5 Best Practices for Effectively Managing a Remote Marketing Team

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong to an independent guest author and not Leaderonomics, its directors, affiliates, or employees.

Marketing is an exciting company activity because it is the only area that is directly involved in making money. Working remotely should not mar that experience. 

As a manager, make it even more exciting by deploying the five best practices given below. They are general guidelines on how to effectively manage a remote marketing team. 

Speed up the process 

Sometimes remote teams experience problems related to software or hardware issues. Because they are not in the office, it can take too long for the IT department to extend the technical assistance and support they need. This affects their productivity, and the workload gets piled up. 

It would be helpful if the remote team is provided with simple guides on how to uninstall or install applications, speed up computers, clean up disk and use antivirus software Marketers who work on Mac find it useful to have some handy tips on how to increase the speed of the computer to finish tasks quickly. Remote support essentially means providing hands-on tips and guidelines to support themselves when they get stuck while working. 

Supplementary reading: 4 Ways To Support Your Remote Workforce

IT support also means leveraging the access to the devices of the team members remotely from anywhere with free remote control software. Some software that allows screen sharing and video calling give the IT technician instant access to the devices. 

The benefits of remote support are low costs, business growth, fast response time, and better knowledge sharing, not to mention improved productivity. The team can decrease downtime, troubleshoot issues, and focus on tasks with great IT support. It gives the remote team a sense of reassurance that the company has them covered. 

Adopt smart hiring practices 

Companies fail at their recruiting initiatives when they do not have a clear idea of why they are hiring a particular employee. In other words, they do not know what they want the staff to accomplish. Or the job description of the new employees is not very clear from the outset. 

Implement a recruitment methodology that enables the hirer to address the issue of why they want to hire. Creating a profile of a perfect employee can be a good start and can serve as a reference point. But be flexible on your expectations. Otherwise, you might find the recruitment process hard. 

New hires can become disengaged easily as they are out of touch with a physical office. As a result, they can do more harm, defeating the whole purpose of making that hire. Keep them engaged, at least for the next couple of months. The initial few weeks can be used to orient them with the online tools and software. 

This may interest you: What To Do When You've Made A Poor Hiring Decision

Another aspect is to ascertain whether the prospective marketer genuinely wants to join the company and is comfortable working remotely. Set clear expectations and working style from the word go to see if they would be a good fit as a remote employee. The new hires must also align with and understand the flexible remote work policy. 

Get it in writing 

Remote marketing teams seldom gather at the same place every day. So, procedures, processes, and policies must be documented during meetings. Document the accomplishments and achievements of your remote marketing team. Make this document available to them online under a single dashboard. 

Have each member document their daily processes so that, if needed, any other existing or future member can seamlessly integrate. Business process documentation should be made available to the participants of the meetings. Also, make sure to use proper tools to schedule meetings. This will make it simple for new remote team members to catch up online.

Additional reading: The Missing Tool in your Hybrid Work Plan

Provide recognition to your high performers and describe how their work was essential to the mission of your team. Create and document metrics to measure the team results, so you can refer to them later. A guide clearly outlining digital etiquette and online expectations for the remote marketing teams is also vital. 

Stick to the same dashboard to collect and collate all your documents and create a style guide. That way, there is consistency in the team’s external communication styles. A typical guide will include instructions for things like punctuation, word usage, and capitalisation. This guide keeps the guesswork and ambiguity out of the way. 

Do not burn out 

When you find that remote employees are getting agitated and burnt out, connect with them using fun and creative internal communications. Digital space can be as interactive and interesting as a physical workspace. Start by being appreciative of their hard work. It would give them a sense that you know they are working hard. 

Gathering feedback for subsequent virtual meetups can give them a sense of ownership of those gatherings. Going the extra mile to reciprocate and making them feel valued can have a positive impact on their productivity. It also increases job satisfaction. 

To make sure they do not burn out easily, implement an online reward centre and automate them. It will build a culture of appreciation and make them feel like going over and above their duty. When positive behaviour gets rewarded and recognised, they do not easily feel burnt out, even if the workload is too much. 

As a person who manages a remote marketing team, you should navigate their differing work schedule due to different time zones. Encourage everyone to be mindful when expectations are not met owing to different work hours. Do not expect everybody to be online at the same time as you. 

Read more: How to Thrive and Not Burnout as a Leader Working Remotely

Open channels of communication 

Customers want answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. When your physical office is closed at the end of the day, use your remote workers. Make sure their time zones are opposite your time zone. That way, you can keep an appearance of always being open to your customers. 

The challenge in leaving remote employees to their devices is the inability to meet customer demands or not having the answers to all their questions. It could be a support request, and the employee is not fully experienced in handling it. This should not reflect poorly on the company’s image, nor should it inconvenience the customers. 

Make sure the remote members are equipped with the tools necessary to meet the demands of the customers and clients. Set up an online repository of frequently asked questions and roll out updates to address all possible queries. Make a couple of people from the team in charge of remote workers during the physical office closure hours. 

Read more: Best Virtual Team-Building Exercises for Remote Working

Ensure someone is wholly in charge of the live online chat on your website. If that is challenging, install a chatbot. Customers like to get in touch using different communication channels. Make those channels available to them, and your remote workers should be trained and fully deployed to always cover all channels.

Conclusion

For many businesses, remote working is a new concept. Managers are experimenting with different methods to keep their remote team productive and engaged while delivering consistent work. We hope that the five best practices can help you carve out a creative and successful remote work policy.
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