Marketing is about metrics and numbers. But it also requires creativity, and a culturally diverse team has chances to explore more variables. In addition, keeping things organized is a challenge when each team member lives in a different part of the world.
Marketing is a dynamic field that applies to any industry anywhere in the world. It is versatile in how it's applied and the types of strategies used.
You will find that creativity is fundamental and comes into play heavily, especially when working for an industry such as technology, the most innovative one of all.
This changing industry allows businesses to expand further than their local environment. So, taking that as a model, we’ve crafted our agency to work the same way. But, what does it mean for a creative agency to work with a multicultural team? And, most significantly, why do we recommend it?
Working with remote teams feeds creativity with inputs from different cultures and backgrounds to produce innovative ideas.
In this article, we will touch on a few aspects of remote marketing agencies:
The importance of communication and trust
Creativity and how to get inspired by different cultures
Remote Work Methodology
Team Performance Tools
The challenges
We are all aware of the difficulties a company can face when working with remote teams. However, it's agreed that communication is at the top of the list. Because of this, agencies that are successful in their workplace communication as a top priority.
Communication and Trust
Communication is essential to keep the momentum flowing. Therefore, it is crucial for key decision-makers and those involved in the creative process to maintain open communication from day one.
It doesn’t matter the size of the team nor the location: communication is always that factor that needs to be present. And not as easy as it sounds, people from the same culture, age, and country might understand different directions from the same sentence. Just imagine the challenge when we add difficulties such as: working with people from different nationalities.
And this is why we wanted to talk about this first.
It’s not an easy task, but don’t you love a challenge? For years now, companies have reached to apps that allow it. So, taking them to communicate effectively with team members who are not in the same room. Here at Sud, we use communication tools such as Slack and Asana. These tools help us to be in constant communication with our team and our clients. We communicate all updates and ideas through these channels, along with video calls through Google Meet.
Transparency is important for understanding the direction of a campaign or project and aids in building trust.
It’s all about trust
Not sharing an office space makes all the rules change. Our boss can’t see we’re working, so do they measure us? Well, by tasks. Deadline and the quality of the job become paramount when working remotely.
As part of a marketing team, our jobs depend on what our teammates did before us. Thus, if the strategist is late with the calendar, the so will be the designer, and the result is content published late or with lower quality.
Meeting virtually and often even speaking a different language makes trust one of the principal factors for a remote team.
Oh! And as part of a remote team: please, show up to the meetings on time.
Working with Different Cultures
If you are a part of a remote team, chances are you work alongside others from different parts of the world. This type of work requires learning and adjusting to the diverse cultures of your team.
Working with a remote team and adapting to different cultures helps us understand the cultures of the clients as well. Thus, being exposed to new and different ways of working and thinking tend to drive creativity. In turn, creative, innovative ideas and strategies can give the client a competitive edge.
In the marketing industry, creativity makes a difference in the success of your team and the work you provide.
Sharing ideas and tapping into each other's taught process can open doors to work methods that are now on the table. In addition, working amongst a diverse set of people and cultures gives way to more innovation and ingenuity.
As a marketing agency, we pride ourselves on being open-minded and accepting others' ideas; considering the ideas of others leads to a quicker way to solve problems.
Methodology
With technology at the forefront of remote marketing agencies, the need to apply methods to provide greater efficiency and scalability has become apparent. These concepts, such as agile and scrum, are not new to the scene, but they are becoming a more popular way to manage remote projects from different industries.
Startups all over the world are adopting methodologies and making them their own. But for some established companies, having a diverse team was not a choice. If we take Princess Cruises as an example, how do they manage to hold over 40 nationalities in just one ship and make it work? We have a lot to learn from those before us.
As international examples, Netguru uses the agile method to deliver highly productive teams for various needs; Ford Motors allows their workers to work based on group projects and company meetings (working by objectives.)
Conclusion
No matter which remote office you find yourself a part of, there is a big chance you will find them working with these tools, among others.
Working remotely has many advantages as well as challenges. Effective communication and trust are needed to drive the success of our work. Moreover, you will find that having a diverse team can help increase the level of creativity overall.
Adapting to the cultures of our team gives us the advantage and knowledge of how to reach culturally different companies.
If you are seeking a marketing agency that puts creativity and efficiency at the forefront, contact us! Let's get creative!