How to Create the Most Productive (and Happy) Internet Marketing Team
A happy team is naturally more productive and creative than one that hates its job. What magic ingredient makes some marketing teams more satisfied than others? Personalities come into play anytime a group works together, but many other elements relate to job satisfaction.
The cost of replacing a worker can be as high as 60 percent of the employee’s annual salary, so finding ways to satisfy them pays off in savings. You also can’t replace the training and on-the-job experience your current marketers already have. Keeping your team together is one way to enhance productivity. However, there are other things you can do to keep the team you have happy and thriving. Try these tips below for building a marketing team.
1. Offer a Variety of Work Options
Some people work best in a busy office setting, where they can easily bounce ideas off the person beside them. Other people need space and quiet to create. Because your team is likely comprised of various personality types, offer different options so people can choose what works best for them. One single mother might benefit from working remotely, while another might find too many distractions at home and do better in an office setting. Give your marketing team options for where to work and even their work hours.
Remember that some studies show remote workers are 91 percent more productive, especially those with specific skills. While that is an average and may not hold for everyone, it highlights the importance of offering choices.
2. Provide Networking Opportunities
Creative people tend to learn a lot from others. Widen the circle of networking opportunities for your marketing team. Send them to a conference or host a gathering for professionals in the area. Invite a special speaker and create opportunities for interaction.
You should also look outside the marketing world for inspiration. Take your team to a local art gallery and learn more about a specific genre. Network with people in your area, including customers, so your group can learn about their personalities and desires and better serve them.
3. Rework Your Office Layout
The layout of your office space can encourage or discourage productivity. Think about the people who work most closely together. Do your graphic designers need to get up and share materials with the marketing director frequently? If so, their desks should be close to the director. However, you should also consider elements such as when you have brainstorming sessions and where they should occur.
4. Conduct Regular Training Sessions
Regular training and development are vital aspects of job satisfaction for younger workers. A recent report found that 42 percent of millennials considered learning and development the single most important factor in deciding where to work.
Training sessions are also your opportunity to address weaknesses in your team without calling out anyone by name. If you notice any time management issues, offer training to improve. If you see problems with conflict resolution, invite an expert on the topic and give your team tools to interact better.
Having a clear structure for team members to grow in their roles and achieve their professional ambitions is also important. This can be achieved by using employee growth plan templates, which are adaptable to each staff member’s needs and help them see a path forward spanning months and years, demonstrating your dedication to them.
5. Show You Care
When your team knows you care about them personally, they’re much more likely to feel satisfied in their role with your company. Recognize birthdays or send a get-well card when a team member is ill. Take individual team members out for lunch each week and get to know each person a little better. It’s natural to gravitate toward personality types that mesh well with yours, so make an extra effort with those who you find grating or who don’t click as well.
A little effort on your part may reveal someone quite interesting. Every person on your marketing team has unique skills and interests. Once you know what they are, you can better direct work that matches their personality. They’ll be happier, and you’ll get their best efforts.
6. Improve Communication
Look for ways to better communicate with your employees. Work on listening skills, practice offering clear directions, and use tools to help the process. Project management tools keep everyone — both in-office and remote workers — up to date. At the same time, though, learn how to limit communication so that workers aren’t distracted all day by instant messages or someone stopping by their desk to chat. Limit meetings to five or 10 minutes, and set aside work hours where people can focus uninterrupted.
7. Go to the Cloud
Put project information in the cloud so your workers can access it anytime, anywhere. Creative types often have an idea in the middle of the night or while driving home from work. If they can pull up a project and add a few notes for the team, they may come up with more creative ideas and have a better chance of hitting the ground running with that idea the next morning.
A cloud-based project management system’s payoff in productivity and creativity is well worth the investment. You can also bring in contractors to tweak the team’s ideas and offer a fresh perspective.
8. Use Time-Saving Tools
Some tools save the entire team time, such as social media scheduling tools or automated emails that are created once and then sent repeatedly to potential leads. Look for tools that offer time-saving features so your team can focus on big ideas and leave the small, menial tasks to automation.
Add time-tracking software to your team’s desktops so they can see where they spend the most time and identify areas for improvement. Offer incentives to anyone who improves their productivity scores or takes steps to waste less time throughout the workweek. Another practical measure is to help your team members save time by managing device maintenance. For instance, if a team member experiences charging issues with their MacBook, it’s crucial to address this promptly. An inefficient laptop can significantly reduce productivity and cause distractions.
Strive to Always Improve
The best marketing teams have a philosophy of always improving. Look for ways to motivate and inspire your crew, and with time, you’ll develop a culture other departments will envy. When your employees are happy, they are productive and work together like a well-oiled machine.
