Let\u2019s dive right into our topic.<\/p>\n
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Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
Method #1: Promote a collaborative culture<\/a><\/p>\n Method #2: Encourage feedback<\/a><\/p>\n Method #3: Set cross-team goals<\/a><\/p>\n Method #4: Use collaboration tools<\/a><\/p>\n Method #5: Try to identify collaboration and communication issues<\/a><\/p>\n Method #6: Establish processes around project management<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The first method in this list I think is fundamental in terms of improving collaboration within your marketing team.<\/p>\n That is, to promote a culture of collaboration<\/b>.<\/p>\n Have a look at the definition of collaborative culture below:<\/p>\n Image Source: Atlassian<\/a><\/p>\n The sentence I\u2019ve highlighted for you, I think, says it all.<\/p>\n Promoting a collaborative culture<\/a> isn\u2019t just about talking; it’s mostly about believing that two minds are better than one and that you need the power of your teammates to reach the company\u2019s goals and succeed.<\/p>\n In other words, simply saying that collaboration is crucial and trying to talk your marketing team into working collaboratively might not be enough.<\/p>\n What you need to do is to actually make everyone, from team leaders to team members, aware of the importance of collaboration and take some action.<\/p>\n Taking action to promote such a culture might mean that you have to organize regular meetings to share progress and brainstorm collectively.<\/p>\n Such meetings can help you improve team building and effective collaboration.<\/p>\n Another thing you could consider doing is to organize all sorts of activities, from webinars to watching documentaries, and other types of informative and learning material.<\/p>\n Activities that are performed by a group of people can help bring the different marketing teams together, thus enhancing team communication and cross-team collaboration.<\/p>\n Additionally, collaborating for a common goal as part of an activity helps promote collaborative efforts as an efficient way to solve problems at work and come up with innovative solutions.<\/p>\n To help teams work together efficiently, you can also establish team building days and events where team members have the opportunity to discuss their projects with each other, provide new perspectives, and make sure they understand how their projects are related to others.<\/p>\n Some practical points project managers could touch upon in order to promote a culture of collaboration are the following:<\/p>\n Author\u2019s Note:<\/i><\/b> These can be useful both to teams working in the same physical space as well as remote teams.\u00a0 On that note, the <\/i>Remote Work Playbook <\/i><\/a>can be incredibly helpful.<\/i><\/p>\n Moving on to the second method.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The second way to improve collaboration within your marketing team is to encourage feedback<\/b>.<\/p>\n Encouraging feedback basically means that you empower your marketing team members to not only give, but also to seek to receive feedback from their co-workers.<\/p>\n To do so, you need to make sure that teams working together understand the power of feedback and the benefits it can bring to the process of working and the overall result.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a definition of continuous feedback which I find really helpful:<\/p>\n Image Source: QuestionPro<\/a><\/p>\n The reason I\u2019m showing you the definition above is to point out the importance of openly discussing what\u2019s going great and not so great within a team.<\/p>\n Feedback is all about understanding what you do, how you do it, what could be done better and more efficiently, as well as what\u2019s already great and you simply need to keep doing it.<\/p>\n Companies that give opportunities to all team members in terms of encouraging them to give and receive feedback are more likely to work together successfully, save time, and be proud of their results.<\/p>\n The circular flow chart diagram below shows five main points in the process of giving and receiving feedback.<\/p>\n Image Source: QuestionPro<\/a><\/p>\n Author\u2019s Note:<\/i><\/b> You might find it helpful to <\/i>create a flowchart<\/i><\/a> – like the one shown above – or another type of graph for your team where you can include the main points of your own feedback process.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n As you can see in the flowchart above, continuous feedback relates to employee engagement and employee-manager collaboration, as well as helping to reach expected outcomes.<\/p>\n When it comes to encouraging feedback within your workplace, some team management tools<\/a> can be very handy.<\/p>\n A team management tool is an application that offers several features to facilitate project management and communication between team members.<\/p>\n What\u2019s great about using such tools is that the team can achieve continuous feedback and simplify decision making processes.