Keep your company under control and meet all your goals with marketing project management!

A useful guide into the world of marketing project management. Project management has been one of the most sought-after job positions in recent years.

 

A project manager is someone who specializes in getting work done within a certain time and with a specific budget.

 

You can find project managers in any company, from those specialized in construction to marketing agencies.

 

Today, we offer you a basic guide to understanding what marketing project management is.

 

For this, we will talk about its importance and everything needed to comprehend this popular role.

 

What is marketing project management?

 

We first have to start by explaining what project management is. This is a way of working that provides you a framework for the delivery of projects. The person in charge of this is the one who guides the project from start to finish and ensures that all goals are met. This way, they can manage to make sure that all tasks are completed on time and within budget.

 

We can see this in situations like advertising campaigns, new product launches, brand promotion, SEO audits, and competition analysis.

 

Some activities in which you can see project management take part are:

 

• Pay per click (PPC).
• Junk mail.
• Search Marketing (SEO).
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO).
• Content Marketing.
• Product’s release.

 

Importance of project management

 

As you may already know, this is a position of great importance and responsibility. Today, more and more companies feel the obligation to have a person in charge of these projects. After all, with someone like this, they can simplify tasks and delegate to a more capable person.

 

Besides, the world has a seen a great cut of professionals since the arrival of the pandemic. For many, this position is vital no matter the field. However, if you’re still on the fence about having a project manager in your marketing team here will glad to show you multiple benefits of having one:

 

• Consistent income: Marketing produces income that helps finance the rest of the business. As with any business, revenue is the real fuel that keeps brands running.
• Improved reputation: This is easier than it seems. Your business can build a good reputation through the completion of tasks within a certain deadline and budget. As a result, this leads to more clients who will speak better of you.
• Better product knowledge: With the help of a team specialized in each of the areas necessary to achieve the success of a brand and products, it’s possible to start to develop optimal product positioning and messaging. This won’t only influence the success of the brand, but it will also ensure that your product is differentiated from competitor products.
• More specific sales messages: With the help of an entire team organized and having a guide that understands the company’s market and the needs of your customers, you can succeed to develop a project management strategy that will improve your sales message. Thus, you are more likely to achieve greater brand and audience awareness. As a result, you’ll be able to create much more personalized messages.

What are the goals of marketing management?

 

There are several marks that companies need to check when hiring a person to be in charge of project management. Each business or agency has its own internal goals. However, some of the general goals that many companies have are:

 

Increase market share

 

When we talk about market share, we refer to a benchmark measure of how much your business has been able to achieve in terms of sales and return on investment, known as ROI. The market share figure is used in many cases as an indicator of success among your competition.

 

A market share is characterized by providing real profits, that’s why your business should always aim at increasing it. However, this isn’t the only factor used to understand whether a business is successful or not. Increasing this figure is a goal for every company in the world because it tends to talk about your brand and what it’s doing. So, a good market share can mean that:

 

• You have successfully reached and won a large portion of your potential customers.
• Existing customers always come back and buy more products, this attracts new customers and creates positive net customer growth.
• Your brand or product has a positive and growing reputation within the industry.
• All of these can be signs of revenue growth and other important goals for the overall business.

 

Increase customer satisfaction

 

Another point of great importance, and related to the increase of market share is that many companies seek to have a person in charge of project management to increase customer satisfaction. It begins and ends with the customer, which means having satisfied customers is crucial for any business. In the marketing industry, this is very important since a satisfied customer means someone who will require your services again. This can translate to:

 

• Recurring customers that increase customer lifetime value and overall revenue.
• Customers who praise you in front of their friends, lowering the cost of acquiring new customers.
• Trusted customers who can be convinced of future purchases more easily.

 

The 5 essential phases of project management

 

Some certain phases or steps are essential to achieve good project management. Regardless of whether your industry is marketing or any other sector, these are the five basic steps or facets that any project manager must follow.

 

1.Analysis of the feasibility of the project.

 

Like everything, the first step is to analyze the brand, project, products, or tasks you’re going to carry out. You will also need to examine the timelines, budget, human capital, and all the costs needed to achieve the ultimate goal.

 

On the other hand, you must also have a plan with all the tools you will use to monitor the project. This includes an agreement with all team members on the project to decide the tool set that best works for the organization and whether it’s really feasible to fulfill the tasks on time. As a result, you’ll be able to offer great outcomes to your clients.

 

A stage or phase like this is extremely important. After all, this is when you will lay the foundations for the project and all the steps you will need to take for it. Here, you’ll determine the viability of the project, its risks, and whether it will waste time and money or not.

 

2.Project planning

 

If the project is viable after analyzing it, you can start to plan it. This is where you would start to define all the tasks that are needed throughout each facet. Moreover, you must also take into account who is your asses resources which can include experts, internal o external team members, and whoever is required to be able to fully carry out deadlines.

 

Here, you must also create a very detailed description of all the financial resources that will take part in the project.

