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Things may never return to the way they were before the pandemic, but we are getting back to relatively normal, and I know many of my fellow marketing professionals who’ve been working from home for the past year are debating whether or not it’s time to go back to the office.

I sent my entire team home back in March thinking, like many of us did, that the whole thing would blow over in a few months. Well, over a year later and vaccines have just begun to roll out. As someone who has been running my agency from the comfort of my home office, I wanted to impart a few of the pros and cons I’ve experienced over the past year.

Increased productivity

Since the work-from-home order started and The Go! Agency went remote, my team has been working on flexible schedules and using the time they would have spent commuting to log on and begin work. 

We’ve onboarded a lot of clients since the pandemic began and I’ve watched as my team put in hard hours pulling campaigns together on the new and unique clients. I have a current client who heavily advocates for allowing teams to work remotely, citing statistics that show they’re overall more satisfied and more productive. I’ve seen this to be true.

Adaptability

Because everybody is working at home and in unique environments, we’ve all tested our adaptation skills and learned new and exciting technologies in the process. For example, being remote allowed us to start taking on TikTok and incorporating it into our marketing strategy. Could we have done this in the office? Frankly, probably not. All of the team being in unique locations gives the TikToks we’re producing for clients the appearance of authenticity the audience on TikTok expects, something we couldn’t have achieved in our corporate setting.

Issues in communication

This has been the biggest challenge to having my team work remotely. It’s so easy when you’re just working across the hall from someone to go to their office and sort out any miscommunications that arise. But now, in the age of ping and instant messaging, unintentional misinterpretation runs rampant. Escalating anything to a Zoom call feels like a confrontation. But really, it isn’t! We’ve gotten so used to IM’s or just not wanting to bother anybody that every miscommunication has suddenly become a massive deal.

Less collaboration

Just by the nature of being divided, all of the projects have come together slightly piecemeal instead of as a unit, which is what I would prefer. Parts of the project feel like they go from one part of the assembly line to the next and while I’m still usually pleased with the results, I really can’t wait until we’re all ready to be together in a collaborative space where ideas and solutions can be shared openly and aren’t held back by not wanting to bother somebody with an instant message.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that things have run smoothly over the past year, but despite the hiccups, I’m proud of the progress that The Go! Agency has made. But, in my personal opinion, I’m ready to go back to the office. Running the show from home can be done, but it adds unnecessary complications that are erased once the team is working in the same space.

Will you be going back to an office or are you opting to stay remote for the time being, or perhaps permanently? I hope that my experience has made you weigh the decision carefully, no matter what option you decide to take.

How many times have you gone to a company’s website and found it either so overwhelming or limited and hard to navigate that you just…left. For years, having a website has been thought of as obligatory, something needed but not a primary source of sales or customer interaction. But as business, and the world in general becomes more online, and competition rises in nearly every industry, the fewer people are willing to fight with a poorly designed website.

If you were a brick-and-mortar location, you’d make sure that your store, office, or showroom looked impeccable before you let customers into it, right? When you don’t have a physical location, your website is the one opportunity people will have to form their opinion of you. If it’s hard to navigate or looks dated, that’s going to stand out as a mark against your legitimacy. Fair? Perhaps not. But life isn’t fair.

Navigation is the key to a strong website. What’s the end goal of your site? Selling something, right? Or some kind of conversion—sign-ups, downloads, what have you. If your site is a maze, that will directly translate into a lack of conversions. Don’t try to be clever or let artistic ambition or aesthetic preferences get in the way of the actual goal.

Finally, put yourself in my shoes: if a client sends me a website, I’m likely not going to be looking at it on my desktop. I’ll probably surf it on my phone or tablet. The most important element of good design is making sure your website looks good across the board. Assume that whoever you’re sending it to is going to open it on a cracked, 2010 era iPhone. A well-designed site should be able to overcome that.

Note, though, that poorly designed doesn’t mean sparse or underdesigned. If you have animations, pop-ups, and moving buttons assault the reader the minute your page loads they’re going to get overwhelmed and click away as fast as they can. If they really need what you’re selling, they’ll go to a competitor.

Striking the right balance on a website is difficult because it’s a lot like juggling plates. You have to capture the essence of your brand, make it easy to navigate, stack the information so users keep scrolling, and include enough information that the user is clear on where to go and what to do but not be overwhelming. Remember, the longer the page, the less the customer is going to read.

Your website is how you portray yourself to most of your customers. It’s really just like meeting somebody face to face—a lot is riding on making a good impression. We all like to come in under budget, but your professional image isn’t the place to look for savings.