Every business owner I talk to says the same thing:
“It’s so hard to find someone who actually does the work.”
Most specialists “don’t do that.”
They love strategy calls (and charge well for it) —but not implementation.
That’s why, when I spoke on Amy Porterfield’s stage at her mastermind, I shared the one role that solves this exact problem:
the Online Marketing Project Manager.
It’s one of the most overlooked—and most needed—roles in the online business world.
This isn’t another big-picture strategist or a glorified assistant.
It’s the bridge between the two.
The person who helps you actually execute the strategy you already have, increase your capacity, and finally take on more revenue-generating projects like launches, podcasts, and course promotions—without piling more on your own plate.
Because while a strategist can tell you what to do, an online Marketing Project Manager makes sure it actually gets done. Let’s give into this role.
*This blog may contain affiliate links for programs, tools, and courses that I recommend. If you purchase these programs, I could receive a small commission. Thank you! I only recommend vetted programs and tools I use myself! Please check out my tool & resources guide here.
I’m Emily Reagan—marketing strategist, speaker, and founder of the Digital Marketer’s Workgroup and Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School.
I’ve taught on Amy Porterfield’s stage, matched over 3,000 freelance marketing pros with clients, and worked behind the scenes of 100+ online businesses.
I live right in that sweet spot between the business owners who need smart marketing help and the freelancers who can actually execute it.
What an Online Marketing Project Manager Actually Does
An Online Marketing Project Manager (sometimes called a Digital Marketing PM or Marketing Operations Manager) is the bridge between your high-level strategy and the people doing the implementation.
They don’t create your marketing strategy from scratch—and they’re not writing every caption or email either.
Instead, they:
- Turn your marketing strategy into clear, actionable timelines
- Manage the freelancers, VAs, or contractors doing the implementation
- Keep all the moving pieces—email, social, funnels, launches—on track
- Catch gaps before they become expensive mistakes
- Communicate progress so you’re never wondering, “where are we on that?”
Think of them as your marketing quarterback.
They don’t design the playbook, but they call the plays, keep the team aligned, and make sure every ball gets across the goal line.
The Marketing Initiatives & Projects They Keep From Falling Apart
If you’re spending more time in Asana (or Slack, Voxer, or ClickUp) than actually leading your business, you don’t need another strategy session.
You need someone who can run your marketing for you—and that’s exactly what a Marketing Project Manager does.
Here are some of the real-life projects they handle so you don’t have to:
Launches That Never Happen
You’ve got the offer, the copywriter, and the designer—but deadlines keep slipping.
Your MPM manages the entire process so your sales page, email sequence, and promo assets actually get delivered on time.
Examples:
- Coaching or group program enrollments
- Course or digital product launches
- Black Friday campaigns
Website & Brand Overhauls
Rebrands and website updates are notorious for dragging on forever.
Your MPM keeps contractors, timelines, and assets organized so your new brand actually goes live.
Examples:
- Funnel builds and lead magnet setupsMarketing Assistants (New): $25-30/hour
- Website redesign or migration (Showit, WordPress, Kajabi)
- Brand refresh or new visual identity rollout
Evergreen & Automation Projects That Stall
You’ve got a strategy doc from your coach but no one to execute it.
Your MPM bridges that gap—connecting the strategist’s vision with the implementors who make it happen.
Examples:
- Welcome and nurture email sequences
- Evergreen funnel setup
- Repurposing live launch assets into automated systems
Content Production Chaos
If your content calendar lives in ten different Google Docs, you need a Marketing Project Manager.
They streamline your content systems, manage deadlines, and coordinate your creative team so your visibility stays consistent.
Examples:
- Social media scheduling and repurposing
- Podcast or YouTube production or launching
- Blog publishing and SEO coordination
Team Communication & Follow-Through
If you’re constantly pinged with “Who’s doing this?” or “When is that due?”—you don’t have a team problem, you have a project management gap.
Your MPM keeps everyone aligned, accountable, and communicating clearly.
Examples:
- Cross-functional contractor management
- Weekly task and reporting oversight
- Ensuring deliverables hit deadlines
The Result: Your marketing moves forward. You finally get your time back.
