Ultimate Guide to Marketing Project Management

The world of marketing is moving so fast. Rapid technological changes and shifting consumer demands mean that modern marketer must continuously change tact to stay in the game.

Marketing activities like product launches, conversion rate optimization, email marketing and website development are just some of today's marketing responsibilities. This is where marketing project management comes in.

Marketing project management is the systematic approach towards achieving organizational goals and objectives in the realm of marketing.

Let's take a closer look at what this involves at each stage. We'll see how it may help you achieve positive marketing results such as increased sales, improved speed to market, and customer satisfaction.

What's Marketing Project Management?

Marketing project management refers to the processes involved in the supervision and development of a marketing campaign. The aim is to complete the campaign on time, within budget, and with as few hiccups as possible.

Marketing teams comprise disparate professionals who need to work in harmony to successfully deliver the set variables. Such team members can include Management, Finance, IT, Sales, Production, Design, etc.

Project management will also involve the team utilizing the available resources within certain constraints to achieve the objects at hand.

The marketing project manager will need to consider a wide range of factors, as outlined below.

Scope

This refers to the general functions or features that the campaign will be expected to accomplish. Take an example of a marketing campaign whose objective is to increase an organization's market share by 10%. It currently has a share of 50% in a market of 100 million consumers. The scope of their project will entail reaching a minimum of 10 million potential clients; otherwise, it will not achieve its objective.

Budget

During a marketing campaign, not having a set budget is the same as having a limitless budget. Buying advertising space or airtime, for example, has to be done efficiently so that the greatest results are achieved at minimum cost. Marketing budgets can involve expenses such as:

• Marketing automation software whether for creating campaigns or handling mundane tasks.
• Marketing staff (either outsourced or in-house).
• Web domain depending on what kind of campaign, you may need to create a new website from the ground up.
• Influencer(s) influencers are a huge part of modern marketing. If you wish to bring an influencer on board, it will require a separate budget.
• Paid advertising Set aside how much you'll spend on paid activities such as social media ads, sponsored content, physical ads and so on.

Timelines

Any marketing project will have a specific start and endpoint. Since working hours, money, and resources have to be utilized in the project, there has to be a predetermined deadline for achieving the set goals.

The campaign lead is responsible for allocating these resources and seeing to it that the responsible parties carry out various tasks.

Marketing Project Management Phases

Marketing and project management may be different disciplines, but project management principles can be readily applied to marketing. These project management phases are universally relevant for the successful completion of any marketing campaign. Let's take a look at the different stages of marketing project management.

Conceptualization

At this stage, the team will outline the campaign's vision and figure out precisely what the project needs to achieve. This will involve quantifying goals, incorporating research data, and feedback analysis as the campaign prepares to launch. It also involves identifying and mitigating any possible setbacks.

Planning

Creating a project plan will allow you to keep track of everyone's progress towards their allocated objectives. A good plan will allow everyone within the team to have ready access to information regarding the campaign's progress.

Marketing project management software can be particularly useful here, as the process from here moving forward is a bit complex. Planning involves certain key elements that include assembling all the tasks, assigning resources, setting milestones, and getting everyone on board.

Execution

This might be the most challenging phase for the marketing project manager as it is where all the prescribed tasks must be performed. The manager will need to ensure all tasks are running optimally. They will be responsible for all the monitoring/control duties that ensure deadlines are met; budgets are not overstepped, and so on.

The manager will also monitor progress through data collection, performing team checks (meetings and discussions), preparing status reports and staying alert until the project's end. Project management software applications such as Breeze can be of great assistance in keeping track of all these moving parts.

Evaluation

Once a project has run to completion, there will be one step left to undertake. Evaluation involves taking a close look at the completed process in order to obtain general insights into the team's performance for future reference. Sprint Reviews, Fail Tests, and Burndown Charts are some of the evaluation tools that are useful at this stage.

Marketing Project Management for Campaign Success

The value of effective project management is a proven phenomenon across various industries and disciplines. Implementing it in your marketing campaigns will streamline and optimize your operation in various ways, including:

Increased Efficiency

Team members will have a better understanding of precisely what to do and when to do it. There will be less wastage of time and resources because they will all be allocated in advance. Gantt charts, RACI charts and the like are effective tools for deadline and progress tracking.

Improved Communication and Collaboration

Effective and immediately available communication avenues help keep everyone on track and focused on the campaign. When everyone on the team knows what's expected of them and what to expect of others, everyone's job becomes easier. The potential for conflict reduces as well since project management emphasizes open communication between team members.

Improved Team Performance

By keeping tabs on the deliverables each team member is responsible for, a marketing project manager will be able to extract the best out of their team members. Mistakes will be avoided and processes improved when you have a concrete system in place such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Timely Problem Resolution

Few campaigns will progress from start to completion without experiencing challenges. Marketing project management provides tools for quick identification of trouble areas, and this structured approach makes it easy to figure out the most appropriate solution.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Clients will be kept informed and their requests and concerns addressed in a timely fashion. Marketing project management systems make room for clients and customers to be more meaningfully involved in the campaign, and this greatly increases the chances for satisfactory outcomes.

Final Thoughts

Managing a team of people drawn from various departments and disciplines may at times feel like herding cats. To make things even more challenging, traditional project management methods may not be as reliable in the modern marketing project management setting. Thankfully, there are modern tools available to help bridge this gap.

Breeze is a marketing project management software application suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises. It has almost a decade in the industry and comes packed with accessible and highly relevant features without getting clunky. Give it a try for your company.