<\/p>\n In a few words, a team management software integrates functions that allow a team to work together without having to worry about miscommunications and other problems that might come up due to physical distance.<\/p>\n Additionally, they promote feedback and help make sure that all team members are informed about what\u2019s going on in individual projects and they can contribute anytime they need to.<\/p>\n More on team management and collaboration tools a little further down.<\/p>\n Moving on to the third way to improve collaboration.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Another approach that could help you improve collaboration within your marketing team is to set cross-team goals<\/b>.<\/p>\n A recurring problem within teams is miscommunication and ineffectiveness due to people working in silos.<\/p>\n Working in silos basically means that each employee is aware only of their own issues, tasks, advantages, etc., and they don\u2019t take into consideration what their co-workers or other relevant teams within the same company are up to.<\/p>\n This is a massive issue that can be improved by setting cross-team goals.<\/p>\n These are goals that apply to more than one team or team member, and usually requires collaboration to be achieved.<\/p>\n The main benefit of cross team goals is that different team members, or different teams, for example your sales team and your content team, combine their skills sets and manage to achieve tasks collaboratively.<\/p>\n Usually, these goals wouldn\u2019t have been achieved if it wasn\u2019t for collaboration.<\/p>\n To do this, it\u2019s important to make sure that everyone is aligned with cross-team goals and will use the power of collaboration to achieve them.<\/p>\n I believe an example will make this more clear.<\/p>\n Say that you need to create a marketing plan<\/a> which is a multilayered and complex task that requires the involvement of various people and the combination of their skills set.<\/p>\n To create a successful marketing plan, they\u2019ll need to take into account a number of different parameters that relate to the team’s goals.<\/p>\n Some of these might be:<\/p>\n And so on and so forth.<\/p>\n For the sake of this example, we\u2019ll say that in the process of defining the steps you need to take, you see that live streaming on social media will be a vital channel you need to use in order to achieve your goals.<\/p>\n What do you do?<\/p>\n Well, a good idea would be to do some research and take notes of any live streaming stats<\/a> and data you might find of use.<\/p>\n Like the ones shown below:<\/p>\n Image Source: Uscreen<\/a><\/p>\n This will help you in terms of successfully approaching your audience and choosing the most appropriate social media platform – or social media automation tools<\/a> – in the future, when you\u2019ll be running your marketing campaign.<\/p>\n You’d also find it useful to be aware of some challenges live streaming might present.<\/p>\n Image Source: Uscreen<\/a><\/p>\n Another example of a multilayered task is link building<\/b>.<\/p>\n Effective link building is demanding, time consuming, and can be really expensive if you don\u2019t choose a good link building service<\/a>.<\/p>\n To succeed in it, you need to have cross-functional teams that work efficiently together and are all on the same page in terms of whether they think of it as a performance driver or not.<\/p>\n The reason I\u2019m telling you all these is to show you that a task, like creating a marketing plan, might include so many different subtasks that should be performed by different people.<\/p>\n However, that shouldn\u2019t mean that these people work in isolation.<\/p>\n When assigning a task to someone, the project manager should make sure that each person is aware of all the other subtasks their co-workers will have to complete in relation to that individual task.<\/p>\n In other words, all these tasks, like defining the various parameters, setting the target audience, getting to know potential challenges and pain points, are all part of a bigger task that needs to be handled as a cross-team goal and requires cross functional collaboration to be achieved.<\/p>\n Keep reading to find what the next method is.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The fourth thing I suggest you should do to improve collaboration is to use collaboration tools<\/b>.<\/p>\n We touched upon collaboration tools a little when we discussed project management tools a little further up.<\/p>\n Collaboration tools are fantastic tools because they allow a team to share feedback real-time, as we mentioned already.<\/p>\n They\u2019re also great because they facilitate collaboration in terms of making it easy for your team members to share valuable content, accelerate project planning, and generally work more efficiently, even if they\u2019re working remotely.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s have a look at different types of features you need to look at when choosing tools that can help your team work collaboratively while working remotely.