Effective collaboration: 3 tips for teaming with wordsmiths
Published on August 22, 2017
To better understand how teams collaborate, we talked with thousands of marketing and design professionals in the US. Today, we want to share what we learned.
In part two of our series on effective collaboration, we’ll continue looking at marketing personas to identify their pain points and suggest ways to address them. Here are three tips for teaming with wordsmiths.
1. Recognize common roadblocks
Creating a successful marketing campaign begins by crafting a powerful, persuasive message. To help with that, you’ll want to work with a wordsmith. Whether they’re a copywriter, editor, or Director of Content, the wordsmith is a specialist with the skills to translate technical jargon into conversational, customer-facing language that connects with an audience and motivates them to take action. The most common roadblocks wordsmiths face are:
- Inefficient communication during feedback cycles
- Scattered research and source materials
- Lack of insight into a project’s review cycles
2. Use a flexible, collaborative editing platform
Need to bring all of your co-workers together to collaborate on a project in real time? Dropbox Paper can help by providing the wordsmith with instant feedback and clarity.
3. Create a robust copy brief
Wordsmiths need access to research material, brand guidelines, objectives, production schedules, and more. Keep all of these materials in one document or folder, so they can spend less time searching for background info, and more time creating dynamite content.
Recommendations for wordsmiths
- Involve designers during the early stages to grant them insight into the project’s goals.
- Keep others informed on progress. They may be hesitant to check in and disrupt your writing process, so it’s helpful to share updates that keep everyone on the same page.
Recommendations for their teammates
- Keep feedback targeted, actionable, and timely. The Wordsmith should understand—with minimal guesswork— exactly what’s expected in the next version of the deliverable.
- Provide clarity on the scope of work, the roles of all key players, and the expected outcomes of the campaign.
For more tips on facilitating teamwork and collaborating on campaigns, download our free eBook, Team up for marketing success.
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