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With many uncertainties around COVID-19 and when this epidemic will begin to alleviate, marketers are finding themselves working remotely for extra precaution. Above all, safety is most important for all employers and their workers; staying home is becoming a necessity. However, for many marketers, remote work is something unfamiliar and confusing. To help your marketing team stay productive and encouraged, here are a few best practices for working remotely during COVID-19.
Start your workday as you normally would!
Trust us, we know how tempting it is to lay around on your couch or bed, still in your pajamas, typing away at your work laptop (unless you have a desktop of course). When working remotely, you will find yourself far more productive and energized if you go about your workday as if you were still in an office. In other words, get dressed in some fresh new clothes, and find a nice place in your home to set up a mini workspace. If you typically have a morning coffee at your office, continue this at home. If you normally put together a music playlist for your morning commute, have some music playing while you prepare for your workday. Keep your traditional work habits going to help maintain your daily routine and momentum.
Set up a communication system for marketing team members
Keeping active communication between team members is a vital strategy to ensure that everyone is on the same page about any deadlines or changes in work. Just as COVID-19 has become more unpredictable, your marketing plan will likely be as well; it can continuously update and evolve in the coming weeks. In our previous blog post, we shared a few suggestions for project management platforms to encourage communication and collaboration. For example, Teamwork is an excellent platform that thinkdm2 uses for our team. It features chat functionality that acts as a convenient messaging system right from your computer screen!
When it comes to conference meetings, if your team has the ability to do so, face-to-face video calls are highly recommended. Sure, some folks prefer not to use webcams during calls, but it does help provide a greater sense of engagement and community with your team. Zoom is perhaps one of the most popular video conferencing platforms and also allows you to share your screen during a call.
Spend time researching what thought leaders are saying about COVID-19
When working remotely, marketers may find themselves with a bit more downtime than in a traditional office environment—and downtime is the perfect opportunity for research! There are hundreds of articles from across the marketing industry that revolve around COVID-19 and what your company can do during this time. Now more than ever, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest reports and insights for COVID-19. Some of the top thought leaders—such as Forrester, Gartner, and Forbes—are actively providing new content for marketers and businesses to digest.
For marketing teams that regularly use social media channels to promote content, sharing these article—and inspiring discussions via comments—can be a great strategy. The information you share will be beneficial to your audience while also showing your team is keeping up with updates around COVID-19.
If you have questions for thinkdm2 about how we’re handling business and communication during COVID-19, please feel free to contact us. We are here to help! Thinkdm2 is a digital marketing and branding agency focused on the safety and well-being of our employees and clients.