Quarterly rocks and quaterly goals actually happen! You finally start hitting your marketing goals—and tackling those big, needle-moving projects that have been sitting on the back burner.
No more half-finished launches or ideas collecting dust in Google Docs.
Your team is aligned, your systems are running, and your marketing momentum actually builds with every project.
That’s the difference a Marketing Project Manager makes.
What to Pay a Marketing Project Manager
By now, you can see how valuable this role is—especially when it’s done right.
But what should you actually budget for it?
Unlike hiring a VA or a designer, the Marketing Project Manager’s pay scale depends heavily on experience level, tech skills, and scope of responsibility.
They’re managing deadlines, deliverables, and people—which means they’re not your cheapest contractor, but they are one of your highest-ROI hires.
Here’s what to expect when hiring a freelance or contract Marketing Project Manager in 2025:
• Entry-level or part-time: $40–$55/hour
Perfect for small business owners who want someone to keep projects organized, communicate with a few contractors, and manage timelines in Asana or ClickUp.
• Experienced with launches or funnels: $55–$95/hour
These project managers can handle multiple campaigns, coordinate with copywriters and designers, and oversee complex marketing systems without hand-holding.
• Fractional marketing manager with team oversight: $100–$125+/hour
At this level, you’re bringing on someone who can manage strategy implementation, data tracking, and team performance at an executive level—without paying full-time employee costs.
Pro tip: You don’t need to jump to a $10K/month OBM or full-time marketing manager to get traction.
A skilled Marketing Project Manager will give you the systems, structure, and consistency your business needs to scale profitably.
Typical Hours Per Month
How many hours you’ll need depends on your team size, number of ongoing projects, and how complex your marketing operations are.
| Business Stage | Typical Projects | Estimated Hours/Month | Example Monthly Investment |
| Emerging (Solo or 1–2 Contractors) | One active campaign or launch, plus ongoing content calendar | 10–20 hours | ~$600–$1,500/month |
| Growing (Small Team or Agency) | 2–3 concurrent projects: launches, content, and systems setup | 20–40 hours | ~$1,500–$3,500/month |
| Scaling (Multi-Service or Product Business) | Multiple active campaigns, full marketing calendar, team of 4+ implementors | 40–60 hours | ~$3,500–$6,000+/month |
Reality check:
The goal isn’t to keep them “busy.” It’s to keep your marketing moving.
A good Marketing Project Manager is focused on outcomes: delivering projects faster, reducing revisions, and ensuring nothing stalls in the pipeline.
Why This Hire Directly Increases Revenue
Projects Ship Faster (Which Means Revenue Sooner)
Every week a launch is delayed, you lose potential sales.
A Marketing Project Manager keeps campaigns moving—emails go out, pages go live, and your offers actually get in front of people.
More launches finished → more products sold → faster cash flow.
You Capture More Leads
Most business owners lose leads simply because the follow-up never gets built.
Your MPM makes sure those automations, nurture sequences, and opt-ins don’t fall through the cracks—so you’re not paying for ads or visibility that goes nowhere.
Every captured lead compounds your growth.
You Free Up Founder Time
Every hour you spend inside Asana directing your team is an hour not spent on sales, podcast guesting, or strategy.
When you reclaim 10+ hours a week from project wrangling, you can focus that time on revenue-generating work—and the ROI shows up quickly.
You Scale Through People, Not Hustle
Businesses grow faster when founders stop doing everything themselves.
An MPM helps you leverage human capital—getting more done through others instead of adding more hours to your plate.
They coordinate your implementors, protect your creative energy, and create capacity so you can take on bigger projects without burning out your team.
You Increase Consistency (and Predictability)
Consistency compounds.
With a Marketing Project Manager keeping your content, campaigns, and launches on schedule, your audience sees you more often—and trusts you more quickly.
That steady presence leads to more leads, better conversion rates, and repeat buyers.
A great Marketing Project Manager doesn’t just manage tasks.
They create profit through momentum.
They help you capture the revenue your strategy was already designed to make—by ensuring it actually gets implemented.
What to Look For in a Marketing Project Manager
Here’s the truth: not every project manager can run a marketing team.
Corporate project managers are great at process—but digital marketing is a different animal.
You don’t just need someone who checks boxes and builds Gantt charts.
