Summary: The Lean Six Sigma methodology is focused on making process improvements and eliminating waste, with the goal of delivering more value and higher customer satisfaction. The methodology, which got its start in the manufacturing process space, has found its way across all areas of a business, including marketing. I might be a tad bias given my background in marketing, but I honestly believe that if one department can benefit tremendously from adopting a Lean Six Sigma project mindset, it would be marketing. Most marketing projects consist of processes and systems, all of which are perfect for improvement and waste reduction.

What kinds of Lean Six Sigma projects should a marketing team consider taking on? While there are hundreds, possibly even thousands, of different marketing projects to consider, here is a list of some Lean Six Sigma projects that marketing team members could get started with.

5 Examples of Lean Six Sigma Projects for Marketing Teams

Depending on how big your marketing department is, you might want to consider forming a marketing Six Sigma team within the department. This team, which hopefully can be cross-functional between marketing disciplines, will be responsible for examining potential marketing projects that might be eligible for a Lean Six Sigma project. This Marketing Six Sigma team will work direct with the process owner and work through the Six Sigma process. Whether or not any other departments execute Six Sigma projects, I would recommend moving ahead with it inside your marketing department. I am confident that the changes you make will get noticed and it may become a business strategy for the entire organization!

If you need a Marketing Six Sigma expert to help get you started, please contact me directly via my contact form. I hold a Six Sigma certification and have been managing marketing projects for over 20 years. With my experience as a Six Sigma practitioner, I can help you with successful implementations of process improvement initiatives in your marketing team. I would be happy to discuss your situation and give you some advice!

Below are some starting points to consider when beginning to look for possible process improvement projects that might be good to start with.

Project Example #1: Reduce time required to complete a lead form

If your marketing team is responsible for capturing leads for the sales team, launching a Lean Six Sigma project devoted to streamlining the lead intake process is worth considering. From the time a visitor navigates to your landing page to the time they submit a completed form, there are a number of factors to look at to streamline the process and eliminate waste. Here are some questions to evaluate and build into your project plan.

• Is your lead page/form easy to find from all areas of your website?

• How can you optimize the lead entry process so it is fast, error-free, and easy to use?

• How are prospects completing the form now?

• How many visitors abandon the form mid-way through?

• Do database or third-party technologies impact lead form performance?

Project Example #2: Decrease website load time

We know that website speed is crucial to search engine rankings and visitor experience. Therefore, consider a Lean Six Sigma marketing project that digs deep on website speed and performance. Examine processes around optimizing creative elements, plug-in performance, device load times, additional bells and whistles you built in to your site because they were “cool” but are destroying your site’s performance.

• What is the process to add elements to your site?

• Are you running any 3rd party plugins that are affecting speed performance?

• What are the root causes for our site not performing up to our desired standard?

• What monitoring tools are you using to keep ongoing speed test metrics?

• Who is responsible for monitoring website speed and overall Core Web Vitals?

Project Example #3: Reduce campaign setup cycle time

From start to launch, there is no more important process than rolling out a new marketing campaign. With lots of individuals and teams involved in the process, there is bound to be opportunities for streamlining and optimizing how campaigns are created.

• Do you need to construct a SIPOC Diagram for your key campaigns this year?

• Can communications between those involved in the process be improved?

• What review and approval steps can be reworked?

Campaign development and management processes are ripe for a Lean Six Sigma marketing project.

This is also a project type that I would recommend using an Agile framework like Scrum or Kanban to manage the work being done. If you want to learn more about these two frameworks, I have a post called "Kanban vs Scrum" that compares the two frameworks and helps you make a decision which is best for your team and/or project.

Project Example #4: Redesign of inbound marketing process

There are countless processes involved in running all your inbound traffic channels, which usually means there is plenty of room for improvement. Consider looking for process overlaps, or opportunities to reuse processes and work elements. Are individuals communicating efficiently so that there are synergies between tactics. Similar to campaign management, inbound channel strategies are good starting points for Six Sigma marketing projects.

• Are we using best practices across our inbound channels?

Project Example #5: Creative asset development process

If there is one process within marketing that is a great candidate for a Six Sigma marketing project, it would be creative design. From concept to reviews to approvals to deployment, there are plenty of processes (and marketing waste) that make this a perfect project candidate.

