If there is one word that can be used to describe marketing, it is varied. Marketing is certainly a diverse field. What works for one client is not going to always work for another client, even if they both operate within the same business sector. Because of this, you need to give a lot of thought and consideration to the type of project management methodology you use. With that in mind, in this blog post, we are going to explore how to use project management methodologies in marketing in further depth so you can get a better understanding.

Agile

There is only one place to begin when it comes to project management methodologies, and this is with Agile. A lot of project managers acquire Agile project management accreditation to help them advance their skills and standing in the industry. It is a methodology that began in the realm of software development and it has slowly started to spread into the broader business world. Today, it is one of the most popular methodologies for project management. It utilises decentralised decision-making and iteration to boost processes and enhance flexibility.

Agile project management is beneficial when it comes to inbound marketing and online marketing. This is because these sorts of marketing campaigns run on a continual basis, which is suited to the iterative process of Agile. You will continually filter knowledge back into the advertising operations while enabling teams to be flexible when responding to any situation as it changes.

On the flip side, Agile may not be the most appropriate solution for seasonal marketing and event marketing. This is due to the fact that the emphasis is placed on incremental improvement over a period of time with Agile. This means that projects that have a short timespan or are based on one big “moment” do not usually do well. These sorts of marketing projects need everything to be perfect at the launch and they do not have any space built for improvement and testing.

Waterfall

You may also want to consider the Waterfall project management methodology for your next marketing project. With this methodology, a sequential procedure is used for the planning and execution of tasks, with one task flowing into the next, moving everything toward the completion of the project.

Waterfall project management works well with regard to bricks and mortar marketing, as well as alliance marketing. This is because it is highly effective in terms of planning for a marketing project to be delivered all-at-once, using project plans and Gantt charts so that precise objectives are achieved and geared toward specific and often distinct deliverables.

This project management methodology does not tend to lend itself well to social media advertising and personalised marketing. This is because the methodology has not been created to handle any sort of circumstances that can alter on an hourly or daily basis. When it comes to situations like this, on-the-fly decision-making and skills-based reactions will outperform long-term planning.

Scrum

Last but not least, you may want to consider using the Scrum methodology for your marketing project. This approach is focused on delivering high-priority deliverables within a specified timeframe. It is all about adopting personal responsibility and ensuring intense focus for a task to be completed.

This sort of project methodology works well for B2B marketing and product marketing. This is because these sorts of marketing projects need the most critical deliverables to be completed first. For both B2B and product marketing, the highest priority actions and assets are the most critical. The secondary actions and assets can be held back for later sprints.

The nature of this methodology means that it is not usually the best approach for high-level corporate marketing and direct marketing. When a team is certainly going to have time for everything to be completed or where all tasks run at the same time and have the same date of completion, Scrum loses the advantages that have been mentioned above.

Can you use a mixture of the different marketing methodologies that have been mentioned?

If you do not think that any of the marketing project management methodologies that have been discussed above are going to be right for you, you may want to consider going for a hybrid approach instead. For marketing companies that are either during a transition period or realise that a mixed approach is going to be better for their situation, a hybrid project management methodology makes the most sense.

This sort of project methodology is best suited to the likes of brand marketing and content marketing. By using a blend of iterative and set-piece processes, your team will be able to follow a hybrid approach that can generate your project’s cornerstone elements and then you can fine-tune them by using more Agile processes when needed.

Hybrid methodologies are popular because they enable you to tailor your project management approach based on your business. This approach is often explored early in a professional’s journey through certifications like the CAPM certification, which lays the foundation for project management best practices.

However, this option can sometimes be an unwise choice, especially if you are building a new app or you are looking for the best project management methodology for test-driven marketing. This is not to say that a hybrid approach would be a failure. Nevertheless, you may find that simply sticking to one approach is going to make a lot more sense in scenarios like this. The reason for this is that it will lower confusion, as well as making your objectives clearer and much more straightforward to achieve.

Hopefully, this article has given you an insight into the different project management methodologies that can be used in marketing, including the pros and cons. We hope that this has helped you to get a better understanding of the options that are available to you and how you can use them to drive your marketing efforts forward. There are different APM, PMP, and PRINCE2 training courses that are available that can enable you to advance your project management knowledge in the various methodologies that have been mentioned above.

The e-commerce industry is expected to grow more rapidly than ever before. This is why everyone is trying to establish their own ecommerce store in order to grab a slice of the pie. There are many ways through which you can promote your store. One of them is through video marketing on Instagram! Instagram is an extremely famous video and picture-sharing application that is used by millions of people around the globe. This makes it a perfect platform for marketers to reach out to their target audience.

