There are significant differences between the roles of a marketing manager and a project manager. Marketing managers are better known for deciding on creative direction and transforming a client’s needs into an effective and persuasive campaign, whereas a project manager is focused on building a capable team that can ensure completion of deliverables on budget and on time.
So, in a marketing context, when these two roles are merged, it can often leave those involved wondering, what does a marketing project manager do? The answer is a mash-up of the two roles that can leave marketing project managers unsure as to which part of their job they need to be focusing on and improving. If you find yourself in that position, here are some tips for getting up to speed quickly in the role.
Keep sight of your goals
Whether you’re progressing from being a marketing manager or a project manager and still discovering exactly what does a marketing project manager do, one of the most basic tenets of the marketing project manager rulebook is to never lose sight of what you’re supposed to be achieving. Set out clear objectives that are linked to your overall marketing strategy at the start of each project. Then create the related goals and deliverables that will mark out the path of how you are to achieve them. Constantly knowing what you are working towards provides both clarity of purpose and peace of mind.
Manage your assets effectively
Assets can come in a large variety of forms, e.g. graphic designs, product videos, industry white papers or documents for internal use such as project templates. These assets are extremely important and valuable to a marketing project manager for a variety of reasons. These include getting a return on the investment of time and money to create them in the first place, as well as utilizing them as an easily available resource that can speed up your standard processes.
Learn the art of delegation
Delegation is a difficult art to master, in fact, 85% of managers feel they should be delegating more. The solutions to finding the right people for the right task revolve around trust, training and communication. While any given task may be easier for you to do than a specific team member, in the long run, the more you can teach others to do means that, as a marketing project manager, you can focus on tasks which deliver greater value.
Make focus a priority
While as a marketing manager it can be quite normal to juggle many different tasks and strands of a strategy, tying all the visual and verbal elements together in one’s mind. Project management, however, requires a lot more focus on single tasks, with the American Psychological Association even suggesting that multitasking can actually make things 40% slower. For both you and your team make sure focus and clarity on what’s to be done is always a paramount consideration.
Use the right tools for the job
Improvements in project management and communication technology have dramatically increased productivity and project flexibility in recent years. Using a fast, remotely accessible and highly functional project management platform, such as Planview AdaptiveWork One, can be a huge asset in all forms of project management. Teams that just need a simple task management tool are also well served.
Whether it’s tracking and overseeing project progress or communicating with remote team members, using the best available project management technology is a must for any successful marketing project manager.
