In recent years, Black Friday has increasingly established itself as an essential date in the calendar of companies, whether startups or large businesses. The date, which originates in the United States, traditionally takes place the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, when Americans went to physical stores to take advantage of offers on the most varied types of products.
However, with the digital transformation of recent years, the date not only went beyond physical stores, reaching the digital market, but also went through a process of globalization – today, the phenomenon is present in several other countries around the world, including Brazil.
Thus, the increased agency production on Black Friday it is a necessity – after all, your clients will have more demands to deal with and the agency itself will need to focus on internal work, considering that, during this period, it became customary to offer some type of special condition to clients.
With this in mind, this article will cover how to increase your production without increasing the agency's fixed costs, covering topics such as:
- strategic planning;
- optimization of internal processes;
- investment in technology;
- intensive training;
- clear and effective communication;
- real-time monitoring;
- how CROWD helps you in this process.
Strategic planning
Much is said about the importance of a strategic planning results well structured, right? After all, with it you can:
- plan in advance;
- define clear goals and objectives to be achieved;
- identify resources already available and understand how they can be optimized.
Planning in advance is essential so that the agency can minimize the chances of errors and rework, as well as being prepared with contingency plans in cases of unforeseen events, which will happen from time to time.
At this time of Black Friday, the ideal is that all actions performed are in accordance with strategic planning, so that goals and objectives can be achieved – and most importantly: that there is a well defined step by step so that the professionals involved know exactly what they need to do to get there.
Furthermore, at the planning stage it is possible identify the resources that the company already has and visualize how to optimize them. Optimization is a very important step for any business, especially at times with a large volume of work, such as around dates like Black Friday.
Optimization of internal processes
In strategic planning, the agency has already identified processes that can be enhanced. However, it is also necessary to make a review of workflows in order to identify possible bottlenecks and points for improvement.
FOR further optimize internal processes, the agency can seek management and automation tools, which facilitate the work routine, organize information effectively and also accelerate the execution of repetitive tasks, freeing staff to perform more strategic and focused functions core business.
Furthermore, it is essential that everyone on the team is aligned and working efficiently. Therefore, investing in training and good communication is another key point.
If you decide to adopt a new tool or workflow, for example, everyone on the team needs to receive adequate training so that choking is kept to a minimum.
Technology investment
It is a fact that productivity and technology they go hand in hand. Therefore, a solution to increase agency production on Black Friday is to invest in resources that stimulate productivity and help save time.
Gone are the days when doing everything “by hand” was a sign of good work. Currently, we have the support of management tools ou CRMs it can be considered basic for any business that wants to grow.
Here, the idea is to automate what is possible and, what is not possible, to make the process as easy as possible, organizing information in a clear and intuitive way, using data analysis to highlight possible patterns and allowing the team to entrust the computer with a large volume of information.
And anyone who thinks that it is necessary to spend a lot of money on technology to achieve positive results is mistaken. There are several free or freemium in the market:
- Trello: one of the main project management tools, Trello is free and features board visualization, allowing everyone involved in a specific task to receive notifications related to their status, share relevant information and update the project's development in real time;
- Evernote: this tool allows users to take notes in meetings and share notebooks with other people on the team, in addition to enabling connection with Google Calendar, to combine the notes taken and the agency's calendar, and synchronization anywhere, be it a computer, tablet or smartphone;
- Hub Spot CRM: the software tracks leads and creates a complete database of client activities, centralizing all information on a platform that allows the agency to manage relationships with its clients – it is available in a free or premium version, with access to more features.
These are just some of the possibilities on the market. There are several options available and you are sure to find something that fits your agency’s needs and available budget.
Intensive training
We have already talked about adequate training when the agency decides to adopt a new tool or a different work logic. However, these should not be the only reasons to invest in training your team.
A continuing education It has increasingly shown itself to be an asset in the current market, given that more qualified professionals tend to be more efficient.
Therefore, investing in training is an excellent idea to optimize your team’s performance. This can happen either with internal workshops, in order to keep everyone on the same page, or using specific platforms.
Some companies like Coursera and Udemy provide free courses, for example, and taking advantage of them is an interesting tip to increase production without increasing your business costs. These trainings can be extremely valuable for training your team.
Clear and effective communication
A very efficient strategy for reducing reworks is to maintain clear and effective communication during all stages of projects developed by the agency. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a well-structured and centralize all communication in just one location.
With this, the team knows where to look for updates and possible changes that occur throughout the work, as well as monitor how the goals are progressing and what needs to be prioritized.
