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Jan 30, 2025
Running marketing projects takes some organizational skills. Assets can take longer than expected, feedback may be stalling, and before you know it, the whole timeline goes south. Marketing project management is what gets things done properly and on time.
In this article, I’ll explain all you need to know about the project management process in marketing and what marketing workflow tools can help you with workflow automation.
Marketing project management refers to planning, executing, and overseeing marketing projects to meet specific goals. It involves organizing tasks, managing resources, and coordinating team efforts to deliver campaigns effectively.
Simply speaking, the marketing project management process is getting things done.
Marketing project managers align business objectives with project elements, translating big ideas into actionable tasks. They also ensure that said tasks get done in time and eventually bring results.
Some marketing campaigns are lucky accidents. But mainly, they result from collective creativity and streamlined collaboration between marketing teams.
And marketing project management is what gets you there.
Good marketing project management keeps team members on the same page. Clear plans, well-defined roles, and centralized tools help you communicate, share updates, and track project progress.
A flexible project management pipeline lets your marketing team react quickly and jump on opportunities. This is how “accidental” viral marketing activities happen, like the Stanley Cup case or Duolingo Owl brat summering at the Charli XCX concert.
When everyone knows their tasks and collaborates smoothly, the project flows better and produces stronger results.
One of the main ideas behind project management is to ensure everyone knows what needs to be done and when. With effective task management and a clear project schedule, teams can track project deliverables and handle multiple projects simultaneously.
Plus, streamlined processes cut down on unnecessary back-and-forths. Team members spend less time sorting out details and more time moving toward marketing objectives.
Why solve a bottleneck if you can avoid one?
Project management doesn’t equal micromanagement.
Feel the difference. Micromanagement is constant oversight and a manager looming over your shoulder. Accountability gives team members the autonomy to manage their work and be responsible for their pieces.
Project management promotes accountability by defining the project scope and setting clear timelines. Team members know their tasks, deadlines, quality standards, and how their work fits the bigger picture.
This helps marketing teams feel accountable and recognized when the campaign flies. Or ducks.
Project management covers the whole process of working on the marketing campaign, from planning to executing. If you approach your media campaigns systematically and not randomly, you get a better idea of how long each part takes.
This means better project timeline forecasts and smoother resource allocation for marketing agencies and marketing departments — key for meeting client expectations. How would you know creative assets take your team a week to prepare if you never measured?
However, it’s not all about vigorous time tracking. It’s about using project management software to map out tasks, balance workloads, and keep complex projects on track without last-minute rushes or surprises. For example, a shared calendar view helps everyone keep a clear visual of the project timeline.
Content calendar view in Planable
Ok, you got it: project management is all about planning and following the said plan. But that’s easier said than done.
Let’s break down two marketing project management frameworks that will help you get your marketing ducks in a row.
The SMART framework is a structured way to turn marketing plans into actionable steps. Each letter stands for a key factor that keeps your actions aligned with your project objectives.
Here’s what this means:
SMART goals are a good project management tool that helps you draft a marketing strategy and move from abstract goals to specific tasks.
The RASCI framework defines roles and responsibilities within project teams. While the SMART framework focuses on goal-setting, RASCI explains who does what, making teamwork more efficient.
Here’s what RASCI stands for:
Every marketing project has five key stages, each essential for building a reliable, solid project management system. A project manager who carefully considers these stages is better prepared for whatever comes throughout the project lifecycle.
Here are the core stages to focus on when starting a new project:
I’ve talked a lot about planning, and although it’s only one of the five stages, it’s arguably the most fundamental for all your marketing campaigns.
Here’s what to do during your planning stage:
Knowing who you’re trying to reach and where they are helps shape the content and approach. Choosing the right channels prevents you from sending project budgets down the drain.
Define what you want to achieve and the specific outcomes. This clarity helps the team understand what they are working toward in the long run.
Set measurable goals like engagement rate or conversion targets — depending on the nature of your campaign. This is how you’ll track progress and adjust your strategy.
Outline what the project will cover and estimate costs. This will help you steer clear of score creep and keep the project within realistic limits.
The preparation stage sets the project in motion. This is the part where you organize the details to ensure a smooth collaboration from now on. Make sure you have these steps covered:
Define the scope and assign specific tasks to your team members. Let everyone know what their responsibilities are and what they’re accountable for.
Set realistic timelines for each stage and create final deadlines. This keeps the project on track and helps avoid last-minute rushes.
Choose the best platforms for team updates and feedback, like Slack, email, or other collaboration tools. This will be your source of truth to ensure important info doesn’t get lost.
Define who, how, and when will approve your content. An established approval process speeds up content creation and reduces bottlenecks while keeping quality control on point.
Multi-level approval workflow in Planable
The execution stage is where we get down to business. During this stage, keeping the team focused on the project timeline and monitoring the quality of marketing collateral are key.
That boils down to two core points of interest:
Develop all assets you need for the marketing campaign, from social media posts to blog articles and ads. The assets have to be on time and meet the standards you set.
Collaboration on a Facebook post in Planable
Regular check-ins or syncs help track progress and address any bumps in the road. Assigning tasks and setting milestones allows the team to stay aligned with goals and prevent delays.
