Your Ultimate Marketing Project Management Guide – 10 Tips For Success

Your Ultimate Marketing Project Management Guide – 10 Tips For Success

Updating and perfecting your marketing project management strategies and standards has become an essential aspect of any business. We live in a world that’s become dominated by the internet, drastically changing the marketing landscape. With the rise of social media marketing, and brick and mortar stores remaining steadfast, marketing projects look increasingly different and must be meticulously planned to get the desired results.

In order to stand out in the saturated marketplace, companies are redefining project management for marketers. But what does that look like?

What Is Marketing Project Management?

Marketing project management is essentially the framework a marketing team follows for the successful completion of their marketing projects. This framework relies on a strong marketing manager to oversee and effectively organize the marketing strategies their team is using. The framework a marketing team follows will aim to ensure that the project is completed on time, within the assigned budget, and make sure all product goals are met. Project management for marketing can vary depending on the methodology the managing team has adopted, and on the management tools they use (more on that later).

Why Is Project Management For Marketers Important?

The quality of a marketing team’s project manager will ultimately determine the success of the marketing efforts. They will keep the marketing projects within predetermined bounds, making sure budgets are not exceeded and goals are met.

A strong project manager will be up to date on current trends and marketing practices and will implement them in their team’s marketing projects as they arise. This is an essential skill marketing project managers should have. In the modern marketing world, trends change quickly. If the project manager is unaware of the current hot marketing tactics, a project can struggle to meet its expected goals.

When a marketing project manager is involved and highly knowledgeable of the changing marketing strategies, their projects will find higher rates of success and be more profitable.

Benefits Of Marketing Project Management

A strong marketing manager will positively influence their teams and projects in many ways. While benefits can vary based on the project and the skill of the manager, there are a few that are most commonly experienced among marketing team members:

• Easier Collaboration Opportunities

  When a project team is led by a knowledgeable marketing manager, they are provided with more collaboration opportunities. Marketing involves a variety of different roles that all must work together to be successful. Encouraging collaboration between these departments and individual roles is essential.

• Better Team Coordination

  As a marketing project manager, it is your job to guide your team through each step of the project. This requires you to have a solid working knowledge of all project requirements and foundational processes your company utilizes. When your team members know what to expect as the project progresses, they will be better able to coordinate their efforts with those of the team. This will also help them align their specific tasks within the project timeline.

• Increased Efficiency

  A project that is created through the lens of a marketing project manager, is influenced by specific expectations that are predetermined based on the current marketing climate. A well-informed marketing manager will be aware of these and plan according to them as they design the project with their team. These factors increase project efficiency because guiding factors are implemented by the marketing manager before in-depth planning begins.

• More Advanced Project Planning

  There are many ways a marketing manager can plan a project. Marketing managers provide a specialized outlook on projects and can help create more in-depth project outlines directly related to current marketing strategies.

  A project is only as successful as the planning done before it begins. When managers ensure intricate planning and scheduling are in place, they can be confident their project will find success. This can be done using online tools (see below), through physical strategy boards in-office, or a mix of both. However you plan your projects, the more detailed you can be in your processes, task descriptions and assignment, and overall strategic approach, you’ll find it reflected in the success of your project.

5 Essential Steps For Managing Your Marketing Projects

When you take on any new marketing project, there are some vital steps that take place. Typically, there are five main stages of a project which can be more or less intricate depending on each one.

1. Define Your Marketing Goals Clearly

   What does success look like for this project? Before you can begin planning your project and breaking it down into individual tasks, you need to determine and define its overarching goal. Often these main goals are agreed upon and defined by the key stakeholders of the project. Once this has been done, marketing managers will then break those goals down into smaller project goals for their team to work towards during the project lifetime.

2. Plan The Project

   Before intricate planning can begin, there are a variety of aspects that must be determined first. The most notable are:

   • Identifying project deliverables (ie. what you’re producing, such as a specific campaign)
   • Agreeing on budgets
   • The breakdown of the project into individual tasks, often working backward from the overall deliverables
   • Assigning tasks to team members best suited to complete them. (Consider individual skill sets, and let the members of your teamwork within their most confident areas)
   • Estimate of the project scope. An accurate estimate will help you avoid completing more work than is needed, creating a more efficient plan

   Using these guiding factors to create your project plan will help you make more informed decisions and outlines. This is essential in ensuring your project stays within the budget assigned. Use this information to create a project schedule in line with the agreed-upon end date for deliverables.

   During this stage, break the project up into milestones for your team to meet so that you can measure the progress of your project as it is being completed. This will help you ensure it is on schedule and intervene if it begins falling behind schedule at any stage.