Some communication tool options are:
- Slack: this tool can be used on both computers and smartphones and allows the agency to create specific discussion spaces according to projects, recurring demands, internal communication channels – it is also possible to integrate it with other tools that are widely used on a daily basis , such as Google Calendar, Gmail, Outlook, Zoom or Teams;
- Trello: this tool is more linked to monitoring the status of each specific demand, so that the team can know who is working on it at what time, which tasks are under development, which have already been completed and what should be started soon – it is also it is possible to communicate directly on tasks through comments, although Trello's focus is more on viewing boards than exchanging messages itself;
- WhatsApp: the beloved messenger can also be very useful in the professional environment, allowing communication and sharing of files from person to person or between groups and the key is to structure these groups so that information does not go unnoticed – and the great advantage is that the app is entirely free and already widely used by the entire team;
- Google Chat and Spaces: within Workspace, Google Chat and Google Spaces are options that are very similar to Slack and are already integrated into the Google ecosystem – so, if your agency mostly uses the company's applications and solutions, continuing with this communication tool can be a great choice.
It doesn't really matter which tool is used. The essential thing is ensure the entire team is connected and stays informed at all times, so that updates are noticed quickly and the necessary personnel can move to start working on demands as they arise.
Real-time monitoring
Another key point to keep the agency's production high, without burdening the budget, is to pay attention to whether the goals and objectives are being achieved as expected.
Therefore, try to use analytical tools to monitor production in real time and, if the results are not adequate, make quick and accurate adjustments to ensure efficiency.
In this sense, the OKR methodology, for example, can be a great ally: OKR, in English, means objectives and key results, or objectives and key results. It assists in establishing challenging objectives, measurable key results and clear team initiatives to maximize productivity and optimize resource utilization.
Furthermore, using the structured methodology, monitoring project development is facilitated through tools such as:
- Bitrix24: allows the integration of various tools for managing clients, projects and tasks and produces reports with the information entered;
- profit.co: makes objectives more tangible by giving agencies access to relevant metrics on expected results, showing whether the company is on the right track or whether it needs to adjust its strategy;
- Wrike: This tool produces automatically updated graphs and status reports that help your agency identify successes and points for improvement, facilitating project management.
How CROWD helps you in this process
Optimizing the agency's production during an intense period like Black Friday can be a laborious process. That's why, establish partnerships with other professionals It is essential to ensure that everything goes as planned and there are no delays or waste of resources.
By choosing to collaborate with other highly qualified specialists, you will see that it is possible to divide tasks and optimize the resources that the agency already has, increasing productivity without burdening the budget, aiming for a positive return on investment.
An interesting idea for these periods when demand is greater, such as Black Friday, is the temporary hiring, that is, your agency can count on more professionals only during that period when the amount of work also increases.
Nowadays, this is possible easily and without bureaucracy through the squads on demand. Squads are teams of highly trained professionals who work in accordance with the agile methodologies, prioritizing productivity and meeting personalized needs.
These flexible hiring models allow allocated freelancers to adapt to the workflow that already exists within your agency, coming to add to your team and make the company cope with the increase in tasks during this period.
With CROWD, you can find these professionals fast and without bureaucracy:
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- 360 view of marketing: CROWD offers a complete overview of the market, combining all the experience of our internal team with know-how from freelancers in our network, culminating in a more comprehensive and effective strategy;
- personalized strategic consultancy: as you have seen, the success of a major event like Black Friday depends on the execution of good strategic planning – with CROWD, you will have the support of experts when defining the project best suited to your agency's needs, ensuring that all actions are aligned with the company's profile and objectives;
- flexibility and diversity for every need: our platform has more than 28 thousand active professionals and 3 thousand different skills, so CROWD is capable of assemble the ideal team for your needs, regardless of your company’s segment;
- continuous and humanized support: CROWD provides a Customer Success professional dedicated to your project, so that all stages are supervised and everything goes according to plan;
- cutting-edge management technology: CROWD uses artificial intelligence to optimize management and maintain effective control over all actions, in addition to investing in new technologies that emerge all the time;
- agility and security: in a period as competitive as Black Friday, quick decision-making is essential – with CROWD, processes are agile and secure, from confidentiality terms to the protection of intellectual property;
- continuous development: the CROWD Academy initiative ensures that the platform's professionals are always up to date with the best practices and market trends, translating into an additional guarantee that your agency's projects are aligned with the most current developments;
- proof through results: with more than 6 years of experience and thousands of hires, CROWD has a solid base of satisfied customers, guaranteeing the effectiveness of our services.
A CROWD is ready to be your partner on this journey towards Black Friday success. With expertise, technology and a dedicated team, we have everything you need to guarantee exceptional results.
Count on CROWD to increase agency production on Black Friday. Contact us and ask for a quote.
