Recently we showed you how to get started in Growth Panel if you’re looking for a solution to an immediate business challenge.

Today we’re going to outline how to get started managing an existing marketing project.

Growth Panel delivers a complete marketing project management module in the Projects section. From here you can set tasks, goals and milestones; assign tasks to team members; download, upload and share exercises from the Library, including your own files; import marketing plans and collaborate with your team.

Create Your Marketing Project

The first step is creating your marketing project. From the Projects section main screen, click the Add a New Project link on the right and enter your project details in the new window. You can enter detail in all of the fields, or simply add your project name and fill in the details later.

The Project Details fields include:

• Project Name (Required)
• Client: This field defaults to Internal, which refers to a project for your own company. If your project is for a client, the clients you’ve added to your Client List from the main Projects screen will display in the dropdown list. You also have the option to add your client here.
• Project Status: This field defaults to In Progress. When you complete your project, you can change this to Completed to archive your project.
• Start Date: Select a date using the calendar widget.
• Target Date: Use this field as you wish. You can enter a projected completion date or leave it blank.
• Project Description: Describe your project here.
• Notes: Add any additional information here.

After you select Save, the Project Details window will close, and your project will be listed as a line item on the main Projects section screen. You can sort all your projects here by clicking on the column headers to sort up or down, or by clicking on the right of the column header tab to change or filter your column view.

Note that the red X on the right allows you to delete your project, but we’re here to work, so click the project name link to dive in.

Project Details View

The Project Details view is where you’ll create and manage the activities of your project. This view contains three panels:

• Project Details description panel to the left. You can close this using the << icon on the right of it if you wish.
• Activities panel in the center.
• Specialized panel views on the right. You can open these by clicking on the icons in the right-hand navigation, and close them by clicking on the X in the upper right of the open panel. Panel options here include:

  • Project Calendar panel

  • Project Plans panel

  • Exercises History panel

  • Project Files activity panel

  • Project Comments panel 

Creating Activities

To get started, create an activity. You can create a Task, a Milestone or a Goal by selecting these options on the activity header bar. Activities are defined as follows:

• Tasks are defined as work to be completed.
• Milestones are markers at a given point in a progression. For example, if you’d like to launch a new campaign by the time you’ve completed five tasks, the campaign launch could be your milestone. Your tasks would be the activities needed to execute the launch.
• A Goal is something you’d like to achieve.

You have the option to link tasks to milestones; otherwise, they’re all independent. Growth Panel doesn’t bog you down with complicated dependencies or Gantt charts.

Tasks are the most frequently used activity and contain the most detail, so let’s review tasks. When you create a task, you can enter the following information:

• Task Name
• Status
• Description
• Target Date
• % Complete: Currently this is for your reference only. We plan to add an option for reporting in the future.
• Hours Required: Currently this is for your reference only. We plan to add an option for reporting in the future.
• Assigned To: If you’ve added team members from the My Account section, their names will appear here.
• Attach to Milestone: You have the option to embed your task into a milestone.
• Notes

Note that the Milestone and Goals are added using the same basic steps just described.

Viewing Details and Downloading Files

After you save your task, it will appear as a line item in the Activities panel of the Project Details view. Click on your task name to open your Task Details window to make any changes.

Click on the black + icon to the right of your task name to expand your task in this screen to display additional information. This opens a view to your task notes while also displaying any exercises or files you’ve attached to your task.

You can download and upload documents right here in the Task Details window. To attach a document to your task, click on the Attach File icon on the right (green arrow over white paper).

If you’d like to set an exercise as a task, navigate to your library from the main tabs. When you download an exercise from the library, you have the option of attaching it to any project you’ve already created. Then you can access it from within your project.

Any activities and comments you’ve created in your Project Details view will display here, as well as on your Dashboard.

As you complete your tasks, you can upload finished files here and set your tasks at 100% complete. Use this option if you’d like to archive your project so you can access these files at a later date.

You can delete any activity by clicking the red X in the Actions column. When you delete any activity (or any project, for that matter), everything attached to it is also deleted: notes, exercises and files. It’s up to you to decide how to manage your projects.

Next Steps

Stay tuned. Next we’ll show you how to import a plan with tasks and milestones already created for you.

We’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries about the different Growth Panel versions, so I thought I’d write a quick post to outline each version in detail and discuss the typical users of each. 

Preview Version 

The Preview version is a free account that allows prospects to try Growth Panel before buying. Preview accounts automatically expire after 7 days, so it’s best to request one after you’ve reviewed the product tour, content summaries, screencast demos and sample content in the public area of our website. 

Preview accounts give you full access to the Projects, Plan Creator and Dashboard, and allow you to see what content is available in the Library. Functionality that enables application customization and content download and upload is disabled in Preview accounts. However, you can view all of it in action in our screencast demos. 

