Demand for the marketing project management role is growing exponentially, with more companies looking to fill this position. However, there’s a widening gap between demand and supply. There aren’t enough skilled professionals to fill all the roles available.
In this article, we’ll help marketing project managers—experienced or aspiring—define the role and its responsibilities. We’ll also look at the skills and qualifications that make a marketing project manager successful.
What Is a Marketing Project Manager?
A marketing project manager is a skilled professional who plans, controls, and implements strategies related to marketing campaigns. The marketing campaigns have a specified beginning and end.
Marketing project managers usually work with resource managers to identify the skills and resources required to deliver marketing projects on time and within budget. They also supervise the people working on the various marketing campaigns.
More and more people are taking an interest in marketing project management. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, marketing management roles will grow at a rate of 6% over the next decade. So, yes, you’re still right for choosing to jump into this field.
What Are the Different Types of Marketing Project Managers?
You can work in various roles and industries as a marketing project manager.
Marketing program manager
A marketing program manager is a professional in charge of managing several marketing projects simultaneously. Their primary role is to see to it that those projects are helping the organization reach its goals, like sales growth or customer retention.
In-house marketing project manager
An in-house marketing project manager manages and coordinates marketing projects for a company. These managers will often work with internal creative and communications departments and external vendors and freelancers to deliver marketing projects.
Project manager in a marketing agency
A marketing agency project manager works with several clients and ensures client projects are delivered on time and within budget. These managers work with external clients and vendors, internal team members, and freelancers to complete projects.
This role handles different tasks, including meeting with clients, assigning tasks and setting deadlines, project budgeting, and risk management.
Digital marketing project manager
A digital marketing project manager manages the execution of digital projects and campaigns. Digital marketing campaigns may include:
- Optimizing the company website
- Video campaigns
- Social media campaigns
- Commissioning eBooks, and more.
International marketing project manager
An international marketing project manager coordinates marketing campaigns and projects abroad. Their tasks involve identifying the global markets with the highest profit potential. They then design culturally appropriate marketing campaigns for these markets.
These managers work directly with marketing teams, vendors, and freelancers in various countries.
What Are the Main Roles That a Marketing Project Manager Performs?
In a nutshell, these are some responsibilities that a marketing project manager will be expected to handle.
Structuring an actionable marketing strategy
A marketing project manager works with the marketing director to create strategic marketing campaigns. The project manager then takes over the role of implementing these campaigns.
Creating and managing the content calendar
The marketing project manager creates and manages an integrated content calendar to make sure everything remains on track. A content calendar is a schedule that guides teams on when various forms of content, such as blog posts and social media posts, get published.
Delegating tasks to their teams
Marketing project managers often work with graphic designers, illustrators, and copywriters. It’s the manager’s role to delegate tasks to these team members. They set priorities and provide a clear plan to the team that shows who does what and when.
Setting timelines and milestones
Marketing project managers take the lead role in creating project charters, statements of work, and project plans. These project documents provide a clear guideline on the project timelines and milestones.
The project manager then ensures every team member sticks to these timelines and milestones during project execution.
Managing external stakeholders
Other than internal teams, marketing project managers also work with external stakeholders such as vendors, and it’s part of their job to establish and maintain these relationships.
Maintaining quality assurance
The marketing project manager must ensure that all their projects meet the highest attainable quality standards.
What Are the Main Skills That a Marketing Project Manager Should Have?
Successful marketing project managers must have various technical and soft skills to get the job done. Below are some of these skills.
1. Leadership
At the core of any project management role is influencing and leading people. Therefore, leadership skills are necessary for the marketing project management role. Being able to influence and lead your project team members to take the actions required to deliver successful projects is essential.
2. Communication
Verbal and written communication is critical for the marketing project manager to do their job. Constant communication is a must if you want to deliver successful projects. As the project manager, you’ll spend considerable time communicating with your marketing teams and other stakeholders.
3. Time Management
Deadlines are a significant part of any project, and the best project managers aim at beating deadlines with every project they take on. To do this, you need proper time management skills. Remember, you’ll be managing your time and everyone else’s.
4. Resource Allocation
How fast and well you deliver a project will always be subject to limitations on available resources (time, money, or the workforce). Therefore, a marketing project manager must understand how to allocate available resources effectively to achieve the most out of what is at hand.
5. Problem Solving
No project is devoid of problems. From malfunctioning systems, and workflow problems, to sick staff and a dissatisfied client—you get the idea. Every problem that comes up within a marketing project is the marketing project manager’s responsibility. Hence, why problem-solving skills are a must.
6. Organizational Skills
As the project manager managing a marketing campaign, it’s your job to keep everyone and everything organized. Organizational skills will come in handy to ensure that the entire campaign runs smoothly to achieve your KPIs and set goals.
7. Teamwork and Collaboration
As mentioned earlier, marketing project managers will likely oversee multiple people working on a similar project. Excellent teamwork and collaboration know-how will make it easier to manage these people.
Project management software can greatly improve communication within a team and encourage collaboration. Adopting a reliable marketing project management tool can enhance your team management skills and enable proper coordination of activities and progress evaluation.
8. Marketing
While a marketing project management role is like any other one and utilizes similar project methodologies and concepts, a marketing project manager must have marketing expertise. Marketing experience will enable you to successfully manage and execute marketing campaigns such as a website redesign, social media campaign, or product launch.
What Are Some of the Qualifications a Marketing Project Manager Should Have?
To get hired as a marketing project manager, several qualifications will make you a better candidate. For starters, you must have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communication, business, or management.
Experience handling several marketing projects or coursework is often considered essential. You’ll also have better chances of getting hired if you have strong experience with marketing tools like content management systems, social media and other online platforms, and more.
If you have no experience in project management, you may consider getting certifications in project management. A few of the best certifications (but not limited to) include:
- Project Management Professional (PMP), run by the Project Management Institute.
- Professional in Project Management (PPM)
- PRINCE2 Foundation/PRINCE2 Practitioner
- CompTIA Project+ certification
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
- Certified Project Manager–IAPM
Become a Better Marketing Project Manager with Mission Control
Project management for marketing involves overseeing many moving parts. Implementing project management software can be invaluable to a marketing project manager to make sure that all these parts move smoothly.
Marketing project management software like Mission Control can streamline your marketing activities, like website redesign, publishing content, organizing events, publishing content, and more.
Additionally, many marketers use tools like Asana, Monday and AirTable to manage their campaigns and activities, using Mission Control to manage your campaigns means you are managing both your customer and your workflow on the one platform, which means consistent reporting and cross-functional visibility.
Ready to kickstart your marketing project management? Contact us today for a demo.
