The pandemic has forced many workplaces into a position where they have to incorporate remote working. This trend looks set to continue long into 2021 and beyond. This has been a difficult transition, but the move to remote working makes sense for marketing teams. Even before COVID-19 hit, many marketing teams were pushing towards an ever more remote way of working.

There are many reasons for this — for instance, some companies were already using external marketing agencies to run their campaigns. Even internal teams have often operated off-site. With new technologies such as VoIP telephone service, cloud storage or online content management systems, it’s easier than ever before to have a global marketing team.

Marketers are great communicators by nature, so working off-site isn't an obstacle to their ability to collaborate with their team. Another reason remote marketing teams make sense is that most, if not all, marketing nowadays is digital. The role is primarily web-based, and so the need for a physical team has all but become obsolete.

If you tap into a global workforce, you can hit the ground running with your audience in each country or region. Marketers with local knowledge are best suited to support local customers, appeal to the local market and drive sales in the region.

As a company, you must empower your remote workers to work collaboratively, effectively and, most importantly, they must have the tools to drive conversion rates.

There are some great ways businesses can empower staff. This article will shed some light on these and show how, with a little investment, remote marketing teams can go above and beyond.

Image: Unsplash

Create a safe space

One of the best ways to empower your staff is to create a sense of safety in the workplace. Employers are finding that it is more important than ever to foster a nurturing and safe environment. Workers who feel secure tend to share more, be more open and collaborate more effectively. They have been proven to air grievances better and are less afraid of making mistakes.

A marketing team thrives on creativity, so it is essential that team members feel safe to make mistakes. We aren't suggesting that making mistakes is the same as being wrong, but staff are more likely to try new things and take bigger risks knowing that it’s okay if they fail. The ability to make mistakes, fuels creativity, and generates ideas, so a safe space is a haven for new thinking and different ways of working.

Working remotely can be challenging in that there’s no direct, immediate feedback. Tone can be hard to read over email, and there’s not quite the same ability to bounce ideas off your colleagues over a quick break. Take the time to build virtual spaces for these conversations to happen — whether that’s in a team messaging channel, online events, or regular calls.

Making sure that staff feel valued is another sure fire way to bolster productivity and motivate staff to generate good conversion rates. One of the best ways to do this (especially when working with freelance teams) is to make sure you use good payroll software and make sure that staff are always paid on time. This is particularly important for freelancers who might be juggling a few clients — knowing they can rely on their company pay creates security.

Hire the right staff

Some people are more suited than others to working remotely, and you need to be aware of this when hiring staff for a remote team. A great marketer who works in house, on-site and as part of a highly integrated team may not be as good a fit as someone who works freelance or outreach roles and is used to collaborating at a distance.

Marketing skills and technical ability are musts, but it is also vital that businesses find staff with the right personality fit for remote working. One key skill that fuels remote marketing teams is the ability to self-manage, so self-starters who are motivated are essential. Employing introverts in remote roles can aid productivity. While we often look to extroverts for sales and marketing roles, introverts can be a blessing for remote teams, as they don’t rely on company quite as much.

Share your brand values

If you have key values, such as eco-friendly practices, then everyone needs to be on board with them. The modern consumer is more concerned with good values than ever before and workers now shop for jobs in much the same way as customers choose brands to buy from.

The best way to do this is by sharing a mission statement with your remote team to be collectively aware of the businesses' long-term goals. Having the whole team push towards the same goals can boost conversions, as it creates a clear message to anyone looking at the brand.
Video marketing is an excellent way to get across your values to both employees and customers. Another good way to promote shared values is by having your remote team meet as a group. This could be by booking a flexible office space, or through video calling applications if physical meetings aren't possible. Having your team meet as a group helps to immerse them in the company values so even as a remote team, they feel a part of the culture.

Image: Unsplash

The right technology

Having the right tech is essential to empowering remote marketing teams to thrive. Collaboration tools such as an internet phone number play a vital role in enabling marketers to drive conversion through conversations with customers.

More and more staff are working independently of location, and as this continues, collaborative software rises. Companies with remote marketing teams should look for the best small business phone system they can find. This will help teams to stay in touch and up to date with each other and customers. Being easy to get in touch with is a surefire way to drive conversions and sales, since any questions customers may have can be quickly answered.

Of course, different time zones mean that teams aren't going to be working the same scheduled hours. In a fast-paced environment like marketing, projects can easily be lost or become redundant. Real-time cloud-based sharing services are a great solution for this, allowing teams to log on and pick up where others left off.

Software that allows project managers to set tasks and deadlines in time for each project to hit completion dates are vital. Enabling marketing teams to work quickly is paramount to supercharging your marketing effort and driving sales.

Tracking success and making improvements

As well as hiring the right candidates, creating safe work environments, and developing transparent workflows and brand values, you have to be able to measure the success of your remote team. Like all investments, businesses have to be able to see a return on investment. Historically this has proved hard to track remotely but now with data quality software, it’s easier to track data from multiple sources and to mine and analyze this data to your companies advantage.

In modern work environments, software that tracks team performance and deliverables makes this much easier to measure. Many programs can be used to track the effectiveness of a team, department and person. This means that companies can analyze metrics to provide objective feedback to staff for improvement. It also allows companies to see which campaigns work and which don't and how to target their future projects.

Keys to success

Remote working marketing teams can be highly successful, given the right tools and proper support. Incorporating them into your culture and sharing your values and goals will create teams that over-perform even from a distance. Companies have always been able to remotely support customers — now it’s time to remotely support your staff.