Building an effective marketing team is crucial for any organization aiming to enhance its brand presence and drive sales. A well-structured team with clearly defined roles and expertise can significantly impact the success of marketing campaigns. This guide will explore the essential aspects of marketing team structure, the roles involved, and a step-by-step approach to hiring the right talent to achieve your marketing goals.
Understanding Marketing Team Structure and Scope
A marketing team typically includes individuals with expertise in strategy, content creation, digital advertising, and data analysis. They work together to create and implement marketing plans aimed at promoting a company’s products or services, engaging with the target audience, and driving sales.
The structure of a marketing team can vary depending on the size and needs of the organization. In smaller companies, a few individuals might handle several aspects of marketing. Larger organizations often have more specialized roles within the team, with expertise in areas like SEO optimization, social media management, and email marketing.
The main goals of marketing teams are to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales through strategic marketing efforts. To achieve this, they conduct market research to understand consumer behavior and industry trends. They use this data to create marketing campaigns that engage with the intended audience.
Marketing teams are also responsible for managing a brand’s online presence across digital platforms. This includes creating content for websites and social media channels, optimizing web pages for search engines, and running digital advertising campaigns. They analyze the performance of these activities using metrics and analytics to continually refine their strategies.
This is part of a series of articles about talent sourcing.
Marketing Manager vs. Hiring an Agency: What Is the Difference?
A marketing manager is an employee who oversees and implements the company’s marketing strategies. They work closely with other departments, ensuring that marketing efforts align with business goals. Their understanding of the company’s products, target market, and brand vision allows for tailored marketing strategies.
Hiring a marketing agency provides access to a team of external professionals offering a range of specialized services. Agencies bring expertise from working with diverse clients, potentially introducing new approaches. While they may not have the same level of inside knowledge about a company as an in-house manager would, they offer more experience and resources.
Choosing between a marketing manager and an agency depends on several factors including budget constraints, desired level of control over marketing activities, and other company needs.
For organizations seeking dedicated focus on their brand with consistent internal communication, a marketing manager might be preferable. Companies looking for broad expertise across different marketing domains without committing to full-time salaries might prefer an agency.
Essential Roles on a Marketing Team
A marketing team usually includes the following roles:
- Marketing director: Responsible for setting goals, planning campaigns, and overseeing their execution to ensure alignment with the company’s objectives. They allocate budgets, choose marketing channels, and evaluate campaign performance. The marketing director also promotes team development and cohesion, identifying skill gaps within the team and recommending training or hiring as needed.
- Brand manager: Focuses on nurturing the company’s brand identity, ensuring consistency and alignment with market expectations. They strategize to enhance brand visibility and reputation through various channels, overseeing campaigns to communicate the brand’s values, mission, and offerings to the target audience. They also analyze market trends and consumer feedback to inform strategic decisions.
- Content manager: Oversees the strategy, planning, execution, and evaluation of content across platforms. This involves coordinating with writers, designers, and other creators to ensure a consistent voice.
- Content creators: Focus on producing relevant and engaging material that attracts and retains the target audience. This includes writing articles, designing graphics, producing videos, and creating other forms of content that can engage the audience.
- Social media manager: Responsible for planning and implementing the company’s social strategy. This role involves creating engaging content, managing posts, analyzing engagement data, and interacting with the audience to foster community and brand loyalty. They must stay updated on digital trends and platform updates to retain audience engagement.
- SEO specialist: Improves the company’s online visibility and organic search rankings. They conduct keyword research, optimize website content, and implement strategies to improve site architecture and user experience. This influences the volume and quality of traffic to the website, aiming to attract visitors who are likely to convert into customers. SEO specialists also build quality backlinks and manage local SEO efforts to increase the brand’s presence in specific geographical areas.
6 Crucial Steps to Hire a Successful Marketing Team
When building a marketing team, organizations should consider the following steps.
1. Define the Structure of the Team
For smaller businesses or startups, a lean team with versatile members capable of handling multiple aspects of marketing might be appropriate. This could include a general marketing manager who oversees all marketing efforts, a content creator who produces written and visual content, and a social media specialist who also understands SEO principles to ensure content visibility.
For larger organizations or those with more specialized needs, a more segmented approach may be needed. This could involve dedicated teams for digital advertising, content production, social media management, SEO optimization, and data analysis. Each segment focuses on narrow goals within the marketing strategy but collaborates to create cohesive campaigns.
2. Identify the Roles for Hiring
Start by assessing the current marketing goals and strategies to determine what expertise is required to achieve them. Consider both short-term needs and long-term growth plans when deciding on the roles to fill.
