How to create an ideal marketing department?

Regardless of the size of the company, it is quite common for a marketer to perform the duties of several specialists at the same time – responsible for creating advertising campaigns and SEO optimization, content writing and distribution, leads and social media. 

This multitasking does not allow true success in any of the marketing areas and leads to rapid employee burnout. The apparent budget savings are of no benefit, and the marketing department is not doing its job. How do you change this?

Who should be in your marketing department?

Even the best specialist won’t do the job for everyone, so the marketing department can’t consist of just one person. The size and composition of the team should be dictated by the needs of the company itself, but fundamentally it must include:

• department leader – the person who defines the marketing strategy and monitors performance indicators, coordinates the work of the team, looks for new communication channels, etc..;
• copywriter – a person responsible for creating advertising content, blogs, social media posts, etc.; and
• graphic designer – a person who creates visual elements of the brand image, as well as marketing campaigns, advertising materials, website or social media accounts;
• webmaster – a person who maintains, develops and optimizes the company’s website;
• toolmaker – a person who operates the necessary advertising, media and content creation tools, such as video.

You may find that your marketing department needs several copywriters or toolmakers. You will need to assess this yourself based on the amount of tasks and work. Over time, it will be necessary to find additional specialists in, for example, content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO or storytelling – it all depends on what areas you want to promote your company, product or service in.

3 stages of building an effective marketing department

Stage 1: define your goals

The Roman Stoic philosopher Lucius Seneca said: “When a ship does not know to which port it is going, no wind will be favorable.” This is also true in business: it is extremely important to understand what direction you are heading and what you want to achieve. Once you define your goals, it will be easier for you to choose the right tools to achieve them, and most importantly, to create a step-by-step plan of what tasks your future marketing department needs to perform.

Step 2: write out the tasks and KPIs for each position.

Invest in writing KPIs – this will save you time and money in the future. This will help the employee understand what is expected of him or her, and the manager will understand what results can be expected.

The job description should consist of 5 sections:

• general information (name, title, position, etc.);
• tasks;
• responsibilities;
• KPIs – key performance indicators;
• desired personal qualities of the employee.

Based on this, you can determine the base composition of your marketing team and decide whether it’s worth hiring full-time specialists, or whether it’s better to use a freelancer or an external company for the moment.

Stage 3: team building

At this stage you need to consider all the options available on the market – in addition to creating positions within the company itself, you can also look for freelance specialists or sign a contract with a marketing agency. Determine your financial possibilities, as well as your criteria for choosing an employee, freelancer or agency, and on this basis find the optimal solution.

main photo: unsplash.com/Jason Goodman