Best Marketing Project Management Tips That Work

Marketers are frequently involved in new ventures, such as conducting a customer survey or planning the launch of a new product.

You will be required to participate in the project management process even if you are not a project manager.

So, let’s see how to use project management best practices to achieve success in marketing project management.

What is Marketing Project Management?

Marketing project management is the process of planning, delegating, and managing the tasks and objectives of a marketing campaign. A marketing project manager will typically establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that teams meet marketing project objectives and requirements.

Marketing project managers act as the company’s representative when meeting with clients, relaying goals and expectations to team members.

Why is Marketing Project Management Important?

  • Project scope: Outlining the tasks and KPIs required to meet the objectives and end goal. For example, you need good keywords, you should use SEO Keyword Research Services. 
  • It allows you to reach the full ROI of your marketing campaigns
  • Choose the people, tools, equipment, and other materials needed to complete the project. For example, if you need a very good management collaboration tool, you can choose Trello, Asana, or Monday.com
  • Timelines: Creating a timeline for the project and delegating tasks to achieve the project’s end goal.
  • Budgeting entails planning and managing the project’s budget and managing the team’s hours.             

Seven Tips for Marketing Project Management

1 – Use a Project Management Tool

Although using a project management tool may appear to be a no-brainer, many businesses still rely on spreadsheets to plan and execute tasks.

While spreadsheets are inexpensive and somewhat effective, a dedicated project management tool with features to automate mundane tasks and communication can significantly increase efficiency.

Here are some popular project management tools for marketing agencies:

  1. Asana is a popular project management software for startups and agencies.
  2. Monday.com: Monday.com is a powerful project management tool that shares many of Asana’s features and integrations.
  3. Trello is a cost-effective yet comprehensive project management tool for agencies, focusing on remote teams.
  4. Notion: A distinct yet straightforward user interface that feels more like navigating a website than a traditional project management tool.

2 – Using a Password Manager to Secure Tools

Marketing professionals are frequently required to share credentials for marketing tools, social media platforms, and creative tools.

A password manager makes it simple to share credentials with internal teams, contractors, and clients, allowing project managers to maintain complete control over digital assets and who has access to them. Be careful with your passwords. Somebody can benefit from it and cause you so much trouble. 

3 – Collaborate With Team Members to Plan Marketing Projects

Including team members in the planning process helps to give them ownership of the project and their role. Making coworkers feel valued can boost productivity while also establishing an early standard for effective communication.

4 – Don’t Forget About the Standard Project Lifecycle Phases

Marketing project management is similar to any other type of project management. Managers should adhere to the five project management phases to ensure a well-planned, executed, and successful campaign.

  1. Initiation: Begin by outlining the project’s objectives, identifying team members and stakeholders, and identifying budgets and constraints.
  2. The project manager should define the scope, create a project plan and timeline, set budgets, and define roles and responsibilities.
  3. Implementation entails allocating and managing project resources, tasks, and budgets.
  4. Monitoring and controlling (which occurs concurrently with execution): Project managers must communicate with team members to ensure that everything runs smoothly and make adjustments when problems arise. 
  5. Closing and reviewing: Project managers complete the project and cancel any freelancer contracts. In addition, they must produce reports for clients and management to review. Teams may get together to discuss how to improve future projects.

5 – Establish Specific Objectives

Always have one primary goal in mind, with multiple objectives and KPIs to help you get there.

Avoid ambiguous goals and objectives such as “increase email subscribers” or “increase traffic”—to what extent? Goals should be detailed and explicit for teams to have a clear target in mind.

 A more attainable goal would be to increase monthly revenue to $100,000 within 12 months. Then, project managers can identify relevant objectives to achieve that goal. For example, to reach $100,000 in a year, the agency must:

  • Increase the number of email subscribers to X with an open rate of X and a click rate of X.
  • Spend X on paid advertisements.
  • Increase your social media following to X.
  • Increase website traffic by X%

Returning to best practices in project management, managers must use either a SMART or CLEAR goal strategy.

SMART—Allows managers to define achievable goals that reduce and manage risk.

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic
  • Timely

CLEAR—Intended to be dynamic, quick, and adaptable. Managers establish clear goals while remaining flexible enough to adjust the project plan as problems or opportunities arise.

  • Collaborative
  • Limited
  • Emotional
  • Appreciable
  • Refinable

6 – Build Strong Communication Channels

Strong communication channels enable teams to stay connected and make adjustments to complement one another and work toward a common goal.

Effective communication entails more than just team members talking to one another; project managers must communicate tasks, workflows, guidelines, tool documentation, standard operating procedures, and other details to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

7 – Be Open to New Ideas

Nothing is more damaging than an autocratic project manager who is resistant to change or new ideas. Marketing is frequently required to respond to market changes and trends.

Adapting to these conditions (while maintaining the project’s and brand’s integrity) could help marketing projects meet their goals faster and exceed their expectations.

The Last Word About Marketing Project Management

A critical piece of project management advice. It is not always easy to define the goals of a marketing project in quantifiable terms, making it tempting to jump in without first establishing KPIs. This is especially true when team members can’t agree on which metrics to use or what targets to set.

However, without KPIs, you won’t be able to tell whether or not you’ve met the project objectives or even if you’re on the right track during project execution.

So, accept the short-term discomfort of developing KPIs with highly measurable outcomes. They will direct the project’s success.