   

3. Execute Your Plan

   Assign the tasks you and your team decided upon in the previous stage and provide access to the required resources. Support your team in creating the deliverables and publishing the marketing materials once they are completed and have passed the editorial process.

   This support is crucial to your team’s success in finishing a highly proficient project. Prioritizing your team’s needs promotes a healthy workplace, drives up performance, and creates a more capable team altogether.

4. Monitor And Respond To Red Flags

   Once the project has been launched, you will have to closely monitor its progress. This will require asking for feedback from your team regarding their task completion. Manage any problematic areas that begin to form, and create any secondary steps to rectify those problems as needed.

   Your team will be a valuable asset to identifying and managing any risks that come up throughout the process. Hold regular meetings and encourage your staff to share any areas of concern, discuss any unforeseen problems that may arise, and brainstorm how you can improve all aspects being brought forward.

5. Review And Measure

   Review the final project and measure its successes using your predetermined KPIs. By doing this, you will be able to create better processes for future projects and assess the overall success of your project. Your KPIs will highlight the weaker areas of the project while identifying its strengths as well. This gives you the opportunity to recognize those tasks that were completed exceptionally well, and take note of those involved in making them so impactful. This project feedback will help you determine the quality of your team’s performance and yours as well, which creates an opportunity for professional reflection and growth. This is an important factor to any project and is an essential part of your team’s success in future assignments.

Top 10 Marketing Project Management Tips

Knowing how to run an effective marketing project is vital to its success. While going through the motions will certainly get you to the finish line eventually, there are a few things you can do to enhance your project management style.

If you’re looking to optimize your existing processes, create a more efficient system, and make your next marketing project a huge success, try including a few (or all) of these tips in your next marketing project.

1. Use A Professional Management Tool

   Including a professional online management tool can completely change the productivity and efficiency potential of your team.

   While offline management software can allow you to oversee your team from one standalone application, the functionality and accessibility of an online management tool goes beyond that. These tools provide you with a versatile way to connect and manage your team all from one place, with some even offering downloadable software and device applications as well. This means both you and your team can access the project and connect with each other from any place and through any device. Online project management tools are the best option in the modern world where remote teams are growing in popularity.

   The features and benefits of these online tools can vary based on which service you choose to use. Therefore, it’s important to carefully consider what types of support would be most valuable to both you and your team.

   While there are many online management tools on the market, some of the most valuable features they may offer, include:

   • Task management tools, such as task assignment, outline creation, review and revision requests, and tracking capabilities
   • Timeline planning for individual projects
   • Direct access to team members both individually and collectively
   • Tools to create a visual workflow for your team to easily follow and refer to throughout a project lifetime
   • The ability to set specific reminders to make sure deadlines do not go unmet
   • Collaboration tools to allow your team to connect, gather, share, and track necessary information about the project

   Adding an online management tool can make team management easy from start to finish, whether you’re in the office or working remotely.

   

2. Use The SMART Goal Setting Method

   Goal setting is an important step in any project planning process. One of the best ways to create strong, effective goals is by using the SMART goal setting method. When marketing project managers use this method to break down their project goals, they are better able to visualize their needs and have a high likelihood of finding success.

   SMART goals are:

   S: Specific
   M: Measurable
   A: Achievable
   R: Relevant
   T: Time-Bound

   SMART goals make it easy for you to define your goals in more clear terms, while also taking steps to make sure they are within your reach.

3. Monitor Task Completion Closely

   As a marketing project manager, it’s important to track the progress of tasks throughout the lifetime of the project. Monitoring the individual aspects of the progress of your project is crucial to its success. This will help identify any problems your project may face in real-time, so you can manage them before they become larger and more complex to navigate.

   Monitoring your team’s task progress also provides you with a way to hold each member accountable throughout the project. When any particular task is falling behind schedule, you’ll be able to connect with that person and support them in completing it. This will help you guide your staff and create natural learning opportunities, making your team stronger and more capable over the course of the project.

4. Include Your Team In Planning The Project

   Team inclusivity is essential for a project to exceed expectations. Involving your team in the planning process and decision-making is beneficial in a variety of ways. Managers who do this have found that it leads to higher levels of productivity and a happier work environment all around. This occurs because team members feel appreciated, valued, and understood when they are invited to participate in the foundational building of a project they are being asked to work on.

   Including everyone in the project planning also provides an opportunity for a broader range of perspectives. This helps you create a more balanced and highly skilled final product that finds greater success. Additionally, including brainstorming sessions with your team can result in reduced project costs and create a more efficient schedule. This happens when everyone on your team has a chance to give their opinions, helping collaborative opportunities be discovered through similar tasks being highlighted, and skill sets being combined to maximize efficiency.

