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The Role of Project Managers in Bridging the Gap

In a digital marketing agency, project teams consist of clients, digital marketing experts, and project managers. As project managers, we have a unique role in bridging the gap between the expertise of our team members and the impact of their efforts on business outcomes. Although we may not be experts in every vertical, we understand the tools available in our digital marketing toolbox and how they should work together to drive results. This broader perspective allows us to effectively align our marketing strategies with business goals, advocate for our clients, and explain the impact of our efforts in a way that speaks directly to their objectives.

Shifting Strategy Requires Reevaluating Reporting Methods in Digital Marketing

To achieve effective project management in digital marketing, it is essential to focus on the right measures of success. Traditional reporting methods often center around individual key performance indicators (KPIs) unique to each marketing channel, such as organic sessions for SEO or click-through rates for email marketing.

However, this approach fails to connect these metrics to business outcomes.

Organic sessions don’t save businesses.

Email click-through rates don’t generate revenue unless they convert subscribers.

Therefore, when businesses face economic challenges, or, the economy starts to shift, or endless talks of impending recessions make everyone nervous, they tend to cut marketing investments based on the perceived lack of correlation between metrics and tangible results. To overcome this disconnect, we must plan our strategies with business outcomes as the primary focus.

Prioritizing Business Outcomes in Digital Marketing Strategy

To align digital marketing strategies with business goals, we need to understand our clients’ measurable, monetary objectives. This includes revenue targets, lead generation goals, return on investment (ROI) expectations, and other key performance indicators. By establishing a clear understanding of these goals, we can structure our project strategies around them. This business-first approach enables us to demonstrate how our work directly contributes to the client’s bottom line and positions marketing as a mission-critical investment.

Shifting Perspectives: Approaching Digital Marketing Strategy through the Lens of Business Outcomes

Traditional project strategies often prioritize individual channel metrics, resulting in siloed efforts. To overcome this, we need to create synergies across verticals and align everyone’s efforts toward a single, meaningful business outcome. By integrating channels and strategies, we can create a cohesive approach that drives tangible results for our clients. This shift in perspective requires thinking beyond siloed metrics and considering how each task and initiative contributes directly to the central business goal.

Below are two examples of how a team may design a digital marketing strategy. The first example focuses on traditional marketing metrics:

In this example, it’s clear how the tasks and initiatives set will accomplish these goals. However, it’s unclear how these initiatives and KPIs will directly impact business outcomes. A business executive reviewing this strategy may easily think to themselves, “I can forgo organic sessions and new email subscribers. I need to focus on revenue.”

Marketing strategies planned through the lens of business outcomes, on the other hand, build synergies across verticals and invest everyone’s efforts into achieving a single, meaningful, monetary outcome. These strategies may look something like this:

In this example, it’s immediately clear how marketing functions contribute directly to a client’s bottom line, thereby making it more likely that a client will retain these verticals even through challenging times.

Approaching project strategy in this way requires a new way of thinking about our work with clients, the strengths and weaknesses of the marketing channels we manage, and how we measure success. Below are some steps for moving your projects in this direction:

Understand your client

Understanding your client is key to driving business outcomes in digital marketing. Do you clearly understand your client’s measurable, monetary business goals? If it’s revenue, how much? If it’s leads, how many? By when? For what ROI? What counts as a qualified lead? Or are we more focused on MQLs? Within what level of the marketing funnel are there gaps? The answers to these kinds of questions form the foundation for planning your project strategy.

Evaluate the tools in your toolbox

Are they the right tools for the job? SEO may be effective in building brand awareness, but it’s not the right tool for driving revenue within a short period of time. If revenue is your client’s goal and the only tool you have in the toolbox is SEO, it’s time to talk to your client about adjusting their scope of work to add tools like PPC which may be better suited to achieve their goals. If that’s not an option, set clear and quantifiable expectations and be transparent with your client about what is achievable within the given timeframe and budget.

Establish the measure of success

Once you have a clear understanding of your client’s desired business outcomes, you need to set the central, business-driven goal for your team. Structure internal strategy meetings around this central goal. Ask questions that encourage vertical experts to think about how they can contribute to business outcomes across channels. Map it out if you need to. Get a bit messy in the middle. Reframing how you think about project strategy isn’t linear. It requires some critical brainstorming.

