Most managers have heard of the 5 Ps of Marketing a product. But do you know the 5 Ps for marketing your Project?

As a Project Manager and Marketing Director who has marketed projects, products, and events, I have had successes and made mistakes. Benefit from my 'lessons learned' to increase your marketing mojo.  

Why does your Project need Marketing?

Many managers may think that Marketing does not apply to them. Others may think that marketing is focused on selling consumer products. And while this is true, it has long been used to build product awareness and corporate branding. Marketing is also an essential component of any project. It involves creating strategies and techniques to deliver the message of your project value and details about how that value will be experienced and delivered. A marketing mindset helps managers reach their target audience in a way that creates impact. Marketing is about building awareness, education, excitement, and adoption of your product. And it is important to note that a product can be an idea, solution, asset, or Project.  

Savvy business and project leaders know the importance of marketing: managing office politics and sharing the project outcomes in the context of the company's business landscape. If you want to learn more about how to master office politics or the business context of your Project, read my article on essential skills for project managers.

To get started, review how to market your Project and make notes on how you want to maximize the marketing of your Project. Plan which actions you want to focus on to build your marketing mojo.

First of all, what do we mean by marketing? Here's one definition -

5 aspects of Marketing your Project needs

Personal - Make it Specific to Your Audience

The first and most important aspect of marketing your Project is to make it personal and specific to your audience. Understanding your target demographic is key to creating a message and story that resonates with the people you are trying to reach. Understanding your target audience's demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences is essential, as these will help you create personalized and effective marketing campaigns.

Personalization is a significant trend in modern marketing, and it helps to increase brand awareness, create customer loyalty, and drive revenue growth. Your marketing message should be crafted to speak directly to your target audience and appeal to their pain points. Creating ads, content, and messages that are specific to your audience will go a long way in helping you to achieve your marketing goals.

Project - The content or solution you are marketing

Marketing your Project and the value the work is creating. Here are some tips to help you effectively promote your offering:

Sell the products value journey. 

• Make your end user a hero.

• Show how the new way of working will benefit the end user, the customer, and the organization.

• Clearly state the rollout timing and Plan for users.

• Build excitement with testimonials for users and key stakeholders.

Develop a strong brand identity for your Project. Your brand identity should be consistent across all marketing channels. This includes your logo, color scheme, and brand messaging. A strong brand identity will help establish trust and recognition with your audience.

Purpose – Selling, Influencing, or Informing

Marketing is typically done for three primary purposes: selling, influencing, or informing. Each of these purposes requires a different approach and strategy.

Selling involves marketing an idea, product or service to trigger buying behavior. If for internal projects, sometimes political buy-in. To achieve this goal, projects should focus on marketing campaigns that deliver a value proposition statement. Create a sense of urgency or need in the target audience to drive them to act on the marketing ‘ask’ in each campaign. This may include projects that are focused on the customer of a business, but require changes in the internal operations which the employees must adopt to be successful. Focusing on the benefits to the employees directly by discussing improvements to their job or increased job security due to customer growth, highlight the benefits when change is focused on an outside target audience.

Influencing involves marketing campaigns that drive audience behavior or opinion. This type of marketing is common in organizations where the project’s impact is a given. The organization will still want to address adoption through persuasive messages that appeal to the target audience's emotions. An example of this may be a new way of working that impacts a department significantly. The staff need to be assured that they are valued and important to the process.

Informing involves spurring action by providing information. Informing is common in awareness campaigns and programs that will impact a large group but not in a significant way. An example of this, maybe a new HR system or other project which does not impact the employees of the company on a day-to-day basis, but will bring change to some of the policies. Informing requires projects to provide accurate and concise information that educates and influences the target audience's behaviors.

Placement - Distribution channels and use of multimedia

The placement of your marketing message can have a significant impact on its success. Knowing where and when to target your message is critical to maximizing its effectiveness.

Your marketing message's distribution should align with your target audience's behavior and preferences. Knowing where your audience spends their time, whether on social media, websites, magazines, or in-person events, will help to determine where to place your marketing message.

Knowing when your target audience is most active is also necessary when considering placement. For example, if your target audience is primarily office workers, rolling out content via email may work. If your audience is in the field, you will need to review how to reach them in ways and at times they will be willing to receive your message.

Moreover, understanding the context in which your marketing message will be seen is also essential. Messages must be relevant to the context in which they appear to achieve the desired impact.

Leverage content marketing: 

Creating valuable multimedia content will help your message reach various niche users, customers, and stakeholders. Vary the message, and create a story progression from awareness of the project concept to the final rollout information. Consider creating a portfolio of content:

• Video testimonials and demonstration

• Success stories to highlight the benefits

• Social Media cards for internal use to announce key messages or dates

• Quick cards can be placed in lunch rooms and other public places to announce your Project and solution offering and give an action for users to act on.

• Blog posts and infographics are great ways to spread knowledge and provide deeper content to your users.

Prevalent - Time to Action ideas take time to spread

Finally, it is essential to consider the time and effort required to market a project successfully. Ideas take time to spread, and marketing requires consistent effort over time to achieve results.

Marketing campaigns must be recurrent to remain at the front of the minds of your audience. Consistent messaging and branding over time will help build familiarity and trust with your target audience.

Being patient when marketing a project is essential, as it may take time to achieve desired results. Marketing campaigns must be given enough time to work before adjusting or pivoting to a different approach.

Once momentum has been created, build on it with more diverse and deep content. Project Managers should plan for the post-go-live continuation of the messaging, including feedback.

Avoid giving your stakeholders the feeling that they have been 'click-baited' or spammed with the information you share. Keep the messaging positive and pragmatic. But also be relevant and honest. Make sure you say what you will do, then do it. If you miss a deadline, give an update, why, and the action to complete. 

In conclusion, the success of any project relies on its ability to reach its target audience effectively. By focusing on the five points above, projects can develop compelling marketing strategies to do just that.