Boosting Efficiency in Remote Marketing Teams

Few departments have accepted the possibilities and benefits of remote work as willingly as marketing. After all, you don’t need to be physically present in the office to devise successful email campaigns or build your brand on social media.

Even so, the transition isn’t without its growing pains. This article highlights what CMOs and team leads can do to keep their remote coworkers engaged, creative, and successful.

Set Clear Expectations & Quantifiable Goals

Adapting to a remote working situation can be challenging due to environmental changes and accompanying distractions. However, getting accustomed to this situation may be even more challenging if team members are unsure of their roles and responsibilities in this new arrangement.

Outlining clear goals and metrics, such as KPIs, content performance, or customer engagement, can put such concerns to rest. Additionally, implementing a content management system can break overarching goals into smaller tasks and establish a relationship between individual members’ efforts and the bigger picture.

Streamline Communication

Effective remote work is only possible when coworkers can brainstorm, sync up, and voice their concerns without restrictions. To facilitate this, you’ll want to provide access to secure communication platforms. Also, you may want to reevaluate how you engage with the team and streamline your approach.

For example, most meetings just aren’t effective, and they’re trickier to set up remotely anyway. Organizing quick check-ins via video call or issuing global announcements in chat ensures everyone remains on the same page while not needing to take time out of their day to attend a fruitless meeting.

Balance Flexibility and Accountability

If remote work has made anything clear, it’s how strict adherence to the 9-5 schedule isn’t necessary for maintaining productivity. That being said, remote employees still benefit from a stable workday structure. Team leads can help by providing resources like time-tracking software or introducing incentives for reaching project milestones.

While monitoring performance is necessary, micromanaging is counterproductive for everyone. Assume you’re dealing with competent professionals and give them the freedom and support to carry out their work. Team members are far more likely to respond positively to subtle encouragement and correction than to someone breathing over their shoulder.

Secure Access to Cybersecurity Tools

Not working from a central location comes with inherent cybersecurity risks. For example, careless employees may use their personal devices for work purposes or access sensitive marketing campaign information from compromised public networks. Being aware of the dangers and equipping your team with the necessary tools is a high priority.

Start by educating them on the dangers of unprotected connections and have them use a VPN whenever they access company resources remotely. VPNs are beneficial because they establish an encrypted connection between their servers and employees’ devices, making it impossible for anyone to identify their IP address or track their internet traffic.

Another worthwhile investment is in cybersecurity training. Security awareness will help team members develop responsible habits and spot threats like phishing emails, whether they target the general public or marketers specifically.

Such training will also inform everyone about their digital footprint and the harmful impact carelessly engaging with social media can have. As a result, some employees may seek data privacy tools to curtail the amount of sensitive information that brokers and similar entities have amassed on them.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Loosening Up

While the pros outweigh the cons for most, working from home puts employees at greater risk of isolation and can negatively impact morale. Investing time and effort into fostering genuine relationships is a net positive for everyone in the long run.

The possibilities are endless. You can set up a casual meeting space in your communication platform, design fun activities, or introduce the occasional easy-going day with relaxed expectations. This lets team members present facets of their personality not commonly seen in the workplace and form a genuine human connection with others.

While managing remote marketing teams comes with new challenges, it can also be an opportunity to boost productivity beyond anything you could hope for from a stuffy office. Keep our tips in mind, and reaching this goal will be within your grasp.

Cover : Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-on-a-video-call-4226140/