Defend that measure of success fiercely

Transitioning to this new approach may face resistance from team members accustomed to traditional reporting methods. It is essential to defend the measure of success that aligns with the client’s business outcomes. Continuously evaluate tasks and initiatives to ensure they contribute directly to the central goal. Encourage open discussions and push for explanations to ensure alignment between strategy and desired results. Although this shift may be challenging at first, it sets the project on a path to success and enhances our ability to explain the impact of our efforts to clients.

Let the experts be experts

Rallying your team around a central goal does NOT mean that you are suddenly a vertical expert. As project managers, our role is to guide the team and evaluate strategies through a client lens. Let the digital marketing experts on your team provide insights and recommendations based on their expertise. You know where you all need to go, allow your team to tell you how to get there.

Assess performance against the central goal

Assess performance against the central business goal and communicate the impact of marketing efforts in a way that aligns with the client’s objectives. Focus on relevant metrics that contribute to the narrative of success and highlight how each vertical worked together to achieve results. For example, rather than report on the organic sessions a particular page earned, consider the rate at which visitors to that page flowed to other high-value pages on the site. Rather than assess conversions by channel, consider direct conversions AND assisted conversions to tell a better story of how each vertical worked together to drive results.

The Benefits of Aligning Digital Marketing Strategy with Business Outcomes

When clients can directly see the impact that marketing has on their bottom line, they are more likely to see marketing as an essential component of their business. By aligning project strategy with business goals, we not only achieve better outcomes for clients but also use everyone’s time more efficiently. This alignment optimizes resources, improves ROI, and retains clients.

In conclusion, as project managers, it is our responsibility to bridge the gap between marketing efforts and business outcomes. By demonstrating the direct impact of marketing on the client’s bottom line, we solidify the importance of marketing as an essential component of their overall business strategy.

How To Align Your Digital Marketing Initiatives With Business Outcomes is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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What Is an Email Marketing Newsletter?

An email marketing newsletter can take many forms. However, for most businesses, an email newsletter is an informative email sent on a routine basis. Some businesses choose to send email newsletters more frequently than others. The typical cadence for an email newsletter can be weekly, monthly, bi-annually, or anywhere in between.

The purpose of email newsletters can also vary. Some are strictly meant to inform readers about company or industry updates. Others are intended to provide readers with curated information around a particular theme or topic. Some email newsletters even balance providing information while nurturing leads or upselling services. Regardless of your goal, knowing exactly what you intend to achieve and how it adds measurable value to your business is key to determining what exactly an email newsletter is for you and your business.

Are Email Marketing Newsletters Effective?

Email newsletters can be incredibly effective when they’re born from a particular need and crafted to achieve a particular goal with a particular audience. Unfortunately, many businesses fall into the trap of starting with the conclusion first, “I want to start a company newsletter,” and answering the question of “why I want to start a company newsletter” after. This line of thinking often makes newsletters less effective.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Create a Email Marketing Newsletter

To avoid this common pitfall, start with what you’re trying to accomplish. Before you even commit to the idea of starting a newsletter or start thinking about its look or tone, start by crafting concrete, measurable answers to the questions below.

What Do You Want to Accomplish With Your Email Marketing Newsletter?

As mentioned above, there are many reasons why a business may want to invest time in connecting with contacts through regular, frequent email newsletter campaigns. Before you start to think about how to design your email newsletter, you first want to have a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish.

Are You Trying to Upsell & Retain Existing Customers?

Newsletters can be a great way to communicate company updates, new products, or services existing customers may be interested in. They can also be a great way to retain existing customers by fostering a sense of community and a brand with which customers are proud to associate. You can see how Canva uses this strategy in their email newsletter.

By inviting existing customers to participate in a fun, lighthearted contest, Canva is creating an active and engaged creative community—making it more likely that Canva users will continue to look to Canva as their go-to platform for their current and future creative endeavors.

Or, Are You Trying to Nurture Top-of-Funnel Traffic?

