This is part 1 in a series of 4 articles concerning Project Management for a continuous marketing project.
The key reasons why we want a project management system for our marketing projects are efficiency and organization. Any marketing project can become extremely hectic with large lists of things that need to be done.
For example, a Pay-Per-Click account; building new campaigns, writing ads for the new promotion, optimizing what is working, fixing what isn’t, and don’t forget working with the client or upper management. All that can get pretty crazy.
You have to have a system to manage it all or something is bound to go wrong.
We know we need a system but where to start? Pick a tool. There is no way that you are going to remember your plan and please don’t try and use sticky notes or pads of paper. If it can be lost, taken, or destroyed easily you don’t want it to be the backbone of your system.
There are many great online tools to choose from. Here is a list of some that I have used or considered:
Which tool you choose does not matter, what matters is that the tool works and that you will actually use it. There are a lot of things that sound cool and we implement them in rush in order to achieve the end goal. But sometimes we are trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
These tools all work differently. Some project management tools have a very loose structure and they let you define more or less how you use it. Others have a defined structure for your projects. All you really need is a calendar, a task list, simple collaboration features, and a place to put discussions or notes.
The tool you pick should fit how you or your team work. For example, here at Get Found First we have settled on Basecamp.com. It works for us because it is simple. It has all of the required bits that I mentioned earlier, and Basecamp makes it easy to share and comment on what is happening. It also has great integration with email that makes it very easy to share and upload things.
All of the tools that I mentioned above have free trials or are completely free. Try them out and see what you like. This is very important because I am sure that there are tools that we have all tried to use in the past that forget about after a week or two.
Then come back next week for how to set a use project management to plan out your continuing project.
Other posts in this series:
Post2: Pay-Per-Click Project Management – Repeating Projects
Post3: Project Management: Plan Your PPC Optimizations
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