Communications professionals must adapt to working among all departments, especially at associations, where teams are often small and require cross-collaboration.

This article provides tips on how to get started clarifying your team’s role or strengthen existing internal partnerships, using an example scenario of working with a multimedia team to provide content such as videos or podcasts.

Understand Their Needs and Explain Your Potential Solutions

Ask specific questions to determine objectives and target audiences. This way you can create messaging that aligns with what the team is trying to achieve and provide format options that will support their goals.

Example questions: What is unique about this initiative? Are there any roadblocks you anticipate?

Make sure your non-communications colleagues have a clear understanding of the platform for the multimedia project and use data to demonstrate how audiences interact with media on that platform. For example, a social media video will have different length requirements than a video embedded on your website.

Be thorough in reviewing formats and destinations in this pre-production phase. Some non-communications professionals may not be aware that video aspect ratio, for example, won’t be easily interchangeable once a project is complete.

Streamline Project Requests With Task Management Tools

Implementing a task management tool streamlines workflows, improves organization, and maintains visibility across projects. To maximize the benefits of a task management tool, associations should establish a standardized project request form to ensure that all necessary details are captured. The project request form should include all essential details such as project objectives, target audience, project inspiration, and deadlines. This initial step helps the marketing and communications teams prioritize and allocate resources effectively from the start of a project.

Translate Expertise Into Messages

As a communications expert, your job is to be a translator by turning cross-department content into attractive, digestible formats for your audience. Let your expertise shine by highlighting the work of the organization in an engaging and accessible way.

Provide specific examples of changes or edits that are or are not possible (such as adding another camera angle) at various stages of the production and post-production process. Be careful about using and defining vocabulary — does your stakeholder know what the difference between a cut, a transition, and an effect is? Ensure that technical terms are clearly explained or demonstrated to avoid confusion.

Set Boundaries and Timelines

To manage expectations, create realistic deadlines and timelines at the start of the initiative. Whether you are a contributor or leading the project, understanding availability and turnaround times will help guide a successful outcome.

Set expectations on budget, possibilities, and constraints with in-house or smaller teams versus a vendor. You may be able to create a multimedia project on a limited budget and quicker timeline, but that may mean you sacrifice some production value. Clarify responsibilities around scripting, creative, and visual choices. Will you have the final say on the colors of graphic elements or font choices, for example, or will someone else approve?

Maintain Regular Communication Channels

Establishing and maintaining regular communication with departments that have ongoing communications needs is vital for fostering collaboration between teams on projects. These regular check-in meetings allow teams to discuss upcoming projects and potential communications support that will be needed, as well as address any challenges that may arise. Check-ins also prevent last-minute requests. An open line of communication helps marketing and communications teams stay proactive rather than reactive.

Leverage Project Managers for Enhanced Collaboration

For larger or more complex projects, working with designated project managers can significantly improve communication and project outcomes. Project managers can:

• Act as a liaison between the marketing/communications team and other departments
• Ensure that project timelines and deliverables are clearly communicated and met
• Facilitate resource allocation and prioritization across multiple projects
• Identify and address potential issues before they become significant problems

Minimize Preference-Based Feedback

Don’t operate in a silo. As you go about creating campaigns or plans, ask for input early so you can provide strategic guidance. This builds trust and establishes expectations for the end product.

Set up a shared understanding for feedback that points back to the initial goals and priorities. Use data to approach subjective preference-based feedback.

Example questions: How do you think this messaging (with the edit) will resonate with our audience? Does this feedback align with our original goal?

Make sure your stakeholders on a video project know what will be a normal part of the edit (such as color correction). Consider using review software that makes feedback timecode-tracked for video and audio content and is user-friendly for an unfamiliar audience.

Celebrate Wins Together

At the end of the initiative, be sure to pause and celebrate successes. This helps foster relationships and creates goodwill among teams. Use metrics or individual contributions to recognize wins.