Another reason newsletters can be beneficial is that they provide a channel by which businesses can nurture leads over a long period of time. This can be done by providing credible, helpful information that establishes the brand as a reliable, informative source. Although this strategy can be very long-term, it’s especially helpful in targeting customers who may be newly aware that they have a problem they’re interested in solving and who are just starting to consider potential options.

Using newsletters to provide prospects with credible, industry-related information can be a way to stay top-of-mind and establish your brand as an excellent option they should consider.

Hubspot uses this email marketing strategy often in its newsletters. They will even go so far as to promote or provide information on other platforms that could be considered competitors. While they don’t often directly encourage subscribers to sign up for Hubspot services, they will promote webinars or other informative resources that may be of interest or provide meaningful value to subscribers. By providing this content, HubSpot is continuing to establish itself as one of the most prominent thought leaders in the digital marketing space, making it more likely that prospects will consider them first when looking to sign up for digital marketing platforms or support.

You May Also Be Trying to Expand Your Audience or Prospects.

Another reason a company may want to start a newsletter is to expand its prospecting pool with other, qualified prospects. Companies often approach this model by incentivizing current subscribers to recruit additional subscribers. This can be done by offering current subscribers discounts, exclusive content, or other incentives for recruiting a certain number of new subscribers. This strategy is often combined with one of the content strategies above.

By leveraging this strategy, a company is able to expand and nurture a larger pool of potential customers who have already heard of the company through a positive recommendation from a personal source. In fact, this is the current email marketing model Go Fish Digital uses to expand our prospect list.

Regardless of what your goals are in starting an email newsletter, you want to make sure that you and your team have clarity on those goals. While you may start with a more general goal like, “I want to connect with customers” or “I want to build a brand community,” you eventually want to make sure that you narrow in on exactly what that means for your business and how it will add measurable value. Why do you want to connect with customers? What are you hoping they do in response to that connection? Why is building a brand community important from a business perspective? Answering these questions in clear and measurable ways will help you land on an actionable goal and purposeful format for your email newsletters.

How Long Should Your Email Marketing Newsletter Be?

For better or worse, there is no set, recommended length for email newsletters. Your email newsletter should be succinct, but long enough to effectively communicate the information you promised your users in your subject line. So, for some email newsletters, that may only be a few lines of text and a call to action. For other newsletters, that could be longer paragraphs of information. It all depends!

When you’re first starting out, don’t get hung up on sticking to a specific word count. Simply focus on being concise, clear, and actionable. Hubspot offers a great guide on how to write compelling email newsletters if you’d like to learn more. All in all, when it comes to email newsletter length, prioritize quality content and clarity over word limits.

How Will You Track the Success of Your Email Marketing Newsletter?

Once you have a clear and actionable goal in mind, the next step is to define the KPIs by which you’ll measure your success in achieving that goal.

Common KPIs for email newsletter goals can vary. However, below are some common KPIs for the goals we’ve outlined above:

• If your goal is to upsell & retain existing customers – You may want to consider the following KPIs: upsell revenue, customer retention, open & engagement rates, click-through-rates to content 
• If your goal is to nurture top-of-funnel traffic – You may want to consider the following KPIs: open & engagement rates, click-through-rates to content (conversions can be considered over a LONG period of time, but should not be the main KPI)
• If your goal is to expand your audience or prospects – You may want to consider the following KPIs: subscriber growth, open & engagement rates, click-through-rate to content

These are certainly not the only KPIs, but they can help to provide insight on the performance of your newsletters in relation to your goals. Defining the most important KPIs for your business is an important part of planning your email newsletter before you start the design process.

Who Should Receive Your Email Marketing Newsletter?

Once you’ve defined the purpose of your newsletter, it’s important to define who will receive it and how you plan to segment your existing audience so that the newsletter lands in the right inbox.

If you’re unsure about where to start with customer segmentation, start with the biggest buckets first: Is your email newsletter targeted to existing or prospective customers? Can it be of interest to both parties? Sometimes even getting a newsletter off the ground with the broadest audience first can help you get to a place where you can collect data on what type of content your audience engages with most. From there, you may be able to use that data to define more targeted audiences.

