How to Build an Amazing Marketing Team for Any Company

1. Know the Role of Your Marketing Team

The purpose of a marketing team is to:

Spread awareness for the value of your product Convert prospects into paying customers Improve the public perception of your company

Depending on who your target audience is, your marketing team may use business-to-customer (B2C) marketing or business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategies. Regardless, marketing typically covers:

• Customer research
• Branding
• Content marketing
• Ad campaigns
• Strategic partnerships

2. Know What a Marketing Team Needs

The positions your marketing team needs will depend on your company’s size and the industries you serve. For early-stage startups, the marketing department may be a single person, often with the title Head of Marketing.

But as the company grows, the marketing team will need to grow with it. As you scale, you will likely need to add quite a few positions to your marketing department, possibly including:

• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
• VP of Marketing
• Marketing Director
• Project Manager
• Web Developer
• Content Creator
• Graphic Designer
• Marketing Analyst
• Content Strategist
• Social Media Manager
• PR Manager
• Digital Marketing Specialist

Of course, there are a wide variety of job titles you could use for each position. In some cases, you may want to outsource certain roles to freelancers, as well. For example, an in-house Head of Marketing could hire a freelance writer and freelance graphic designer to help execute the company’s marketing strategies.

But no matter the title or employment status of a marketing professional, their responsibilities will revolve around growing your brand and increasing revenue.

3. Hire the Head of Your Marketing Department

No matter the size of your company, you’ll want to hire the head of your marketing department first. At the start, that may be the only person you need to hire. But even if you already need multiple marketing staff members, it’s always best to start with the person who will be in charge.

Try to find someone who is gifted with:

• Marketing prowess
• Business savvy
• Interpersonal skills
• Leadership skills
• Determination
• Resourcefulness

Even if your marketing head will primarily be managing others, you should still hire someone who has plenty of personal experience with day-to-day marketing operations. Marketing is a highly specialized field, and you need to know that you’re putting your team in the hands of someone who knows it inside and out.

In short, you’re looking for a skilled marketer above all else.

4. Hire the Rest of the Team

One of the benefits of hiring the head of the marketing department first is that they can help you expand the team. They should know better than anyone what roles and skillsets your company needs, and can offer expert insights on which candidates are best suited for the job.

As for finding those candidates, there are a few routes you can take, such as career fairs and internship programs. But in most cases, the best way to connect with bright, talented employees is by using online job posting sites. For example, you might try:

• Indeed
• Monster
• AngelList
• ZipRecruiter

There are even sites that cater specifically to remote workers, such as:

• We Work Remotely
• Remote
• FlexJobs
• Dynamite Jobs
• Remotive

Another great option is to add open positions to your public org chart right here on The Org. This will help showcase your company’s strengths and give potential employees a clear picture of how they would fit into your organization.

5. Onboard New Hires

The hiring process isn’t over after a promising candidate agrees to join your marketing team. You still have to onboard them—and that can be the make-or-break stage for your new hires. Studies have shown that most employees decide whether or not to stay with a company during their first six months. And according to Glassdoor, organizations with a strong onboarding process can boost new hire retention by 82%.

Plus, the more efficient you make your onboarding phase, the faster you can ramp up your hires to maximum productivity.

But perhaps most importantly of all, the key to a successful marketing department is fostering tight-knit, loyal teams. You should always go the extra mile to help incoming employees connect with their new colleagues right from the start.

Learn more: How to Successfully Onboard an Employee

6. Analyze and Optimize

When it comes to marketing—as with virtually anything in business—nothing remains static for long. Your marketing team will need to continually revisit and hone their strategy to respond to changes in your company, your industry, and the economy as a whole.

For the most part, your Head of Marketing (or CMO) will be responsible for this. However, truly effective marketing requires a holistic approach, so they’ll generally be able to serve the company best if they’re collaborating with other departments. That means creating an environment where that kind of collaboration is possible, especially at the C-suite level.

Your Head of Marketing will also need to know that the leadership team will respect their expertise and trust their input. For example, if they tell you that it’s time to hire more marketing personnel or restructure the whole department, your first reaction should be to take their advice unless there’s a glaring reason why you can’t.

And when it is time to expand or restructure, you can make it easier on them—and yourself—by using your org chart as a guide. An org chart will help you:

Attract top talent Streamline your hiring and onboarding process Rearrange and optimize existing teams and departments

If you haven’t created an org chart for your company yet, just click here to get started today.