Who Is A Digital Project Manager?

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Digital Project Manager, is one of the most booming career options. Every organization needs a digital manager, be it small or big, to take care of its digital assets and media.

The brands, advertising, marketing, everything has moved from traditional media to the digital world. It is easier to target your audience as per the preference and liking.

Hence, the demand for trained professional in this filed is on a rise.

So, if you are dynamic in your working style, love to work independently and is highly motivated when it comes to the digital world.

This profession is surely for you.

Before going into details on who is a digital project manager, his roles and duties. Let us first understand what is a digital project management

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What is digital project management?

Digital project management is a complex role which is strategic and delivery focussed. It is transforming and expanding your business. You need detail planning and bringing together all the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle to develop a project.

It is a process of organizing and executing from all the ends. You need to have good coordination with all the parties involved in the project from stakeholders, developers, agencies to team members. 

Though the goals of each project are different from each other the ultimate goal reaches to a single outcome i.e. ROI (return on investment).

Digital projects can have many forms:

1. Website
2. Apps
3. Videos
4. Games
5. Events
6. Content
7. E-Commerce
8. Social Media
9. Advertising
10. SEO

In simple words,

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Who is a digital project manager?

A digital project manager is in charge of everything that happens online from planning, executing to tracking. His final objective is to finish the project successfully within the defined budget and timeframe.

The success or failure of the digital project depends entirely on the digital manager’s experience and judgement. He builds trusts and ensures everyone working on the project is comfortable and clear with their roles and responsibilities.

Thus, it becomes all the more important for a digital manager to be a good communicator too. He should be able to express and present his thoughts and strategy to all the team members.

He should be able to project’s big picture before breaking it down.  It is important to break the idea into smaller and well-defined tasks.

A digital manager strategically converts raw digital marketing ideas into practical actional steps, aligning it with the company’s overall objectives. 

A good digital manager is like a chameleon, who should be able to change his strategies as per the dynamics of the market. He needs to keep changing his hat at a very fast pace, according to the changing trend.

As the saying goes,

A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it – Scott Allen

But in Digital a project is never complete. It keeps on evolving with changing market dynamics.

Digital Project Manager Roles

Digital project management itself is a vast role. It has many roles which can be pursued as an individual career option based on your skillset and interests.

The entire team consists of web developers, analysts, QA testers, US/UI strategists and functional profile. Each member has to be updated with the latest market trend and has to work on specific responsibilities concerning deadlines and scope of the project

6 roles to pursue as Digital project manager

1.    Digital marketing campaigns

A digital marketing campaign is a much complex than it is understood by most of the people in the market. It is way more than placing adverts. It involves a lot of planning for executing the entire marketing campaign on social and other digital platforms. Implementation of the digital campaign needs a lot of dedication and attention.

Steps for devising a digital marketing campaign:

2. Content Strategy

Content strategist takes care from planning to delivery of the content required in the project.

He ensures that the content is well structured, is aligned with the overall goals and user experience is enhanced.

Steps to create a successful content strategy

1. Setting up goals
2. Establishing KPIs
3. Know your target audience
4. Assessment of current position
5. Analysing best content channels
6. The decision of the content type
7. Allocation of resources
8. Creation of content
9. Marketing the content
10. Measuring results

3. SEO/SEM

Search Engine Optimization and SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing.

It is for increasing the visitors on the website by search engines like google, while SEM is internet marketing which increases the visibility of sites through organic search results and advertising.

This can be part of SEM strategy.

In simple words, SEO/SEM specialist helps in increasing digital visibility of a company’s products and services. Be it on website, landing page, ad words etc. The ultimate objective is to increase sales/business.

Learn the difference between SEO and SEM

3 Types of SEM

1. Pay per click (PPC)
2. Local SEO
3. Organic SEO

4. Website design and development

A website developer is one of the booming career options. Website is like the face of a brand or in other words it defines the brand, its values etc.

Everyone needs a good website to display their product and services be it big organizations, start-ups or individuals.

Nowadays, even customers expect and check online presence for even the smallest brand. Website strengthens the business and adds credibility to it.

5. UX/UI design

UX/UI designers are high in demand. The designer ensures that every single page and section is well defined including images. Site speed is another important thing to consider as a UI designer.

The job of UX/UI designer

6. Software and mobile app development

In the view of enhancing customer experience, many organizations have created mobile apps. Mobile apps developers can significantly leverage the app by mixing digital mix to the fullest capacity by following multiple sources of marketing.

A digital project manager combines both online and human resources to create effective digital campaigns.

Online resources include social media, videos, e-books etc. Human resources include – designers, social marketers, writers etc

Responsibilities of a digital project manager

A digital project manager has to wear many hats at the same time. He becomes an analyst, a communicator, a leader, and a strategist at the same time.

But the core responsibility of a digital manager is people management, which in my opinion is the hardest thing to do.

Steps involved as a digital project manager

Roles of Digital Manager

Analyzing Business –

A digital manager continuously analyses his project portfolio and focus on most valuable clients and projects. He ensures that the project is profitable and growing. The success of the project depends upon the kind of decision taken by the digital manager.

Strategy –

This is the foundation for any project. Making a detailed plan is an atop-level structure on which the rest of the decisions are built. It is a regular process for a digital manager, the requirement keeps on changing as per the market demand. Hence the strategies should be flexible and agile.

