You're managing a remote content marketing team. How do you ensure they stay productive and engaged?

From my experience as interim manager in remote marketing teams: ?Having a clear, documented content strategy with defined goals makes a huge difference. I use a shared document outlining goals, target audience, and brand voice to keep everyone on the same page. Best Practice Tip: Don't just assign tasks - explain the "why" behind them. This helps remote team members feel connected to the bigger picture and invested in their work.

Let them set their own deadlines and work schedule, and then don't micromanage them. Keep regular checkins where you can chat out progress/roadblocks, and maintain an open door policy so they can come to you in real time when they need you. It really is that simple. Realistic deadlines work. Above all else, respect is empowering.

Clear Goals are Not a Wish List, They're Your Battle Plan! ?? Setting clear goals isn't just about keeping your team on track; it's about crafting a battle plan that everyone can rally behind. Without explicit directions and expectations, your content marketing squad is navigating through fog. Make your goals razor-sharp and your expectations non-negotiable. This is the linchpin of your strategy, not a vague hope.

In my practice of managing a globally distributed team, the right strategy can keep the team productive and engaged. Here is my set of rules: clear goals, tasks, and deadlines; regular communication and feedback (video calls are best); transparency about expectations; project management tools; access to relevant data and analytics; and professional development. Don't forget to foster a team spirit. Virtual team-building activities, brainstorming, and celebrating successes help create a positive and supportive work culture. Encouraging open communication and mutual respect ensures that every team member feels valued and heard. Last but not least, remember to promote work-life balance to prevent burnout and maintain overall well-being.

The number one thing to do, in my experience, is to remain in constant communication. As a manager, it is important not to be seen as micromanaging, but as being available. And for team members, it is the best way to know they can have a resource (management, each other) to help get them unstuck and keep them accountable to each other. Remote does not mean distant in terms of accomplishing things together. The best organizations make everyone feel like they are in the office together, no matter where they are.

Experiment to find the perfect tech stack for your team. Some projects might require different tools than others. Best Practice Tip:?Invest in a good project management tool with built-in communication features. This can be a central hub for everything from task assignment to content feedback.

Not too many people get excited about tools and processes, but the reality is that to run any successful remote team(or any team realistically), they're 100% essential. 1.) Team comms: Slack or Discord 2.) Task and project management: Trello is my go-to. But I like Clickup, Jira, and Notion as well. 3.) Shared Drive on Google Drive for storage. 4.)Virtual Office Software- Roam

When collaborating with diverse creative talents, it's crucial to allocate ample time for each individual to share their insights before reaching a conclusion. Leveraging effective project management tools is indispensable for ensuring seamless coordination and keeping the team aligned towards success. #Collaboration #ProjectManagement #Teamwork

Scenario: Your team needs to collaborate on creating a series of blog posts for an upcoming campaign. Example: Discuss how implementing a cloud-based collaboration tool, such as Google Docs or Microsoft Teams, streamlined the content creation process. Team members could simultaneously work on the same document, leave comments for feedback, and track changes in real-time, regardless of their physical location. This improved efficiency and ensured that everyone was on the same page throughout the project. Pro-tip: Canva is a great tool for collaborating, file sharing, scheduling! Id take a look into a tool of this caliber to achieve efficient collaborative workflows.

Whenever possible, having a single source of truth is important for remote content teams. This means ensuring briefs, outputs, and conversations are captured in a central and agreed location. For example, you should not have some information logged on your project management tool with other information shared on Slack. Your team is most productive when they have all the right information at their fingertips. So conversations—whether spoken or written—shouldn't happen without the visibility of the relevant team members. Having a consistent and central reference point is key.

Public recognition can be a powerful motivator for remote teams. I like to shout out team member achievements in a channel dedicated to team wins. Best Practice Tip:?Offer both individual and peer-to-peer feedback. Encourage team members to give constructive feedback on each other's work.

As a manager, the relationships you build with your direct reports is one of the most important factors in their feeling engaged and valued in the workplace. This requires creating an environment of trust, and simply making the time to have regular scheduled and unscheduled conversations, just as you'd do if you were all sitting under the same roof at work every day. In my Fortune 500 years, I frequently had employees who worked in different timezones and whom I'd met once in person, if at all. Remote work is not an impediment to creating a collaborative and effective content marketing team.

Like all team members, writers like to know that their work successfully fulfills a purpose. I regularly share wins based on the KPIs that measure the performance of the content strategy, whether those are related to SEO/keyword positioning or lead volume. If I can show that their efforts are hitting targets, it means that they are being set up for success and the writing team will be that much more excited about their work.

Scenario: One of your remote content marketers has been consistently producing high-quality blog posts, but you've noticed they could improve their SEO optimization skills. Example: Schedule a one-on-one video call to discuss their recent work and provide specific feedback on areas where they excel and where they could enhance their skills. Emphasize the importance of SEO in content marketing and offer resources or training opportunities to help them improve in that area. By providing constructive feedback and offering growth opportunities, you show your team member that you value their development and are invested in their success.

Regular feedback and shoutouts are key! Be specific about what's working well and where they can grow. Most importantly, celebrate those wins, big and small. Feeling appreciated makes remote work so much more rewarding! ??

Content marketing is constantly evolving. Set aside a budget for online courses, conferences, or industry publications to keep your team's skills sharp. Best Practice Tip:?Encourage knowledge sharing within the team. Have team members present on new skills they've learned or interesting industry trends.

Marketing is not only about numbers, pictures, and creativity. For me as a manager it's necessary to educate my team the way they can understand the whole business process they're working in. So I highly recommend to encourage your employees not only learn about some Facebook Ads updates or social media trends, but also take a time to deep dive into sales, business developement, operations, and strategy. This is what gives the best ROI to both employees and business owners.

