Meetings have become the epitome of toxicity and procrastination in today’s fast-paced world. Most professionals tend to get engrossed in off-topic talks or anxiously watch the wall clock ticking.
Consequently, meetings have become both inefficient and inconclusive in most aspects. Just ask yourself when you are going to attend a meeting, “Are you looking forward to it?” Most will be fumbling to answer this very fundamental question.
But given the dynamics of work, one needs to think of novel ideas, track individual progress, perform group tasks, and review everything. So here, another question arises. “Is it possible to make these marketing meetings worth looking forward to?” The answer is, a big yes!
A properly planned approach for a marketing meeting can usher everyone with delight and efficiency. Follow these tips and strategize to hold your perfect marketing meeting.
Determine the Goals and Agendas
Often, we find that meetings are conducted just for the sake of it. Without a purpose at hand, any meeting will be rendered both inefficient and inconclusive. You must decide upon the goals that this meeting shall fulfill in the end. An SEO service company, for instance, can have goals depending on the answers to these questions:
Is it for devising new marketing tactics?
Is it to review the results of a previously implemented marketing strategy?
Determining this before the meeting is crucial.
Next, you must come up with an agenda to be wholly discussed in the meeting. A presentation with the agenda as its first slide clears any air of vagueness behind the meeting’s real purpose. It should involve different aspects as well, such as:
- What is the main topic of discussion in the meeting?
- What sub-topics should you cover under the main agenda?
- Who is going to lead each discussion?
- How much time should you allot to every discussion?
By touching upon every side of the cube with time limits, an individual is sure to get absorbed in the momentum. These also help to avoid any unnecessary chattering and casual glances at the wall clock. Without an agenda at hand, you will have to think twice before scheduling a meeting. It will help you to reserve meetings when the necessity arises.
Being prepared is the key
Imagine you are doing your work or thinking of how to achieve a big promotion next year. Suddenly, your focus is snapped by a call/ email from your boss that a meeting is scheduled in the next hour. A panicky mind is the last thing that you would want your employee to take inside the meeting hall. Follow these little tips:
- Try to inform the attendees about the meeting at least a day prior. Pick a time that is suitable for everyone, and when they are in their best state of mind.
- Meetings after post-lunch or on Fridays can be on the sore side of most employees. Instead, an early morning meeting on weekdays at around 9 can be comparatively efficient.
- Share the agendas that are to be discussed in the meeting beforehand via emails or notices.
- Inform people when they need to prepare. A speech or facts are delivered well if they fall within the constraints of the allotted time.
- Give people 5-10 minutes to settle down before starting the meeting. An undeniable fact but determines individual efficiency from scratch.
Take command
The agenda is decided, and everyone comes prepared for the meeting. The meeting begins, but the conversation becomes off-topic. Thinking about what went wrong, right? Any meeting can turn out to be a disaster if there is no one to lead from the front. It is vital to steer the meeting from one discussion to next and passing the mantle of leadership from one individual to another at the right time.
Jot down everything
Assign a person to write down the Minutes of the Meeting (MoM). Writing this will help to keep track of what all you have discussed in the meeting. People will have a hard time forgetting the crucial pointers of the meeting if they have it written down in front of them.
The perfect tools to use
There are always situations when some employees might not be available for the meeting due to other work-related duties or personal reasons. It calls for the use of the right apps which enable proper communication through audio and video streaming.
Another aspect of this is to ban technologies that can divert the attention away from the agendas. A simple email notification or an online sale bonanza is enough to lose focus from the discussion. Encourage practices such as keeping your laptop closed and phones on silent mode while attending a meeting.
Technology leads the way
The meeting room’s requirements itself may vary with the meeting. Regular coffee shops with their noise can’t cater to a work-related discussion. But with your own meeting space, you can hold conversations in privacy and at your own pace. In case you don’t have a meeting space or it’s a meeting with remote employees, virtual meeting rooms can be great given its proximity and cost-benefit.
There are several merits of having your own smart meeting space:
- You can select your meeting room from a large selection along with the required time duration.
- With well- defined prices, the amenities offered are just what you shall require.
- Motion sensors and calendar syncs make a smart meeting space more eco-friendly and automated.
- They come with VR technology that makes meetings more inclusive for those who can’t attend in real-time.
- Calendar sync allows the organizer to conduct meetings based on everyone’s real-time availability and save manual work through emails and calls.
All of these generally make sense, but with the whole lockdown situation going on, technology can also be used to take online meetings.
Pro-tip for long online meetings: Introduce the team to remote team building activities to ease the pressure & inconvenience.
What have you reaped?
It is the question that lingers after every meeting ends. What next? What have we achieved at the end of the meeting? Have improvements been made? Have new ideas been given a thought? What are the future goals regarding the agendas discussed? It is something that has rendered every good meeting as a thrill with no will. Reaching decisive actions so that everyone has the answer to such questions is something that gives the final touch of perfectness to a meeting.