Guidelines for marcom timelines: The Time/Space Continuum

Most of us remember exactly how long it takes to write a term paper. It takes all night the night before it’s due.

But what about a piece of effective marketing communications? How long does it take to create a really good brochure? A data sheet? Or a case study?

When you think of everything that can mess with your schedule, it’s amazing that any marcom gets produced at all—let alone on time. On the other hand, people who manage marcom projects need some reasonable understanding of the time they’ll need to get jobs out the door.

Perhaps we can help. At Harding Marketing, we’ve developed a few guidelines for timelines. They’re not carved in stone, but they do help us answer the troubling question: How long is all this going to take?

We start by breaking the problem into its component parts.

Planning and Preparation: This is where you work with a Harding project manager to plan the assignment, gather information, develop a strategy, establish a budget, and set a due date.

Total time: Usually a week. But it can be super-fast if necessary.

Kickoff Call: You get your people and we get ours. Then we all join in on a conference call where your guys explain to our guys what’s needed, pass along information, and answer questions.

Total time: Sometimes a week or more is needed to gather your people. Sometimes it’s as little as an hour. (Our people gather whenever you want.)
Kickoff calls usually last an hour.

Familiarization: Even when writers have worked on the same kind of assignment before, they still need a little time to review materials and check sources.

Total time: Usually a day for them to sort things through.

Outlines: When an outline is needed, it’s like copy: The time to write one depends on its length.

Total time: About a day to outline an eight-page piece, another day for each additional eight—more or less.

Outline Approval: This depends on the answer to two questions: How many people are involved? And how quickly will they get back to you? Come to think of it, the second question is all that matters.

Total time: It can be done in a day, but figure seven.

First Draft: Hemingway said he tried for “200 well-chosen words a day.” That pace won him a Nobel prize. Harding writers are way more productive, shooting for about 400 – 600 per.

Total time: About one day for every page. That’s four days to write a short brochure—maybe two weeks for a long one.
Nobel prizes take longer.

Copy Reviews: See comments following: Outline Approval (above).

Total time: From one day to a week. But we’ve seen comments come back in an hour.

Revisions: If the first draft was nearly perfect (our writers are very good), revisions can be lickety-split.

Total time: Even so, we like to allow a week for revisions. But it all depends.

Layout and Production: Harding’s designers and production people are not only good, they’re speedy, meaning:

Total time to design and produce a finished piece following copy approval is about a week,
Including your approvals.

And that’s pretty much it.

But even with the best-laid plans, there will be occasional emergencies—times when you need a bit of writing written right now. Or before EOD. Or noon, tomorrow. When it happens, it happens. And we get it done.

Oh, and one more thing: If you’re wondering about this edition of MarComments, it took almost a whole day. A Saturday.

By Chuck Gardner
Staff Writer