For most businesses, marketing is one of the hardest business functions to ‘get right’, especially in small business marketing. There are so many different ways to achieve your goals, everything you do costs time and money, and nothing is a guaranteed success.
If marketing is a priority for an organization, the most important thing you can do is assemble a capable team. In an ever-changing marketplace like the one we live in today, a small business marketing team needs to have the right people, in the right positions, with the right skills to get anything done.
The right people, in the right positions
If you’ve ever tried to fill a senior marketing role, you know how difficult it is to find someone with the unique blend of personality, vision, and leadership that can make things happen.
Some managers think that strategy is required for any member of a marketing team but the truth is, not everyone on your team needs to be a strategic mastermind; in fact, quite the opposite.
Here are four types of roles that have to exist on any small business marketing team, or, in fact, any marketing team:
- Strategy
Your marketing efforts need to be directed by someone with extensive marketing experience who can see things from the customer’s perspective and think ‘big picture’. - Execution
You need a resource who can roll up their sleeves and do the grunt work. If they’re too junior, they’ll require too much direction. Too senior, and they’ll want to focus on strategy too much. - Analysis
Someone who can track your spending and KPI’s is crucial in a world where digital marketing is so effective. Sifting through the data and finding out what’s important isn’t something everyone can do. - Creative
This includes a diverse set of skills, including art direction, graphic design, web development, copywriting, and more. It’s rare to find one person who can do all of these.
The right skills
In the past fifteen years, the number of potential marketing channels available to marketers has exploded. Marketing is now a dialogue between company and customer that occurs in real-time.
In order to execute effectively, you will need people who possess some of the following skills. These may vary from company to company, but from our experience these are a bare minimum of proficiencies companies draw on:
Content Creation
• Common skills required: Blog writing, photography, graphic design, web maintenance
• Occasional skills needed: Video editing, podcast development, whitepaper development
Digital Marketing Management
• Common skills required: Display ads, Search Engine Marketing, Google Analytics, email marketing, web design, web development
Social Media
• Common knowledge required in: LinkedIn, Twitter
• Sometimes knowledge needed for: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
One of the biggest mistakes companies can make is to expect one person to be able to fill all of these roles. Our guess is that 2% of marketers at best can do all of these things well.
When to hire an agency
The sad reality is that most marketing teams are understaffed (especially those in small business marketing), and thus they often lack the in-house capability to fulfill a critical aspect of their marketing program. Agencies are a great way to fill one or more of the missing roles. Let’s review the previous four key marketing roles:
- Strategy
Sometimes, companies need outside help to look at their situation and determine a broad direction for their marketing efforts. - Execution
Not having to worry about whether or not your email newsletter was sent out on time is a great reason to hire an agency. We can also take care of Adwords executions, which can get very messy and difficult for you to manage in-house. - Analysis
Taking a step back from your day-to-day in order to compile all the data from your marketing campaigns is difficult to do. It’s even more difficult to look at the data and figure out what’s important. - Creative
Why have a graphic designer, photographer, and writer in-house if you only need them occasionally?
With all of that said, Marketing CoPilot has created two different introductory packages to help you figure out exactly what it is your marketing team is in need of the most. Hope we can help!
