Maximize ROI with these marketing software adoption tips

According to the Project Management Institute?s Pulse of the Profession 2020 report, 11.4% of of resource investment is wasted because of poor project performance. This is largely determined by the quality of your organizational structure and the marketing project management software you use to execute it. In addition to developing the right culture around project management within your marketing team, you?ll need to be strategic about how you incorporate new tools and systems. 

It?s no secret that the ROI of your investment in marketing project management software is largely determined by your adoption rates. If they?re high, you can rest assured that your time and resources were well spent. If they?re low, you?ll have to put in a little extra effort to get everyone on board. Meanwhile, marketing campaigns involving daily activities like social posts, content creation, and PR outreach get delayed or deprioritized. 

Or, in the worst-case scenario, you may even have to scrap your marketing software project management software entirely and start the process all over again, leaving employees with technology whiplash. 

But truth be told, there are lots of ways to get your whole team up and running with a new tool, even if you do face some challenges along the way. Here are 5 of the most common roadblocks for marketing software adoption along with some effective and practical tips on how to deal with them. 

Common challenges of marketing software adoption you can solve to maximize your ROI: 

According to recent research, the best way to spark change in marketing project management software adoption is to consider the issue on an individual level instead of an organizational one. While company culture and environment do impact the behavior of project teams, project managers need to consider whether or not each member has the proper training needed to understand how to use a tool like this one. Your team is already working on a number of different time-sensitive projects at once, so it?s perfectly understandable why project managers are hesitant to tack on additional training for those who need it. 

Solution: Choose a user-friendly solution with as many intuitive features as possible. Or, if your chosen marketing project management software is more layered and complex, block out an adequate amount of company-wide calendar time for training, seminars, or extra support as soon as you buy the software. If putting your whole team on pause to complete training is not an option, meet with individuals who need that extra guidance and show them how to use the program. 

Project teams often feel as if  managers aren?t part of the adoption process. Especially if project or department managers aren?t using the tools in the same way they are.  If their leaders aren?t around to help, team members start to feel lost or disinterested in keeping up with any learning curve the new software poses. This can be especially true for more complex departments like compliance. For example, they?ll have to create, add, and manage every single communication and training process to this new marketing project management software, which is a project by itself! 

Solution: First, get upper management involved in the adoption process. Elect a marketing project management adoption champion to oversee the shift and offer ongoing support. Then, make sure all the various leaders and managers on your team know the concrete reasons why this new software is uniquely helpful for each team?s needs. Afterward, add a marketing project management software adoption Q&A channel to your shared Slack or messenger everyone can refer back to.  

User resistance comes in many forms. Maybe your social media marketing team doesn?t see the point in trying new tools - at any given moment they?re likely keeping tabs on multiple marketing platforms, analytics tools, and SEO enhancers all at once. Or, if they?re on the partner marketing team, they might be much more comfortable using their old, familiar processes or tools and don?t want to make their partners learn a whole new system too. These experiences are all relatable but not productive when it comes to adopting new marketing tools.

Solution: Make a list of all the practical benefits of the tool for each individual department from legal all the way to product teams. Refer to past tech requests and project frustrations submitted by every marketing team. Then, connect the dots between these known issues and how adopting the new marketing project management software will solve them. Go the extra mile and create a branded quickstart guide with highlighted benefits that educate partners, affiliates, and freelancers every department needs to loop in. 

Some team members assume that your new marketing project management software is only meant for upper-level management or other departments to use. They don?t see why they need to use it, especially if they?ve been working without any digital organization tools previously and have seen results even without them. 

Solution: Hold a kickoff meeting to introduce the new tool. Explain the expectations around who it?s meant to help so it?s abundantly clear who benefits and how and that opting out isn?t really an option. Go into detail about what interdepartmental workflows they can expect to be involved with as well as how their work within the marketing software will positively affect their colleagues. 

Getting marketing software up and running can take time. If your team doesn?t see results right after they?ve successfully implemented the solution, they may feel as if the new software doesn?t change anything. And even if they?re told it?s helping, they might not believe it if they don?t see any proof. 

Proof can be tricky because it comes in many forms. For example, the product marketing team may need to see user error rates and their overall Net Promoter Scores of projects completed after the new marketing project management software is implemented before they can see how it improves their UX goals. 

Solution: When creating your goals for a new marketing software platform, take the time to establish some KPIs. Then, record your results before you started using the tool. After, regularly check in with these data points. Make reporting transparent so all users can watch your results grow over time. On an individual basis, you may even want to share key progress markers for team members whose work has improved since adopting the tool. 

I think you would agree that adoption rate is critical to the maximise the return on investment of software.  If you are looking to successfully implement software to your marketing team, then check out this Essential Guide for Implementing Project Management Software.