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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With so much marketing activities centered around online delivery of information, marketers have been using the term “content in marketing” for a while now.  And naturally, many people are asking “what is content marketing?” “how does this apply to my business?” and “what results can I expect from improved content in marketing?”

What Is Content In Marketing?

Simply put, Content Marketing identifies the key information that’s required to move a prospect through the journey of becoming a customer.  It starts with a clear definition of the intended customer (frequently called a Buyer Persona or Avatar). Then an analysis of the information that moves the customer along the sales process and an application of some content marketing secrets forms a plan of action.

Buyer Persona Examples

To get a good foundation for a Content Marketing plan, the Buyer Persona should include as much relevant information about your intended customer as possible. Market segmentation can help you gain some clarity and focus. (See our Blog Post for more about Market Segmentation.) Including details such as demographic, behavioral, and psychographic information about a buyer helps fine-tune your market intelligence. 

For example, it may help a company that provides pool cleaning services to know who typically buys these types of services- average age, gender, marital status, average income, etc.

Another example would be a contract engineering company that needs to know who typically purchases engineering services- job title, company size, location, and prior purchasing behavior. Do they buy services through a bid/proposal process and how does that work?

Marketing Insights That Feed A Content Marketing Plan

Many resources are available to help identify the information that’s important to your customers. You can look at the social media and websites your customers use and analysis tools like Sparktoro help point you in the right direction. Then you can review those sites for content patterns and trends. Professional associations can provide similar insight into popular topics.

If you’re in the position to analyze prior customer behavior, you can chart out what it took to get them from awareness to conversion. That is, what information was provided in what order to close a sale?

A close look at your competitors may reveal content that customers value that you’re not providing.  What content works well for your competitors? Review their social media pages, website, and even email if you can get on their lists. Take note of any new social media platforms they’re using online. Setting up Google Alerts for your competitors is another good way to get timely information.

Finally, keyword research can validate that the topics you’ve identified are actually interesting and being searched for online. Keyword research won’t tell you who is searching for the information, only how popular the topic is, or isn’t.

Content Marketing Ideas

Mapping the information required to move a customer along the Buyer Journey will show which content is needed and in what order. Creative digital marketing content ideas then expand this thinking to define how and where you’re going to present it. Can you move leads thru the funnel with an email drip campaign? Do you have a sales team that might need case studies to help them close a sale? Can you use social media ads to drive brand awareness?

The sales funnel is a helpful model for thinking critically and capturing the insights in document form.

Once you’ve mapped content to the sales funnel, you can prioritize the development of new content based on any gaps.  The additional content required can go on a plan that outlines what’s needed and in what order it will be created. 

Content Marketing Secrets

The best formats to drive Awareness are advertising channels that reach potential customers that do not yet know about your company. Customers in the interest and consideration stages can be informed with additional information on your website, social media pages, and lead nurture programs.

Many businesses provide a Conversion mechanism right on their website or social media page.  Other companies may make sales by inbound phone calls or even at cash registers in a physical location. 

Finally, some of the most cost-effective marketing activities are aimed at customers who have already purchased. After all, it’s far more effective to sell to prior customers than find new customers.  A steady email marketing program is a great way to stay top-of-mind with prior customers and get referrals from their networks.

Content Marketing Agencies

You can certainly go it alone or you can certainly hire an agency to create and implement a content marketing plan for you.  If you decide you need some 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 an entire content marketing plan and all the marketing assets required, or we can jump in and assist with any aspect of your content market program.  The first step is to Contact Us and let us know how we can help.

Part 2 of our series on Content In Marketing will cover creative ways to develop content to use in your content marketing program.

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Many of us are using presentation tools like Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides on a regular basis. It’s fairly easy to add some text bullets and photos in these programs. After all, we’ve been using these tools for some time now. However, the programs have evolved over the years and now enable some very creative and interesting approaches to sharing information visually.

The following example slide designs present some common types of business content in ways that just might keep your audience engaged and interested.  (Or at least awake.)

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