<\/p>\n First things first, you need a platform that gives you access to instant messaging and internal communication tools<\/a> generally.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how instant messaging – which is of course way less time consuming than email – between team members might look:<\/p>\n As you can see, the tool makes it super easy for co-workers to add their comments in real-time, thus making it possible for them to combine their different skill sets and achieve their goals.<\/p>\n Another feature you\u2019ll definitely find of use is the video conferencing<\/a> feature.<\/p>\n As you can see above, it allows screen sharing, which is vital for remote teams in terms of having informative, efficient virtual meetings where one might need to share presentation slides with their co-workers and get feedback on them.<\/p>\n On that note, a presentation maker<\/a> is definitely a collaboration tool you should use.<\/p>\n More than simply being a platform where you can easily create compelling presentations in no time, you should choose a presentation maker that allows you to present online and share your slides with your peers.<\/p>\n This will facilitate collaboration.<\/p>\n The list of features that can facilitate collaboration and cross-team communication is long.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that the meaning of a collaboration tool is to keep communication channels open and allow fresh perspectives to come in and make cross-functional projects a fun thing to do.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The second to last method I have for you is to identify collaboration and communication issues<\/b>.<\/p>\n To do so means that you need to take a closer look at your strategies and moves in terms of how your team is working together and what the results of your work are.<\/p>\n In other words, identify any pain points within your workflow.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say that a recurring problem<\/b> within your team has to do with too generic or too complex project briefs.<\/p>\n This could lead team members being confused and losing valuable time trying to decode a brief.<\/p>\n To identify such a problem simply means that you observe that the issue exists and you\u2019re trying to figure out ways of improving it.<\/p>\n The solution<\/b> to this could be to be better organized and keep track of briefs and the goals you want to achieve through those.<\/p>\n Some of the following questions could help figure this out:<\/p>\n Although these questions are indicative and might not apply to all your projects and issues, I\u2019m mentioning them to show you the importance of setting clear goals and scope before assigning tasks to employees.<\/p>\n This will allow everyone to be aligned with the instructions and the overall process of approaching the workload.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to use an example of a lack of proper planning, which is a common collaboration issue, and how it was solved.<\/p>\n Image Source: Capterra<\/a><\/p>\n As you can see, poor collaboration and not having a place where all the team would go to make sure they\u2019re informed of all project discussions, documents, etc., required the creation of such a central location.<\/p>\n In a few words, the same way you\u2019d identify a technical issue, let\u2019s say if your WordPress chat plugin<\/a> wasn\u2019t working – you\u2019d try to fix it as soon as possible – you should also take care of intangible issues in relation to collaboration.<\/p>\nMethod #1: Promote a collaborative culture<\/h2>\n
![\"Collaborative](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/collaborative-culture-1024x246.png\")
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Method #2: Encourage feedback<\/h2>\n
![\"Continuous](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/continuous-feedback-1024x150.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Five](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/continuous-feedback-diagram-1024x648.png\")
<\/p>\nMethod #3: Set cross-team goals<\/h2>\n
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![\"Live](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/live-stream-statistics-896x1024.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Challenges](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/challenges-with-live-streaming-830x1024.png\")
<\/p>\nMethod #4: Use collaboration tools<\/h2>\n
Instant messaging<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"RingCentral](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/instant-messaging-1024x602.png\")
<\/p>\nVideo conferencing<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"RingCentral](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/screen-sharing-1024x656.png\")
<\/p>\nPresentation maker<\/b><\/h3>\n
Method #5: Try to identify collaboration and communication issues<\/h2>\n
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![\"Sandeep](\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/sandeep-kashyap-1024x951.png\")
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