Once you have your big buckets defined, you can start to get even more granular by using tracking mechanisms to target newsletters to specific types of customers or prospects that are at different levels of the prospecting funnel. While targeting newsletters to this level often takes some support from a development team, many email service providers like Hubspot, ActiveCampaign, or Mailchimp make it easy to add these tracking pixels to your site.

How Should You Design Your Email Marketing Newsletter?

Lastly, once you’ve defined the purpose of your newsletter and the audience, the final step is to design your newsletter so it accomplishes your goals and speaks to the interests of the target audience. This is often one of the most exciting pieces of the newsletter ideation process. However, as mentioned above, it’s important to wait until the questions above are answered thoroughly and KPIs have been defined before you start the design process. Otherwise, you run the risk of designing a beautiful newsletter that doesn’t accomplish much of anything at all.

Below are just a few examples of the format newsletters can take:

Color-Block Formatting
Color-blocking can be a great way to communicate an idea quickly and narrow in on a single call to action. It’s a great option for companies that place heavy emphasis on their brand colors and/or aesthetics. It can also be a great option for companies that want to provide information, but also encourage their readers to do something that adds business value. The trick with color-blocking is to keep content simple. With this format, you really want to narrow in on a singular idea and/or call to action.

Trying to communicate too much information in too many colors can quickly become overwhelming.

If you’re looking for a simple approach to content, want your readers to take action from your email, and are more concerned with the branded look of your email newsletters, color-blocking is a great place to start.

Text-Based Formatting
Text-based newsletters are great for providing a lot of information in an easily digestible way. With text-based formatting, the emphasis is definitely on content over design. This email format is great for newsletters that intend to inform their audience about a particular topic or list of topics. It can be a great option for those hoping to establish themselves as thought leaders. Text-based email newsletters tend to include content that is interesting enough to capture a reader’s attention without relying on a more eye-catching visual design.

Again, with text-based emails, you’re looking to inform a reader more than you’re asking them to perform an action. So, while this format can be great for establishing yourself as an industry expert, it’s less effective in encouraging a reader to take action.

Minimalist Formatting
As you may have guessed, minimalist formatting is, well, minimal in both visual design and content. If you’re trying to target an audience with little time on their hands or super quick attention spans, this format might be a good option for you. These emails tend to work well if they fit a brand’s aesthetic and communicate information or a call to action quickly. With these emails (as with all emails), it’s important to know your audience. Do they need to be convinced to take action, or are they pretty ready to do so with a simple nudge? Are they looking for detailed information? Or, can they be incentivized to learn more with a simple hook statement?

In many cases, there’s a place and time in your email newsletter sequence for minimal formatting. Since this style can require less investment in both content creation and copywriting, it’s a style worth testing at some point in your newsletter cadence when you have a clear and simple call to action or a really interesting piece of content you could likely incentivize readers to click through to read.

When It Comes to Email Marketing Newsletter Best Practices, Start With a Goal

Starting an email newsletter can be an exciting and valuable next step for your brand or business. When crafted with a goal in mind, email newsletters can add significant, additional value to your other marketing efforts and go a long way in building a loyal customer base. Regardless of the form your email newsletter takes, starting with a goal in mind and testing how the formats you pursue achieve that goal will undoubtedly lead to success.

Good luck and happy emailing!

What Is An Email Marketing Newsletter And Will It Work For My Business? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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In a lot of ways, management is a pretty unique job. Being the best widget maker on the planet does not necessarily make you the best manager of widget makers. Widget making and management may require incredibly different skills, and to be successful in management, those skills must be deliberately learned, practiced, and prioritized.

I learned everything I know about management in my past life as a teacher. As I’ve changed roles, transitioned careers, and stepped into digital marketing, I’ve found that the successful management of students and their education is not all that different from the successful management of adults and their professional projects.

Regardless of the work setting, management requires a clear and measurable vision and the ability to motivate others to work hard in pursuit of that vision, even if they don’t necessarily find it all that visionary. Both require a balance of listening to others, seeking advice, delivering feedback, receiving feedback, and taking ownership over the success of the group. And finally, all contexts of management require a deep commitment to improving the lives of the people you manage.

From the classroom to the workplace, below are the three main pieces of advice I’d give to anyone considering a management position.