5. Design And Test Different Workflows

   The workflows you adopt throughout a project will depend heavily on the complexity of tasks. For projects that have recurring aspects, create a specific workflow to manage those tasks quickly and efficiently. By creating different workflows to implement and test, you’ll be able to perfect a step-by-step system to manage your regularly occurring tasks with ease. This will help you move through them faster and refocus your attention and energy on more important aspects of the project.

   

6. Find The Best Methodology For Your Marketing Project

   The methodology you choose to work with will depend on your management style and the type of project you’ll be working on. There are four main methodologies that marketing project managers implement.

   • The Agile Methodology
     • One of the most popular in the modern marketing world
     • Breaks a project into specific stages
     • Prioritizes collaboration between stakeholders and teams
     • Is a progressive model that continually develops, becoming more refined over time
     • Often used in long-term projects
     • Best for inbound and online marketing projects

    

   • The Scrum Methodology
     • Focuses on the deliverables of a project, and prioritizes them based on importance
     • Uses a hierarchy system ensuring the highest priority items are delivered first before moving onto anything considered less important
     • Often used for projects with set schedules and deadlines
     • Best for product marketing and B2B projects

    

   • The Waterfall Methodology
     • One of the most classic project management methodologies in marketing
     • Sequential in nature. Each task naturally leads into the next ones until the project is completed
     • Usually provides all deliverables at one time, unlike scrum or agile
     • Often has a deadline that is far in the future
     • Best for projects that experience a less radical change in their strategies requirements, such as in-store marketing

    

   • A Hybrid Methodology
     • This methodology is exactly as it sounds; a mix of those methods above to meet the specific needs of a marketing project
     • Ideal for teams in need of more flexibility in their approach
     • Promotes taking the best aspects of one method and including it with another
     • Best for content and brand marketing

       

    

7. Start Making Project Templates (And Make Them Easily Accessible)

   Templates are becoming more and more popular as the marketing landscape evolves. Templates can be helpful in streamlining processes for future projects and can be used as many times as they’re needed, creating greater efficiency. Many existing workflows can be repurposed for other projects, which can make the planning process quicker and easier.

   When creating your templates, ensure you include a variety of styles so that you can utilize them no matter what type of project you are managing. This will reduce your planning time for new projects. You’ll be able to easily input the essential information of your project into the template and begin the project in a shorter time. This will make your planning process easier, less stressful, and less time-consuming. It also will increase productivity and boost your production rates, allowing more projects to be done in a fraction of the time previously needed.

8. Respond To Feedback Requests Quickly

   As a marketing project manager, you will be required to verify and provide feedback throughout the project, and it may not always come at the most ideal times.

   When feedback on aspects of the project is requested, it’s important to provide it within a timely manner. When you delay your feedback, your team can’t continue with that specific piece of the project. If this is done regularly throughout the project lifetime, it can set the project back and lead to a missed deadline, or a final project being produced that wasn’t verified by you.

   Feedback can be as easy as telling your team that you’re pleased with what they’ve sent over, and giving them permission to continue on with it. Immediate response isn’t necessary or feasible at times. However, getting that feedback to your team as soon as you can is essential to your marketing project’s success.

   

9. Create An Ideal Consumer Profile

   Creating an ideal consumer profile can be a highly beneficial tool in your marketing efforts. When done correctly, this will provide a clear understanding to your team about who they are reaching out to through this project. Include things like the ideal consumer’s age, demographic, income range, and style.

   While that’s a good starting point, you can go even deeper with it to reap more benefits. Imagine one singular person as the ideal consumer. Make a mock-up of who this person is. Give them a name. Detail what kind of car they drive, what their lifestyle would look like, how will they find you, and what struggles they may be facing that directly relate to your marketing project. This will help you zero in on your project from a secondary perspective, and help you lead your team into creating a final marketing project that speaks directly to the ideal consumer.

10. Include Risk Management In Your Project Schedule

    Risk management is an important part of any project. There are always risks that projects will be susceptible to, so it’s important to carefully consider them and strategize accordingly.

    During the planning stage of your project, make a list of the potential risks you could face, along with when they would begin to show up in the project timeline. Add each one into your project schedule so that they remain on your radar and your team is aware of when to begin watching for them to occur. This will help you actively track their occurrence rates and be ready to manage them immediately if needed.

    During this planning, include action steps on how to handle these risks should they arise. Include these as a note in the scheduled risk. This will ensure everyone knows both what they are looking for, and exactly how to manage it if it happens.

    When you include risk management and planning in your project strategy, you’ll be better able to keep your project on track and meet all your goals by being proactive.