 

As a result, you’ll be able to clearly explain to your client and those who are part of the project your work-back budget. This, besides explaining the role of each person.

 

3.Project execution

 

This is where the fun part of the process begins. From now on you can begin to carry out methodically each aspect of the plan. Here, you also have to keep track of the tasks as they’re being carried out and whether there are at risk or blocked. Finally, you can create a record of obstacles encountered along the way. This will help you to know all the difficulties that showed up in the project. Once you know this, you can then write down how they were overcome and what objectives were achieved.

 

While you’re reviewing all the tasks needed to achieve your objectives, it’s also the moment to create the environment and the tools needed to achieve your goals. Besides, you must ensure that you have a team willing to work despite any difficulty that may appear up on the way.

 

4.Project performance and control

 

When working on the execution, you must keep a record of the project’s performance. This is done to have more control over how the work progresses.

 

This is the step where you review the tools and give the final approval of any task to ensure that they meet the planned objectives, this will lead to understanding if any modification needs to be made or if more time is required to complete it.

 

With the help of the data collected throughout the process, you’ll be able to know how the management has been, how the activities have been carried out, and how the evolution of the project has been in each of its steps so far.

 

5.Project closure

 

The title explains it very well. The closing of the project is nothing more than the culmination of the tasks, the end of the projects, and, hopefully, the results of your achieved goal successfully presented.

 

You must have a critical eye to be able to carry out an objective and easy-to-understand analysis of the results. After all, you will have to present the results to your clients. Here, you will show them which were some less favourable decisions, which were the resources, and where they invested the most, if the expectations were realistic or if it was too much to cover.

 

Don’t forget to make a backup copy of the work and the results of each of your projects, this will allow you to use them as a reference for future clients or personal reference if necessary.

 

Which types of project managers exist

 

Each project manager is different and each one has a unique personality that manages to stand out from the rest. Managers vary, both by workplace and by the industry in which they are located. Below we will take you on a short tour of the types of project managers that you may encounter along the way. This way, you will have an idea of which one is right for your marketing project.

 

Prophet, What is marketing project management

 

This type of manager is the one who looks for opportunities in the most intricate sectors, outside the existing limits, and who seeks to achieve success in remote places. Within work teams, they tend to be the person everyone trusts even though they don’t have the statistical basis or the way to verify that the output will be a success.

 

They’re quite charming and charismatic because, although their strategies are risky, they know how to captivate others and help them discover errors in the process. A “prophet” type of project manager really knows how to transcend their work.

 

Player, What is marketing project management

 

A player, contrary to the prophet, plays by the rules.

 

They don’t go outside the established strategic limits since they prefer to ensure their win and avoid any difficulties along the way.

 

In a work team, this manager is characterized by encouraging their colleagues to create a simple but effective map to achieve the goals and objectives set.

 

 

Expert, What is marketing project management

 

The connoisseur is the one with the most experienced. The expert goes outside the strategic limits as long as they’re certain that these strategies will have successful results.

 

They’re not looking to lose anything along the way and want to be sure of the steps they take.

 

Within team members, this one is the most heard and taken into account thanks to their extensive background. However, it may be difficult for them to convince their team to follow their guidelines if they believe that the opinions are not relevant.

 

Executor, What is marketing project management

 

This is a very easy one, the executor doesn’t seek to be innovative, they only want to meet the objective.

 

Because of this, they won’t go outside the strategic parameters and risk the project.

 

In other words, they follow the rules and don’t seek to innovate.

 

 

The functions of the project manager

 

The person in charge of directing or guiding a work team must understand each worker’s role to achieve the company´s goals. Not everyone will have similar roles or equal tasks. However, here is a list of some of the essential functions that every project manager must fulfill:

 

• Define the strategy before starting the project: planning, tasks, and budget.
• Get the approval of the budget or the necessary investors and sponsors.
• Define the indicators and objectives.
• Define priorities.
• Manage teams.
• Solve problems.
• Monitor the tasks and goals achieved.
• Make adjustments to resources or operations to avoid wasting time and money.
• Serve as a bridge between the teams and the client or company directors.
• Carry out a performance evaluation at all levels, to check if all the objectives were met on time.
• Make a list of learnings and opportunities found throughout the project.

 

Each project manager will have, depending on the organization and type of workload, very particular and unique tasks. However, the person in charge of inspecting each task must know what their functions are. As a result, they won’t confuse the roles of any other person on the team.

 

BluCactus, your ally in Digital marketing

 

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Our group of experts focuses on helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

 

BluCactus international marketing agency serves clients all over the world. Our specialty? The creation of web designs and SEO positioning in online searches. Our group of experts focuses on helping businesses and brands succeed in one of the most competitive sectors in the market, the digital world.

 

This online marketing agency, based in Toronto, ON, seeks to strengthen your image as a brand and take it to the next level. Don’t wait any longer to have the help of the best specialists in digital marketing and contact us through our social media or website.

 

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