Using Trello, Jira and Confluence for marketing

[#1]

When I got appointed as the Marketing Specialist at TechTime in October 2019, I was introduced to the world of Atlassian. Working in tech, I knew about the tools - but never been exposed to it.

At first, these tools were scary - coming from an environment where Microsoft Office365 was a go-to for everything, not having Word or the Planner, pinched. On this side, diving into Jira and Confluence felt scary. Agile methodology was something I only heard from developers. I didn't even know what Sprints were - don't judge!

I soon realized it was my assumptions that were holding me back from using these tools - assumptions that Jira is only used by developers, Confluence is too complicated and I don't need Trello. 

Coming from a non-technical background, it seemed like a tough journey. But I couldn't have been more wrong! It was easy and it gave me this ultimate transparency that Microsft365 couldn't offer. Atlassian tools pushed me to plan my work, organize and stick to it - transforming the way I work. 

Trello helps in planning my work, Jira like a great project management tool aids in tracking progress and Confluence is the perfect collaboration tool for all things marketing - I have all my marketing assets, Summit discussions, blogs and a marketing guideline stored here. 

These 3 tools help me run the 'Marketing Ship' effectively - at least I think so, will need a confirmation from my bosses on that one. 

Here's my account on how I use 3 popular Atlassian tools for marketing: 

Trello:

Most of us have used Trello Free for personal or professional use. I always enjoyed using the product and after I joined TechTime, Trello was used primarily for all marketing plans and calendars. It gave me a good overview of the current marketing campaigns and status. 

As a marketer, I tend to wear a lot of hats - and I have a Trello board for that too! 

Trello is by far one of the most versatile tools. You can set up:

• Campaign Plans
• Event Plans
• Editorial Calendar
• Product Launches
• Work-Planner
• Incoming marketing requests - idea board

It is a light tool where you can store actionable and non-actionable ideas. It is less formal - unlike an issue on Jira. I consider Trello as my pre-Jira platform. I categorize tasks with labels based on priority - determining my issues in a sprint. 

Something I particularly enjoy too about Trello is the ability to bring my Trello cards into Jira as epics, issues, and sub-tasks. This makes sure that my sprints are planned well, my issue queue is solid and most importantly I don't miss any important tasks. Without Trello, I would have to spend hours planning my sprint in Jira and recall follow-up tasks. 

Trello can be a savior if you aren't 'technical' - it helps you plan your work well, helping you manage time and become more efficient at work. ALL things your employer will love you for! 

Pro-Tip

There are ready to edit marketing templates available which make setting up your boards a dream. I edited the boards for my emails workflow board, blog calendar, social media calendar and product launch of EasyTime. 

Jira: 

Heard so much about Jira - but only had the chance to use it for the first time 4 months ago. What a fantastic tool! I created fixed versions for my campaigns with approximate end dates, organized my initiatives, epics and issues and was ready to go to town. If it isn't already obvious - I'm a massive planner. Jira feeds into that so well. With the click of a button on my Marketing Dashboard, I can see campaign progress, estimated story points, and even an estimated finish date. This has helped me plan my sprints and finish work on time-sensitive campaigns like Atlassian Summit 2020. 

It's also convenient for managers to understand where you stand with progress, saving you from meetings to discuss progress. It offers transparency and you're accountable for set actions. Jira also integrates with various CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce making sure that all platforms you use are well integrated. 

Jira cloud now offers marketing templates you can use for planning your marketing - making it more user-friendly for non-technical teams. Jira acts as this perfect tool where technical and non-technical teams can collaborate. 

Pro-Tip

I use this dashboard for all my marketing meetings, planning sprints, and my priorities. The predicted completion date helps you make commitments and the version report demonstrates your workload well. 

Confluence 

I spend most of my day on confluence. With Confluence providing ready to edit templates for marketers formatting content has become a dream. I use Confluence for planning, documenting and the perfect place to get feedback for my blogs and emails. Initially - I missed MS Word because I love formatting my pages. But I realized the power of Confluence soon enough. From planning our marketing campaigns to creating guidelines, Confluence has it all and more. I store customer feedback interviews, drip emails, meeting notes - everything. I absolutely love that when I'm preparing for my meetings, I can simply put links on the meeting notes for everyone to come prepared to the meeting. This helps all attendees to be on the same page and your meetings are automatically more productive without playing 'catch-up'. I'm always looking to learn to use this tool more efficiently and the Atlassian Community helps a lot with it! 