What is Instagram Video Marketing?

But what is Instagram video marketing? Well, it refers to creating video content to generate both sales and engagement through the social platform. You can use different features to create a highly creative video that would certainly get the attention of the viewers. On Instagram, there is a good chance that your video marketing efforts would work out. Why? Well, it has been revealed from a study conducted by Quintly that video drives more engagement as compared to photos.

Types of Instagram Videos

Let’s now discuss the types of Instagram videos that would help you in promoting your e-commerce store the most.

#1. In-Feed Instagram Videos

These are those videos that show up in your feed. These are similar to those in-feed videos that you find on other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Such videos rank on the basis of engagement. People can comment and like the videos. They can even save it if they liked what they saw.

Now you must be wondering how such videos work. Well, the first thing you should remember is that the videos can only be up to 60 seconds in duration. These videos would autoplay without sound. If a user has turned off this feature then a thumbnail would be shown with a play button. You will also be given a choice to either share a single video or to make a carousel post that can contain up to 10 videos or pictures.

To make sure your videos get the best result while using this method, you should follow these steps

• Use catchy thumbnails
• Keep the videos short
• Tag products
• Use subtitles

#2. Instagram Video Stories

This feature is really popular among Instagram users. It has been reported that almost 500 million people post stories on the platform daily. And you would be surprised to know that about one-third of the stories published are done by businesses. For creating Instagram video stories, you need to make sure to keep its duration to 15 seconds. But here’s the thing. You can create multiple stories and post them as one. Plus, there is no limit on the number of stories you share. Remember that these stories would stay on your account for just 24 hours before disappearing. You will have an option to save these videos and display them on your profile as a highlight.

Here are a few tips that you can use to ensure that your videos get better results.

• Use stickers
• Add links
• Create hashtags

#3.  Instagram Video Ads

While in-feed videos can work great but if you want instant results then an Instagram video ad is the way to go. If you do this correctly then you can expect to receive more clicks and conversions. There are two ways you can run an Instagram video ad i.e., story ads and in-feed video ads. If you wish to go for this method then make sure that the in-feed video ads you create must be less than 60 seconds in duration whereas the story ads should be less than 15 seconds. For the in-feed video ad, the resolution would be 1:1 while for the story ad, it would be 9:16.

For your video ads to get the best results while using this method, you should consider the following tips.

• Use less than 20% text in thumbnails
• Make the videos as short as you can
• Use simple language so that everyone can understand
• Optimize both the funnel and the video for mobile

Conclusion

And there you have it! These are three Instagram video strategies that can help you promote your ecommerce store effortlessly. If you are thinking about which kind of content would click with the audience then try making tutorial, brand storytelling, product, and BTS or behind-the-scenes videos. Plus, don’t forget to subscribe to a good internet connection before you start promoting your business on the platform. I remember how I used Spectrum internet to market my products on Instagram to generate my initial sales. You can do the same to run a successful e-commerce business!

Using an online time clock can help run your business smoothly and limit risks. Running a business means you need to watch everything that is going on. You want to ensure your employees are doing their job without micromanaging them. If you’re a manager, you want to find ways to keep an eye out for your team but still be able to give them the freedom they deserve.

Sometimes, that doesn’t always happen. Most people who make up your team will be kind and want to help your business grow. However, some employees will want to take advantage of you and abuse your older time clock system. This is why it should be your number one goal to switch to an online time clock if you haven’t already.

You may not know this, but there are ways that an employee can abuse their time clocks with other systems. It’s easier to get away with, harder to catch, and may leave you frustrated. Time theft should not be tolerated, but how can you stop it if you can’t see it? You may not know what to look for, and that is where we come in to help you.

Here is a list of all the ways employees can abuse the time clock you have now.

4 Ways Employees Can Abuse Outdated Time Tracking Systems

Having to always keep up with your team is impossible; you can’t be there to watch every team member punch in. Using an older time punching system means that these situations are more likely happen to happen. If you switch to a new online time clock software, these risks can be limited.

Buddy Punching – Buddy punching occurs when one employee punches time for a coworker even when they are not there. Someone could be running late and call their friend to punch them in so they won’t lose any hours. This is good for them but makes you and your business lose money. It should be limited, and an online timecard system can do that for you.

Falsifying Hours – When using an old time tracking system that is done all by hand, it is easier to add a few minutes extra each day. An employee can easily add a few more hours in to make it look like they worked more. This means they get paid more for work they did not do. Modern online time clock software can automatically capture work hours in real-time and reduce unnecessary manual adjustments.