At this stage, marketing project management tools like Wrike, Trello, or Asana help a lot. You can track the status and deadlines of each collateral using the task management systems and built-in reporting.
The launch stage is where your marketing campaign goes live. Here’s what project managers should focus on:
Get final feedback and approval to ensure quality. All content should be polished and ready, meeting the standards set in earlier stages. Some project management software offers built-in approval workflows — don’t hesitate to use them.
Review your content plan one last time to confirm that everything aligns with your goals, channels, and other marketing campaigns. Things change, and this ensures nothing interferes with existing marketing strategies.
Start publishing content across the chosen platforms. Don’t overlook marketing tools like Planable that help you automate content distribution across social media.
Scheduling a Facebook post in Planable
In the monitoring stage, project managers track how well the marketing campaign performs.
Pay attention to the key metrics you highlighted as your KPIs during the planning stage. Depending on your goals, your star metric can be engagement, conversions, reach, or another stat. There are multiple tools to monitor and gather performance data across multiple platforms — some even form neat reports.
Facebook analytics view in Planable
Monitoring isn’t just about tracking numbers and tweaking here and there, though. Reviewing what worked (and what didn’t) helps the team refine strategies for upcoming marketing campaigns.
Marketing is a journey — results get better over time if you can read your data for future projects.
Marketing project management comes with its challenges. Let’s look at the most common marketing campaign management issues marketers face and how to handle them.
Stakeholders don’t usually participate in tasks actively, but their input and approval are vital to the project.
Often, project managers share the initial plans but don’t keep stakeholders in the loop throughout the project lifecycle. This can lead to friction, delays, and frustration. You don’t want to include the stakeholders too much in the routine part of the work. However, leaving them entirely out makes them unprepared for input. They simply lack context.
Say your team conducted market research to find what visuals resonate with the target audience. The graphic designers finished the assets according to the best practices. But the brand manager, unaware of the research results and timeline, requests last-minute changes. That brings a lot of teeth grinding and crunching.
To prevent this, establish regular check-ins throughout the project. I asked Miruna Dragomir, CMO at Planable, about her approach. She said:
During larger projects, I always schedule at least 2-3 check-ins: at kick-off, once the plan is set, mid-launch, and at the end for a retrospective. Clearly communicate the timing and purpose of each check-in to keep stakeholders informed, building trust and ensuring smoother on-schedule execution.
Marketing is very dynamic. There’s always another extra mile in formats, channels, content, and sometimes a stakeholder who really wants to add a little twist to the marketing campaign.
It’s all fun and games until your project grows beyond its original scope.
For instance, a product feature launch is intended to be a simple email, blog post, and press release. But after another sync, the stakeholder requests a social media campaign and a video because it worked neatly for a competitor.
It’s not a bad idea per se. However, the project manager may not have the resources to do that.
To avoid scope creep, set clear goals and deliverables at the project’s start. Communicate these to the team and stakeholders to establish boundaries. If new ideas arise, evaluate them against project priorities and resources. Only go that extra mile if it’s necessary and doable.
Will it give some of your team members FOMO? Sure. Will it also prevent crunching, budget overspends, and timeline changes? Yes, and that’s what project managers focus on.
When assets and tasks are scattered across different platforms, keeping track of files becomes a major challenge.
A marketing agency handling a single client campaign can have its assets in Figma, Canva, CapCut, Google Drive, and whatnot. This makes it pretty hard for team members to find final versions or access assets from past campaigns.
Imagine searching for the approved logo or an ad from a previous Christmas campaign but struggling because who knows whether it was done in Figma or Canva. And the only person who knows where to find it is the one who created it. Oops.
Keep all your assets centralized. Use marketing project management software with built-in media libraries. These platforms centralize assets, making it easy to store, access, and organize files so everyone knows where to find the latest versions when they need them.
Media library in Planable
Planable, for instance, also has a Canva integration to upload assets directly to the repository.
Marketing projects often require approvals from external stakeholders, like experts approving the article or clients reviewing final assets. Some teams need to run double-checks: approve content internally and then get a green light from the client.
Without a transparent system, the marketing approval process can become messy and delay timelines.
For instance, when creating a case study, you have two approval stages: one from your internal team lead and one from the client, the actual subject of the study. This back-and-forth feedback exchange can take ages — or you might end up with an unapproved article and displeased clients.
Set up a structured review and approval process. I spoke recently with Rosa Sarmento, Founder and CEO of Idea Blossom, who emphasized the importance of this:
A clear review and approval process is a must. When, where, and how will you ask for feedback and approval? When do you need to hear back? Then, communicate, communicate, communicate!
Collaboration and approval in Planable
I highly recommend automating the process by using approval software. Planable and other marketing tools for reviewing content help you exchange in-context feedback and apply changes faster.
Organizing marketing projects is a challenging task. With many moving parts and the fast-paced nature of marketing campaigns, project managers need a solid but flexible system to achieve results.
Marketing project management software can help you build a reliable and predictable workflow. Start taming the marketing chaos with Planable — use 50 free posts to give the platform a try!
Content marketer with a background in journalism; digital nomad, and tech geek. In love with blogs, storytelling, strategies, and old-school Instagram. If it can be written, I probably wrote it.
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