How to Structure the Perfect Marketing Team for Any Company

18 mins read

The perfect digital marketing team has the appropriate skill sets and strategies to achieve organizational goals most efficiently. 

Depending on the size of an organization, the best marketing team structure could be anywhere from small and simple to big and complex. No matter the size, the team should always be moving the marketing needs forward on KPIs through constant optimization.

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How to Choose the Right Marketing Team Structure

Choosing the right marketing team structure for a company begins by choosing how the company plans to operate. Product-based companies need to sell products either on volume or by value. If the product has a high value, the brand can get by selling less of it and focus on the quality of its purchases. 

Brands that offer services or can stay open with lower volume levels can focus on experience and relationship-focused ways. For example, a company that has services should center on the customer experience model. Clients are often most focused on what their experience with the brand will be, and companies curate experiences to match. So, that should be the marketing/selling point for the brand.

Companies that are international or cover a wide territory should focus on the geography-focused model. This provides them the best options for adapting to the needs of different markets. Companies like Microsoft do this since the needs of each market differ widely based on their place. 

Finally, any company that focuses on solving a range of problems that are specific to a group of related clients should use a segment-focused model. Apple is a prime example of this as it covers an entire section of tech users. By offering multiple related products to them, the company makes the lives of clients across that segment easier. 

Choosing a marketing team structure is easier once it is determined what the company strategy is. Start with some internal research to see what pushes the company forward. Then, choose the appropriate structure that fits the needs of the company.

3 Types of Marketing Teams 

So when you look at creating your ideal marketing team, you need to decide the type of team that best matches your needs. The modern marketing team can be classified into 3 different structures: In-House Marketing Team, Outsourced Marketing Team, and Hybrid Marketing Team. Each of the next types has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

The In-House Marketing Team 

Pros of the in-house marketing team include a complete focus on the company mission and a deep acknowledgment of the company and customer journey. Team members also have direct access to each other and are able to quickly execute changes and implement the plans.

However, if you’re creating an in-house then you are investing in training and ongoing education, which can be expensive.

The Outsourced Marketing Team 

In a fully outsourced team, brands have the benefit of collaborating with experienced professionals without the cost of educating them.

These outsourced teams or companies are also working with other clients and have a better perspective of what’s working in the industry and what isn’t. This awareness can be passed through your business to optimize your processes or save you time and money.

On the other side of that coin, hiring an external marketing agency means you don’t have all of your time and focus.

The Hybrid Marketing Team

In a hybrid model, your company is able to access the advantages of both the in-house and outsourced marketing teams and provide customers with a full service.

The Directions of the Marketing Team

The structure of the modern marketing team is focused on duties and roles and not on job titles. From the head of marketing, the structure divides into 9 separate directions. It’s important that every team member has a general understanding of these directions even if they don’t relate to all of them in their day-to-day responsibilities.

9 Key Disciplines:

  1. conversion funnels;
  2. content marketing;
  3. paid traffic;
  4. email marketing;
  5. social media;
  6. search marketing;
  7. data/analytics;
  8. testing/optimization;
  9. graphic design.

Marketing Department Structure

Hiring the best talent will require understanding the best skills for each role. And, even if you’re hiring for a startup or small business and only have resources for 1-2 marketing roles now, it’s still useful to know the most transferrable skills that will help you hire professionals who can grow into new roles in the future.

This section will cover different types of roles within the marketing team, and what skills are needed to stand out in the marketing roles. 

Product Marketing Team

This team is so important because they will transmit the features and advantages of your product to the customer. They’ll organize and push the messages of a product and how it’s linking your brand and the customer. Product marketers determine target audiences to communicate with through product pages and advertisements. Product marketers also handle the pricing and the appropriate conversion funnel for all channels.

When you hire a product marketer, look for someone who performs a deep understanding of overall marketing functions since, for start-ups, they could be your only marketer. They need to be experienced in how to research, use that knowledge to plan future campaigns, analyze metrics, and target the customer’s needs in all of your business’s marketing promos.

Structure by team size:

The product marketer you hire as a business owner could be your only marketer, or the one leading marketing efforts with another team member. Find someone with a background or demonstrated knowledge in presenting marketing, writing, and business. 

You can structure your product marketing team by specialization, as well — a role-based solely on developing copy or producing strategy, for example. 

Potential roles:

  • Brand Specialist
  • Product Manager
  • Product Marketing Manager
  • Product Marketing Specialist

Social Media Team

Your social media team will create and manage social media marketing efforts. This team will need to have knowledge of how to make engaging content to boost brand awareness, generate leads, and connect with audiences. To appropriately perform these job functions, your social media team should have n experience in creating, scheduling, and measuring the performance of social content.

Structure by team size:

Each member of the social media department should have a general knowledge of basic marketing practices and social media experience to build an online presence and strong community. If you can afford multiple marketing roles, start focusing on marketing functions like social media manager, which can be its own role. 

Marketing managers can structure their social media team by hiring experts and managers to lead and build social media strategy, as well as roles for day-to-day social media activities, such as creating engagement content, collaborations with influencers, content management, etc. 

