Source: wrike
Consider your company’s current state of affairs: Are there any holes or areas that could be improved upon with the implementation of a new strategy? If the answer is yes, then it’s time to adopt a process like a project management for digital marketing.
Whether you currently rely on spreadsheets or another type of organizational system, adopting project management techniques can help streamline processes and create more manageable workflows.
What is Project Management?
Project management for marketers is the process of developing and executing a plan to achieve specific goals. It’s best suited for projects with complicated processes or several moving parts that need to be handled in a timely manner.
If you have a project in mind, it will likely require multiple areas of expertise, so it’s best to have everyone involved to be on the same page. With project management software, your team can collaborate across different platforms, and tasks can be assigned to different people.
This will allow you to stay on top of all tasks and deadlines and developing links in blogs will assist everything in the company running smoothly. As your digital marketing strategy continues to evolve, it becomes more important to track your progress. With digital marketing software like Adsy, you can delve into SEO link-building services and have an overview of every project and what stage they are currently at.
No more wondering where you should focus your energy! You’ll know exactly which task needs attention right now and how close you are to achieving success (or if there are any potential roadblocks).
Benefits of Using Project Management for Digital Marketing
No matter what type of business you have, project management can make a world of difference in your day-to-day operations. The benefits of using marketing for project management include:
- Increased productivity
- Streamlined processes
- Minimized stress
- Increased work/life balance
- More time for strategic planning
- Improved customer service and satisfaction
- Reduced organizational overload
Project Manager Goals
There are numerous responsibilities a project manager has to take care of.
Rule the team
It is common for project managers to lose track of the small details that large teams, clients, outside consultants, and vendors often overlook. When working with multiple parties, it is critical that the people delivering the work focus on their own area of expertise, and not on the health of the project as a whole. The project manager keeps track of deadlines, budgets, individual deliverables, information, and so on. Because they are not personally accountable for any of the work, project managers function as a link between everyone involved and ensure that all parties are in agreement.
Uniting all in one
Whether you’re preparing for a trial, maintaining your advertising campaigns, or introducing a new product, your expert team should be able to concentrate on what they do best rather than managing creative briefs, searching for files, and other details. Project managers ensure that everyone is well-informed at the beginning of a project and can assist teams to locate things that they need mid-way through it too.
The connection between clients and the team
A project manager can help your team and your clients understand each other’s expectations. You can set expectations for project timelines, budgets, the number of members you’ll require, the number of outside resources you’ll need, and other details as the primary objective organizing force behind the project. Every person will be held accountable for their portion of the project, ensuring its timely, on-time completion. By working with a good project manager, everyone will be held accountable for their part, ensuring it gets finished on time, and on budget.
How to Start Using Project Management for Digital Marketing
The first step to adopting project management for digital marketing is to define your company’s current processes. What does your company currently do for digital marketing campaigns? From there, you can start building a process that works best for your company, which includes defining and setting deliverables.
To create the framework for what you want to do with the implementation of project management, you will need to outline where you want to be in 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. From there, you can determine what your immediate and long-term goals are. Next, identify any holes or areas that could use improvement with the implementation of a new strategy.
Once these steps have been completed, it’s time to actually adopt project management for digital marketing by creating tasks and assigning them deadlines. It’s important not only to create tasks but also to assign deadlines so as not to overwhelm your team members with too many things at once.
The last step is determining who will be involved in each task and then assigning those tasks accordingly. This may seem like a lot of work upfront, but it will save you time in the end because all you will need is one place -the project management app-to refer back to when questions come up or if something needs updating.
Defining your project with digital marketing metrics
Project management is all about the definition of a project. It’s important to establish goals and metrics that will help measure your success. You need to be able to understand what kind of return on investment (ROI) you can expect, how long it will take you to complete the project, and how much time it will take you to maintain the strategy.
For example, if your goal is to increase conversion rates for the website by 10 percent in three months, then you should design a strategic plan that’s specific enough for you to track and compare your results with current data after three months. This way, if you don’t reach that goal in three months as planned, then you have a benchmark from which to work. It’s also important to set deadlines and create milestones in order for your team members to know exactly what they are working on at any given time. This eliminates any confusion or questions about what should be done next and keeps everyone accountable for their tasks.
Establishing a baseline and important deadlines
First things first: Establish a baseline and set some important deadlines. It’s time to cull the necessary resources and align your team. You might need to allocate time in your calendar or hire an agency or freelancer to help you with certain tasks that are out of your zone. If you don’t know where to start, there are plenty of digital marketing project templates on the internet or you could consult with a professional that has project management experience. Once you have everything in place, it’s time to start executing. With project management, you can map out the execution strategy so everyone knows what their roles are, what deadlines need to be met, and what goals need to be accomplished by when. This will help alleviate any potential confusion about who does what and why.
Determining staffing requirements
Project management is a helpful strategy to adopt because it provides an easy-to-follow workflow with timelines, milestones, and tasks. One way that this benefits your company is by providing a clear outline of staffing requirements. It will be easier to determine the necessary team members needed for the success of the project, which can result in some cost savings. With a project timeline, you’ll also have an easier time determining if there are any holes or gaps in your current staff’s skill sets.
Defining critical success metrics
The first step in adopting project management for digital marketing is identifying the critical success metrics you need to be tracking. This will help you determine where to start, what goals to set for your team, and what steps you need to take in order to get there. For example, if one of your company’s goals is to increase customer retention rates by 10 percent by year-end, then that would be a crucial metric for your team. Next, define the tasks associated with accomplishing those goals.
For example:
- Determine which social media platforms have the best customer retention rates
- Create a plan for executing on those channels
- Develop a strategy around boosting engagement on said channels
- Develop an outreach plan
- Evaluate which channels are most effective and make changes accordingly
Wrapping up
If you need more guidance, The Essentials of the Project Management for Digital Marketing is by far one of the most influential books you will ever read. It gives you a comprehensive overview of the subject and all the essential details that you need to know in order to effectively execute a successful project.