• How are requirements gathered for a creative project to begin?

• What is the process for conducting reviews as creative work is being created?

• Is there a standard reference guide for what types of creative materials need to be built by project type?

• Can we calculate a cycle time for the time required to complete creative development?

Using the DMAIC Framework and 3 Areas of Waste in Your Marketing Lean Six Sigma Projects

Now let’s take one of the examples above and run through a quick DMAIC framework exercise and review three areas of potential waste.

The DMAIC Framework

Once you have selected a process that is eligible to be a Lean Six Sigma project for your marketing team, you will use the DMAIC framework to identify, analyze, and improve the process. For this exercise, let’s use the Lead Form Time Reduction process mentioned above in the list of example projects. Below, I have offered brief descriptions of each stage of the DMAIC framework and what you would do for that stage for the Lead Form Time Reduction project.

DEFINE: In the Define stage, you are looking for what is most important with this process? In this case, making it easy for a prospect to submit a lead form is most important. The meaning of “easy” might be that the lead entry is fast to complete and does not produce an error upon submission (there is nothing worse than finishing a form only to have the page timeout!).

MEASURE: In this stage, you will take time to conduct data collection of key metrics related to this process. For measuring a landing page’s performance, you might look at tools like Google Analytics to measure traffic to the page, time on site, form conversion rate, etc. You might also use a screen recording tool like Hotjar to measure click and interaction data. Gather all the data points you can for the next stage of the DMAIC. There are also numerous Six Sigma tools that can help with gathering data in the Measure stage.

ANALYZE: In this stage, you are going to take all of the measurement data you collected in the previous stage and do some data analysis. This doesn’t have to be a deep statistical analysis. The question the project team is asking in this stage is “what is wrong?”. In this example, is the data showing a high exit rate or form abandonment rate? Through some analysis exercises, the data should help you find leaks, wastes, opportunities for improvement, and other factors that are getting in the way of achieving what is most important, as you defined in your Define stage.

IMPROVE: Now you are at the stage where you implement improvement changes that will fix what is “wrong” that you discovered in the Analyze stage. First you decide what needs to be done and then you make the improvement change, and monitor the results. If the improvement didn’t work, make a different change. Continue this process until you find improvement.

CONTROL: The last stage is Control, where you ask yourself, “how do we continue this new performance?”. This is where you are looking for better consistency in the results you are aiming for. In our example, did time on page improve or did form completions go up? If the goal was achieved, you want to control that improvement and make sure it continues by building control plans and control chart that your marketing Six Sigma team can monitor.

3 Wastes of Lean

Now let’s briefly review the wastes that the Lean part of Lean Six Sigma seeks to identify and address. Decreasing, and eventually eliminating wastes, helps numerous things like service or product quality, cost reduction, and has financial benefits. There are eight wastes in Lean, but for our example below, we will only look at three wastes and my suggestions for improvement based on the Lead Form Time Reduction example project.

DEFECTS: Does your process produce any defects? In our Lead Form example, does the webpage or lead form produce any errors? Does the data flow through the process and end up where it needs to?

OVERPRODUCTION: If your organization uses a sales method that requires outbound calling or scheduled appointments, this is an important waste to consider. You want to make sure that you are producing a volume of leads that fits within the capacity of your sales team. Otherwise, excess leads can age and become waste. This is less of a problem of you have an automated, self-service sales and onboarding process.

WAITING: Does your prospect have to wait at any point in the lead submission process? If so, that is waste that should be considered for improvement. If you do find that there is waste in this area, it might be a reason to look at other potential Six Sigma project candidates that might be impacting the waiting waste. Using one of our examples above, page speed might be a component to a waiting prospect on your website.

With Lean Six Sigma, we are looking for continuous improvement, so this process should always be revisited to find more ways to make it better. Through these ongoing improvements, your marketing operations will help your company gain a competitive advantage in the market and catch the eye of your leadership team! You don't need a team of Six Sigma Black Belts or Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training to get the desired results you are looking for. Through a little Six Sigma training, reading about other case studies, and a clear definition of the Voice of the Customer, you can see business process improvement.