Many people don’t fully understand the importance of planning ahead. They progress through a series of steps in a sequential manner and when all the steps are done, the project is done. Often, they realize at some point along the way that there isn’t enough time to get it done. Then they either miss the original deadline, throw money at the problem, or cut corners and compromise quality to deliver on time.

Some deadlines like the start of the tradeshow or the date when a publisher prints and mails a trade magazine are beyond our control. These deadlines cannot be extended. So, our only choices are to cut corners or throw money at the problem. The first corners cut are typically those that assure the highest quality work, like additional proofreading and fact-checking. Throwing money at the problem can involve getting additional resources involved and paying exorbitant rush charges for shipping, printing, and so on.

Careful and responsible project management can help marketers achieve a high-quality result while meeting deadlines and budget requirements. A simple system of timing requirements, communicated to everyone involved, makes a world of difference. Having a good grasp on this gives project managers control over the process and a high confidence level in the results.

The first step in managing a project responsibly is to list all the steps involved. Think the project through from the end result. If the end result is 25,000 printed brochures in the literature fulfillment center ready to be shipped, then start with that and work backwards. The brochures need to be shipped from the printer to the fulfillment center. Before that they are printed. Before that, they are approved to print after being reviewed by those with the authority to approve the final. These final steps happen after stakeholders review the second draft, first draft, etc. And ultimately it all starts with someone kicking off the project in some form: calling the agency in for a meeting, preparing a strategy brief, or having some other type of initiation activity. You can get as granular or broad as you’re comfortable with and add as much detail as needed to manage the project and the project team towards a high-quality result.

Try to keep the time frame of reference consistent through the steps. That is, if you have an end date for “review first draft” that naturally includes providing comments on that draft. You don’t need to list a step for “provide comments.” If you think this level of instruction will be helpful to your team, combine that step into “Review first draft and provide comments.”

Once you have all the steps lined up, apply your best guess to how long each takes. Later, you’ll be able to adjust for actual practice as you track and analyze the results from individual projects. Build in a reasonable amount of time for each step, keeping in mind that people are unavailable sometimes and everyone is always busy. Once you have all the steps and the time it takes for each, add it up and you have the time it will take to complete that project, or that type of project.

If you typically rely on your experience in managing projects to estimate project timing requirements, you might find your estimates or rules of thumb need to be adjusted to allow more time. You might discover through this process that you need more time to do a good job.

Also, keep it as simple as possible. Have a few “generic templates” that all follow some standard project workflow or sequence. Then apply the templates to a wide variety of projects as needed. This helps when communicating the system to your stakeholders. If you can simplify it to just one or a few generic workflow tools and use them each time, it would be even better. Add or remove steps if you find the planning documents to be too complicated or too simple for your project team.

How does this system help in practicing marketing and marketing communications on a daily basis?

Many project stakeholders don’t believe the time involved in completing a marketing project the right way. Why should they? They don’t live it day to day. They have other things on their minds. They may think the timing requirements are overestimated and that extra time is built-in to make the project manager’s jobs easier. They push or ignore timelines and deadlines and don’t take them seriously.

In this case it helps to explain each step involved, what’s going to be done, and when. If your timeline for the development of a new ad is going to take 10 weeks, and you now only have 7 weeks, you can go through the individual steps with your team and adjust.  For example, you may need a faster turn-around of draft reviews, or you might need to reduce the number of reviewers.

Keep production windows and required start dates in front of everyone and top-of-mind. Make sure they know the timing requirements for each type of project. Remind them frequently in a way that keeps everyone thinking far enough out into the future. For example, if you know a new product introduction is on the horizon, but a launch date has not been identified, make sure they know how long it will take to prepare. If it’s June, and you require two months to prepare for a launch, make sure they don’t expect a July product launch.

The written agreement also gives you a tool to manage stakeholders. When your team is considering a new project and they want you to identify the date you can have it done, you have a useful tool to quickly give them an answer that you can back up.

Use the system to track projects. List the timing and dates and then monitor progress. Mark down the planned dates and the dates it actually happened. You can use it later to evaluate the project. (You might need to explain why the original deadline was missed). You can also evaluate a number of projects and adjust your system accordingly once you have some data. If you have the tracking dates from a number of projects, and they all show that it took consistently 10 business days to review the first draft, you’ll have more credibility when you build 10 business days for first draft review into the schedule.

The name of the game is having a clear grasp on exactly what it takes, and how long it takes, to complete a project. Then, you can better manage your team towards a good quality result.

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As discussed in Part 1 of this series, original content relevant to your business, products, and service offerings helps to drive online traffic for your business and generate valuable leads.  Connecting with someone that’s potentially going to do business with your company based on their search engine queries and other online behavior starts a meaningful conversation. You have what they’re looking for and just need to discuss their needs further and see if there’s a match.

As we implement content strategies to connect with potential customers online, we also have to consider the changing landscape of the digital marketing world.  There used to be two primary ways to capture online traffic.  One was by publishing quality online content that the search engine algorithms ranked as valuable. This is called organic search or search engine optimization and would affect the presentation of search engine results presented when someone performed an online search. 

The other way was to direct online traffic to your offerings by paying for advertising. Paid advertising would be presented in front of organic search results when searches commenced.  This is called pay-per-click advertising.

Quality Online Content is More Important Than Ever

The lines between these two digital marketing mechanisms is blurring as more intent, or integrity really, is being built into the way the paid advertising systems function.  The PPC algorithms now prioritize ads based on the alignment with user intent.  The search engines now evaluate and rank your content against available alternatives, prioritize your appearance based on this analysis, and even adjust how much you pay for your ads based on their opinion of your alignment with the ultimate intent of the online audience doing the searching.

