Siloed teams and breakdowns in communication are familiar challenges to most of us. In our fast-paced environments, it can sometimes be difficult to ensure teams are all on the same page, particularly when it comes to digital marketing execution.
New solutions, intended to speed up processes and improve efficiencies, often create complexities as more users are added, additional tools are implemented and processes need to scale. The content creation process can involve a number of players from different teams, but how can we ensure everyone is on the same page?
Adobe’s State of Creative and Marketing Collaboration survey sought to better understand how teams work together when creating content and delivering customer experiences. The survey included over 1,000 creative, marketing, advertising and IT professionals, and the findings point to the growing need to improve collaboration efforts across departments.
We’re creating more content, but communicating less
Survey results indicated that cross-team communication takes place at least once a week, but those meetings don’t necessarily mean collaboration. Only 35% of all professionals surveyed rated their existing content creation and delivery process as “very well-coordinated.” With a growing number of content requests, these processes become more convoluted and lead to breakdowns.
“Marketers are being asked to produce and deliver way more content than they were asked to do just five years ago,” said Bruce Swann, group product marketing manager for Campaign at Adobe.
Improve visibility, transparency across teams to streamline processes
Most organizations use productivity and communication tools, but in some cases adoption is low. Driving adoption within your own team and across the different departments you work with can be critical to working smoothly together.
Many workplace messenger apps allow users to create groups or channels dedicated to specific projects to open up a new line of communication for users involved. These can be used to streamline processes and help bring the necessary parties from each team into the conversation, improving visibility into upcoming projects and tasks.
Involving creative will improve outcomes
Lack of visibility into campaign results is a consistent challenge among creatives. Only 24% reported being involved during the reporting stage. “Reporting is often stuck in silos or teams,” Swann said.
Source: Adobe’s State of Creative and Marketing Collaboration Survey
Not including creative teams can lead to misses when they lack insight into the effectiveness of the assets they’ve created. Not knowing what drives conversions, for example, can lead to roadblocks in future projects or a decrease in conversion. Forty percent of creatives said they want to be involved in reporting — specifically to understand conversion metrics and how content impacts revenue.
Marketing can lead the shift
While these challenges may be organizational, marketing can take the lead in improving how we work with our counterparts on other teams by providing ways to include the right people at the right time. We can leverage the tools we have to create inclusive environments that can help bring out key insights from our colleagues to improve our marketing campaigns and outcomes.
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