In order for marketers to succeed in a competitive industry, they should be equipped with the right set of skills. These skills might include but are not limited to; customer service, digital advertising, critical thinking and problem-solving, storytelling, writing skills, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media management, and data analytics.
However, one of the most essential skills required by marketers is Project Management. But why?
Having project management helps marketers because marketing involves running campaigns, events, reporting, budgeting and dealing with clients. So it’s important for marketers to have some project management skills that allow them to manage and stay on top of their projects in a timely manner, and complete projects & campaigns as required.
What are the main project management frameworks that marketers need to learn?
- Understand project phases – Almost all marketing activities have five phases, initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and closure.
- Project integration management – creating a business case, putting together a plan and going through relevant approval, holding kick-off meetings and WIP meetings, setting key matrix for monitoring and reporting.
- Scope and schedule management – no matter the size of the project, breaking down it into trackable components is handy. It also helps to engage all stakeholders on the same page.
- Schedule management – details how the projects will be created, managed and monitored. It involved defining the scheduled activities and sequencing them, estimating the resources needed for the activity, estimating project duration and monitoring.
- Cost management – there is no doubt that delivering projects within an approved budget is very important. this phase involves estimating how much a project will cost and monitoring to ensure expenses are within the approved budget
- Resource management – the main objective of resource management is to manage the allocation of resources from human talents, and money to technologies to the right departments to complete projects more efficiently and achieve the greatest value.
- Stakeholder management – involves identifying who the stakeholders are, assessing the interest/authority/influence that each one of them has, and engaging them in your projects if needed. Various status reports and forecasts help in increasing transparency and bringing everyone on the same page.
We have seen project management is highly relevant to marketing. It allows marketers, and marketing teams to focus on the work that matters, freeing them of distractions caused by tasks going off track and even business budgets spinning out of control. Through the effective use of project management methodologies, marketing teams will be empowered to deliver results that impact the business’s bottom line, as well as enabling them to see how their actions can positively contribute to the company’s strategic goals.
As more and more of our everyday work becomes project-based, it follows that more and more people are finding themselves in the business of managing projects — even if they’re not traditional project managers. This highlights the potential of modern-day marketers who has excellent project management skills since they can jump into the task and take lead.
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[1] https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-skills-do-i-need-to-be-a-digital-project-manager
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/project-management-marketing-sudeshna-nag/
[3] https://cxl.com/institute/online-course/project-management/
