project management is a highly effective tool for getting marketing work done, from advertising campaigns and seo to social media content and promotions.
this guide will take you through how to do project management in a marketing context, either as a way of completing big projects, or as a tool for planning routine work such as social media posts and blog articles.
our aim is for you to leave with a better understanding of what project management is, and how marketers like ourselves can use it.
on the most basic level, project management is a managed approach to doing work. you’re not just completing tasks; you’re working on them within a process that is planned and can be monitored.
while there are lots of different ways to approach project management, most instances involve some common components:
in a nutshell, the project needs to deliver certain outcomes, which can be broken up into tasks. the tasks are assigned to people on the project team, who must complete the work within a managed process.
project management is used to deliver all sorts of marketing projects, including:
regardless of the specific work being delivered, project management is usually centred around a project management software. this is the digital platform where stakeholders can manage their tasks to completion, and where senior stakeholders can monitor overall project progress.
every team member should be able to access the software using their own login credentials. when logged in, they can see the tasks which have been assigned to them. they might be able to upload files and comments to the tasks, and change the status of tasks to reflect whether they have been initiated, completed or held up by some sort of ‘blocker’.
senior stakeholders can also assign tasks to team members and set deadlines for their completion. (in some teams, all stakeholders are granted permission to do this.)
in any project, it helps to have a team member acting as the project manager. this person is responsible for helping the whole team use the project management process and software successfully. some project management methodologies also require the project manager to perform additional duties, such as leading regular team meetings (sometimes called ‘scrums’) and helping other stakeholders find solutions to blockers.
a marketing project will typically flow through an intuitive series of phases:
the phase we’re calling kickoff is the start of the project. at this point, the marketing team gets together with the stakeholder who is commissioning the work to discuss the details of the project. the parties will come to an agreement on some fundamental details of the project, including:
when all the key project stakeholders are happy with the terms, a contract or informal agreement can be made to start the project.
during project planning, all the team members with a strategic role get together to decide how the project deliverables will be achieved. while the planning process varies from project-to-project, the following elements are usually involved:
once the project is planned, the team can get on with the work of project delivery. each team member should be using the project management platform to manage their tasks throughout this phase.
project management supports the team in several ways during the delivery phase, including:
project management during the delivery phase will only succeed if every team member buys into the process and fulfils duties such as updating the status of their tasks. it’s important to make this clear to team members. the team should also have a knowledgeable person on hand to help anyone who is struggling with the project management process or software.
when all project work is completed, the senior stakeholders – including the client or internal customer – can meet up to review the project outcomes. if all parties are satisfied that the project deliverables have been accomplished as planned, the project can be considered as completed, and the stakeholders can provide their sign-off.
in advance of this phase, some project teams will use tools built into their project management software to produce reports and documentation. this can be an efficient way to explain the work that has been carried out to the client.
some marketing projects finish with sign-off.
others conclude with an analysis phase. this could be anything from analysis of website data following a site redesign project, to customer sentiment analysis following a tv advertising campaign.
analysis can be understood as a bridge between the current project and future projects. the findings from this phase can be fed into the planning for compatible projects in future, helping the team plan more efficiently and optimise its processes.
some project teams will also analyse their experience of the project management process, during a project. this helps to identify problems people have encountered with the project management approach, which can be amended ahead of the next project.
the phased approach to project management we’ve just discussed is best-suited to delivering time-limited marketing projects with a moderate-to-high level of complexity.
if your work is of a more routine nature – for example, if you need to deliver a certain number of social media posts each week – this can also be accomplished through project management. you just need to use a slightly different approach.
for routine marketing work, we recommend using a project management solution with a kanban-style system to manage your content, e.g. trello. in a kanban system, each task is represented by a card, which can be moved from one column to another to represent its status. in a social content workflow, you might have columns titled ‘ideas’, ‘text’, ‘text and photo’, ‘text and photo signed off’ and ‘scheduled/published’. as new components are added to the draft for a post, its card can be moved along, until the post has been published. this approach simultaneously enables a team to plan social content, work on the content, and manage the progression of each post as a mini-project.
here’s a video tutorial showing how project management tools can be used for routine marketing work:
almost all project management is done digitally, using project management software. these software provide the infrastructure for the team’s chosen approach.
we advise exploring a few popular project management platforms before you commit to one. the bet伟德安卓下载 team has had good experiences with the following options:
asana is a fantastic tool for managing tasks and projects, with a beautifully accessible user interface that makes working on tasks and assigning them to teammates simple. it also happens to be the project management tool we use to manage our content marketing – including our work on this article!
asana is a particularly affordable project management solution, offering both a budget-priced premium package and a fairly comprehensive free version.
this ingenious tool enables you to manage your work using a system of cards, boards and lists.
trello is particularly well suited to managing content items such as blog articles or social posts through a workflow.
teamwork is a fantastically feature-rich project management solution, with a suite of optional add-ons including chat, crm and office functionalities. teamwork’s interface is arguably less approachable than asana’s or trello’s, but it more than makes up for this with its formidable capabilities.
beloved by developers everywhere, jira is the ideal project management tool for teams using the agile work methodology.
other popular project management softwares include basecamp, nifty and monday.com.
using project management can bring lots of advantages for marketing teams and professionals. the key benefits include:
there are undoubtedly some downsides to project management, too. adopting the process can be frustrating, or even alienating, for some team members. there is also the risk that too much focus on the fine detail of project management could detract focus from productive project work.
the key is to find the right balance, between making the most of the undeniable advantages of project management and leaving your team with enough breathing space to work. if you can nail that balancing act, your projects will reap the benefits.
join us for this episode of the digital marketing podcast where we discuss the pros and cons of different types of businesses and what we'd each do if we had to start a new business tomorrow.