How Creatives Are Using Business SMS for Collaboration on Client Projects

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In 2018, U.S. spending on marketing services was estimated at around 240 billion dollars. Those figures are only expected to increase. Consequently, scaling creative agencies and small creative services businesses are facing a new challenge: managing more clients. To handle increasing workloads, creatives have started using business SMS for collaboration on client projects. 

Artists, photographers, designers, writers, and other creatives often work alone on their individual tasks within one large client project. Because of this, communication between them is sometimes less than regular. Silos are especially egregious when a creative business uses contractors to complete one-off tasks.

Read on to learn how creative services businesses are using SMS for collaboration, mitigating silos and acing client projects in the process. 

Using Business SMS for Collaboration on Creative Briefs

Most creative services teams hold in-person meetings or online video calls to discuss how they’ll approach a client’s creative brief. Once tasks are assigned, team members separate to complete their specific assignments alone. While this separation is necessary for the completion of individual tasks, it doesn’t help creatives discuss and refine their interpretations of the client brief. 

Making calls to discuss a brief can be disruptive to the creative process—and most professionals simply prefer collaboration via online tools. Team members can send questions to one another or to their clients through email, but it can take a while for professionals to see and respond to emails. In fact, emails have an open rate of about 20% and a response rate of 6%

These inconvenient and slow communication channels make it difficult for creatives to discuss briefs. And without a full understanding of a brief, creatives have to delay the entire creation process until their questions are answered. 

Alternatively, text messages have an open rate of 98% and a response rate of 45%. Any questions sent via text are more likely to be read and answered right away, so that team members can settle brief details. As an added bonus, team members—and team managers—can regularly check their business text messaging platform’s shared inbox, where they can see all internal and external texts. 

Using business SMS for collaboration helps creatives get started on their separate tasks as quickly as possible. 

Using Business SMS for Collaboration Centralization

With many large-scale creative projects,Creative's laptop open ready for using business SMS for collaboration team members like to share their ideas or progress. A graphic designer might ask for a draft of advertising copy so that he or she can begin a whitepaper design. A copywriter might ask for an artist’s sketch so he or she knows what an ad’s layout is going to look like. A photographer might ask a wedding planner for an image of the venue, so he or she can start planning poses. 

While team members can share their ideas and progress via email, that channel is too slow for the rapid exchange of ideas. Many teams brainstorm through channels like Slack. But there are those creatives who prefer to stay offline while they work. Other creatives, like photographers, are rarely by their computers in the first place. They’d rather quickly text their coworkers with images or copy that they’re working on. 

When creative services companies start using business SMS for collaboration, creatives can use a Slack SMS integration to centralize all team brainstorming efforts. Employees or contractors can text in questions or ideas, then team members using Slack can see those messages and respond from within their Slack channel. 

Using a Slack SMS integration for project collaboration is a great way to ensure creatives are producing art that will work together when combined. 

Using Business SMS for Collaboration on Deadlines

Creative services directors or managers spend a lot of time managing their employees and contractors. They have to ensure that project stakeholders are on track with their individual assignments as a project deadline approaches. 

However, follow-ups and deadline reminders are often buried in employees’ and contractors’ email inboxes. Checking in with employees in person can be time-consuming—if everyone is even in the office. Contractors often work remotely in the first place.

When directors and managers use business SMS for collaboration, they reach project stakeholders faster than ever before. For large-scale notifications, managers can send mass texts in a single click. Business text messaging platforms use merge tokens to personalize each outgoing message, so project stakeholders feel as though they are sent each message individually. Mass texts work well for follow-ups and deadline reminders as well as emergency alerts, holiday reminders, and event notifications.

With convenient follow-ups and reminders, creatives are more likely to turn in their assignments on time. Since the average response time for texts is 90 seconds, creatives will quickly reply with any delays or challenges they are experiencing. 

Quick responses give managers the chance to adjust expectations and schedules immediately—one of the best benefits of using SMS for project collaboration. 

Using Business SMS for Collaboration More Frequently

Today’s creatives are more capable than ever, but they’re also more isolated. 

This is, in part, because businesses ask their employees and contractors to communicate with new technology constantly. It can be difficult for professionals to pick up new tools when they’re trying to concentrate on creating something original for a client. 

Texting, on the other hand, is a tool that every creative on your team will be familiar with. After all, the average adult spends a total of 23 hours a week texting

Using business SMS for collaboration between coworkers, contractors, and clients is one of the best ways for your agency or creative services business to encourage teamwork. Ultimately, business SMS helps teams deliver more client projects that nail the original brief. 

 

Think your creative agency would benefit from using SMS for collaboration? Try our platform for free today.

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