We know that at the end of the day a Channel Program or Channel Marketing Program’s success can be defined through its project manager. Channel Marketing project management isn’t everyone’s forte, but it is a crucial component for successful programs. No time to take a project management course? No problem – we’ll outline five steps we make sure to include on each of our projects.
Step 1, Project Planning:
Don’t rush this step - it will help guide you through your project. Before the project starts, create a plan to envision the steps to reach successful completion. Make sure you fully understand the goal of the project and work backwards from there to set up milestones. For example, when we launch a Campaign In-a-Box™ we want to ensure we know who all the decision makers at a vendor will be. Does corporate marketing need to get involved? What about product marketing? Will we have time to talk to a partner to understand how they want to use this great demand generation content we’re producing? Also, be sure to include some wiggle room in your plan for any unexpected surprises – you want to stay flexible.
Step 2, Budget Management:
Always start a project knowing your allotted budget and implement processes to ensure you stay within that budget. How do you do this? Allocate budgets to tasks/ deliverables, frequently track actual time and expenses against your budget and keep close watch of scope creep - if a request doesn’t fit within your allotted budget, table it for a later project. Don't forget to relay to the team members how much time or budget they have to spend on different parts of the project.
Step 3, Schedule Tracking:
Projects, like our Social Media Rally Station™, can have lots of moving parts. To help stay on track, be sure to regularly revisit your project plan to stay on top of deliverables and due dates, and also to update your plan as tasks are complete or priorities change. We also use a tool called SmartSheet which allows us to make comments in the spreadsheet that automatically update everyone on the project.
Step 4, Communication:
This may be the most important step and should be a two-way process among team members and stakeholders. Do this by holding team meetings, regularly checking in with team members and providing overall status updates to stakeholders. If you have a project management tool like Basecamp you can save all messages, files and notes there.
Step 5, Project Wrap Up:
Always take some time to officially wrap up your project. This means externally and internally. Meet with external stakeholders to see how they felt the project went. We suggest a presentation showing them where you started and how far you've come. Meet with your team to review your accomplishments, talk about lessons learned and celebrate – you’ve earned it!
