Marketing Has Project Managers Too: And Your Team Probably Needs One

I recently attended my first project management conference, the ABWIPPM Conference, and I walked away thinking about something that has followed me throughout my career:

Project management is everywhere, even when the title isn't.

One of the things I loved about attending the conference was meeting and hearing from so many talented women working in project management. The room represented an incredible range of industries. I met and connected with women managing projects in healthcare, financial services, government, nonprofits and other sectors.

But as I listened to conversations and learned more about everyone's work, I noticed something.

I didn't see nearly as much representation from Marketing Project Managers.

That stood out to me because marketing has been such a large part of my own project management experience.

When people hear "project manager," they may immediately think about construction, IT, technology, healthcare, government or large corporate projects.

But what about marketing?

A new website has a deadline.

A campaign has a budget.

A rebrand has stakeholders.

A social media campaign has deliverables.

A product launch has dependencies.

A creative project has rounds of review and approval.

An event has vendors, contracts, logistics, marketing, deadlines and a launch date that absolutely cannot move.

Those are projects.

So, who is managing them?

Marketing Strategy and Marketing Project Management Are Not the Same Thing

A Marketing Manager may be responsible for determining the strategy, audience, messaging, channels and goals of a campaign.

A Marketing Project Manager helps make sure all of those moving pieces actually come together.

We're asking:

Who owns this deliverable?

When does creative need to be completed?

Who needs to approve it?

Has the vendor received what they need?

Is this change going to affect our timeline?

Are we still within scope?

Does the next team have what they need to begin their work?

What happens if this deadline moves?

And one of my favorites:

Who is following up on all of this?

That last question is often where organizations discover the gap.

Great Ideas Still Need Execution

A team can have an incredible campaign concept and talented designers, writers, strategists, social media professionals and leadership.

But someone still needs to connect the pieces.

Without clear project ownership, little things begin happening.

Feedback lives in different email threads. A stakeholder joins the conversation after creative has already been approved. A deadline changes, but not everyone knows about it. A vendor is waiting for information that someone thought had already been sent. Creative goes through six rounds of revisions because no one established an approval process.

Suddenly, the problem looks like a marketing problem.

Sometimes it isn't.

Sometimes it's a project management problem.

Marketing Project Management Deserves a Seat at the Table

That was one of my biggest takeaways after the ABWIPPM Conference.

There are established conversations around project management in healthcare, technology, government, finance and other industries. But there is another group of professionals doing this work every day inside marketing departments, creative agencies, communications teams, nonprofits and small businesses.

Sometimes they have the title Marketing Project Manager.

Sometimes they don't.

They may be called a Marketing Operations Manager, Creative Project Manager, Account Manager, Producer, Campaign Manager or simply the person everyone turns to when something needs to get done.

Regardless of the title, the function matters.

Marketing needs project management.

And as marketing continues to involve more channels, vendors, technology, stakeholders, content and moving pieces, I believe that need becomes even greater.

You May Not Need Another Marketing Person

This is especially important for small businesses, nonprofits and growing organizations.

When work starts falling behind, the instinct may be to hire another marketing employee.

But first, ask:

Do we need another person creating the work, or do we need someone managing how the work gets done?

Those are two very different needs.

And this is where a consultant or fractional project manager can be valuable.

An experienced project manager can step into an existing team and help establish timelines, organize workflows, clarify responsibilities, manage vendors, coordinate stakeholders, track deliverables and keep everyone moving toward the same goal.

You don't necessarily need another full-time employee.

Sometimes you need the right person to come in, organize the project and help your existing people do what they already do well.

That's the Work I Love

My career has allowed me to work across marketing, creative projects, events and business operations.

And although the projects have looked different, I've repeatedly found myself doing the same thing:

Taking the vision and helping create the structure needed to execute it.

That is one of the reasons I'm launching Beyond the Timeline.

Once a month, I'll talk about the side of project management that doesn't always get discussed: marketing projects, creative operations, events, nonprofits, consulting, workflows, volunteering, stakeholder management and all of the work happening behind the scenes to get something across the finish line.

I also want this to be a space where other project managers can see that our profession doesn't have to fit neatly into one industry or one traditional PM role.

Because project management isn't just about maintaining a timeline.

It's about understanding what needs to happen, who needs to be involved and how we move from an idea to something real.

Need Help Moving the Work Forward?

At N Sam Solutions, we meet you where your business has a need.

We provide project management and consulting support across marketing campaigns, creative projects, events and business operations.

Whether you have a project that needs structure, a team that needs additional project management capacity, or a great idea that you're struggling to move from planning into execution, let's talk.

You bring the vision. We'll help organize the path forward.

Beyond the Timeline | Where Strategy Meets Execution

Nakeya Samuels | N Sam Solutions