Lessons Learned from Managing a Marketing Team

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Post created by Madison Jensen
Applied IMC (Winter 2023)


As I’m getting ready to graduate in a few short days, I want to reflect on my experience managing a marketing team these past few months in my Applied Integrated Marketing Communications class. Having been part of countless group projects, I knew that communication would be extremely important when it came to success, and I knew that it was going to be my job to provide my team with the motivation and encouragement to do so. Throughout the past few months, I learned just how important communication, initiative, and pull strategy is in leading a team to run a marketing campaign. The success of a marketing campaign is not only dependent on the strategy or tactics used but also on how effectively your team communicates and collaborates. The agile methodology allowed for my team and I to accomplish a lot in very little time through collaborating, communicating, and adapting effectively and efficiently.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog postagile is a methodology that is used to manage projects in a flexible and iterative way, allowing teams to respond to changes quickly and efficiently. Leading a team in running a marketing campaign using the agile process requires communication and collaboration. By setting clear goals, creating a cross-functional team, developing a project plan, conducting regular stand-up meetings, testing, iterating, and evaluating the campaign, you can increase productivity and eventually success. The agile process is designed to be flexible, so be open to change and be willing to adapt.

Pull Strategy Instead of Push Strategy

Pulling and pushing are different styles of management that take different approaches to achieve the same goal. A push strategy refers to “driving” for the outcome and assigning people to complete things. A pull strategy refers to “inspiring” and “motivating” people for an outcome and having them take initiative. While a push strategy seems to be the easier way to go, the pull strategy offers more benefits in the long run both for the campaign and for the individual growth of team members. The pull strategy is also more efficient and offers more flexibility which is extremely valuable within the agile process.

Initiative

Initiative goes hand-in-hand with the pull method because the agile methodology requires you to take action without being told what to do. As mentioned in a previous blog post, the kanban allows for the pull method to be put into action. For the past six months throughout my time as a content creator and now a product manager, we used Trello to have a virtual kanban throughout our sprints. This allowed team members to literally pull the tasks they would complete and provided transparency between all group members. In the education environment and even more so in the work environment, it’s important to be proactive and take the initiative to solve problems or capitalize on opportunities.  

Communication is key

Effective communication is critical in any team, especially in marketing where success depends on how well the team can convey the message to the target audience. On top of that, we were executing our marketing campaign in one of the shortest quarters within the academic year, aside from summer quarter. This meant we had about eight weeks to develop, build, distribute, promote, and evaluate three versions of our product. As a leader, it’s important to ensure that your team is on the same page and that everyone understands the goals and objectives of the campaign. Frequent check-ins and meetings can ensure that everyone is aware of their responsibilities, timelines, and progress. Having a stand-up at the beginning of every meeting where people would share what they had been working on prior to the meeting, what they plan to work on, and their blockers allowed for everyone to stay on the same page and offer help to fellow team members.

As a leader, it’s important to foster an environment where team members feel comfortable taking risks, trying new things, fail, and ask for help. My goal was to create that environment where we all can grow as individuals and become well-rounded marketers. 

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