It’s never easy managing any kind of team, but when that team is literally spread across the globe, it can be exponentially more complicated. From the standpoint of content creation, marketers must contend with a few problems when working with virtual teams. One of the biggest is maintaining a high level of consistency in written content. Ideally, you would work with just one core team of writers, but sometimes that just isn’t possible.
Most tech manuals and white papers aren’t written by a single person. Different sections are written by people who have a particular understanding and proficiency in a key area. Most companies and marketers work with a variety of writers, mostly because some writers have more knowledge in some areas of tech than others.
Today, I want to center on the concept of copywriting and making sure you work with competent writers from day 1. Here are a few ways to help ensure that your team works well together and can deliver consistent quality, messaging, and branding, even in a static environment like technical writing.
Challenges of Working with a Global Marketing Team
There are a number of pitfalls that need to be considered — and also avoided — before you even go looking for writers, though. Here are a few of them:
• Not knowing what you want to spend on copywriting.
• Not knowing the going rates for professional quality work (underbudgeting).
• Not having a coherent team structure or leadership base.
• Not having a planned-out content strategy (who is writing what, deadlines, team meetings, etc.).
• Poor communication and team management.
Before you even approach a writing service or freelancer, please have all the above mapped out. It will help you get a clear picture of how much your project will cost, how long it will take to complete, and much, much more.
Oh, and if your budget for technical writing services is too low, so will be the quality of the work. I’m not trying to give you premature sticker shock, but I am trying to make a point: Copywriting is a professional service. Be prepared to spend a little extra for the level of quality, organization, and control you get working with a professional custom writing service.
Interview and Vet Each Potential Team Member
While it’s much easier to find a core group of writers in one place (like Beez), it’s important that you know who will be writing for you. Don’t leave it to an agency to choose your writers. Ask for samples and, whenever possible, interview each potential writer directly. A good agency will want to work with you and put the most qualified writers on the project.
Share a Common Style Guide with Your Entire Team
This should be a priority part of your planning process, especially when multiple teams are working on the same document. A style guide offers a way to control the stylistic aspects of the project, right down to the specific uses of language, sentence structure, formatting, and more.
The purpose of the style guide is not to micromanage your teams into compliance, but rather to ensure that your messaging and content style remain constant throughout the finished document. It must be thorough, and it must be followed to the letter. This is why I say to vet your writers carefully. Good technical writers understand the importance of paying close attention to detail.
Meet Frequently to Discuss Current Projects and Strategies
Global teams often use team meeting apps like Skype or Go2Meeting to set up and execute regular collaborative meetings and to discuss the progress of the project. Don’t expect every team member to be present at every meeting. Have team leaders in place to convey relevant information. Better still, record your calls for those absent to watch or listen to later.
When selecting your copywriting service, be sure to disclose all the expectations that you have of your writers. Some agencies will insist on selecting their own team leader(s) to work with the client, while some let the client decide who, if anyone, they would like to name as a local point of contact and/or representative at meetings.
Track Progress
There are two ways you can go about creating the final document: have all your writers working at once or finish one section at a time fine-tuning all delivered copy as you go. There are advantages and disadvantages to each strategy. For starters, the advantage of having the entire document written at the same time saves time (at least in theory). However, the downside is obvious: If something goes wrong, the entire project gets delayed.
The advantage of working one section at a time is the assurance of top quality since all stylistic, linguistic, and relevant aspects of the writing are dealt with in smaller chunks. The disadvantage here, though, is also time. It always takes much longer to do it this way, but with proper planning, it might be the better option.
It’s Never Easy
Wrangling employees in a traditional office can be a challenge at times. Imagine you’re working with different people from different cultures (or at least different parts of the country), all in different time zones, and some speak your language better than others. This is the world of global collaboration and when we’re talking about words, it goes without saying that you want (and need) competent, professional writers keeping things moving forward. Communicate with your team constantly and be crystal-clear about how things are progressing. Following through on that plan will net you some great writing and also happy writers.
