What is Marketing Project Management?

Jun 16

Marketing Project Management is the business of adapting organizational methodologies to run successful marketing campaigns from conception to completion. It keeps internal teams in alignment and prevents any of your “boots on the ground” workers from feeling burnt out or overloaded with work. A project manager is a valuable investment to your marketing team.

In this article:

What is marketing PM?
Use cases for marketing PM in your company
Skills to look for when hiring a marketing PM

What is marketing?

By definition, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large(1).”

Marketing exists all around us. It’s on billboards, radio, television and plastered across every single app on our phones. As of 2023, the average company will reserve ~13.6% of its annual budget to marketing (2).

There are many different marketing methodologies and subgroups. Guerilla marketing, grassroots marketing, digital marketing, influencer marketing, traditional marketing…the list goes on.

What is project management?

Project management is “the use of specific knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to deliver something of value to people.” (3)

Project management also has multiple methodologies. Some of the more popular include Kanban, Waterfall and Agile. But there are several more. Each serves a purpose with its unique set of strengths and shortcomings.

What is marketing project management?

So if we put the two together, we get marketing project management. Marketing campaigns are often complex, including multiple cross functional teams across companies and outside vendors. They span wide periods of time and have multiple deliverables. So - how do you keep the project on track? How do you ensure no deliverables fall through the cracks?

That’s where the project management piece comes in. There are five stages of the project management process, regardless of your chosen methodology:

Initiation
Planning
Execution
Monitoring/Control
Closure

There are also five well known principles of project management that are key success factors for a project:

Address important questions at the beginning of the project.
Sketch out a scope and goals for your project.
Communicate roles, expectations, and objectives to the team.
Monitor progress and identify roadblocks.
Make sure all deliverables have been met and finalize the project.

Organizational use cases for marketing project management

Does your company need a marketing project manager? Here are some indicators you could benefit from such a role (or even a temporary contractor):

Your internal teams are stretched thin
Projects are delayed more often than not
Company leadership feels they do not have visibility into a project
Cross functional teams often feel unsure of who is responsible for what or when something is due
Teams are not working within the same tool for communication, document sharing, reviews, etc.
There is a lack of subject matter experts on the topic for your campaign
Campaigns are simply underperforming

What skills does a marketing project manager need?

If you’re considering hiring a project manager for your marketing team, make sure to look for these skills during interviews.

Communication: This person needs to be able to communicate ideas clearly and succinctly, and not shy away from tough conversations. Project managers are leaders, and often without the leadership title. They need to be able to command a room (or virtual room) in a straightforward, respectful fashion. Verbal, written, non-verbal communication and listening skills are a must.
Time Management: A project manager needs to deliver their items on time but also answers for every single teammate with a deadline. They are responsible for checking in if a deadline is looming and there has been minimal communication from a teammate.
Budgeting: Being able to work within a budget is extremely important for marketing PMs. Especially with campaigns where the cost is fluctuating, such as a paid search ads campaign. A project manager needs to understand their total budget and how they will divvy it up within the different deliverables. If budget is beginning to be stretched, a PM should be able to step in and advise on how to course correct.
Collaboration: Project managers work with the entire project team and beyond. They need to be ready to work with many different personalities and work styles and be able to adapt.
Problem solvers: Every project has it’s issues — it is simply inevitable. A good PM takes on issues with a clear, level head and works diligently to find the correct solution and then implement it. They know when to elevate an issue their leader and they know who needs to be kept in the loop.