Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

I don’t think it matters what type of organization you are, visibility into the projects you work on is critical to success. Earlier this morning, CMO.com published a recent article written by "yours truly," that addresses the visibility needs of marketing organizations. I think you’ll find that the challenges faced by marketing leaders are the same as those faced by other project leaders.

James Bond is usually able to get the information he needs with a little bit of "persuasion," while the rest of us must turn to more conventional approaches. To get a real handle on what’s happening among the project teams of any organization, it’s important to capture information at the source and make sure and get the real story.

Whether you lead a marketing organization, a creative team or a project team, the keys to obtaining marketing visibility start with:

1. Empowering the Team: The people closest to the work understand it the best. When we successfully engage team members in project plans, allow people to make commitments and take ownership over their priorities, project leaders can capture accurate and timely information they can trust.
2. Recognizing Accomplishments: It’s the people, not the technology that ensures project success. When organizations focus on people, they foster discussion, highlight accomplishments and keep everyone engaged.

Empowering team members with input into how their work is planned, giving them ownership of their deliverables, and enabling them to share conversational information about their work has been identified as the most valuable unrealized catalyst to achieving high performance.

Engaging team members with a solution that helps capture accurate and up-to-date information that can be trusted for making informed decisions is critical. If you are successful, you might even find yourself sitting back in your chair and softly whispering, Bond, James Bond."

Strategic Project Management

How to Use a Marketing Events Calendar in Your Project Management

How To Use a Marketing Events Calendar In Your Project Management
by Kristin Hilton
Copyright © 2009

How To Use a Marketing Events Calendar In Your Project Management

How many times have you lost track of your launch or promotion dates, only to start working on them at the last possible moment?

If you’ve tried just about every method of organization, and still can’t seem to keep track of your company’s marketing events, a marketing calendar may be the perfect solution.

What is a Marketing Events Calendar?

A marketing calendar is a helpful tool you can use to help chart your company’s marketing efforts and results.

You can design your marketing calendar to your specific criteria. You can prepare your promotions a couple of months, six months, or even up to a year in advance. But what exactly should be outlined on your marketing calendar?

• Individual promotions and events, so you can stay focused on your marketing efforts instead of being distracted with routine tasks

• The cost for each event, so you can clearly see which campaigns are profiting the most

• Results and profits gained by each promotion

A marketing events calendar is absolutely indispensable when organizing your minor (yet important) day-to-day marketing efforts around major company events, such as website launches. It can also be helpful in effective company budgeting.

Why Use a Marketing Events Calendar?

There are many great reasons why you should keep a marketing events calendar. One is that it’s never too early to start preparing your marketing campaigns. Beginning a promotion or advertising an event at the last minute could lose considerable impact, which would be reflected by your sales.

Also, it is nearly impossible for a growing business to keep track of every detail of the marketing month. Your marketing calendar could prevent important tasks falling to the wayside by spreading your company’s attention evenly. As a result, no detail goes unnoticed—and you implement consistency and stability into your marketing plans.

Because a marketing calendar also allows you to assess the worth of your marketing program, you can cut unnecessary costs by eliminating any unsuccessful projects early.

By using your marketing events calendar, you can also adjust your promotions around any holiday. You can set aside ample time to position your company’s product or service as the perfect “must-have” for the occasion.

Additionally, marketing calendars are excellent tools for measuring your company’s productivity. At a glance, you will be able to observe where your marketing efforts are required the most. This can be helpful in preventing marketing lapses that bring about the “feast or famine” effect plaguing many online businesses today.

I bet you’re wondering, “Why should I use a marketing calendar? What if I just used a list?”

Actually, a marketing calendar eliminates the monotony of a to-do list, which could make each promotion or event seem more like a daunting task instead of a challenging goal.

Your marketing calendar can quickly boost the overall morale of your company, and encourages much more focus from your staff. In turn, this will be interpreted by your customers, who will gladly continue to do business with your company.

How to Implement a Marketing Events Calendar

Marketing events calendars are best established through team effort. Include your staff in the planning of your events. Make it a ritual to meet with them, and schedule all phases and angles of your future promotions together.

Your marketing calendar may be a giant dry-erase calendar that you and your staff can quickly reference or even an elaborate chart with designated columns for certain data.

There is no wrong way to make a marketing calendar—it doesn’t have to be flashy, just straightforward. As long as you and your staff can easily draw information from it, it is successful.

Use Your Marketing Calendar as a Primary Tool in Your Marketing Efforts

A marketing events calendar is a great tool to organize and map your marketing events. It is effective at keeping track of each important detail, and is an excellent way to plan seasonal campaigns in advance. After all, the old adage is true—failing to plan is planning to fail!