Technology has a huge part to play in the success of marketing teams today. But it can’t fulfil its role properly if the team itself isn’t functioning as a well-oiled machine.
With so much debate lately focused on the pros and cons of in-office, hybrid or fully remote, the point about what makes effective work is often lost. Here are five ways marketers can bring back the essence of highly effective marketing teams, so they can work in harmony with all that martech innovation has to offer.
1. Make the most of your resources
People have huge value beyond their job titles. Marketing leaders should consider what else their staff can bring to their roles. Head of marketing at homelessness charity, Shelter, Helen Saul notes that local teams’ knowledge is invaluable.
When you don’t have a huge budget, you need to be more creative
“Shelter has hubs across the country with people on the ground working directly with those who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness. We take a lot of our strategic lead from the local level,” she explains.
This local insight led to a campaign in the North East of England that involved projecting a campaign onto the iconic British landmark, the Angel of the North statue. It was very effective for little cost. “When you don’t have a huge budget, you need to be more creative,” Saul adds.
Flexibility among teams is vital, claims Clare Jones, marketing and global outreach manager for Custom Neon, a manufacturer and retailer of custom-designed LED neon lights and signs. “Foster an agile marketing approach by encouraging
experimentation and being open to pivoting strategies,” she advises.
2. Trust your teams
Of course, it helps to have experienced staff to guide teams and react effectively. This is something Nicola Kemp, editorial director at Creativebrief and lead facilitator at social learning practice, Good Shout, worries is in danger of being eroded.
“With the redundancies that happened post-pandemic, there is a layer of expertise that has been stripped out of agencies. That loss of wisdom and craft is having a huge impact on client/agency relationships, as well as on the agencies themselves. This comes from viewing people as a cost, rather than a creative hub,” she warns.
Those experienced members are a crucial link between the business leads and the teams on the ground. This is because micromanagement is the enemy of progress, according to Saul. “You must have trust between teams. You can train ambassadors within those teams to ensure they understand the brand and can apply it in their situation. You can’t be everywhere all the time.”
Jones agrees: “A collaborative environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and feedback can significantly enhance creativity and agility. We have an internal intranet system [where] we share team news, and celebrate innovations and ideas. It has really removed barriers across our global offices.”
3. Banish meetings
“Few people have their best ideas at a desk,” Kemp warns. “Not giving people the space to do their best work is causing a huge amount of stress.”
She adds that Microsoft Teams data shows a 252% increase in the time people spend in meetings since February 2020. “It’s crushing people’s creativity and causing huge problems with culture at brands and agencies.”
Shelter’s Saul agrees and has taken steps to calm the meeting mania. “I’m a huge advocate of refining processes, using meetings effectively and increasing focus time. We now have two meeting-free half days a week after a trial. We have meeting guidance about what constitutes a good meeting and when it isn’t necessary to have one.
“We did a survey before and after the trial. People reported that their focus time increased by 457%.”
Core hours are nothing new. Kemp points out they’ve been part of large companies’ ethos for more than a decade. But perhaps there is an opportunity to refine the idea further. After all, she suggests: “Think about how you optimise the workplace to optimise the work.”
4. Push purpose
How do marketers get excited about purpose when their purpose is to promote widgets? Kemp insists that the purpose of doing the job well is enough motivation, and marketing leaders must ensure they don’t stifle that ambition. “Put people ahead of process. Nobody got into marketing for notifications. Everyone wants a purpose. You can be passionate about performance marketing, but you must have a bigger purpose than just the mechanics of the role.”
Achieving this can be as simple as getting to know the wider business and its aims. “Encourage and incentivise your team to stay updated with the latest industry trends, competitor strategies and product innovations,” Jones suggests. “By understanding our products, how they are made, and their robustness, our marketers have a better appreciation and passion, which translates into the content they create.”
5. Don’t forget the audience
Being guided by what customers want is still the best way to develop a highly effective marketing team. Jones finds that diving into audience social media is a rich seam of customer understanding.
“Deeply understanding your audience is fundamental to creating effective marketing campaigns,” she states. Custom Neon ‘piggybacks’ on customer posts, boosting content production at little to no apparent cost. “From Instagram, we can garner a huge bank of user-generated content, creating striking, customised marketing collateral.”
In the charity sector, where every penny counts, unlocking new audiences would take time and money were it not for key partnerships. Shelter, for example, partners with Ikea to drive home its homelessness message in a very pertinent way.
Saul explains: “There is a long-term partnership with Ikea creating room sets within stores. Instead of a nice room, you’re presented with a model of what it’s like to live in temporary accommodation. We can use their audience and the people they’re targeting to take our message wider.”
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Disclaimer: The views, information and opinions expressed in this article are those of the people interviewed and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Intuit, Mailchimp or any of its cornerstone brands or employees. The primary purpose of this article is to educate and inform. This article does not constitute financial or other professional advice or services.
