have several add-ons (Power-Ups in Trello-speak) that can add this and other features.
Asana, Basecamp, and Wrike are all a step up from Trello, each with its own pros and cons. Wrike integrates very well with email if you’re already using it for team communication. Asana is great for teams where each task is handled by a single member. Basecamp is a great all-around tool, though it does not have support for recurring tasks or to-do lists.
Ryver is a relative newcomer that integrates both team management and communication in one package. However, if you use a lot of integrations with other software, it can get very expensive to use because you’ll need a separate Zapier account to handle the integration.
Document management
If you’re going to be generating content, you’re going to need some form of document management and version control. Surprising as it may seem, no one has created a tool that beats the flexibility and power of Google Drive. Google Drive allows you to have one master copy of all documents with all of the revision history built in. It allows for comments and chats within documents. Writers can write using the tool of their choice and convert it into a Google Doc with ease.
Dropbox is sometimes mentioned as a competitor, but these powerful version control and commenting tools make it a less-ideal tool for global content strategy and team collaboration. Stick with Google Drive.
Choosing the right toolchain is a crucial part of creating a global content marketing team. Whichever tools you pick, try to pick ones that integrate with each other as much as possible to avoid the need of flipping back and forth between windows and manually importing and exporting information. For more information about creating global content marketing strategies, check out our eBook on the topic here.
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