Pro-Tip

Insert your Jira issues, or create them directly from the Confluence page. I use a lot of templates to make sure that the content isn't misplaced and most importantly I make sure to organize my pages so that everyone can easily find it. 

Trello, Confluence, and Jira are the best together!  

Trello, Jira, and Confluence are great tools individually - but when used in conjunction with each other they are a powerful weapon to achieve your goals. The integrations available between the three give you seamless work experience. The ability to integrate my Jira issues to my Confluence pages and vice versa saves me 15 minutes every day that I spend looking for a document. Being able to create issues straight from my Trello cards saves me 30 minutes each week. It saves me from guessing what needs to be done in the upcoming sprint or even setting priorities. Most importantly Trello, Jira, and Confluence take the headache of planning, tracking progress and collaboration so that I can focus on the bottom line - generate quality leads, increase lead conversion and sales. 

 I continue to learn, explore and innovate my work using these tools to become more efficient and effective. 

[Brett Coster]

Great article - thank you @Poorvi Jhawar

I had always kept Trello as my personal space, and JIRA as my work space, but your advise has helped me to see that Trello has great benefits for work, and can be used alongside JIRA and Confluence.

I find Confluence especially powerful to manage meetings, documents and content, in an efficient way.

[Poorvi Jhawar]

Hi @Brett Coster 

I'm so glad that it has helped you :) 

I do think that using all 3 together and not having the burden of using 3 different tools because of the seamless integrations is by far my favourite thing about these tools. 

[Erica Moss]

@Poorvi Jhawar "Trello, Jira, and Confluence are great tools individually - but when used in conjunction with each other they are a powerful weapon to achieve your goals." This is SUCH an important point (and I promise I didn't pay Poorvi to write that! 😉) Really great article.

[Poorvi Jhawar]

@Erica Moss Hahaha, thanks :)

I'm just glad you made till the end of it! ;)

[Seon Shakespeare]

Excellent article! As an Atlassian Platform Architect within a Global Creative Agency it's great to hear about your Atlassian Journey from a marketing perspective

Thank you @Poorvi Jhawar 

[Poorvi Jhawar]

Hi @Seon Shakespeare 

I'm glad you appreciate it. Marketers can embrace technology too ;)

[Leslie Gilbert]

@Poorvi Jhawar what a great article. 

I noticed that you said you used Confluence for a drip email. Did you just store/write the content there? The reason that I am asking is we want to start an email campaign w/ customers and are looking for an easy way to integrate it w/ either Confluence, Jira, or JSD.  I am not finding an app or other platform that easily integrates w/ us. 

If there is an article that you are aware of that already covers this please point me in that direction. 

Thank you so much!
~Leslie

[Poorvi Jhawar]

Hi @Leslie Gilbert 

Just the content bit. Sorry. 

I am aware the there are integrations available with Hubspot and Jira. But not sure if it'll be applicable for what you want. 

https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace/apps/marketing/analytics-data/jira

I do believe salesforce has it. I use Mailchimp - which integrates with Jira using Zapier. I just started using Mailchimp, so I will need to investigate to understand the implications. 

[Leslie Gilbert]

@Poorvi Jhawar Thank you! That gets me a starting point and knowledge that Mailchimp could be a good fit!

[Poorvi Jhawar]

@Leslie Gilbert If you're a SaaS company - I wouldn't suggest mailchimp. In my opinion, HubSpot is a better fit. But evaluate and see what works for your business better :) 

[Deleted user]

Great insights! Can you elaborate a little on what you do in Trello and how you structure this and when it's time to make a Jira Project? Thx!

[Taranjeet Singh]

Great article @Poorvi Jhawar !

[Poorvi Jhawar]

Hi @[deleted] 

Apologies, seems like your comment slipped through. This is the process I follow: 

Trello: Use Trello as an 'idea board' when Plans aren't finalised and it's just a thought I may or may not want to act on. 

Confluence: Put in my research, I use marketing campaign templates to include information and basically structure a campaign.

Jira: Create fix versions, then Epics, Initiative, Story and then tickets for all my tasks

Again use Confluence, for the marketing 'output' like emails, blogs etc. 

The beauty of it all, You can create Jira tickets, link confluence pages or the trello board no matter which tool you're using. So all these platforms have updated information. :)