Potential roles:

  • Account Manager
  • Social Media Strategist
  • Content Creator
  • Community manager
  • Web Designer

Search Engine Optimization Team

The SEO team will mainly be driving traffic to your website by optimizing content and ensuring your company is aware of the keywords necessary to rank on the SERPs for topics related to your product or service. To achieve these goals, SEO teams need to be made up of experts with strong technical, programming, and writing skills. 

Some SEO functions require writing, editing, and proofreading content to optimize it for the target audience. This is where having a strong writing talent will come in handy. SEO teams should be amazing problem-solvers and think about how to optimize content specifically for search engines. 

Structure by team size:

If you work for a small brand, your SEO manager might be melded with another role. If that’s the case, make sure that the SEO functions are performed out by someone who has an understanding of analytics and optimizing content for search engines, as well as conducting thorough keyword research. In other words, if they can’t speak Google or Bing’s language, these SEO strategists likely aren’t the right fit. 

For companies that are large enough to create a separate SEO team, hire for different specialties within SEO. For instance, you can find for historical optimization, link building management, or raising webpage traffic. 

Potential roles:

  • SEO Strategist
  • Senior SEO Strategist
  • Optimization Specialist
  • Historical Optimization Writer
  • Senior Historical Optimization Writer

Acquisition Team

Though the entire marketing team should be customer-obsessed, your acquisition team must include those who live and breathe methods for delighting the customer through every step of their buyer’s journey.

Acquisition hires are the first contact with users — they will introduce audiences to your brand. Your acquisition team will communicate to the customer as a representative and advocate for the products and services, and need excellent customer-facing skills and company knowledge to do so. 

Structure by team size:

For companies whose members don’t have the resources to have a full Acquisition team, make sure the team member can effectively communicate with your company. They should know how to delight clients every step of the way. 

If you’re building a team for a larger brand, hire an Acquisition team with roles that are either exclusively customer-facing or exclusively non-customer-facing.

Potential roles:

  • Lead Acquisition Specialist
  • Customer Acquisition Specialist
  • Content Acquisition Manager
  • Acquisition Editor

Content Creation Team

Your content creators will be the ones making sure your project has enough capacity to tell a compelling story. The content they create will be useful in every aspect of your marketing functions, from video to blog posts. They may have to work on projects with other departments to make sure the messaging is correct, so your content creators should be ready to collaborate with others. 

Structure by team size:

In a startup, your content creation team might also contain your social media and product, marketing team. Though the positions are similar, content marketers need to have time-management skills in a fast-paced environment and tough deadlines, so make sure the expert, you want to be a part of your team, can work independently and in a team setting. 

Hire a content creator who understands the features of your brand and brand voice. Their methods of sharing your voice through video, podcast, or ebooks should ultimately incentivize chances to learn more about your business.

Larger businesses hiring experts for a content department can find by skill or by the needs of other teams. For example, Social Media Agencies need content creators for every customer or group of customers. 

Potential roles:

  • Head of Content
  • Producer
  • Content Creator
  • Jr. Content Creator
  • Video Production Specialist
  • Video Editor
  • Web Editor
  • Staff Writer

Web Design Team

This team will be responsible for all things dot com related and graphics for social media and other marketing needs. So you should hire a creative proficient in web design, web strategy, and optimization. 

Structure by team size:

The main responsibility of a web designer is to make the website experience smooth, optimized, and engaging for every user. They’ll use their expertise to provide a delightful experience to clients who interact with your business’s websites. 

You can organize your web design by need, but if you can afford to create an entire team, you can start hiring Senior Web Developers to bring your site up to current standards and maintain it, while Associate level hires can assist with those job responsibilities as your web design team grows. 

Potential roles:

  • Designer
  • Web Developer
  • Senior Web Developer
  • UX / UI Designer
  • Front-end Web Developer
  • Web Designer
  • Visual UX Developer
  • Graphic Design Specialist

Data Analytics Team

While team structure depends on a company’s size and how it leverages data, most data teams include three primary roles: data scientists, data engineers, and data analysts. Other advanced positions, such as management, may also be contained.

Marketing Data Analysts provide knowledge in both quantitative and qualitative business metrics. They analyze and track consumer trends, key market data, commerce statistics, and competitive intel, and then interpret, organize, and perform their findings to marketing decision-makers to improve over-arching strategies and specific tactics.

Potential roles:

  • Data Scientist
  • Performance Marketer
  • E-commerce Data Analyst
  • Social Media Data Analyst. 

Testing Team

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is an effective way to discover which kind of test is more popular among a target audience based on a set of chosen metrics.

Positions:

  • SMM A/B tester
  • SEO A/B tester
  • Pricing A/B tester
  • Content A/B tester
  • Email A/B Tester

Bottom Line

Modern marketing advancements provide amazing opportunities whether you’re building a brand, launching a new product, or looking to improve customer retention, but you need a team that understands how to use these tools to their full benefit. By taking the efforts to create a modern marketing team, you can follow new opportunities and fully use these new technologies and trends to your advantage.

Creating the perfect in-house team can be challenging. But obtaining the right balance of strategic and agile thinkers as well as foster a creative culture, and in-house marketing can bring excellent results for your company.

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