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Outsourcing Creative Services During the COVID-19 Shutdowns to Assure Corporate Communication Continuity
In times of crisis, whether it’s a natural disaster, global event or an ongoing pandemic – like we find ourselves in now with COVID-19 – corporations need to have a plan in place that’ll ensure that they’re effectively communicating with their staff and customers. During these times, communication is more important than ever.
You want to guarantee that everyone that works for your business is on the same page, and put customers at ease by explaining how you’re effectively responding to a crisis, allowing your company to maintain credibility. On top of that, corporations must be able to reach out and reassure shareholders during a tumultuous time. In a piece for IR Magazine, Joanne Wong, a senior managing director at FTI Consulting, outlined some advice for communicating with important investors during a crisis:
- Be transparent about the short-term challenges that your business faces due to the circumstances. This shows that management understands the gravity of the situation, but reveals strong initiative with leadership.
- Detail your solutions and plans to handle the disruption.
- Consider your communication goals. This goes for stakeholders, but also for every aspect of your corporate communications.
Of course, this can seem overwhelming in an unpredictable and stressful time. Now more than ever, your company may benefit from outsourcing creative services to ensure that business runs as close to normal as possible. As your internal team focuses on important communication goals and strategies to put the worries of consumers and investors at ease, outsourced creative teams can effectively keep your ongoing annual projects in motion.
Allow your internal teams to focus on your critical brand messaging during a crisis and reach out to creative outsourced workers for execution. We’ll cover some best practices for working with outsourced teams during this time, as well as the potential benefits:
The Benefits of Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
A Subject Matter Expert is someone who has extensive knowledge regarding a certain function, specific equipment or a field of work. While your internal team deals with its own exhaustive to-do lists, enlisting outside help can be effective for keeping your organization’s content in motion, whether that’s social media, video or beyond.
An SME will be well-equipped to manage workflows that align with your business, as well as keep important information, like deadlines and documents, organized. If you’re looking to create content that is going to benefit consumers, SMEs can be a huge asset for distributing informative but understandable work, according to The Training Associates.
Working with a single partner that has SMEs available can be useful for maintaining brand consistency as you outsource. You can ensure that these partners are able to understand all aspects of your brand: from your goals, to your aesthetics and your integral focus for marketing and communications. SMEs can then use your insights with their extensive knowledge to provide you with high-quality work. It can also lower your costs, as they can quickly and effectively turn around content that aligns with your strategies.
This partner will be able to thoroughly understand the scope of your mission, and you’ll build a mutual trust as you work together to produce marketing content. There’s power in collaboration.
Outsource Your Non-Strategic Work
Tasks like editing, animation and motion graphics can be laborious and time-consuming. During a crisis, your internal team may not have the manpower to complete these projects. Instead, turn to outsourced creative teams to focus on the execution. This allows for your staff to remain in creative control. According to an Adobe study, as highlighted by Innovate New Albany, companies that foster creativity are three times more likely to see a 10% increase in revenue year to year over those that don’t.
That means you should do your best to ensure that your internal team is able to get their own creative juices flowing and brainstorm as much as possible. This is easier said than done, due to time restraints and responsibilities. However, this is where outsourcing can work wonders. Outsourcing can give you and your team more time to think about core activities, like what makes your business successful in the first place. Turn to outsource editing and motion graphics so you can remain profitable without risking quality, The Balance suggested.
Work with Local Creative Talent and Crews During Travel Bans
As COVID-19 spread from one country to the next, we saw an uptick in travel bans for the safety and wellbeing of our communities. In other instances, it may be difficult to get your team to desired locations, whether that be costs, time restraints or other travel-related factors. That’s where it can be incredibly useful to outsource to local creative talent and crews. Not only will producers in the area be more familiar with the logistics of the city, but local crews will be able to capitalize on their familiarity with the location to ensure that production runs in a timely manner.
Outsourcing also typically guarantees that you’ll be working with experts in the field, so you can trust that your outsourced crews are utilizing high-quality equipment that may be out of budget for an internal team to continuously update. You’ll be able to capitalize on high production value while also keeping costs minimal, as you don’t need to pay for plane tickets, hotels or costly cameras and audio devices.
Outsourcing Does More than Save Money
While a huge benefit of outsourcing is that it can be cost-effective, since it prevents your business from having to expand internal operations, there’s other perks to outsourcing your creative work – especially during a time of high stress. A key finding in a 2016 Deloitte study is that value found in outsourcing is due to the impact it has on innovation, an increased ease in relationship management and improved flexibility. It’s not just about saving money.
Outsourcing gives your business the ability to meet ongoing demand while being able to prioritize what work is essential for your internal team. While travel bans and shutdowns have certainly impacted our typical routines, having professionals lined up through outsourcing can provide some peace of mind. When bans are lifted, you’ll be able to work with experts in the field to get your backlog of location productions completed.
The added flexibility provided to your company when working with creative outsourced teams is vital for unpredictable times like this. Working with a partner consistently can provide consistency, but also allows you to prioritize your workflow.
As your company works to provide effective communications to staff, consumers and stakeholders, consider outsourcing creative teams to guarantee productivity across the board. Crews Control offers outsource solutions from location crews, to outsourced editing, motion graphics and animation to a platform that allows live direction of user generated content. Contact us today to learn more.
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