You need someone who gets how online businesses actually make money—launches, funnels, content, conversion events, and the fast-moving pace of the digital space.
A great Marketing Project Manager blends three critical skill sets:
1. They Understand Online Marketing
They know how all the moving parts of your marketing connect—social media, content, email, ads, SEO, affiliates, and launches.
They’ve likely worked with tools like Kajabi, ConvertKit, ClickUp, Slack, and Canva and can speak the same language as your designer, copywriter, and ads manager.
They don’t need you to explain what a “lead magnet,” “opt-in,” or “nurture sequence” is.
They already know—and they know how to keep those deliverables moving.
2. They Manage Both Systems and Humans
Marketing moves at the speed of creativity. Deadlines shift. Assets evolve.
You need someone who can handle that flexibility without losing structure.
Your Marketing PM should be able to:
- Manage projects inside tools like ClickUp or Asana
- Run efficient team meetings
- Translate strategy into tasks the team can actually execute
- Keep contractors accountable without being bossy
They’re the calm in the chaos—the person who keeps everyone focused on the end result, not just their own to-do list.
3. They See the Business Impact
This is what separates them from traditional PMs:
- They know the goal isn’t just finishing a task—it’s generating leads, launching faster, and increasing revenue.
- They think like a marketer and manage like an operator.
- They connect dots between deliverables and business outcomes, which means they can help you prioritize what will actually move the needle.
What to Avoid
Be cautious about hiring a project manager who:
- Comes from a corporate background but has zero online marketing experience
- Needs you to define every marketing term or platform
- Focuses only on checklists and documentation instead of outcomes
- Hasn’t managed launches, campaigns, or digital products before
They might be great at logistics—but without an understanding of marketing flow, they’ll slow your business down instead of speeding it up.
Where to Find a Marketing Project Manager (Without Gambling on Job Boards)
That’s where my Digital Marketer’s Workgroup comes in.
Inside the Workgroup, I personally vet and connect experienced marketing professionals—freelancers, assistants, and specialists—who understand the tech, tools, and strategy that make online businesses run.
When you post your job inside the Workgroup, it doesn’t get buried in a sea of random VA applicants.
It goes directly to a curated network of professionals who have:
✔️ Proven experience managing digital marketing projects
✔️ Access to up-to-date training on launches, funnels, and automation
✔️ A community of support and accountability to keep their skills sharp
You can:
👉 Submit your job opportunity and I’ll match you with vetted Marketing Project Managers, or
👉 Browse our directory to find the perfect fit for your team.
Ready to hire a marketing assistant who can handle strategy and implementation at this level? The trained professionals in my Digital Marketer’s Workgroup specialize in working with growing businesses and can jump in without needing extensive training or micromanagement.
5 Mistakes Owners Make When Hiring a Marketing Project Manager
Hiring the wrong person—or hiring too soon—can stall your growth just as much as not hiring at all.
Here are the biggest mistakes I see business owners make when bringing on a Marketing Project Manager (and how to avoid them):
1. Expecting the PM to Do All the Work
A Marketing Project Manager manages the work—they don’t do all the work.
If you hire one hoping they’ll write copy, design graphics, and set up automations, you’ll end up frustrated.
Their job is to oversee the process, not create every deliverable.
What to do instead:
Make sure you already have (or are ready to hire) implementors—a marketing assistant, designer, or copywriter—so your MPM can focus on leading the team and keeping the projects moving.
2. Not Having the Right Team in Place
Your Marketing Project Manager can only manage what exists.
If you don’t have anyone to delegate tasks to, they’ll spend their time waiting instead of producing results.
What to do instead:
Before you hire, outline who’s responsible for what in your marketing.
At minimum, you’ll want:
- An Admin or Client Experience Assistant for backend support
- A Marketing Assistant or Implementor for execution
- You (or your strategist) providing direction and goals
Then your MPM becomes the bridge connecting all three.
Side Note: I have these implementors/assistants in my Workgroup too. Submit our job opening here.
3. Skipping a Test Project
Even the best resume can’t tell you how someone communicates or handles deadlines.
I see too many business owners hire based on personality or panic.
What to do instead:
Always start with a paid test project (like managing a mini-launch or mapping out one campaign).