They consider how well the content you have online aligns with your ad copy and keywords and how users interact with your online content. They measure how long visitors spend on your site, do they bounce off your site quickly and at a high rate, how many pages do they view, do they ultimately purchase from you or fill out your web forms, etc.  It really comes down to whether they believe you have actual, valuable information that will meet the intent of the online audience.

How To Start Creating Quality Marketing Content

If your company has existing customers, case studies are great way to develop content. Make sure to describe how your products and services are being used by your customers and especially any unique and interesting applications.  It’s not necessary to use your actual customer names either.  Write the case study in a descriptive way that tells the story without using any names.  The names don’t typically help your content marketing results anyway. 

Another approach is to provide an in-depth look into the technology behind your products and services. A detailed description of how the technology behind your products and services works is a great way to weave in your targeted keywords.  For example, a dry cleaner can describe how the chemicals involved in their process are created, used, or transported. Or they can publish a description about how their particular operational processes protect the environment.

A behind-the scenes peek inside your company operations is another approach to generating content. Show some photos of your unique manufacturing process or other core competency. For example, a equipment rental company can describe the maintenance procedures or training programs that keep their equipment performing at an advantageous level at all times for the customer.

Content Marketing Planning & Execution

If you find you need help creating and implementing a content marketing strategy for your business, SwanRosney Marketing has the experience and skills that will get you excellent results.  We can create a comprehensive content marketing plan with detailed schedules and the marketing assets as well.  We can also assist with any individual aspect of your content market program as needed.  The first step is to Contact Us and let us know a little bit about your business.

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With Email Marketing, a compelling subject line is the key to success. When the email shows up in an inbox, a great subject line will entice the receiver to open and read the Email.

Email Marketing is a highly regulated area, governed by the Federal Trade Commission CAN-SPAM Act and other regulations including the GDPR that requires consent for email and cookies, the CCPA and CASL. In general, mass Email messages can only be sent to contacts that you have done business with in the past and contacts that have provided express permission for you to Email them. Email messages must include your company location and an unsubscribe option.

If you need help getting your Email Marketing Programs up and running, Let’s Talk

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The brochure format, saved as a PDF document, is commonly used online to provide additional information on websites, and as email attachments sent from businesses to their customers. There’s something very familiar about flipping through pages of a document from front to back, even when viewing a computer or mobile screen.

The brochure experience can be successfully delivered in digital format too though the use of “flip book” types of media made especially to function like a printed brochure, only they’re accessed solely online.

Additional marketing value can be realized by using online brochures, guides, white papers, and other page-turner documents to obtain website visitor’s contact information. For example, the following Guide to Senior Care Resources was promoted on a web page. Web page visitors who wanted to download this valuable resource were required to enter their email address before accessing the downloadable version.

In conclusion, printed brochures are certainly not extinct. They still provide value in many ways to the online business world of today.

If you need help getting started on any type of printed or digital brochures for your business, Let’s Talk

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Not sure where, when, or how to start advertising your business? Let’s Talk

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Social Media extends your marketing reach beyond your website and other marketing activities. When you maintain an active presence on Social Media, you reach people that may otherwise had never found your company online, visited your tradeshow booth, or seen your advertisement in the trade publication.

The social media sites you use for marketing your business should be based on what type of business you’re in.  For example, a Business-to-Business company like and engineering firm will see better results on LinkedIn than if they use more consumer-oriented sites like Facebook. A consumer product or service may have better success on Facebook.

The use of photos and video in your social media posts helps your posts stand out from the rest.

It’s also very important to consistently update your social media pages. Many companies try it for a short while and then stop posting updates which look like they have nothing new going on, or worse- that they’ve gone out of business.  Don’t do this. It can negatively impact your brand image. If you start a social media page for your business, commit to it and keep it updated. A simple tracking form can help keep track of how often updates are posted on each site and remind you to create posts before too much time has passed.

If you need any assistance establishing or maintaining social media marketing for your business, Let’s Talk

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Websites built with Adobe Dreamweaver utilize HTML pages to present information online.

WordPress and Content Management Systems

WordPress websites combine overall design themes and an underlying Content Management System to build websites that are easier to update have greater compatibility with online search engines.

Being online today also requires compatibility with the mobile devices that are being used more and more to access online content. Websites built with WordPress have great compatibility with mobile devices.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Driving online traffic to a website can be accomplished in a number of ways. Publishing the company website address in all company correspondence such as business cards, stationery, marketing brochures, email messages, and direct mail is a good start.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves generating and publishing content directed at persuading search engines to like your website and then ranking you highly when someone searches for keywords related to your business.

For Allways Home Care and Sep-Pro Systems, Inc., detailed keyword analyses was used to identify words that related to the business and also produced good search results.

These keywords were included in web page metadata and page content. Plus, new text and rich media (photos, video) supporting these keywords was created and added to the website on a frequent and consistent basis.

These SEO techniques and others, such as obtaining external links to your website from other sites like YouTube, produce good results, but it does take some time to see the results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Online advertising like the following Google Ads, based on the same keyword strategies, can generate much faster results while waiting for the longer-term SEO results to take hold.

Banner Advertising

Online Banner Advertising can also be used to drive traffic to your website directly from other websites like industry publications, trade websites, and trade show websites.

Measuring Results

Google Analytics and Google Ad results are a couple of ways to track program success and inform program adjustments going forward.

If you’d like more information about using online strategies, like these, to drive website traffic and lead conversion for your business, Let’s Talk

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