Archive for the ‘strategic marketing’ Category
Why are other business functions such as accounts, distribution and development better managed than marketing?
With today’s standards, the marketing department probably represents the greatest opportunity in your company for increasing overall business expansion and company performance.
And the marketing manager feels the pressure – yet lost at sea amongst promising new fads and new opportunities such as web 2.0, social media, Facebook advertising…
But it’s no one’s fault. Business has to take more responsibility to the point of absorbing marketing as a central pillar of modern strategy, rather than leaving it silo’d. Only then can the marketing function do what it can and must.
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two-and only two-basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” – Peter Drucker
And what is the most glaringly obvious option for marketing to improve with? Marketing Project Management.
MPM can come from self-study resources for project management… or it can extend into formalised academic project management, or a comprehensive study and implementation of critical chain project management (CCPM)which is way ahead of standard project management methodology.
The Solution to Marketing Project Management
Regardless of the approach taken for marketing project management training, or the scale of MPM required in your business, there are 6 components for MPM.
1. Preparation – Including team selection, customer orientation focus
2. Research – Customer insight, product insight, internal capabilities audits, etc.
3. Development – Web site, NPD, teamwork training, etc.
4. Conversion – Campaign management, website management, email marketing, sales pipeline, etc
5. Traffic – Search engine optimisation, affiliates, list procurement, social marketing.
6. Tracking – Web tracking, financial ratios, etc.
Those six areas of practical MPM are unlocked by the trialectic of management:
1. Outcome – Get clear on the targets that are possible and are needed for better marketing results.
2. Process – Understand the constraints and how to mitigate them.
3. Performance – Managing daily productivity and tracking ROI of all marketing projects.
With these outlines a marketing manager can construct a tailored approach to marketing project management.
Review the authors recommended list of leadership books and improve your marketing project management.