10 Strategies for Creating a Successful Remote Marketing Team

More and more businesses today are leveraging the benefits of remote work teams. In fact, statistics show that over 4.7 million people work at least half of the time in the United States remotely. 

By hiring a remote marketing team, you can hire the best talent rather than the most convenient. However, it would be best if you had an effective strategy in place when it comes to creating a successful remote marketing team. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at ten strategies for creating an effective remote marketing team in further detail.

1. Make an effort to boost engagement

There is only one place to begin when creating a successful remote marketing team, and this is with strategies for engaging employees overseas. 

Keeping employees engaged when they are geographically dispersed can be very difficult. After all, out of sight, out of mind! However, it is not impossible. 

It would help if you considered what would motivate people to work harder. What do people care about in the workplace? From opportunities for growth to monetary incentives, there are many different ways that you can tap into the things that people care about the most to encourage engagement amongst your remote team.

If you’re unsure about what matters to your employees, ask them! It does not need to be complicated.

2. Perfect the onboarding process

You also need to make sure that the onboarding process is perfected when managing a remote team. Look for different ways that your current onboarding process can be digitized. For instance, if there are any resources or documents an employee should read up on, make sure they are in Google Docs, a PDF, or any other sort of online format. 

You may also want to generate a knowledge base or an internal training website where workers can locate these documents even once their new-hire orientation has been completed. 

If there is a part of your onboarding process that is too complicated for the PDF format, think about doing some form of the virtual training session where you walk your workers through a number of tasks. 

3. Manage meetings effectively

One of the biggest mistakes we see business owners make today is hosting meetings purely for their sake. In fact, statistics show that companies in the United States lose $37 billion per year combined due to unnecessary meetings. 

This is why you need to really think about whether or not a meeting is required. Make sure you have a schedule for each meeting and stick to it!

If you have a global or remote team, you need to have a minimum of one fairly regular meeting so everyone can regroup and be on the same page. For instance, you may want to meet once per month so that members of your marketing team can discuss goals and performance. 

A weekly meeting may also be required to learn about what everyone is doing and their status.

4. Check in with team members on a frequent basis

You do not need to micromanage team members. You don’t want people to feel like you are “spying” on them all of the time and that you do not trust them. 

However, you don’t want the opposite to happen; you don’t communicate, and they become a stranger.

This is why we recommend checking in with team members regularly to find out how they are doing and what they are getting up to. Casual work conversations are encouraged. Get to know your remote team members and ask them questions so that people feel comfortable.

It can be difficult to create that real sense of a team when workers are situated worldwide. However, it is essential to do so!

5. Make the most of digital marketing and productivity tools

An excellent assortment of productivity tools is available for digital marketing teams, and we recommend that you make the most of them.

Scheduling tools can be highly beneficial in terms of requesting, managing, and scheduling meetings with team members. 
There are also instant messaging apps that enable conversations to flow quickly and effectively, fostering successful collaboration. Task management systems, like Asana and Trello, can also be beneficial, as you can assign and manage marketing tasks virtually with ease.

6. Be mindful of boundaries and timezones

In addition to the points we have mentioned so far, it is also imperative to ensure that you respect the different boundaries and timezones that remote workers have.

Managing a remote marketing team is vital to navigating the different work hours. At the same time, people in the marketing team need to be encouraged to be mindful of everyone else’s constraints.

You may need to ask people to join meetings early in the morning or late at night, so make sure that it is not the same people making sacrifices all the time. 

Also, it would help if you respected public holidays and cultural boundaries. In some countries, there are a lot of public holidays. While this can be frustrating, you cannot expect people to work on national days off. 

7. Make sure all team members feel included

It is common for team members to feel excluded and disconnected when they are in a different location. It is only natural. If there is not an office environment filled with people, remote employees will not be able to have quick work-related chats or ask questions. This can result in them feeling out of the loop, which is the last thing you want to happen. 

The feeling of inclusion can make a huge difference in employee performance, happiness, and retention. 

So, how can you ensure that all team members are included? It is all about the little things! From organizing virtual gift exchanges during the holiday period to sending e-birthday cards, thoughtful little touches can go a very long way.

8. Think about different ways you can get your virtual team to bond

It can be easy to assume that your remote team members bond during team celebrations and marketing meetings. However, this may be the only team your colleagues are communicating with one another.

To create an even stronger marketing team, think about virtual opportunities that enable team members to get to know one another on more of a human level. 

Some fun games online, like virtual Pictionary, can encourage people to chat, learn about one other, and have a bit of a laugh together. You may think this is a waste of time because it has nothing to do with work. However, strengthening those bonds results in more effective and productive work, so it does matter.

9. Encourage empathy amongst your marketing team

In addition to the points that we have discussed so far, one of the biggest challenges that remote marketing teams face is feeling disconnected and lonely. They can also find it difficult to turn off at the end of the day because their work is not separated from their home lives as clearly as it would be if they worked in an office. 

According to the CEO of Sidepost, “...as the manager of a remote team, it is vital to recognize the challenges your workers may come up against and you need to guide them wherever you can.” 

If you do have some team members who work in the office, you should also encourage them to think about the challenges remote workers could go through on a daily basis so that they can be empathetic toward this.

10. Emotional intelligence is a critical ingredient

Last but not least, one critical ingredient when it comes to managing a remote team is emotional intelligence. 

While you may be collected, calm, and level-headed when you manage a team in the office, you may feel different emotionally when overseeing a remote team. 

Although your team cannot see you and you cannot see them, it is still imperative to use emotional intelligence at all times. You need to make sure you resist the urge to micro manage or mistrust marketing colleagues that you are not able to see on a daily basis.

Final words on creating a successful remote marketing team

So there you have it: ten of the best strategies when it comes to creating a successful remote marketing team. The benefits of hiring remote workers are extensive. However, you need to put a team together carefully in order to realize all of these advantages.

If you follow the tips and suggestions that we have mentioned above, we are sure that you will have no problem putting together a winning marketing team and ensuring they are engaged no matter where in the world they are based.

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