How to Increase Your Marketing Team’s Productivity

Maintaining a productive team is a challenge faced by all managers, even more so on a marketing team. There are various divisions within marketing, all of which are necessary for the overall success of the company.

With the number of remote workers trending upward, it is becoming increasingly difficult to coordinate between team members to keep things running efficiently and producing great work. No matter your role, you can help your team be more productive through the aspects mentioned below.

1. Avoid Overworking

Just because your team works longs hours doesn’t mean its job is being done well. Burnout can negatively affect your team’s productivity and cost you more money. When employees are tired, they get less done and are essentially wasting time.

To combat this, give team members adequate time off and make sure they use it. Everyone needs a break— even C-level executives rely on vacation to get new inspiration and motivation. But some are afraid to step away from work. Try implementing a use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy so employees don’t save vacation days year after year without taking a break. If you still have problems and people don’t want to get out of the office, it’s okay to tell them to take a few days off and reenergize.

Another way to help avoid overworking is making sure their workload isn’t too much to bear. If your team is staying late and skipping lunch every single day to meet deadlines, they’re being assigned too much work. When employees consistently work overtime, it often leads to burnout and they’re likely to quit soon, leaving the rest of the team with even more to do. You may need to expand your team and hire an additional person to help carry the load.

2. Improve Communication

Communication is key in any functioning team. It’s important to make sure everyone is always informed and nobody feels like they’ve been left out of the loop. If a team has trouble exchanging information or ideas, the problem can often be traced back to the manager.

Whether you’re a manager or member of the team, you can improve communication. Be honest, but not rude, when sharing ideas or giving feedback to your team. Keep everyone informed about decisions you’ve made or are currently faced with. Let others know you’re open to feedback and be courteous to those who offer it. Learn to not take offense if your team doesn’t agree with your ideas— it’s not a personal attack against you. They are keeping the company in mind, just like you are.

If part or all of your team work remotely, face-to-face conversations don’t occur often. Encourage the use of video calls over email conversation and phone calls. It seems like a simple thing, but it can produce great results and help peers to build better relationships and cultivate trust.

3. Hold a Brainstorm

Marketing requires that your team be innovative. Your team needs to constantly come up with new ways of reaching customers and getting the right message across to them. This is a difficult feat to accomplish as there are many competitors who are trying to do the same. Brainstorming with your team will help you come up with ideas, but not if your brainstorm consists of people fighting about whose idea is best or one person being told by everyone that their idea is terrible.

Brainstorms and communication go hand-in-hand. Pixar uses a unique brainstorming and refining process, which it calls a “Braintrust.” This method starts with someone sharing an idea, no matter how ridiculous they think it may be, and it requires completely honest feedback from peers.

Complete honesty doesn’t signify that peers bash the idea and say that it’s horrible and won’t work. In fact, it’s the opposite: everyone gives their thoughts on what is lacking and what could be added or changed to make it better. The person sharing their idea needs to trust their team and not be offended by their thoughts. Those providing feedback need to remember to do so in a constructive manner that will benefit the team’s efforts. It’s a balance that can be difficult to achieve but produces extraordinary results if done correctly.

4. Run Efficient Meetings

In most cases, people don’t get excited about going to meetings. Many feel that they are a waste of time and may have a bad attitude that impedes them from contributing to team meetings. If most of your team members feel this way, it probably means your meetings are being underutilized and are ineffective.

The purpose of a meeting is to generate new ideas, get feedback from peers, discuss issues, and make sure everyone is on the same page. Meetings shouldn’t be held without one of those purposes in mind, which is why it’s important to have a set agenda.

Those who attend meetings need to make sure that they follow the agenda and don’t bring up unrelated topics or things that aren’t pertinent to the team. If this does happen, it’s appropriate to ask them to discuss the matter after the meeting. This will allow more time for discussions involving the proposed agenda and the team as a whole.

5. Utilize Tools

Marketing teams perform a variety of functions and need the right tools. Furthermore, they need to know how to use tools to their full capacity. Make sure your team has access to useful tools to help them carry out successful campaigns and compete in the industry.

Ensure that each member of the team is trained on tools and has adequate knowledge of how to use them in everyday marketing tasks. This will help you optimize your team so they work effectively and produce great results for the company.

Maintaining an effective and efficient marketing team is important, so do your part to make sure it runs well. By implementing the tactics mention above, you can run productive campaigns and achieve the results you desire.

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