If you believe marketing is secondary to the delivery of a project or performed by a separate function, you are missing out on major opportunities. Everything your team does to add value to internal departments or for your external clients is noteworthy and should be used to build the morale of your team, build a portfolio of capabilities, educate the company on what value you are adding (not for a pat on the back, but to make them aware of the tremendous capabilities of the company they work for). A formal marketing effort may focus on the 5 P's, but marketing does not have to encompass all of these branches, all of the time. The important thing is communicating and promoting what is appropriate, based on the project and surrounding situation. You can create another arm of marketing, even in cases where a formal marketing program is delivered.

 

 

Why is it important to market our projects and teams?

 

1. Building Morale – those involved in the project know how hard they worked and the associated difficulties. Praise your team for their efforts, growth, obstacles and abilities to overcome challenges.
2. Team Building – highlighting the important role of all team members and how their efforts “fit” together helps everyone see how each person is necessary and the outcome is a sum of all contributions.
3. Selling Our Services – if we all communicated details on our projects to just those involved, our companies may miss out on opportunities to pitch and sell again the technique we used on a project.
4. Understanding Value – without a full blown ROI and post launch tracking, many of us lose sight of the value our projects deliver. Stating the value, periodically reinforcing and refactoring the value realized are important to sustain momentum and items 1-3.

 What can you do to encourage the organic distribution of your message?

 

1. Create Campaigns – if we are creating projects of value, generally speaking we exercised some creativity in doing so. Use that creativity to build up the project, before and after its completion, through teasers, creating themes with trinket hand-outs. Think of your organization’s break room or intranet as an area for publicizing.
2. Skill & Expertise Promotion – our teams consist of vast and diverse talent. Distributing facts and trivia related to our team helps the organization better understand the value of its resources, helps team members understand hidden talents and experience in one another and helps build morale.
3. Educate on Complexity – we often take things for granted in business and otherwise. I find that stakeholders often do not fully appreciate something until they have a solid understanding of what is involved. Use analogies, alternative ways of presenting comparisons and be persistent in your education.
4. Communicate Value – value can be a relative term. Use company bulletin boards, web sites, reception monitors/kiosks for an ongoing statement of project goals and the value realized. I find often times after the project is in production, we identify even more benefits, outside of the initial listing. Keep up with these advances and acknowledge the efforts to the organization.

These are just a few ways you can increase project and team visibility. Creativity and finding non traditional ways to communicate project success and value has many benefits to our teams and organizations.