Benefits Of Effective Project Management In Marketing

Sadie Jones | May 26, 2021 at 7:30 AM

Making Marketing More Effective

If you work in marketing or at an agency, you probably won't need to be told about time pressures and how they can affect your ability to explore the effectiveness of your strategies fully. You're also aware that this leads to last-minute solutions and their effect on your results. In an ideal world, you'd have the time to work out a strategy in detail, having all of the information you need (especially from your client) well in advance so that you can clearly identify specific objectives and how to work towards them.

However, this usually takes a level of organization by all stakeholders that doesn't seem to exist in any project you've ever worked on, so you've sometimes not been able to define whether or not the goal was actually achieved or if it was achieved if that was the best way of doing it. In this blog, Hollywood Branded discusses the benefits of effective project management in marketing.

What Are The Benefits Of Effective Project Management In Marketing

Project Management Software

By using project management software, accessible to all parties and with goals and timeframes clearly defined, this might improve working practices across the board and improve results. This may seem easier said than done, but once everyone involved can see the potential benefits of working this way, then the decision to implement this on future projects should be an easy one.

There can be a tendency to see project management as a glorified to-do list. But, when used properly with tasks divided and allocated with deadlines for all to see, this can create a spirit of interdependence that would be otherwise lacking.

A lot of the confusion can be caused by the fact that some tasks can be run concurrently while others are dependant on the previous task being completed before it can be begun. Seeing all of this in a list form can leave doubts about what needs to be done and in what order. However, by using project management applications with Gantt Chart Software, everything can be visualized at a glance, and the dependencies are clearly visible.

project management

Time And Cost Management

With everything visible from the start, it is easier to see if a project is likely to overrun and which areas need tightening up or extra resources allocated. This bypasses the kind of awkward meeting where one of the stakeholders reveals they are behind and causes a knock-on effect. If this is visible at an early stage, some tasks can be outsourced to avoid bottlenecks.

An additional benefit of this is that costs can be easily tracked, so it can be seen at an early stage if a project is likely to be completed on a budget or if contingencies have to be made. This should avoid any of the last-minute corner-cutting that typifies projects that underperform.

On projects where outsourcing (for instance, the design of a landing page) is necessary to meet a deadline, the progress of the outsourced tasks is not always visible to all parties. It can lead to crossed wires and project overruns. If all tasks, regardless of where they are being done, are all part of the project management strategy, then the chances of this happening are all but negated.

Secondary Benefits

While these are primary benefits of using software for effective project management, there are also several secondary benefits, especially when Gantt charts are being used to make the whole project easily visible at a glance.

Firstly, this overall visibility of the project allows time to be added to test and refine results. Testing is an overlooked part of the process but can make a significant difference to the overall results and the amount of profit a marketing project will create.

For example, a social media advert has an engagement rate of 1%, and 100 people click through for the 10,000 times that advert is shown. Out of those 100 people, 24 opt-in and are placed in a follow-up sequence of content, leading to 6 of them making a purchase.

Without time for testing scheduled as part of the project, this is where it stops. However, by making testing a part of the process that is visible to all stakeholders, they will be more aware of the difference that testing can make to results.

Gantt chart

Enhanced Results

If, for instance, during testing, an adjustment to the initial advert is made and the engagement rate is doubled to 2%, then the number of sales will be doubled without altering any other part of the process. As further refinements are made, and the results on the bottom line become apparent, then there should be no issues with scheduling some testing time on future projects.

In reality, the differences that testing makes aren't usually expressed in the same round numbers, and it can make only a fraction of a percentage of difference. But, scheduling in the testing phase draws attention to the process and makes the results more noticeable. The possibility of enhanced results need not be ignored.

Identify Inefficiencies And Redundancies

The results of testing are not the only thing that becomes more noticeable. As the whole process is visible, every participant's relative contribution to the project is also visible.

Unfortunately, this is not popular with every single stakeholder in the process. This overall visibility can sometimes highlight the minimal contribution they make to the process, and they may try and obstruct the implementation of such software at every turn.

This, again, is just a 'snapshot' example. It highlights how inefficient and redundant parts of a project and the company can be identified by effectively using project management software and allowing these resources to be reassigned.

Final Thoughts

Secondary benefits such as these can generate extra profits and cost savings that can offset any budgetary concerns associated with adding another piece of software to an already extensive list of monthly overheads.

Overall, effective project management using Gantt chart software can only be beneficial to a company. Visibility of the whole project and the correct allocation of resources is a more efficient way of ensuring a project is completed on time and on budget and yielding maximum profit.