For new or small businesses, focus on versatile marketers to cover a broad range of functions, such as content creation, social media management, and basic SEO tasks. As the organization grows, there may be a need to hire more specialized roles like an SEO specialist, a dedicated social media manager, or a graphic designer to enhance marketing efforts.
Evaluate the existing team’s strengths and weaknesses to identify skills gaps or areas where the team is overextended. Hiring to fill these gaps ensures that critical marketing functions are adequately covered. Consider the importance of strategic roles such as a brand manager or marketing director to oversee the overall direction of marketing efforts.
3. Define the Marketing Skills for Each Role
Identify the key skills for each role to create targeted job descriptions that attract suitable candidates:
- For a marketing director, key skills include strategic vision, leadership, and data-driven decision-making. They should have a proven track record of building successful marketing strategies that align with business goals and drive growth.
- For a brand manager, look for creativity in branding strategies, understanding of market research techniques, and strong communication skills to articulate the brand’s vision. They should know how to analyze consumer behavior and trends to position the brand in the market.
- Content managers and creators need exceptional writing or content production skills, SEO knowledge to optimize content for search engines, and creativity to produce content that engages the target audience.
- Social media managers should have expertise in platform-specific strategies, content curation and creation tailored to social media channels, engagement techniques to grow followership, and analytics skills to track social media performance against KPIs.
- SEO specialists must have technical SEO knowledge, proficiency in keyword research tools, experience with website analytics platforms like Google Analytics, and an understanding of search engine algorithms.
4. Find Marketing Candidates
When sourcing candidates for your marketing team, consider both freelancer platforms and traditional hiring methods for in-house employees.
Freelancer platforms like Fiverr Enterprise provide access to a vast pool of marketing professionals. These platforms allow you to review candidates’ portfolios, read client reviews, and evaluate their expertise before hiring. This approach is particularly useful for short-term projects or when you need specialized skills that are not required on a full-time basis. By hiring freelancers, you can scale your team up or down based on project needs and budget constraints.
For long-term roles, recruiting in-house employees might be more beneficial. Start by posting job openings on popular job boards such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor. Networking through industry events and leveraging employee referrals can also help you find qualified candidates. Conduct thorough interviews and practical assessments to ensure they align with your company’s culture and possess the necessary skills. Investing in an in-house team allows for greater control over marketing strategies and more consistent communication across departments.
5. Evaluate Candidates’ Marketing Skills
Evaluating freelancers is easy and low-risk. Start by reviewing portfolios to assess the quality and relevance of their work to your needs. Then conduct a test project to gauge their skills and ability to deliver for your organization. Freelancers often provide more flexibility and immediate availability, which can be advantageous for specific tasks or projects.
The evaluation process for in-house candidates is more difficult and has higher stakes. Begin with a thorough review of their resumes and cover letters, looking for relevant experience and accomplishments. During interviews, ask about their problem-solving abilities, past marketing campaigns, and how they measure success. Practical assessments or case studies can provide insights into their strategic thinking and technical skills. Ensure they fit well with your team dynamics and company culture, as this will impact long-term success and employee retention.
6. Hire and Onboard New Employees
The onboarding process varies significantly between freelancers and in-house employees.
With Fiverr Enterprise, onboarding marketing freelancers is usually straightforward. Provide a clear brief of the project, set expectations, and establish communication channels. Ensure they have access to necessary resources and any required tools or software. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions can help keep the project on track and ensure the freelancer understands your brand and objectives.
Onboarding in-house employees is more complex. It typically starts with an orientation program that introduces them to the company’s culture, mission, and values. You’ll need to provide comprehensive training on internal systems, tools, and processes they will use. Assign a mentor or buddy to help them acclimate to their new role and team. Set clear goals and expectations, and schedule regular check-ins to monitor their progress and address any concerns.
Hire a Freelancer Marketing Team with Fiverr Enterprise
Fiverr Enterprise is a Freelance Management System (FMS) that removes the stress of hiring freelance talent, and finds expert, pre-vetted and business-ready freelancers, perfect for your job listing, and for your organizational context.
With the help of our AI tool, or totally from scratch, create your job listing and post it on the platform, and within 48-72 hours, our hiring experts will present you with between 2-6 viable candidates, ready for you to narrow down the search.
If you need to move faster, we’ve pre-selected a list of talents from various, high-demand industries and fields, because we know you want and need the best in class. Our pre-selected talents are instantly available. Onboarding can be automated with a customized workflow that suits your organizational needs, and is totally compliant with the relevant regulatory requirements so you, and your new freelancer can hit the ground running.
To learn more about Fiverr Enterprise, schedule a 30-min call with one of our workforce experts today.