What Is Marketing Program Management?

Before we dive into marketing program management, we must first break it up into its two components: marketing and program management.

Marketing: The various activities used by a marketing team to promote a product or service. This can include online advertisements, TV commercials, brochures, billboards, and more.
Program management: This is often confused with project management, but they are two very different activities. A program is a group of related projects, so managing them is a much larger endeavor than managing a single project. Program management is when multiple projects are managed in tandem.

So, what is marketing program management? It is the coordinated process of managing various marketing projects connected under the umbrella of a particular program. Each project will contribute to a shared program objective. Individual project resources can be shared within each program to help improve the company’s overall performance. If a company is highly engaged in marketing activities, it will often employ a marketing program manager to carry out this role.

What does a marketing program manager do?

A marketing program manager is responsible for creating and coordinating the marketing programs in their company. Within each program, they map out all the dependent projects and figure out how they will reach their combined goal.

These program managers work closely with marketing departments to oversee market strategies, conduct market research, plan events, and maintain database segmentation. They liaise with marketing project managers to ensure individual projects are helping the company to meet broader objectives.

Analytics is a key element in marketing program management. This means the manager must analyze their company’s marketing campaigns as well as competitor activities to spot potential areas for improvement. Types of campaigns include email, PR, video, SEO, product launch, brand awareness, and more.

Marketing program managers also work with product development and sales teams to identify market gaps and determine promotional strategies.

Marketing program management tools

Now you know what marketing program management is, it’s time to select the right tools for the job. Because you will be dealing with multiple projects, it’s advisable to use an all-in-one marketing program management platform to create a unified workspace.

Ideally, your marketing program management software should include the following features:

Customizable workflows
Gantt charts
Time tracking tools
Real-time reports
Marketing templates
App integration

For more information on marketing program management software, check out Wrike.

Christine Royston

Christine is Wrike’s Chief Marketing Officer. She has more than 20 years of B2B enterprise marketing experience, having held senior leadership roles at Udemy, Bitly, Dropbox, and Salesforce. Christine is particularly skilled at building high-performing teams and creating marketing strategies that help organizations scale and transform.

What Is Marketing Program Management?