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5 Project Management Essentials That You Need to Know

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5 Project Management Essentials That You Need to Know

Project management essentials represent step-by-step instructions on how to complete projects successfully, on time, and on budget. Poor project management will cost you more than just money. When deadlines and budgets are missed, it harms your reputation, self-assurance, and client trust irreparably.

Here we discuss the top 5 project management essentials for a successful project, how to implement them, and how they can benefit you and your whole team. Let’s dive in!

What Is Project Management?

Project management is the use of procedures, methods, techniques, abilities, knowledge, and experience to accomplish particular project goals in accordance with predetermined guidelines. Such management is determined in terms of budget and time.

When done correctly, project management makes every aspect of the business work more efficiently. Your team can concentrate on the important work without being distracted by unmanageable budgets or projects that grow out of hand.

Why do Companies Need a Project Manager?

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If there are delivery delays, companies risk losing customers, which can harm the whole company. Project managers can help companies achieve their goals efficiently and on time by designing the project plan. As a result, the teams working on the project have a clear vision that is aligned with the company’s objectives.

Aside from creating the project plan, project managers are also in charge of project scope documents and costs in order to avoid distractions for the designated team. To avoid risks, they schedule tasks appropriately and report progress to leaders so risks can be addressed quickly and effectively.

What is Project Lifecycle?

The project lifecycle represents the stages involved in a project’s progress. It includes:

  • Initiation
  • Definition and planning
  • Execution
  • Performance
  • Closure

1. Project initiation

The first step is project initiation. In this phase, project managers determine the project’s objectives and overall scope. A project manager looks for and identifies vital stakeholders during this phase while defending the funding for the project.

Project initiation can include numerous sub-activities, such as identifying the scope, project stakeholders, and deliverables, drafting a statement of work, and determination of initial costs. All of these activities can easily be determined by using the technology for efficient project management.

2. Definition and planning

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Once the initiation is done, we move to definition and planning. In this phase, managers create a project plan, which includes the project’s tasks, schedule, resources, and constraints. In this stage, project managers establish the project budget, identify potential risk, and prepare necessary mitigation strategies. Along the way, managers can use manager feedback tools in order to keep each other updated and notify one another of possible errors and risks.

3. Project Execution

The majority of the work on a project is done in this phase. Project managers make adjustments depending on unforeseen changes that arise throughout the project and ensure that designated tasks are done in line with the established timetable.

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Say your social media marketing campaign is kicking off to promote your new event. During the execution of the campaign, you need to be able to track the progress across all platforms, analyze the results, and improve with each step.

4. Project performance

In this phase, project managers can use different project manager tools. Usually, they use specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor the progress of the project. They adjust the plan where necessary based on the ongoing results of this measurement.

Pro Tip: When you kick off a project to introduce your new product to the customers, iterations of your project development will include receiving feedback and ideas from the audience directly. Optimize this process by using tools such as a feature request tracker to navigate through information easily and prepare the next generation of your product.

5. The closure

A project is closed once the team has completed all tasks and the project owner has signed off on all deliverables. During the course of a project, project managers must prepare resources and budget utilization reports as well as lists of tasks that were not completed. Once the project is evaluated for performance, it is determined if the project’s goals were met.

Top 5 Project Management Essentials

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Let’s identify the essentials for successful project management and what kind of tactics, tools, methods, and project management software you need to use!

#1 Collaboration tools

The project cannot be successful if there’s no successful collaboration. Thus the right collaboration tools are essential when working on projects. Collaboration tools make it much easier for people to stay in touch and communicate.

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Rather than relying on email for communication, collaboration tools allow people to know the progress of tasks and deliverables in real-time. Integration tools help keep teams in sync by integrating disparate systems in a flexible and autonomous way. Such tools are especially important when there’s a need for staff augmentation due to the increased number of employees on one project.

#2 Gantt Chart

The Gantt Chart is the most popular project management tool. It organizes every little detail on your project. The tool’s charts let project managers properly allocate resources and time for milestones and deliverables.

It helps recognize limitations and, more importantly, adjust deliverables accordingly. Also, in a Gantt chart, links between tasks can be automatically adjusted if one task is delayed.

#3 Project baseline

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The baseline represents the standard you set for your project against the actual performance of the project. The project baseline is a project management tool for scoping, costing, and scheduling projects. Your baseline enables you to monitor your ongoing improvement.

#4 Workflow software

At its essence, project management is all about ensuring that all the moving parts reach the right people at the appropriate times.Keeping things organized on an individual basis is essential, but it’s even more beneficial to have a workflow software that keeps things going smoothly and as effectively as possible.

Use one tool to assign, automate, track, and train. Some advantages include more accountability, improved consistency, fewer mistakes, less time spent looking for solutions, and quicker training.

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#5 Project team activities

Team activities can bring a bit of fun, improve morale, and boost energy and productivity in a team member all at once. Furthermore, it can motivate team members to work together to find the best possible solutions by encouraging creativity and highlighting their talents. Such activities are great for bonding together and stepping out from all those project tasks to gain motivation and inspiration.

In Conclusion

Project management is ubiquitous in almost all organizations and companies. But in order to complete a successful project, each business will need project management essentials.

Using such tools will clearly define goals and project management processes. Thus, organizations that use project management tools are more likely to achieve their objectives and hit their sales targets.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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