I think it is obvious that the person who wants to collaborate with your project will want to grow professionally and learn, either with their daily work or with training that helps them in their performance. We live in a digital world and it changes very quickly, so if we do not stay constantly trained we will quickly become obsolete.

Learning Isn't a Perk, It's Your Secret Weapon! ?? Encouraging learning and development among your team isn't a benevolent gesture; it's strategically arming them with knowledge that can become your secret weapon. A team that's constantly learning is a team that's evolving, innovating, and staying ahead of the competition. Don't just support their growth—demand it.

The best way to excel in your career is to constantly grow and learn more. Enhancing your knowledge and diversifying your skillset might be difficult to begin with but the ROI benefits you exponentially. If you find a skill, course, or article that teaches you something, share it with team members so they can benefit from it as well. This helps them do their job better now while also expanding their horizons for the future.

A palavra chave aqui é confian?a. Contratar talentos e caráter e construir confian?a por meio da própria confian?a, do exemplo, da escuta, do genuíno interesse em capacita??o, em aprendizado mútuo, s?o as chaves para que qualquer time, n?o só o de conteúdo, funcione otimamente bem no online, no offline ou no híbrido. Minha experiência de mais de 2 décadas como liderada e líder me ensinaram que pessoas felizes, desafiadas, realizadas e que têm a confian?a do seu líder (e no seu líder), crescem, se potencializam, tem entregas cada vez melhores e se transformam no melhor que podem ser.

?Remote team members often miss out on casual chats and watercooler moments. Schedule virtual coffee breaks or game nights to foster a sense of community. Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with team members to discuss not just work, but also their well-being and career goals.

It's been almost 3 years of working remotely now and as a Team Leader, I'd suggest to avoid micromanaging - trusting your team and 'depending' on them fosters a sense of ownership and belongingness within the organization. Setting up a weekly/fortnightly call will allow you to touchbase with them to address their concerns, challenges, or any feedback they may have. Additionally, building a culture of exchanging content marketing campaign ideas and themes goes a long way to inspire creativity and innovation within the team.

There’s a lot that can happen over movies/coffee/outings/good laughs. It resolves a lot of misunderstandings and relieves the problems that are lingering in mind regarding the future. Morale boosting is important to sustain good work of the team

All of the tools and systems that you use serve to create trust and rapport, which help to fuel collaboration. Remote collaboration for content creators specifically, and content marketers generally, is vitally important and really hard. Managers need to make this a top priority and even force it sometimes, in my experience. This is where great things occur.

Micromanaging kills creativity and initiative. Trust your team members to deliver high-quality work and give them the freedom to manage their time effectively. Best Practice Tip:?Delegate tasks based on strengths and interests. This keeps team members engaged and mo

Delegate tasks and be open to new ideas and initiatives. We follow the African proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." This means we value trust, independence, and teamwork. As a leader, I focus on understanding my team's strengths and areas for growth. By recognizing where each member excels and encouraging their development, I can delegate effectively and foster our collective success.

Know when to back off! This is critical in empowering your team to have the confidence to take their own decisions and judgement calls. No matter how great of a manager or leader you are, your team needs to learn what goes into taking tough calls and that can only happen when you allow them room to rise up to the occasion and not micromanage them. Mistakes, while frustrating, are not the end of the world. If anything, they fast track the learning curve! Trust the people you’ve hired to actually be able to do their job.

Empowering your team is crucial! Give them the freedom to manage their own work and trust them to nail it. Match tasks to their skills – they'll feel valued and way more invested in their projects. Don't be afraid to stretch them with new challenges too!

Un buen líder sabe empoderar y delegar actividades, logrando así que cada miembro del equipo sea autónomo y pueda desarrollar y aplicar su conocimiento. Debemos ense?ar, nutrir y soltar; las personas deben aprender a ser autosuficientes en su trabajo, conociendo los procesos y alcances de su puesto. Como líder, es importante supervisar, medir y retroalimentar. En esta etapa del proceso, la retroalimentación es crucial para que el colaborador conozca tanto lo bueno como lo malo y pueda mejorar su desempe?o día con día.

Encourage collaboration among team members and shape tasks into projects that fall into multiple areas of expertise. Also, instill a culture of ownership among team members. Teams should be free to set and adhere to timelines for themselves.

Succeeding as a remote manager of a content team ultimately falls on the manager's ability to have a clear plan with deliverables, metrics of success, and a willingness to support everyone with the tools and knowledge they need. Empower your team by involving them in the content strategy + campaign planning process. Assign stakeholders based on expertise or interest, show people you trust them by letting them take the lead, and be available to clarify any issues or questions people have about a piece BEFORE they waste hours heading in the wrong direction. Lastly, celebrate learning experiences + mistakes just as much as challenges. If a piece/campaign failed, celebrate what you learned from it and apply that knowledge moving forward.

It's also important to consider how each team member likes to work and what impacts their mental health. Structure is important, but you can accommodate preferred work styles into that structure. For instance, some team members may work best by having regular conversations. Have an "open door" policy in your remote environment where team members know they can call you. If you're unavailable at the time of the call, let them know and get back to them as soon as you can. Yes, you have your work to do and project management tools make it easy to share ideas in various formats. But striking a balance that allows your team members to be their best selves promotes a healthy work environment, keeps them engaged, and supports productivity.

Mettre en place un process avec les équipes serait également un grand atout pour rendre le travail plus dynamique et les équipes efficaces.

What’s working well for me is 1. Having a kickass yet simple process in place 2. Doing weekly heartbeat calls to sync 3. Giving them the absolute freedom on creating content 4. Planning a week or two prior 5. Async brainstorming every now and then 6. Share analytics and impact of work they contribute each day