How a Project Manager can save your business in 2023
You’ve got a brilliant team, and they’ve all got great ideas. And you’re brilliant, and you all work round the clock (often, quite literally) to manage your clients and your projects. So why is your digital marketing agency struggling? And — more important —- what can you do to fix it?
While some agency owners may be reluctant to assign a dedicated project manager (or, Account Manager, as we call it), doing so can be the difference between raving, happy clients, instead of clients who walk away because things are just never quite right. If your business is struggling, then hiring a project manager is often the way to save it.
Ready to make 2023 your best year yet? Trust us: you can! Here’s how.
Project Management: The Details
We all know what project management is. It’s planning and executing what are usually one-off projects, like building a landing page or handling a brand refresh. Project management is all the ‘stuff’ you do, big and small, to push things forward and make sure nothing is missed. It says it in the name: managing the project.
But knowing what project management is, and knowing how to streamline it, are two very different things.
If you have a well-functioning team, then of course everyone has a role to play in project management. Every stakeholder on a project will update your Project Management Software (like Asana) as they work their way through tasks. But just because everyone can play a role, that doesn’t mean this task can be assigned to everyone and no one at once.
It’s a dedicated project manager who keeps the trains running on time. They’re the ones tasking out all the steps, and then ensuring those steps are completed in a timely fashion. And they’re the ones who make sure all the different stakeholders have all the information and tools they need to move forward.
In short, projects need dedicated project managers. This is especially true if A) you have a lot of clients with a lot of projects, and/or B) you also don’t have dedicated Client Account Managers to help keep clients happy (learn the difference between Client Account Managers and Project Managers here).
Regardless, when you have someone responsible for ensuring everything is done well and on time … then it’s safe to assume that everything will be done well and on time! This gives you back time, energy and focus that you can use to save your business in 2023.
5 Ways Better Project Management for Digital Marketing Can Save Your Business
New Years should be a time to do all the planning and strategizing that got you into digital marketing in the first place. But if you’re mired in project management yourself, we bet you’re not spending time on all the important things that actually delight your clients and, critically, bring in more revenue.
Global demand for project managers is increasing, projected to be 88 million by 2027. And the reason? Good project management is critical to success in virtually every industry. Here are 5 benefits you can expect when you let go over the while-knuckle grip on your agency and pass on project management to someone you trust.
1. Seal Up Cracks — And Prevent Them In The Future
It doesn’t matter how brilliant your team is. We’re all human, and we’ve all got endless to-do lists. So it’s natural for things to fall through the cracks. Unfortunately, it’s also natural for clients to be really (really, really) unhappy when that happens. And of course, unhappy clients are ones that won’t keep paying you or raving about you to their friends.
Meanwhile, when you hire a project manager with a solid SOP, their job is literally to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks. This usually starts with fixing up your project management software to make it as efficient and effective as possible. This in turn is going to help everyone in your organization to stay on top of things, now and into the future.
2. Prevent Bottlenecks
The website team can’t publish the new case study on the website until the graphic team has touched up the photos, but the photos aren’t ready because marketing wasn’t clear on who to reach out to get them, and the writer still doesn’t know who they should be interviewing in the first place … but the client expects everything to be live by tomorrow morning. Sound familiar?
In a marketing agency, we all have our own little piece of the puzzle to work on. But it’s only the digital project manager who understands what the finished project will look like. They’re aware of all important dates, along with every step that needs to be taken before the next. They’re truly the linchpin of any project, helping to prevent bottlenecks and keep things moving along at the right pace.
3. Keep The Team Happy
We’ve all read the headlines. It’s a tight labor market out there. If you’ve got great team members, then no doubt you want to keep them. But great team members will only put up with unorganized chaos for so long.
A well organized team is a happy and productive one. The right project manager can bring clarity to a project, helping to improve workflows and — therefore — everyone’s sanity, too. They can also provide custom project updates to the people who need them, ensuring everyone knows what they need to know, when they need to know it.
4. Keep Clients Happy
Of course, here’s the real game changer for how successful your digital marketing agency can be in 2023. A dedicated project manager is going to ensure that work gets done on time and on budget, and just the way the client wants it. And they can keep the clients informed throughout the entire process, checking and answering questions as needed.
The results? Raving clients. Repeat projects. Growing revenue. You get the picture!
5. Keep YOU Happy
Finally, don’t forget about yourself. Bringing clarity to your agency and projects is also going to bring clarity to your life —- and maybe free up a little time to get back to all the other ‘stuff’ that matters.
We also recommend having your project manager create high level reports for you, so that you can be confident that things are getting done (without getting mired in unnecessary details).
We provide project management services to digital marketing agencies like yours, helping manage all the details of your clients projects. That includes scope, deliverables, and ongoing management. Ready to save your business in 2023? Get in touch!