The importance of productivity is becoming more apparent every year and managers in companies all over the world are looking for ways to increase productivity, especially after the impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on the industry. This is important in all departments, but especially for marketing teams, as they are responsible for bringing in customers and making revenue.

Maintaining a productive team can be a challenge, but it can be achieved with good tactics. It’s important to remember that the goal isn’t only to increase productivity, but also efficiency because one without the other is practically worthless.

Luckily, this can easily be achieved if you consider a few proven tips.

Don't overwork your team

Even if your team works long hours and stays late, that doesn't mean they're doing their job well enough. Forcing employees to work long hours without taking enough breaks will cause a drop in productivity and ultimately result in getting less work done.

Overworking is a serious issue that you need to combat. Here is how you can do that:

• Make breaks at work mandatory. Everyone needs a break, and still, some people go as far as to work all day long without taking any sort of break because they want to accomplish as much as possible. Follow break entitlement rules, but also urge your employees to take small breaks when they need them.

• Keep an eye on employees’ workloads. If your team is skipping their breaks to meet a deadline and is staying late a few days a week, those are signs that you’ve given them more work than they can handle. If you notice this kind of behavior, assign them less work, or expand your team to help carry the load.

• Eliminate unproductive activities. Talk to the members of your marketing team to see which activities they believe aren’t productive and see if they can be eliminated. However, before you eliminate an activity full-time, make it a temporary change to see if productivity improves.

Use tools

Marketing teams have to perform a variety of different tasks during the day and this can become quite overwhelming. Luckily, there are a variety of productivity tools that can help your team do more work without putting in too much effort.

For your employees to properly use these tools, they need to have adequate knowledge of how they work and know how to use them for their everyday marketing tasks. This is why it’s important to properly train your marketing team on all tools your company is using.

As for which tools you should use, it differs from team to team and what kind of tasks your marketing team performs. However, there is a high chance that your team is sending out outreach emails, as this is one of the most frequently used email marketing tactics.

That is why every marketing team can use the outreach automation tool and make their email marketing campaigns more productive than ever. This tool allows you to send mail merge campaigns with automatic follow-ups, personalize, create email lists, and much more.

Communicate with your team

The foundation of every functioning team is good communication. As the marketing manager, you need to ensure all team members are informed on important topics and nobody is left out of the loop. Good communication leads to a better exchange of ideas and increased productivity.

It's important to always be honest, whether you're sharing new ideas, providing feedback, or informing employees about the decision you're faced with or have already made. Also, let them know that you're open to any feedback from them as well and show you're open to all of their comments.

Another thing you need to keep in mind is that you should hold every single member of your team accountable for their actions. If something is wrong with their work or they miss a deadline, tell them why their work doesn't live up to your expectations.

However, avoid being rude at all costs. Ask the employee who made a mistake why it happened and see if you can do anything to help increase their productivity. Sometimes team members are afraid to tell their manager they are having an issue, so it's important to show your team you're on their side.

Make your meetings more efficient

It’s no surprise that many people aren’t excited about going to meetings at work, and a large majority of them even avoid meetings if that is possible. This is because most people are under the impression that meetings are a waste of time and generally aren’t as productive as they should be.

Sadly, this really is the case most of the time, as employees attend an average of 62 meetings each month, 50% of which are considered time-wasting. If your employees have the same opinion about meetings and are always reluctant to show up for them, it’s time to change something.

To make sure your meetings are as productive as possible, you need to have a clear agenda that every participant is aware of. Take the time to talk about all important issues and get feedback, all while following a pre-set agenda.

If someone goes off-topic and tries to talk about something that’s not on the agenda, ask them to wait until the meeting is over and later have a one-on-one conversation with them. While it is important to take the time to listen to everyone’s ideas, don’t allow anyone to disrupt the meeting agenda.

Encourage teamwork

People are naturally social creatures and usually want to feel like they're a part of something much bigger than themselves. When people work in groups, not only do they have their feeling of belonging stimulated, but they also work much harder because they have a common goal to accomplish.

Find tasks that can be accomplished by teams and pair up people who have a history of working well together to achieve the best results. Encourage effective teamwork and provide a space where each team can focus only on their assignment and you'll see an increase in productivity very soon.

However, remember that not all of your employees feel comfortable working in teams, especially those who are introverted. Allow them to work on individual projects and don't forget to give them as much praise as you give to the teams.

Final thoughts

You can't expect your marketing team to be productive unless you apply the right tactics and show them all the benefits of a productive workspace. As long as you lead by example and are a good manager, your employees will soon follow and become the most productive team in the entire company.