By now, we are well-versed in various aspects of remote work. From rules to tools to best practices, we’ve gotten a crash-course in what works, and what needs improvement. Thanks to technology, marketers have been able to bring their work home, but one aspect of the job still presents challenges from a distance: virtual collaboration.
Brainstorming, discussing, strategizing. Critical elements of the marketing process require working together as a team. And while yes, some meetings really should be emails, many help bolster alignment and creativity.
In a time where companies have been forced to bring their entire brand experience online in a matter of weeks, pivoting to digital commerce and online sales channels, marketers face a unique challenge. We need to deliver the effective content experiences to our audiences—whether B2C and B2B—in a totally remote world.
To do that from their home office, marketers need to be able to work together. While COVID-19 may have taken away our ability to collaborate in-person, virtual workrooms offer the next best thing. But how do you choose the right one?
3 elements of effective virtual collaboration
There are plenty of virtual meeting spaces available now, but to recreate the energy of an in-person brainstorm, you need more than just video conferencing. Here are three elements to look for when choosing a virtual collaboration tool that lets you truly work as a team:
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Intuitive content organization
Collaboration tools are only as effective as they are intuitive. When your teams have to chase down the latest files, you lose productivity.
Find a solution that utilizes an effective digital asset management solution to give you a single source of truth for your content, with easy versioning and synching. This ensures your team is always working with the most up-to-date files, minimizing wasted time, and gives you a 360-degree view of your content, where it was used, and which asset is bringing in the conversions.
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Easy access for all team members
Chances are, your team consists of more than just internal employees. Whether you work closely with external agencies or want to pull in your customer or client as part of the process, being able to grant and manage access to your content is key. Look for a tool that makes it easy to set up different levels of access so you can bring the right people together to contribute or provide feedback without it snowballing out of control.
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Reliable tracking for tasks and milestones
Right now, most management teams are busy handling fire drills, be it around crisis communication or high-level discussions around strategy, forecasts and budgets. But teams need to keep working. When management is less involved in the day-to-day, providing status updates can eat up valuable time.
Find a tool that uses clear, visual dashboards to track key milestones and progress. This helps prevent bottlenecks that slow down productivity. It also expedites approvals by removing the need to “download” the pertinent information to your boss, so your team can keep working.
Manage people, files and tasks with agility
Now more than ever, agility is key. Needs and priorities change daily, and the ability to shift your focus quickly has become a critical differentiator. Most departments can’t afford to spend all their time in Zoom conferences or perfecting their remote work processes. So how do you set up your remote employees for success? By finding the tools that will help them now.
Agile collaboration has long been a benchmark for global teams. Coronavirus has just amplified the need. The most successful teams are always the ones who work best together. Now, that just means working together from a distance.
