Since nothing ties digital marketing teams to physical offices anymore, they can simultaneously be fully remote and highly successful. That said, making sure that a group of creatives with different cultural backgrounds and work schedules consistently delivers stellar work isn’t without its share of unique challenges.
Here are the connectivity, collaboration, and creativity-fostering tools any such team should adopt in order to thrive.
Communication Platforms
For distributed teams, maintaining alignment on overall workflows and keeping up with day-to-day specifics becomes even more challenging. Communication platforms provide a central yet segmentable place where everyone can keep projects on track, either through real-time updates and brainstorming sessions or via asynchronous messaging.
These platforms become even more important when team members travel or otherwise relocate, as there’s no break in communication. However, this only works if team members remain reachable at such times. That’s when they might need to support the platform with a communication enabler. For example, if your team is attending a conference like BrightonSEO, acquiring an eSIM for Europe is the move, as eSIMs enable internet access and allow you to work from anywhere without relying on Wi-Fi coverage.
Project Management Tools
The chance of redundant or overlapping work becomes exponentially higher when people from wildly different time zones are asked to collaborate on complex tasks. Project management tools reduce the risk by acting as the main source of truth regarding workflow and responsibilities.
Their visual approach makes it easier for all participants to track a campaign’s progress or outline individual team members’ asset creation responsibilities. Project management tools also integrate with calendars and automatically display local time equivalents for everyone. This leads to fewer misunderstandings and more flexibility in tailoring deadlines to specific team members.
Asset-Sharing Tools
Large quantities of creative assets underpin even the simplest marketing campaigns, so keeping track of them is essential. Asset-sharing tools act as central hubs where graphic and web designers, writers, etc., can contribute to and draw from without worrying about version mismatches that could hurt your brand consistency.
Safety is another concern that asset-sharing tools help address. They simplify secure asset sharing, so team members don’t have to use less dependable means like email.
However, file safety also hinges on the security of one’s connection. Remote team members often rely on public Wi-Fi in airports and hotels, where traffic can be monitored or intercepted. That means if you’re heading to a Mediterranean beach in Turkey, skip the hotel Wi-Fi for work and use the best eSIM for Turkey available instead. This handy tool connects over local mobile networks, which are far more secure.
Campaign Management Tools
This broad category encompasses tools that help distributed marketing teams coordinate how campaigns unfold across different channels. Social media and email marketing tools are the most well-known examples.
SMM tools let teams plan out, schedule, and execute complex campaigns on multiple social platforms from one place. They’re also indispensable for engaging with followers and answering questions. Similarly, email marketing tools help test the impact of elements like subject lines and graphics, coordinate email chains in drip campaigns, and direct customer journeys towards the most favorable outcomes.
Documentation and Knowledge Sharing Tools
Marketing teams can get away with relying on specific members’ knowledge when they work in-house. Conversely, access to a clear, standardized set of guidelines and best practices is essential for keeping remote teams on the same page and preventing bottlenecks.
Documentation tools make accessing pertinent knowledge easier. They can store everything from onboarding instructions for new remote hires to templates and guides that ensure campaigns remain on-brand, as well as insights generated from customer research and A/B testing conducted during past campaigns.
Analytics Tools
Even with a good communication platform, it can be hard to organize synchronous meetings to go over marketing strategies or discuss what’s working and what isn’t. Implementing analytics tools into your workflow makes this much less of an issue since it provides a central access point to performance data that everyone can reference and base their decisions on, regardless of availability.