If you’d like to view actual exercises from the Library, we have free marketing content samples available for download in the Resources area of our site.

Basic Version 

If you’re a single marketer just starting a new job, or a consultant just starting up your practice, a Basic account should work for you. Basic accounts are single-user accounts that give you full access to all our content in the Library, so you can quickly get up to speed. You can also create, customize and download plans from the Plan Creator, though you’re limited to ten saved plans at any one time. 

The Basic version gives you full use of the Projects section, including the ability to import plans, though you’re limited to five concurrent projects. 

Most Basic account users will spend a couple months learning and using the content and tools to put together an offering and obtain marketing projects. We can easily upgrade your account to our Professional version at any time so you can add users, customize the content and application, access the Extended Library content and have unlimited access to plans and projects. 

Professional Version 

The Professional version is our most popular edition. Professional versions allow for 4 users, and we can add blocks of 5 if you want to give access to your entire team. 

Professional versions offer complete access to all functionality and content available in Projects, Plan Creator, and the Library, as well as the ability to customize the content and application. Typical users are marketing consultants and marketing teams. 

Partner Version - Co-branded 

Our Co-branded Partner version gives you administrative access, and the ability to deliver Growth Panel accounts to your own user base and to add your own content to the application for your users.

Your logo will appear in your application and on your exercises, and you can add your own content to the following areas:

• Extended Library
• File Cabinet
• Links panel
• Description panel 

You can also post messages to your user base, to notify them of new content and keep them updated at all times. 

The Co-branded Partner version is a great way to deliver additional value to your customers, franchisees, partners, resellers and clients. It’s also a great way to enhance your existing content. 

Good candidates for the Co-branded Partner version can include: 

• Business membership organizations
• Consulting groups
• Business franchisors
• Marketing content providers
• Industry groups
• Business trainers & educators 

Partner Version - White-labeled 

The White-labeled Partner version is our top-of-the-line option. We’re essentially giving you your own copy of the application under your own brand and domain. You can deliver as is, add your own content, or even REPLACE some of our base exercises with your own. 

You might choose to do that if, for example, you deliver specialized content in specific areas. If you are a sales training franchise, you might choose to use your own content in the Sales Process and Sales Management sections. If you’re a print distributor, you might decide to replace our Corporate Identity and Direct Mail sections, and parts of our Copywriting and Graphic Design and Traditional Media sections. 

With the White-labeled version, you can choose to have your users receive a continuing flow of content, tools and messages from the Growth Panel administrator, or you can turn off this option and manage the flow yourself. 

We handle all the backend and IT, so you can keep your focus on the content and your users. 

Candidates can include the same groups listed above for the Co-branded Partner version.

Connect with us to get started!

During our user testing, many people asked Where should I start? 

There are a few different places to start, depending on your situation.  Are you: 

• Looking for a solution to an immediate marketing challenge?
• Seeking to add management structure to an existing marketing project?
• Interested in expanding your expertise in a specific area?
• Ready to move your entire marketing management into our marketing platform?
• Seeking to train your team in a specific area?

Let’s tackle the first scenario in this post and address the others one at a time in later posts. 

Solutions for Immediate Marketing Challenges 

To find a solution to an immediate challenge, there are two sections to visit in Growth Panel: the Plan Creator and the Library. 

Is yours a high-level challenge? Examples of high-level challenges could be: 

• I need to start marketing my business on the Internet.
• We need to generate more qualified leads.
• There’s friction among our sales and marketing teams. How can we resolve this?
• How can we start measuring our marketing ROI? 

For higher-level challenges like these, visit the Plan Creator and design a plan based on your business needs. The software allows you to generate marketing plans that tie together multiple business subjects into a single work plan, in as few as three steps.  Select your challenge, refine it in Step Two, and then customize your results for your finished product. 

These plans can get very detailed and can cover weeks to months of work. 

Visit the Library for Specific Results 

If you’re looking for a more specific solution, visit the Library. The Library gives you access to specific marketing content organized by business subject. 

First, choose your subject from the navigation panel on the left. 

Selecting a subject will send you to the default exercise view. Exercises are guided best practices that deliver base content to help you execute the specific steps described in the exercise titles. Browse the exercises listed under a particular subject to find what you need, or use the Search function. 

The right-hand navigation takes you to other information panels within your designated subject. Click on the diploma icon to visit the Extended Library to see additional articles, tools or exercises the Growth Panel administrator has loaded into your account. 

If you haven’t yet found what you’re looking for, check out external resources the Growth Panel admin has loaded into the Links panel. Click on the link icon to find an assortment of recommended books, tools, articles and reference websites. 

For a textual overview of the subject, click on the information icon to visit the Description section. 

Next Steps  

Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, it’s time to get to work! In the next post I’ll show you how to create a marketing project to add structure around your marketing activities.