How to prioritize marketing projects to achieve goals 

Does your marketing to-do list seem to grow longer by the day? Do you find it hard to determine which marketing projects are worth the effort and which are time wasters? Organizations often have a long list of initiatives vying for attention. But, if you have too many ideas floating around, or you’re focusing on the wrong things, you won’t see the results you’re looking for. After all, if you prioritize everything, then you prioritize nothing.

In this article, we’ll help you decide how to prioritize marketing projects by asking a few important questions. Once you know what to focus on, you can move forward knowing that time is spent on the right initiatives.

Establish your marketing goals

One of the common mistakes businesses make is implementing marketing initiatives because they’re trendy. While there’s an element of excitement to unveiling a new app or launching a TikTok account, if these projects don’t align with your business goals, why make them a priority?

Before jumping headfirst into a project, start by establishing your marketing goals. We recommend defining SMART goals to help your business grow. You will never know how to prioritize ideas if you have no idea what you’re trying to achieve. Whether it is customer acquisition, lead generation, or boosting engagement, every project should have an established purpose. Your business and sales goals should drive your marketing objectives, not the other way around.

Once your goals are established, they need to be translated into marketing objectives. Think of your buyer persona. Who are your customers and where are they spending their time? If you don’t have a buyer persona established yet, this article outlines step-by-step instructions on how to create one. Once you know who your buyers are, you can start brainstorming ways to effectively reach them.

How to prioritize marketing projects

Your goals are established, but there’s still a never-ending list of tasks in front of you. How do you determine which is most important? One way to start ranking marketing projects is by asking yourself these questions:

What resources will this project require?

Determine the resources needed to complete the project. For any project to get off the ground, the right team must be available, a realistic timeline set, and budget established. If you find yourself lacking the resources or knowledge to effectively tackle a project, consider working with an established marketing partner to get it done.

What is the ROI of the project?

What kind of revenue will the project generate for the company? ROI is often a top factor when choosing which projects to prioritize. After all, 75% of marketers use their reports to show how campaigns are directly impacting revenue. Weigh the cost and time of the project vs the projected outcome.

What initiative or campaign does it fall under?

Does this project support an ongoing initiative or campaign? If it doesn’t, what is the reasoning for it? Realistically, 100% of projects are not going to align with a strategic objective. But if too many projects fall outside of these objectives, why are you spending time on them?

Have we tried this initiative in the past?

Analyzing past efforts with data is important. If the initiative wasn’t successful before, do you know what went wrong and how to set yourself up for future success?

How urgent and important is this project?

Some marketing tasks are critical to success. If you don’t advertise a sale that’s happening this weekend, your customers won’t know about it. Other projects support important tasks but aren’t driven by deadlines. A third group are projects that are nice to do if you have time, such as a website redesign, but not necessary to complete right away.

These are just a few questions that can help determine which marketing projects take precedence. If you go through these and realize there are projects that provide little value or aren’t doable, scrap them. Letting go of time wasters is a simple way to whittle down your list.

Of course, once a project is completed, analyze how it performs. Performance metrics help marketers plan future projects, and hopefully, achieve goals quickly.

Prioritize marketing projects easily

Businesses and marketers know there’s always more to do than can be achieved. Without focus, it’s hard to decide which tasks are the most important. That’s why prioritizing marketing projects is so important. Once you’ve decided where to focus your energy, you’re ready to put together a plan and start knocking out work.

Even with a prioritized list of marketing projects, sometimes you still need help. That’s where MPP comes in. With help from our marketing experts, you can focus on what you do best with a partner by your side.