Skipping Breaks – If you have mandatory breaks, your employees could be skipping them because it allows them to make more money. However, the opposite can be said as well. If they know you don’t keep a close eye on breaks, they may take more breaks than do any work. This could also be theft of company time. Online timesheet software allows you to alert employees of upcoming breaks and be alerted if a worker skipped a requirement break.

Punching Out Early – With ancient time tracking systems, an employee can easily leave early and fix the records later, and you would have no idea. Conversely, the employee could leave later in the day to gain more hours, and you would not know why. Either way, they get paid more than they should be. Online time clock software allows you to limit when employees can punch time and notify you if they leave work outside their scheduled hours.

Most employees would never do this to an owner or manager they are dedicated to, but it does occur. You should be prepared for these situations to happen, and it is your job to limit these occurrences. They are risky and can lead to a reduction in profit, but luckily you can invest in employee timesheet software to help.

Labor costs are often the most significant expenses in a business. Of course, you want to pay your team everything they are owed, but no more than that. With online time clock solutions, you can ensure accurate payroll and limit risks that can harm your business. Everyone will know that you can see who punches in, what they’re working on, and how productive someone is. This can save you time, money and create a stress-free workspace.

Workplaces around the world have become increasingly virtual in the past decade, and with the pandemic spiraling throughout 2020 the number of remote workers around the world rose significantly.

Some research even suggests that most of the people will actually continue working from home even when the lockdown restrictions become a thing of the past. Even the major tech players like Spotify, Google, Facebook and Twitter announced their new remote work policies.

However, it’s important to note that with the rise of remote teams, we’ve also seen a rise in virtual employee monitoring software. And while the debate about the ethics behind its usage will never go down, we should still talk about what you should and shouldn’t do if you’re looking to use such a software (especially if you want to avoid employees’ backlash!).

In this article we’ll go over some bad practices, and explain how you can replace them, as well as some tips to get the most out of the virtual employee monitoring software you’re using.

Don’t Focus on Everything

When you’re implementing a monitoring software, regardless of the environment, you should have a specific goal that it will help you achieve. Perhaps you’re looking for a way to measure and improve productivity, or you want to simply track employees’ attendance. It’s important that you have an attainable goal you’d like to achieve with this tool if you want to use it properly.

Every virtual employee monitoring software is different, but they usually come with the plethora of features, some of which might be completely unnecessary for your goal.

Let’s say that your goal is to measure and improve productivity of your virtual team. In this case, you would need a software that helps you label apps and websites employees are using as productive or unproductive. Based on the time employees spend in those apps, and overall computer activity, the software will calculate daily, weekly and monthly productivity percentage (on an individual or team level). But, the software you selected maybe has an option to take screenshots of employees’ screens – this feature is in no way related to your goal, so you shouldn’t use it.

If you keep focusing on every piece of data the monitoring software provides, you’ll quickly lose track of what’s important, and eventually miss the goals you’ve set.

Don’t Go Into Every Detail

Now this one is important regardless of your goals. Having information about every daily activity of your employees can seem overwhelming, but only if you keep looking for the needles in the haystack.

Even if your goal is to increase your team’s productivity, the fact that they spend an hour per week doing something that’s not related to work isn’t a fireable offense. You probably spend time on social media or news sites while working as well, and it never hurt anyone.

Yes, these distractions can become a problem. If your employee spends more hours per day on non-work tasks, you should definitely have a conversation with them. But, if they scroll mindlessly for a few minutes, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

What you should do is pay attention to how these distractions affect their performance. It’s been proven that breaks help us focus and perform better.

Be Transparent

This should go without saying, but never use a virtual monitoring software without your team’s knowledge. First of all, it’s illegal (in most countries and in most cases), and second – they’ll eventually find out about it and you’ll be in for one tough conversation.

First and foremost, you should get legal consultations from the experts in the countries your employees’ are based in. Each country has its own regulations, so what’s allowed in one place might be forbidden in another. Once you’re done with that, you should create monitoring policies and consent forms which will detaily explain why you’re using the software, how you are using it, which data it collects, who has access to it, and so on.

After having an open conversation with everyone on your team, share the policies and consent forms, and be open to answering any questions or concerns employees might have about monitoring.

If the software offers that possibility – give employees access to their own data. This will put their minds at ease, because they won’t have to worry about what it is that you’re seeing on the other end of the software.

Final Thoughts

Transparency goes a very long way in terms of virtual employee monitoring software, so make sure that’s on your priority list. Next, as we said, don’t focus on every single piece of data, and don’t nitpick. Focus on the big picture, on the goals you want to achieve with the software, and make changes in your processes as you go.