Gone are the days of happy hours with prospects. Because of social distancing, sales and marketing teams need to find new ways to generate demand and close deals. On top of this fact, B2B marketers are expected to do more with fewer resources and with strategies limited to digital engagement.

To drive a higher ROI in a remote world, smart marketers are increasing their agility and control. By rapidly building content that is digitally immersive, mobile-friendly, and easily shared, they are making up for decreased in-person interactions and delivering impactful online campaigns.

In today’s business landscape, enterprise marketers need to let go of the “technology first, design second” workflow that was required by legacy Content Management Systems.

Instead, it’s time to activate a design-first, code-free approach that streamlines web production, empowers creative teams, and increases conversions—despite social distancing.

Increase Agility With Design-First Content Systems

The first step in adapting to the current business landscape is ensuring that your teams are set up for success with the right tools.

Traditionally, marketing and creative teams have relied on Content Management Systems. These legacy systems were primarily created by and for technical teams. As a result, marketing and creative teams relied on development teams to execute their content initiatives. Speed to market and design quality often suffered.

With fewer resources and the need to increase content production, teams can no longer afford to take this “technology first, design second approach.”

Building your content programs with scalable design systems is essential. This empowers teams to increase their content production and significantly boost their speed to market without sacrificing design quality or brand consistency.

Using design systems, you can manage, maintain, and organize on-brand digital assets that can be leveraged and customized across teams, at scale. This is especially important for large enterprises that cater to regional and global markets.

Improve Collaboration Among Remote Teams by Consolidating Design, Production, and Management Workflows

Many companies use multiple content creation tools for various purposes. Unfortunately, this strategy leads to inefficiencies across teams. In a remote business world, having multiple content creation tools creates even bigger problems.

On the other hand, centralized design systems allow creative and marketing teams to work together. You can cater to specific audiences through one on-brand access point and collaborate seamlessly.

Drive Higher ROI From Content by Increasing Agility

Marketers need to meet the increased demand for digital content. It’s important to equip teams with the tools they need to rapidly produce quality content at scale. Taking control of end-to-end production and decreasing development time is essential.

Colliers International—a global commercial real estate services organization—is a great example of a company that has embraced design systems and increased its agility.

This year, Colliers International implemented digital COVID-19 resource hubs across multiple continents, including EMEA and APAC. These easily-updatable hubs allowed them to deliver trends and insights on how to navigate business conditions during the pandemic.

Colliers International has more than 200 capital markets advisors from over 35 countries. The ability to oversee content creation and utilize tools to build and deliver web content at scale, as well as fill in the blanks for what would have been covered at in-person meetings, is table stakes for their digital environment.

Shift Your Strategy for Success

In today’s digital environment, and the pivot to working remotely, it’s imperative to leverage solutions that enable cross-team collaboration and decrease reliance on developers and coding.

Design systems put marketers at the forefront of digital transformation and ensure success regardless of how work environments evolve in the future. Organizations need to say goodbye to antiquated Content Management Systems and adapt a design-first mindset.