You’ll learn how they organize, how they lead, how they deliver and whether they truly understand marketing workflows before committing to a long-term retainer.
4. Hiring a “Generic” Project Manager Who Doesn’t Get Marketing
Traditional project managers are great at systems—but most have never touched an email funnel, social launch, or content calendar.
They’ll slow your team down because they don’t understand the speed or nuance of online business.
What to do instead:
Look for someone who speaks the same language as your marketing team.
If they don’t know what a nurture sequence, funnel, or content repurpose plan is, keep looking.
5. Hiring Too Late
Many business owners wait until they’re overwhelmed and behind to hire help.
By then, your marketing calendar is chaos, your team’s burnt out, and your launches are rushed.
What to do instead:
Bring in a Marketing Project Manager before your next big push.
They’ll organize your assets, define deliverables, and make sure you’re not scrambling when it’s go-time.
A Marketing Project Manager is your growth multiplier but only if you hire strategically.
Set them up with the right team, test them with a real project, and make sure they understand how marketing actually works.
That’s the difference between hiring a task manager… and hiring a growth partner.
▶️Related YouTube: Hiring a Virtual Assistant
Are you a freelance Marketing Project Manager?
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start growing, the Digital Marketer’s Workgroup is where you’ll find the help you need. It’s a vetted community of freelance marketing professionals (from assistants to project manager) who understand online business, know how to get things done, and are ready to plug into your team. Submit your job, and I’ll match you with qualified candidates who can actually execute your marketing plans and help your business grow.
The Takeaway
You don’t need to be the one pushing buttons in Asana.
When you hire the right role at the right time, everything changes.
By strategically leveraging human capital bringing in someone who knows how to run your marketing, you create more space for growth, profit, and sustainability.
Stop losing momentum to missed deadlines and micromanagement.
Let a Marketing Project Manager lead your marketing operations so you can focus on leading your business.
If you’re ready to hire a marketing project manager who can run your campaigns without constant supervision, reach out and we’ll connect you to a trusted pro from our network.
>> Click here to explore our directory and find your marketing expert today!
>> Click here to share your job opening to our Workgroup right now (it’s free!)
Your ideal marketing partner is out there – let us help you find them.
-Emily, Digital Marketing Consultant and Implementer
Emily Reagan is a mom of four, board game pro, freelance digital marketer and Marketing Assistant Mentor who has helped over 450 go-getters, including military spouses, stay-at-home moms, and professional women learn in-demand skills and find flexible remote work as digital marketing assistants and specialists. She’s shared 3,000+ job leads with her freelancer community The Digital Marketer’s Workgroup.
Ask her any questions over on IG @emilyreaganpr
“I help smart women learn the in-demand digital marketing strategies and profitable tech skills to get hired as a unicorn digital marketing assistant.“
3 ways we can work together:
1. Join the Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School. My signature course on digital marketing implementation will give you the confidence and teach you HOW to do the work that’s in demand and highly marketable. This is the secret weapon to getting booked out. Start learning digital marketing services and building your digital service business right now.
2. Already doing marketing work and have a few clients? Want a stronger referral network? Apply for our Digital Marketer’s Workgroup—a tight-knit community of freelancers just like you. Inside, you’ll get behind-the-scenes support, advanced trainings, and troubleshooting that every solo marketer needs. Plus, I’ve shared over 3,000 job opportunities with this group—exclusive leads you won’t find anywhere else. If you’re ready to grow your business and connect with a supportive network, join us here!
3. Looking to hire a Digital Marketing Assistant? If you want to expand your team & grow your business, submit your job opportunity here. I’ll share it with the skilled unicorn marketing assistants inside my workgroup totally free.
Need more guidance on the hiring process? This video walks you through exactly how to find, vet, and onboard a virtual assistant who will actually help grow your business – not just complete tasks.
Our Streamlined Hiring Process
- Submit your hiring request with details about your business needs and goals
- Get matched with qualified specialists from our vetted community
- Review profiles and select the person who aligns best with your needs
- Start collaborating with someone ready to deliver results from day one
This process saves you time, eliminates hiring headaches, and ensures you’re working with someone as invested in your success as you are.
