Did you know proactive marketing planners are three times more likely to report success than other marketers? That’s according to a report by CoSchedule. But what exactly does a proactive planner do?
Proactive marketing planners create their marketing plan in advance before executing it. They don’t simply “figure things out as they go.” Instead, they create a solid but dynamic plan beforehand. That means they will constantly adjust the plan as new data and insights emerge.
To be an effective proactive planner, you’ll need to learn several project management tips and best practices. In this review, we’ll tell you what marketing project management is and the responsibilities of a marketing project manager. You’ll also learn the skills you need to be effective at marketing project management.
What Is marketing project management?
Marketing project management involves planning and organizing marketing-related projects to keep your marketing campaigns on track and the stakeholders informed throughout the project lifecycle. It also requires executing, monitoring, and optimizing the projects.
When done right, a marketing project management framework empowers marketing teams to complete their work on time and within the project budget. In addition, good marketing project management can ensure that new prospects open your emails, engage with your ads, follow you on social media, and share your digital business card.
Adapting sprints to create an agile marketing framework is an effective and helpful way to maintain efficient marketing projects.
A sprint is a concept from agile software development. It is designed to help the entire team achieve more in shorter spaces of time. It ensures your project is data-driven and research-backed. The sprints method in agile marketing allows managers to observe live campaigns and make changes based on new information and feedback.
The graphic below illustrates the key stages of the traditional sprint.
Project management is similar across most industries. In the marketing project management case, there are additional phases, such as overseeing market research. The data analysis phase allows for making the best and most informed decisions to help your project achieve its goals.
Now, let’s dive into the responsibilities of a project manager.
What are the responsibilities of a marketing project manager?
A marketing project manager usually begins their work early in the project life cycle. At the initial stage, a PM is expected to determine the project scope and deliver market research on the target customers.
Once the foundation is established, a project manager will determine the project’s budget and resource allocation requirements. Then, they will assign individual tasks, create and manage the content calendar, and set project schedules for team members.
A PM often uses a project management platform to monitor project team progress and for easy team collaboration all in one place. The project management tool helps to easily plan weekly or bi-weekly sprints, as shown in the screenshot below.
Now you know the responsibilities of a project manager, keep reading to learn the skills needed for the job.
What skills does a marketing project manager need to possess?
A good marketing project manager should possess several soft and technical skills. Soft skills describe how you work and interact with others. Hard skills are your measurable talents and abilities.
According to a PMI’s 2020 survey, 68 percent of organizations consider technical skills as the most valued skills in project managers:
Here are the specific technical skills a good marketing project manager should possess:
- Marketing skills. Experience and knowledge of the marketing processes come in handy when making key decisions. Project management software can help set project deadlines, track resources, and ensure team member accountability.
- Task management. Complex projects require multiple people working on different tasks toward one project goal. Managing and delegating these tasks effectively will ensure project deadlines are met.
- Strategic resource management. The administration of people, time, and money are part of every project. When problems occur, this hard skill will help with agility and flexibility to ensure the work is done.
- Deadline forecasting skill. A good project manager can estimate the duration of their projects, taking into consideration numerous factors, including potential project risks and uncertainties.
Let’s dive into the soft skills a good marketing PM should have:
- Strong written and verbal communication. This is important to keep everyone engaged in the project details. This includes the marketing staff and the stakeholders (both internal and external).
- Quick conflict resolution. Poorly handled disagreements or misunderstandings can threaten the project’s progress or success.
- Strong leadership. Being able to provide a structure, keep implementation streamlined, and motivate your marketing team members to do their best work is essential to complete projects on time.
- Good organization and time management. The two project management skills are essential to keep the project tasks moving forward and completing them within the set timeline.
- Analytical skills. A marketing project manager needs to leverage marketing analytics and prioritize resources to maximize the outcome for the company. This ability will be helpful when planning and optimizing marketing campaigns.
- Decision-making. Experience in making informed decisions in high-pressure situations helps to keep up with a tight project timeline.
Before hiring a marketing project manager, ensure they possess most of the skills discussed above. Appointing the right person will have an impact on the success of your future projects.
In closing
The success of any campaign depends on the organization of its leader. An efficient marketing project management can guarantee the success of your company’s marketing efforts.
This blog post has given you an overview of marketing project management and the desired project manager’s skills. So, if you’re about to hire a marketing project manager or take on leadership responsibilities yourself, you now know the necessary basics of the job profile.
