A little chaos can be a good thing when it comes to developing marketing campaigns. When something unexpected happens during the marketing process, it can encourage fresh thinking that could move your creative and strategies in new directions. However, too much chaos and too many surprises can grind the marketing process to a complete halt.

If you find that developing marketing campaigns at your firm is more complete chaos than controlled chaos, here are nine things you can do to bring a little more order to your marketing process.

1. Involve employees in coming up with solutions. Schedule time for a workshop. Give your team a safe space to constructively discuss issues related to their current marketing development process. Empower them to come up with solutions to improve their work flow. People who face barriers are often best equipped to figure out how to break through them.
2. Read up and share helpful information. When you’re in the middle of chaos, it can seem impossible to find your way to order. Take advantage of some of the great self-help information available online to get fresh ideas on how to introduce process into your workplace. Share your favorite tips with your team to get them thinking about how to get organized.
3. Schedule regular check-in meetings. Nothing keeps people on track like having to publicly report on progress. Weekly meetings where team members discuss achievements and barriers toward reaching goals can prevent people from dropping the ball and missing deadlines.
4. Take a project management course with your team. Most people don’t know a good process from a bad one. Taking a group project management course will help you envision a better future together. It’s a good way to learn how valuable the discipline of project management can be.
5. Hire a project manager. This may seem like a relatively expensive option, but the cost efficiencies that will result from bringing a project management professional on board will more than likely offset their salary.
6. Purchase project management software. Easy-to-use systems like Workamajig, Basecamp or Functionpoint are valuable tools for getting a team organized. These systems offer calendaring and other functions that make process management easy. Many send warnings and reminders that help keep people on task. An added bonus: most systems allow you to automate the dreaded approval process.
7. Recognize people who bring organization to your team. There’s no better way to get people to follow a process than to reward those who do. You don’t have to do anything big. Something as simple as recognition on an intranet site and a gift card to a favorite local coffee shop could do the trick.
8. Imagine your ideal organized world. If you feel like giving up on your commitment to process, take a moment to think about a future without chaos. A little vision is sometimes what it takes to maintain organizational discipline.
9. Get help. Engaging with an experienced advertising agency is an easy way to bring order to your marketing process. Agencies are masters at juggling multiple projects with many stakeholders on time and on budget. Contact Carpenter Group to find out how we can help bring a little process into your marketing chaos.