10 Ways to Successfully Manage
Virtual Teams
If you are managing one or more virtual teams, you are not alone. The Workforce 2020
survey claimed that 83 percent of executives plan to increase use of consultants or
intermittent employees over the next three years. Virtual teams can be a challenge to manage
because one needs to create a corporate culture remotely. Here are 10 strategies to
successfully build a virtual team that can be implemented instantly.
1. Define work systems.
Different people have different ways of going about tasks. Setting standards can shorten the
time needed to achieve the desired result. By setting standards and defining repeatable work
systems, the team has generally less questions and gets a feeling for how long certain tasks
should take. These work systems need to be both standardized to allow for maximum
effectiveness and tailored to allow the necessary freedom to complete the task at the best of
one’s ability.
A Checklist of 8 Best Practices for Successful Video Campaigns
Video ads are an effective, low cost opportunity for businesses to get visibility, improve
their branding and generate leads. The most effective video ads are based on a variety of
best practices to comply with general advertising principles. Here are eight best practices
to get you started on the right foot.
1. Define your audience before creating the video
Instead of creating one general ad for the sake of running a video campaign, there should be one video
per target group. Examples could be existing customers, people who are familiar with your service but
have never purchased or people unfamiliar with what it is you do. Each video should show what
convinces the different audiences to buy from you over your competitors. This may be a small detail,
such as rephrasing a sentence or a series of completely different videos that target different lifestyles
and geographical areas.
2. Get to the point quickly
The first five seconds will make or break the success of your video ads. One way to double check
whether you got the beginning right or not is to pretend that your entire ad lasts only five seconds. If
something is missing, such as the price, edit it until you get across your main point within the tight five
second time frame. While the beginning should catch the viewers’ attention and include a call to action,
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the rest of the ad should be informative and reinforce what you already mentioned, without being
repetitive.
3. Keep it short and simple
Users usually skip ads to get to the video they originally wanted to watch. Ads that perform well are
typically no longer than 30 seconds, which is just under the maximum time most people will pay
attention before skipping to the content they wanted. Long video ads that cannot be skipped often
backfire by associating negative feelings with the brand. To make the most of short video ads, engage
potential customers by encouraging them to go to the website or landing page for more information or
coupons.
4. Use remarketing lists to identify a target audience
Remarketing campaigns target potential customers who visited your landing page or website but never
converted. Choosing remarketing lists as a target audience will likely be a profitable decision, due to
high conversion rates and low cost. To maximize the effectiveness, create a variety of remarketing lists
based on what products or services your potential customers looked at in the past. Additionally,
remarketing helps your company becomes a top-of-mind choice and that increases sales in the longrun. Depending on the life-time value of a customer, remarketing lists as audiences can have a
significant impact on your bottom line.
5. Test YouTube and display placements on Google AdWords
AdWords for video allows you to display ads both on YouTube and partner sites, also referred to as
Display Network. You should test both options, since both can be profitable. More often than not, one
of these options will be more profitable, but at the same time, the other option might outperform those
numbers by providing significantly more traffic.
6. Use a voice over
Many YouTube viewers use the site while they are doing something else and don't pay close attention
to the video. Expand your video ad with a voiceover that could be a stand-alone radio ad. Keep in mind
that the purpose of videos, first and foremost, is generating profitable sales. Instead of spending time on
making the video visually appealing, invest time in perfecting things like the audio aspect. Improve
what’s already working.
7. Test different components of your video
Create different versions of your videos for each target audience, then implement a split testing
schedule with a concrete strategy for what will be split tested when. For continuous improvement, build
a system that helps to identify the best video and create versions of that. Choose the top performing ad,
create versions of that and compare it to the previous winner. Repeat this cycle enough times to
accumulate sufficient data to make an informed decision. While it seems fairly obvious that the most
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profitable ad would be the base for the first round of variations, you first must determine what the
characteristics of such a video are. The video ad with the highest conversion rate might be the lowest
cost per conversion with low traffic while other ads might have a higher cost per conversion but a vast
amount of quality traffic. The first five seconds are of utmost importance. That will most likely
determine how many of the people who watch the full ad will convert. Prioritize the first five
seconds for any split testing efforts. Other components to split test include audio, call to action and
music.
8. Test several audiences in AdWords
Set up one ad group per audience with a small budget for testing purposes and monitor the data closely.
Marketing departments with fixed budgets, and businesses that rely on suppliers or sales teams, benefit
immensely from focusing their entire, limited budget exclusively on the most profitable audiences. In
order to avoid missing out on future opportunities, set dates for regular quality control checks to test
new audiences. Creating and running video campaigns is fairly easy, but unless pre-defined audiences
are used, you are unlikely to maximize the return on investment and customer experience. Creating a
scalable video campaign structure may be time consuming but there is no need to start with a large
budget.
2. Establish multiple communication tools.
The benefits of establishing multiple communication tools are two-fold. First of all, your
team has a way to communicate something that is urgent to the right person immediately.
Secondly, it unifies processes such as what to use for conference calls, screen recordings,
and so on. It is clear what tool is used for what, which contributes to creating that internal
feeling of togetherness.
3. Schedule regular meetings.
Scheduling briefings at the same time on the same weekday contributes to creating a routine.
Routines provide the team with something they are used to and familiar with. That in return
puts the team at ease and reduces stress. Video calls are one of the best ways to maximize
efficiency because they recreate the routine office feeling remote teams are missing out on.
4. Have clear and detailed deliverables.
Simply telling somebody to do something is usually not the popular way to go about
managing teams. Micro-managing isn’t either which is why some managers avoid giving
instructions with too many details.
Based on my experience, it is better to provide more detailed descriptions of the tasks with
examples of what the final result should look like. Give the team the freedom to execute it
than less instructions and having to deal with potential misunderstandings.
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5. Make sure work hours overlap.
Regardless of what time zones your team members are in, it is recommendable to have at
least three to four hours a day where most of the team is online at the same time. Even if
some of the team members are unlikely to need each other to complete their tasks, being
online at the same time brings the team closer together and is the quickest problem solving
solution there is.
6. Create a professional work environment.
Professional attire and a distraction-free work environment are part of any corporate culture.
Additionally, setting professional standards contributes to being efficient and puts people in
the right mindset.
7. Choose (video) calls over chatting and emails.
With Skype and email being available at everyone’s fingertips, it is tempting to chat and
send a quick email whenever there is something to discuss. This can easily lead to
misunderstandings. With virtual teams, video calls or at least regular calls are more than a
way to avoid misunderstandings. They connect the team members on a more personal level.
8. Find the right people to work with.
Not everyone is cut out for remote work and not everyone fits the team personality-wise.
There are quite a few professional personality tests out there, and they can be a great way to
determine whether someone is the right fit is still to ask yourself whether you are sure about
that person or not. If you are not, it is usually best to move on to the next candidate.
Additionally, double checking all references is a must to make sure you know as much as
possible what you are getting yourself into.
9. Establish a meritocratic system.
Meritocracy -- or the process of rewarding and recognizing people based on their skills -stimulates people to work harder and better. Make sure to set up reward systems to keep
your team motivated and to better pinpoint the team members that can take on more
responsibility.
10. Use project management tools.
Project management tools can be ideal to keep track of deadlines. They also send alerts and
reminders for deadlines and give you a quick daily, weekly or monthly overview of what
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needs to be done, by who, and when. Things like Google Docs can still be a great addition
and the same is valid for time tracking applications.
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