All of our steps leading to this point have been concerned with preparing your business for its online endeavors. Now, we’re ready to implement our marketing efforts to achieve our objectives. First, we need to identify the key players and their roles and ensure we have clear and attainable objectives in place. This is where a project manager makes all the difference.

A project manager is exactly what the title suggests. They’re the person responsible for a project, the team working on it, and the pathway to meeting both timelines and budget requirements. While project management is a job title, you don’t have to hire one specifically for your marketing projects. You can assign one of your team to fill this role for each project relying on your knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses to assist you.

All you need to be sure of is that the person you name has a working knowledge of your industry and that of the client (should there be one). After all, they’ll be working directly with your team and the client, or vendors, so ensuring they understand your business and the goals you have for the project are vital to achieving the results you’re after. No matter who it is, they must have the authority to make the big decisions your initiative will require.

In House Responsibilities

Your project manager’s first duty will be to decide which responsibilities tied to your marketing effort will be handled in-house by your own team and what will be outsourced to outside teams for completion. This is where your project manager’s knowledge of your industry and team will pay real dividends. They’ll know who to pair with what tasks, whose skillsets mesh best with others, and who can be relied on to come through in a pinch. This is inside information only someone on your team would know, so there are benefits to naming a member of your team as project manager – above and beyond the cost-savings.

Depending on your business model, you may already be familiar with in-house and outsourcing division of labor. It’s common in a great many industries and has been for longer than digital marketing has been in the picture. Imagine a roofing contractor who uses an accounting firm to handle its books. That’s outsourcing of a division of the business. The roofing teams handle the roofing while the accountants handle the taxes. It’s the same with any digital marketing operation. You may have a tech team in-house and you may not. Your project manager will be responsible for assigning tasks to both your in-house team and the vendors who handle the outsourced workload.

For the purposes of this outline, we’ll assume that outsourcing will be a part of your efforts as it may be impossible for your business to afford a full-time IT professional on-staff, a web developer in-house, and a team of marketing experts in a range of digital fields. So, your project manager’s task will be to find the right fit for your available team members in your marketing operation’s planning. Many companies will attempt to save money here by assigning tasks to in-house personnel that are outside of their skillset or comfort level. It’s important to remember that savings during planning can often turn into costs in the long run. Be sure that every assignment is within the team member’s realm of expertise. Or, barring that, they’re at least comfortable in the role they’re given. As project manager, this is your #1 responsibility.

Once your in-house team is in place, you’ll need to find the right outsourcing partners for all of the remaining work. Again, this is where the project manager’s familiarity with the industry will come in handy. They should understand the requirements remaining and see the best fit for each – especially given time and resources for researching potential vendors. Time spent in planning will always pay off in results.

Outsource Responsibilities

Having your team’s roles defined and all in-house responsibilities assigned, it’s time for the project manager to procure the necessary outsourcing to make the project possible. 90% of companies will require outside assistance to get any marketing operation underway, so this is by no means admitting you cannot do it alone. On the contrary, it’s realizing that the best results come from the best planning and implementation – no matter the endeavor. And, that means bringing in additional help to shore up any weaknesses found in your team. Outsourcing partners can do that admirably and at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house long-term.

One important factor to consider is whether or not it’s best to find one outsourcing partner to handle all of the additional work – a full service agency like Lift Conversions. This will help to eliminate much of the interagency communication required to deliver optimal results and cut down on the waiting times associated with that kind of spider-webbed communication. Having only one outsourcing vendor means you only have one team to communicate with, one team to coordinate with, and one team to rely on for what you need to make your operation a success. It pays to lessen red tape – no matter the industry.

Getting the right vendor to partner with you on your project is vital to your success – both in the short and long-term. As project manager you’ll be in charge of this outside assistance and will be in constant communication with all divisions involved in your effort. How much time can you conceivably dedicate to tracking down vendors to get the answers you need? Or, to facilitate the all-important changes in direction every successful marketing operation depends on to bring in the best possible results? Don’t make it too hard on yourself or your team if you can avoid it. That means outsourcing from only the most reliable and dependable teams.