The process of keeping the marketing team organized can seem like a full-time job for management at many companies. Marketing teams are comprised of very different personalities and working styles. The creative team is going to need guidance from those on the team that gather and translate data. The sales team needs to communicate with the marketing team to convey the quality of leads that are coming in from the website. The flow of communication can be difficult to organize, as can goals for the marketing team across the company. Management could ask for a campaign that builds the brand’s image while wanting another that will help improve keyword rankings on search engines. Organizing this in a way where a publication puts up an article written by a company that not only provides a backlink but also showcases knowledge can help save on budget. The following are tips to help keep a marketing team organized, thus helping improve the ROI of each campaign.
Meet Weekly to Discuss Progress on Projects
The drawback of many marketing departments is that they meet too much to discuss things that can be handled in an email. This does not mean that there should not be weekly meetings that the marketing team has to prepare for, though. Micromanaging will not help a project run smoothly, but checking in weekly to see progress is important. This can help deadlines be pushed or can allow the company to give the team tools they will need to succeed. Recapping these meetings is important as deadlines could be changed or a specific part of the project could be the new focus. These recap emails are also going to be extremely important for staff that might be out of the office for one reason or another.
Google Docs
Using Google Docs, whether it is to create an Excel file or Word Doc that can be edited by multiple people, is a necessity in marketing. This could be to fill up an editorial calendar or to fill out content ideas for articles to be published on relevant industry publications. Assigning people different tasks on a document that can be edited by others is far easier than sending out emails or figuring out a process to automate this task. Being able to share an article getting ready to be sent to a publisher by the entire marketing team can help the team produce the best work possible.
Community Calendar
A community calendar can be a huge help as it allows those on the marketing team to schedule meetings or calls when everyone on the team is free. Teamweek is a great example of a team planner that can keep everyone on track with what they need to be doing for the day or complete before the end of the week. Keeping people organized and working without questioning what they should be doing for the day will help optimize productivity. Do not underestimate the importance of keeping everyone on the same wavelength as certain marketing types are known to be space cadets in terms of keeping focus.
Get Data on Recently Completed Projects
The one thing the marketing team has to keep organized is all of the data they have gathered from previous campaigns and projects. This could be traffic numbers from articles published on a certain day of the week or the analysis of marketing budget versus leads garnered. Luckily for marketing departments, there are tools that can help gather data on everything from social media and content marketing to PPC campaigns and everything in between. Google Analytics is still going to be one of the best friends of a marketing team as this helps gather important data in real time.
Put One Person in Charge of Managing Freelancers
Utilizing freelancers is done by nearly every marketing team, whether they are sourcing product copy out or having a freelancer help with data entry. One person should handle everything to do with the freelancers, whether it is notifying accounting of people to be paid or assigning content projects for an upcoming content marketing campaign. Too many people managing freelancers can lead to confusion, with freelancers being paid late or missing deadlines as there were too many people on the staff communicating with them. Great platforms like Upwork make it easy to remember to pay and review work in a timely manner. Not only do you want quality work, but you also want freelancers to value the company as a client as it will result in better work.
Keeping a marketing team organized can be a challenge, but use the above tips to help you succeed. An organized marketing team is an efficient and cost-friendly team, which is what a company wants out of their marketers. Take the time to evaluate how you can start organizing the marketing team in a better way.
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