There is a big misconception in the marketing industry: it’s our clients who need project management mechanisms, whereas we marketing specialists and agencies do not. This could not be further from the truth and reality on ground. Project management is essential to properly handling any client work and especially any marketing campaigns.
As marketing has expanded beyond the realms of the ‘classic’ concepts we grew up with, so too has our need to work efficiently and productively with numerous sources. On the one hand, clients want constant information and immediately-available updates. On the other, as an agency we need to collaborate with numerous people and marketing teams, and the project manager needs to feel on track and aware of where the project stands.
With that said, it’s important to understand just why project management mechanisms and software must become an integral part of the strategy of any marketing agency or marketing department.
1. The ability to collaborate
Big marketing campaigns require big staff. Whether you are working with copywriters, graphic designers, bloggers, or web developers, keeping track of where each part of the campaigns stands can be difficult without the proper software. That’s where good marketing project management software comes in: imagine a system where you can send tasks to every single person involved in a project and track their advance, time spent on the task, and communicate with them in an organized manner.
2. Track deadlines and advancement
Even the smallest of projects can become burdensome to track as you progress forward. With many tasks, deadlines, and team members involved in one project, a project manager can easily become overwhelmed going the traditional non-software route.
Why over-complicate an already intricate process? Software will do all the tracking work for the project manager, providing visual ability to see advances on tasks and any approaching deadlines. The software will help set and manage expectations, including priorities and project scope. It can even automatically recalculate a project plan to render a more practical completion date, in cases where tasks are not estimated to be completed by the deadline.
3. Easily visualize projects
Presenting the structure of a marketing campaign can be complicated. How do you show your clients and bosses what you plan to achieve and how to reach that goal? Not to mention, once you progress through the project, it can become burdensome to clearly display just what was completed and what is left to be done. Project management software provides the ability to easily and quickly visualize the project in different ways.
Above, an example of the graphical-mode for a marketing campaign on Comindware Project
It delivers an easier format to present project tasks and sub-tasks as well as project advancement, for both those closely involved in the campaign and clients who need to see the bigger picture. Certain software will also provide a graphical-mode with drag-and-drop systems. The software you choose should allow you to visually customize and modify your project structure to best manage the campaign.
4. It’s all in the details
Having managed marketing campaign projects, I’m aware of the number of intricate details and issues that are part of the project management system. There are always unpredictable situations and requests, tasks, and even new roles that are become necessary for a campaign.
A project management software will allow you to easily run multiple activities, manage volumes of data, track project delays and make documentation accessible to the right team members. Whether allocating project resources, updating the project, or handling any of the dozens of small issues that will arise as you progress forward, the campaign needs to be kept organized and every detail tracked. That’s where project management really does us marketers a favor: everything stays within the system, automatically saved and organized.
I would appreciate your input: is your marketing department or agency using project management software to track your campaigns?
