Hopefully you’ve never had to have the discussion that starts with “we need more time” “or we’re not going to hit our deadline”, but the reality is, if you’re working in marketing today it will probably happen at some point if it hasn’t already happened this week.
Effective marketing project management goes beyond the Excel spreadsheet of tasks and color codes. If deadlines are getting the best of you more often lately, I’m happy to assist! I’ve spent time talking with marketing teams and agencies to identify why marketing teams most often bump up against (and past) their due dates. Here are Four Early Warning Signs that your delivery deadline might be in jeopardy, and some ideas on how you might avoid them in the future!
Executing on effective marketing project management invariably means you need to spend time communicating with a wide range of individuals. Given the number roles that are involved in creating marketing campaigns - marketers, designers, programmers, project managers and, if you’re in the agency world, clients - there’s often going to be gaps in communication across these different contributors.
One person’s “comp” or “proof” is another person’s “draft” or “mock up”. An often cited example was around the term “deadline” itself - there are many deadlines within a project, often gating for next steps in the process.
If you find yourself constantly explaining the true nature of deliverables (or worse, you have a feeling that you have insufficient information to complete a set of deliverables), this could be a big red flag for hitting your timeline. Why? It often means that there were incorrect assumptions made about what would be completed at different stages of the project.
It’d be easy to just say “communicate more effectively” here and move on, but with so many communication methods available, what is best? Here are some suggestions:
Imagine a situation when you or your team finished your design work a couple days ago and...you’re still waiting for the feedback from your fellow marketing colleagues! It’s annoying sure, but it’s also deadly to timelines - especially if feedback arrives at the 11th hour. It’s doubly problematic if you’re juggling multiple projects at the same time (which is to say, everyone).
Lastly, there’s a great read here on How to run design reviews written by Brian Pullen, Design Director at TWG.
If your project is going to include a multi-channel distribution strategy (print, web, video, experiential, etc.) there’s a lot more work that goes into the creative production than simply coming up with designs - and that there is your warning sign. This often means bringing in freelancers or contractors to fill out deliverables.
Several different types of media (creative designs, video files, digital photographs, etc.) will be created and collected; not all contractors work the same way, which could create more work on the back end to ‘normalize’ everything prior to production.
The main point: there ares a lot of extra tasks required to support a multi-channel strategy. Who is going to do those tasks? We hear time and time again, this often falls in the creative’s lap. All that means is less time on actual creative.
You’ve probably already picked up on the automation theme in this post, but for good reason. Automation is the great equalizer when it comes to tight deadlines and over-worked teams.
Automation not only drives consistency but it also frees up humans (that’s us) to do more of the work we like to do. When I wrote earlier about having to ‘normalize’ things prior to production, some examples of tasks which marketing workflow automation work can help normalize include:
Automation is here. Embrace it and get back to doing what you love - creating great work.
We are not talking about a power plug coming undone, we’re talking about the disconnection that occurs between systems used by different team members (or contractors). There’s a great example, going on 10 years old now, of this very issue contributing to the delay of Airbus A380 in 2006. In short, incompatible systems meant designs done in each could not be combined to make a delivery deadline.
In today’s marketing world, creative assets often need to be transferred to review, approval or production systems as part of marketing project timelines. If these systems aren’t integrated, or there isn’t a mechanism in place to automatically distribute WIP files to non-native in-house systems, this could immediately stop a project cold.
Identify what needs to go where and when. This is a great topic for a daily scrum meeting - clarifying the destination (and access) for files for each step of the process.
If possible automate it. You knew I was going to say it, but as I’ve mentioned before - automation drives consistency - and it scales. You can automate the transfer of 1 or 1000 files equally.
If it can’t be automated, it needs to be assigned as a critical gating task. Email won’t cut it in this instance, it’s too important of a task. This needs to be owned.
The transmission of files across systems is an often-overlooked aspect of multi-channel marketing strategies, one that only pops up on due dates, when someone is frantically IM’ing looking for access credentials or instructions on how to upload vital files. Getting out ahead of that will help keep your timeline intact.
Your project doesn’t have to fall behind schedule. Obviously, there’s lots of tools available to keep everyone on task, it’s the tasks themselves that often eat up valuable time on projects, taking time away from the higher value creative and production work that creates great customer experiences.
A tight deadline strikes fear into the heart of many — but with these hints you can stay ahead of the final bell.
How about you? What do you do to deliver everything on time? Share your ideas below in the comments and who knows, maybe we’ll invite you on for an interview to learn more.