The pandemic brought the global business world to a halt. People found new ways to do the things they did. Many businesses pivoted their operations temporarily to survive during these testing times.
Today, things have slowly started to get back to how they were. But some things have probably changed for the good and may never go back to the way they were.
Remote workforce is one of those things.
Marketing organizations around the globe still choose to work remotely and are now taking the next step and hiring remotely for permanent roles.
Being one of the most dynamic teams in an organization, marketing teams need to find ways to stay productive in whatever way they function.
In this article, we cover four proven productivity hacks that will help your remote marketing team stay ahead of the curve.
4 Productivity Hacks for a Remote Marketing Team
1. Use working sessions to expedite feedback and approvals.
Marketing teams have a lot going on that needs feedback and approval. Graphics, content, emails, workflows, social posts, branding colors, and almost everything else they do require some form of feedback.
And while this can be managed by just walking over to someone's desk and getting a quick response, it is a lot more difficult for remote marketing teams. Remote teams do not have the luxury of proximity - instead, they have roadblocks of time differences and flexible schedules.
Due to these roadblocks, a lot of time is wasted waiting for feedback or approval from a person.
For example, a social post on a trending topic is shared with the manager for approval, but because the manager did not respond with feedback at the right time, the trend is no longer relevant.
Marketing is a dynamic function with timeliness at its center. Marketing teams cannot afford to lose valuable time on feedback and approval delays.
The easiest and most productive way to tackle this challenge is to schedule working sessions. Working sessions are meetings where two or more team members connect through a video meeting to work on the same project simultaneously.
In our case, the feedback/approval seeker schedules a working session with the feedback/approval provider and asks for requirements point-blank during the meeting. The feedback/approval provider must give necessary comments during the meeting, and the matter must be closed, and future steps discussed right away. If changes suggested through feedback are minor, the feedback/approval seeker can make the changes during the session itself.
Some things to keep in mind for working sessions:
-
Keep the time between 10 - 30 minutes; feedback and approvals should not take longer than that. Otherwise, you might end up wasting more time.
-
Don't use working sessions for creative work, such as designing and content writing
2. Weekly syncs are good, but with an agenda.
Weekly sync-ups with your remote marketing team members are a great idea to keep track of the progress on various projects. But sync-ups without agendas are never a good idea.
When there isn't a clear agenda on what needs to be discussed, the conversation often gets distracted by various other subjects. You know how the topics of weather, culture, pets, and children can go on and on until you realize that you have only five minutes left to discuss the project. :|
And, marketing being marketing, there is always more to discuss - so many new ideas and new opinions. Meeting once a week also helps pile up the subjects you want to discuss with a teammate. And if you do not clearly list down what updates are to be addressed first, there is a chance that you will accomplish almost nothing through these weekly syncs.
The best way to resolve this challenge and avoid unproductive weekly syncs is to add a list of items to be discussed in your calendar meeting description.
Every cloud workplace that provides online meeting services offers features to add agendas to the meeting. Some even let you attach relevant documents that are easily accessible during the course of the meeting. Make use of these technology features to get things done without forgetting them.
Here are a few steps to follow to ensure productive weekly sync ups:
-
Create a process that outlines steps to conduct an effective weekly sync, such as adding agenda items to the meeting description, adding relevant documents to the meeting, and adding pending items to discuss for the next weekly sync.
-
Train your remote teammates to follow this process stringently and emphasize the need to do so.
-
Don't forget to spare a few minutes to check up on your remote team members - how they are doing, what is new in their life, etc. :)
3. Emphasize Overcommunication
Every article about remote team productivity written after the pandemic hit mentioned overcommunication as a strategy to improve productivity. And this article is no different!
Overcommunication is an excellent strategy for remote teams. Still, it is even better for remote marketing teams where it is so easy for communication to get lost in the daily drill.
Here are some examples of things getting lost in a functional remote marketing team:
- Someone asked for urgent feedback on an email on Friday evening, and the email goes unread in your inbox for two days until the deadline has passed.
- You brainstormed on a campaign message for 2 hours in an online meeting and created one, but no one noted it down, and now no one can remember it.
- You created an urgent task on your collaboration tool and notified your team member, but they did not check it until the day was over.
Such instances are prevalent among remote marketing teams. Overcommunicating through various channels can avoid such ball-dropping and ensure that things are delivered on time.
Yes, sometimes, over-communication can indeed lead to frustration. This is why you need to incorporate overcommunication as a part of your team culture. When you emphasize its importance, there is less frustration and more communication.
4. Collaboration Tools for Transparency and Accountability, not Chaos
Yes, collaboration tools are great. They help you track the progress of your projects and tasks, communicate with your remote teams, manage deadlines, and store data.
Collaboration tools are the perfect solution to remote team productivity when used correctly. They also support and enhance transparency and accountability. But when used incorrectly, they can also cause Chaos.
Many teams and leaders focus so much on the details of collaboration tools that they forget the purpose of the tools is to save time.
For example, every minute detail of a task is supposed to be added to the tool, and if it isn't, the task will not progress. Such complete dependence on the tool for operational purposes affects your remote teams' performance, timelines, and morale.
To ensure that collaboration software works effectively for your remote marketing team, simplify the usage and establish transparent processes. Train your team on how and when to use the tool and when not to use the tool. This way, you make your team accountable and eliminate chaos.
Use these productivity hacks to transform the performance of your remote marketing team.
Need help implementing these processes within your team? Talk to our expert Processologist today.