1. Take an Internal Inventory

Before accepting or seeking out a management position, ask yourself: Is management truly the best fit for you? I stepped into management rather early in my career and, admittedly, I was swayed by the glamor of the role: the title, the compensation, the influence. I was ready to make big changes and achieve big things. I was not, however, ready for the responsibility that came with it. I was not ready to navigate my new role with people who were more like friends than coworkers. I was not ready for the backlash when my big ideas overwhelmed and irritated others. And I was not ready to balance my workload with helping others balance their own.

Before stepping into a management position, consider:

1. Do you enjoy working with other people and helping them solve problems?
2. Are you comfortable taking responsibility for the failure of projects?
3. Are you comfortable holding others accountable?
4. Will you still find success rewarding when the glory goes to the people you manage rather than yourself?

If your response to these questions is ambivalent or you find yourself thinking, “No, I want to expand my technical skills or improve the product I work with.” Then, maybe you want to consider career advancements that allow you to work on bigger projects or take on more technical responsibility.

This is especially possible in the world of digital marketing where there are always more complex problems to solve. Diving into your area of expertise to be the most technical expert on the team or an influential thought leader in the industry may be the path for you.

Management is only one option for career advancement, and there should be only one reason you step into management: because you care about the people you work with and believe you could make their professional experience better, easier, and more rewarding.

2. Master the Art of Being Direct

Without question, the hardest part of management is providing clear and direct feedback to the people you work with. We’ve all seen managers try their best to circumvent this uncomfortable reality in various ways.

There is the vague, generalized feedback that’s directed at the group but only applies to a few people. “If we could all try and start our shifts on time, that would be great.”

There is the apologetic feedback. “Hey, I hate to have to mention this, but I really need you to start your shift on time. Again, I know you’re busy and I hate to stress you out, but I’d really appreciate it.”

There’s the delayed feedback that comes up in annual reviews, and worst of all, there is the feedback you hear indirectly from other people.

All of these forms of feedback are problematic and erode trust within a group. It is difficult and awkward to say, “Hey, I noticed you’ve arrived late to your shift three times this week. Moving forward, please make sure you arrive at least five minutes early so you’re prepared to start on time.” However, providing this kind of clear, direct, and timely feedback is an art form you must master if you’re going to be a successful manager.

Like any craft, it takes practice and commitment to excel at difficult conversations. I highly recommend the book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone for anyone looking to improve their ability to navigate challenging conversations with peers, coworkers, employees, friends, partners, parents, or even children. Difficult conversations are a fact of life. Knowing how to engage in them with purpose and empathy to reach solutions that serve you and the other party will strengthen your ability to manage and support others, both within and outside of the workplace.

3. Be Relentless in the Pursuit of Your Vision

Lastly, it is important to be relentless in your pursuit of the vision you set for yourself, your team, and your company. People are motivated by clear, actionable, and meaningful goals. As a manager, you have the opportunity to set those goals for others and be the catalyst behind achieving extraordinary things.

This is one of the best parts of management. It can be so energizing to see people come together and work incredibly hard in pursuit of a vision you set. However, the opposite is also true. It can be incredibly devastating to lead people down a path destined for failure because the vision you set was not backed up by careful planning and measurement. There is nothing more stress-inducing than working for a manager who has lofty goals but lacks the ability to manage people and projects in a way that achieves them.

To be successful in setting a vision, you must feel comfortable determining roles and responsibilities for team members, communicating clear deadlines, and holding team members accountable to the expectations you set. After all, you’re the visionary who brought your team on this exciting journey, you also need to be the shepherd that safely guides everyone over the finish line.

At the end of the day, you are responsible for your team. There is a difference between empowering others to make decisions and putting the success of your vision on their shoulders, leaving them out to dry without direction. One is collaborative management, the other is gaslighting, and never has that led to long-term success.

Management is hard, but it can also be incredibly fulfilling work. With dedicated practice, patience (with yourself and others), and good mentors to guide you along the way, you may find that through management you’re able to achieve big things, improve the lives of the people you work with, and ultimately find a bigger purpose in your work.

3 Tips for Becoming a Manager is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.