The working world is seeing a strong shift in how office spaces exist. Cubicles and traditional offices are phasing out, and virtual office spaces are phasing in. The shift towards telecommuting has been slowly building over the last ten years, and now it is accelerating. More and more businesses are discovering that having teams of virtual employees is better for their budget, better for their end product, and thus holistically better for their company.

There are myriad reasons why a shift to virtual employees is smart for many businesses, and nearly all of these reasons apply to amarketing team. It is very common for businesses today to employ virtual marketing teams, and for good reason.

Here’s a closer look at three benefits of having a virtual marketing team.

1. Save Money on Your Office Space  This one requires pretty simple economics: having employees costs your business money, right? So, if you could cut some of the costs of having employees, without sacrificing the quality of the employees or their product, then that would be a big fiscal plus for your business. Going virtual does exactly that.

You can cut back on office space, and all that that entails: rent cost, furniture cost, technology cost, electricity cost, etc.

That may not seem huge on a day-to-day basis, but over the course of a working year, in-house employees cost companies a lot of money in resources. Some people are under the misapprehension that getting rid of an office space can be detrimental to marketing teams, who rely so much on idea-sharing, face-to-face meetings, and collaboration. But with modern technology, that mindset is antiquated.

With video collaboration tools such as those offered at BlueJeans.com, the intimacy and accessibility of an office can be recreated virtually, and for a much lower cost.

2. Broaden Your Scope When you hire an in-house marketing team, you are limiting your scope.  You can only hire employees in your city, who are willing to commute to your office.  Hiring a virtual marketing team, however, increases your scope dramatically. If you are assembling a remote team, you are not confined to candidates in your city, or even your state. You have access to a far greater number of potential employees, which not only allows you to find better candidates, but also cheaper candidates. The larger the pool to choose from, the greater your chance of finding the best option for your team.

3. Increase Flexibility One of the reasons why telecommuting has become so popular is because of the flexibility that it creates. Rather than being confined to offices and 9-to-5s, employees can work where they work best, and when they work best, which increases the quality and quantity of work. Traditional, in-house marketing teams work set hours, but virtual teams – because of their flexibility – usually work on a project deadline basis, and are thus more productive, and more consistent (and not owed overtime). Utilizing a virtual marketing team can be the epitome of working smarter. It decreases the confines that a traditional office has, both literal and figurative. It increases flexibility, productivity, and employee happiness. It’s a win-win.