A successful marketing team is diverse. There are a wide variety of skills and abilities that are needed for an efficient and effective marketing team. With that variety comes a diverse collection of personalities that do not always get along. Whether your marketing team consists of 2 people or 20 as a manager of the team you must pay attention to unity within your marketing team.
Why Is My Marketing & Advertising Team Always The Problem?
It might seem like your marketing team is always fighting with the other teams in our business. This can be a difficult position to be in, but there is a common cause. The marketing team works with and communicates with almost all aspects of your business. They are truly in everyone’s business because they need to be in order to market effectively. When another team is getting asked a lot of questions by the marketers and designers or the sales team isn’t receiving the leads they want, there can be tension.
Additionally, within a marketing team, there are different specialties. Some marketers focus on data and analytics. Other marketers focus on design or content creation. There are a lot of different aspects of marketing in a single team.
Signs Of Disunity In Your Marketing Team
There are a few obvious signs of disunity within a marketing and advertising team. Below we’ve listed a variety of reasons your marketers might not be getting along. Most are obvious, some might surprise you.
- They are always fighting: This is an obvious sign of disunity.
- There is a lack of communication about your marketing projects.
- Marketing projects take two times as long to get done.
- Projects look like they were completed by two different teams.
- In marketing design projects, fonts do not match and colors are not correct.
Causes Of Disunity In A Marketing Team
What is causing these problems? Why must the marketing team fight over every project? Hopefully, your team is not that bad, but some weeks it can be challenging. Determining the cause of your marketing team’s unity will give clarity on how to unify your advertising team. This will result in more and more effective marketing services.
1. Your Marketing Team Has Undefined Positions, Expectations, And Responsibilities
If your team does not have defined positions a lot of work will remain unfinished, your marketing will lack direction and the overall effectiveness of the team will be minimal. It is good to have a few generalists in a marketing team, but having clear positions and seniority will solve a lot of issues on your team. Determine who is the designer, the writer, the data analyst, or the team lead as a whole.
A lot of managers will avoid defining a hierarchy within a team to avoid problems. The truth is, this will lead to more and more misunderstandings and problems long term.
2. Your Marketing Team Is Not Equipped
If you have looked at all the different types of marketing and marketing platforms as well as the skills required to achieve effective dynamic marketing across a variety of mediums and platforms you know your marketing team is overwhelmed. How you can make your team more unified is by taking work off of their plate and having them focus on managing projects and focusing on specific aspects of marketing. For instance, you can hire Wes Web to manage your digital marketing. This gives your team less responsibility which will improve all of your marketing.
3. There Is A Lack Of Communication On Your Marketing Team
Your team could simply not be communicating with each other. If there aren’t clear channels of communication, your team will not be able to work through challenges, problems, or daily marketing! There not only needs to be clear and established levels of communication but there should also be ways for your team to easily communicate outside of email to build trust and comradery. Sending gifs or memes about water cooler conversations is such a valuable aspect of office work culture.
How To Unify Your Marketing Team
Now the real question is, how can we unify your marketing team? We can do it the easy way, or we can do it the hard way. The easy way is to make changes to the existing problem areas. Some of your team members may resist this change and that is okay. Your job as their manager is to communicate why these changes are occurring and the end goal and purpose.
The hard way is you fire everyone on the marketing team. Please do not do that! A lot of workplace problems fall on the management of a team and not the specific team members. Yes, there can be difficult employees, but first try to make changes to the team’s communication, responsibilities, goals, and expectations.
Ways to improve your marketing teams unity:
- Have team events and focused team building activities.
- Provide training to equip them in areas they need help.
- Include them in marketing team decisions and structure.
- Never have lunch alone. Invite a different team member to have lunch with you.
- Lead by example.
- Encourage your team members.
Hire Wes Web For Your Digital Marketing
It would be wise to hire Wes Web for digital marketing to take the online marketing work off your team. Make sure one area of your marketing is excellent and your business continues to grow through search engine optimization, ppc ads, social media marketing, and more.