Development –

This is another important role that a digital manager has to play. He needs to keep all his developers aligned and up to date with the market dynamics and business strategy.

He clearly needs to prioritize and explain the same to his members for all of them to follow the same path.

Quality Control –

Maintaining the quality of the entire project is important. If once the project digital strategy fails, the project will have to start from scratch. Quality assurance is a continuous process. The teams have to be aligned and updated continuously as per the requirement of the business.

Collaboration –

This is also a critical role that a digital manager has to play. He has to ensure a collaborative working environment. There should be cordial and healthy relations among the team members for the project to succeed.

Team players are the one who brings or build value for organisation/clients pay.

UX /UI Design –

Design is the face of a brand. User experience is of utmost priority. The loyalty of the customer will increase the engagement level wit the brand. Thus, customer/end-user has to be happy

Client Servicing –

Account Management is one of the most difficult tasks done by the project manager. Maintaining relations with clients is one of the major reasons for the project to become successful. All clients should be treated as important.

Many a time the manager gives more priority to bigger accounts and smaller accounts are taken for granted. This is one of the biggest mistakes committed by a project manager.

Top 7 traits of a digital manager

Some of the top skills required in a digital manager are:

1. Good communication skills

Digital project managers should have good communication skills be it verbal, written or any other ways. She should also be a good listener so that the team members can put forward their perspective clearly and effectively.

Digital manager must be able to articulate his idea to his team members for them to work inanefficient way. If the digital manager remains confused, it would be difficult to bring the required results.

A good digital manager is a bridge between technical and business teams. He should be able to communicate in the language and terminologies used by both sides.

He should communicate and pass on important information to his team members and management.

2. Team leader

A good team leader knows when and how to support his team. It is the team leader’s responsibility to brief the tasks in hand, objectives, time perspective, project deliveries etc to the team for effective output.

A team leader should be able to empower all his team members. Good leaders set an example by getting the work done, timely delivery, appreciating and motivating his team members, creating a positive work culture environment. And most importantly a good leader always gives credits to his team members.

3. Reliable Resource

A team looks forward to their manager. They trust him and should be able to look forward to him for any issue or help required. He should be a reliable resource for getting information to both his team members and business manager.

A project manager creates plans and schedule, budget and instructs his team on his day to day work. He is responsible to meet the deadlines on time.

A project manager is responsible for presenting and handing over reports to the clients. He must be someone to rely upon in all aspects. Be it planning, executing, following deadlines or budgeting.

4. Attention to Detail

A digital manager needs to have a good eye for details. One can say a digital project is like a jigsaw puzzle. And one manager has to handle multiple puzzles at the same time. Therefore, the manager must pay attention to every detail.

A small change in planning will have a huge impact on timelines and resources. A manager should be able to adapt to changing market dynamics.

Also, the digital manager needs to pay attention to every information which goes out. He needs to keep a check on spellings, creatives, every minute details.

5. Diversifies skills

A project manager should have a working knowledge of diversified portfolio, otherwise, it would become difficult for him to adapt the market dynamics.

He should be well versed with certain software which helps with presentations, file sharing, content management, lead generation etc.

Good digital managers are also familiar with SEOs, HTML/CSS basics, editing, content marketing etc.

In short, they are the jack of all trades.

6. Relationship Building

Maintaining relationships is one of underrated skill. It is important to have cordial relations with own team members, other teams and business managers for the smooth functioning of the digital project.

Both online and offline projects should work parallelly to achieve the overall objectives of the organization.

7. Ability to Adapt changes

A digital project manager should be able to adapt changes like a chameleon. It is impossible to stick to one plan as the market keeps on changing at a faster pace.

While working on a project the requirement keeps on changing, new ideas come up, technology, deadlines. You have to adapt yourself to suit the objectives with a positive outlook.

The digital project manager plays a critical role in the project to become successful. He should be able to take initiatives for transforming business.

They are the complete owners of the project and manage all aspects of it, from planning, risk management, quality, deliverables, budget to timelines.

What tools do digital project managers use?

Digital managers use multiple software to organise, communicate with team members, task assigning, file sharing etc.

Some of the popular tools used by the digital manager include-

Example of digital tools:

1. G Suite: It is a good tool for creating different types of documents, spreadsheets, forms etc. Files, calendars, videos etc can be shared and edited easily by all team members.
2. Airtable: This is one of the highest-rated digital tools for project management solution. This tool helps to create the content pipeline, managing development of the product, event planning, and gather data on all products.
3. MeisterTask:This tool is best for an agile project management system. You can customize it for teams to organize and manage their products.
4. Slack: This tool helps better collaboration among team members for file sharing, messages etc. This tool can also integrate other software such as google drive, dropbox.

How much does a digital manager make?

As a digital project manager, you have a lot of scope from a career perspective.

You can earn from 4 lakh to 40 lakh a year depending upon your experience and skill set.

Also, the other non-financial perks which many people do not consider while in this career include:

1. Opportunity to work remotely
2. Flexible schedule
3. Better work-life balance

Are you ready to become the next project leader? Or you already are the one.

Do share your experience with us.

And if you have any query, we will be happy to assist you.

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• TOP 20 PMP Exam Questions and Answers
• Is PMP Certification Worth It in India?
• 10 Best PMP CERTIFICATIONS IN SINGAPORE

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