10 Ways to Build a World-Class Marketing Team

Around the world, companies are dedicating more and more of their budget to marketing.

Research says that due to a slight dip in marketing ad spend throughout 2022, businesses are now upping their game and spending a whopping 60 billion more than they did last year in order to reach their target audiences and rapidly increase profits. Because of this, spending is now on track to reach 1 trillion for the first time in 2024.

So, whether you have an existing marketing department charged with handling these budgets or you’ve been tasked with bringing these professionals in, we'll talk more about how to make sure you reach that ROI with a marketing team full of those critical skills and bags of confidence. 

Decide What Your Marketing Department Should Look Like

If you want to build a marketing team, you need to understand the different roles that exist in the department. Marketers can have a variety of specialities, including SEO, PPC, social media and content.

The types of marketers that you bring on board should correlate to your budget and organisational goals. It’s costlier to hire a series of specialists, but you may achieve different results with just a few generalists.

Some of these roles go hand in hand; if you wanted to boost your organic traffic then a content marketing specialist should work closely with an SEO specialist to achieve this goal. You need to work within your staffing budget to determine the experience level and specialisms of candidates.

If you already have a marketing department within your organisation, then you should assess the hierarchy to assess whether it really makes sense. Look for skills gaps that exist and fill them to make the department more effective.

Each marketing hire should bring a new skillset to the team. Balance the budget with the output that you expect; be careful not to overload an under-resourced department or this will lead to burnout.

There’s no one size fits all approach here. Use the information that you have at your disposal to plan the structure of your ideal department.

Define Job Roles and Descriptions

Now that you have an idea of how this department will function, you can define these job roles more fully. List the competencies, responsibilities and KPIs that this role will entail.

This is a worthwhile exercise for an existing department too, as these roles may have changed since the employees were recruited. Define these explicitly to create clear expectations and seek out any responsibilities that may be slipping through the cracks.

This will take your marketing hierarchy from a top-level strategy to a collection of well-defined roles. Then, you can hire the right professionals to make this a success.

These roles can also be designed to account for upscaling as the department grows. You may want to bring in a few higher tier specialists before creating roles for generalists and assistants.

Strong leaders and coaches will be instrumental in the success of the department, so earmark these at the interview stage.

Integrate the Department Fully

Marketing should never work as a siloed department, as this will impact their ability to be successful. They should be involved with other departments, so they can exchange information at every stage.

New products and services can be greatly improved by the input of experienced marketers. They may be able to frame things in a new way, draw on past experiences and feedback from a different perspective.

This also helps to inform the marketers of the finer details of the product or service. Without being made aware of this, they may miss the mark or omit a key detail that would turn a browser into a buyer.

They should also be integrated with sales, customer service and other departments that can give them more context.

For example, a campaign may be deemed a success by marketing because of a high volume of sales, but a misleading advertisement may cause a high volume of customer service refunds. Without communication, marketing teams won’t be aware of these kinds of issues and they won’t be avoided in future.

Train and Develop Top Performers

Marketing departments can suffer from the same issues as the wider workforce when it comes to staff retention. With the world of marketing changing at lightning speed, it’s important to train your staff to keep them up to speed.

Training can also act as an incentive for staff, as they can see that the company is investing in their skills and future growth. These qualifications can give your marketing team the confidence to

As well as qualifications from accredited bodies, there are a variety of regular events that help marketers to reach their full potential. Offering members of staff the chance to attend these can be a fantastic incentive with a great ROI.

Some popular marketing events include:

• Brighton SEO
• SMX London
• Festival of Marketing

You can work with those that want to attend to decide which sessions would be the most valuable, both for their own knowledge and to share with the team too.

Strengthen Soft Skills

Alongside technical and professional training, you also want to coach your team on their soft skills. Working on communication, planning and presentation can all create a more effective team.

Allowing for personal development time on a regular basis can be hugely beneficial. Challenging team members to create presentations on their extracurricular hobbies and team building days can provide a larger ROI than you would expect.

These improved skills in communication, problem solving and teamwork will make a positive impact on productivity.

Bring in Diverse Team Members

Building a diverse team doesn’t just look good on paper; these team members can really boost the effectiveness of the department. A combination of backgrounds, experiences, ages and other factors can give your marketing team the edge.

Many companies have fallen foul of PR blunders that could have been avoided. Advertisements that have been deemed sexist, racist or albeit could easily have been stopped in the early stages if these teams had members that were part of a minority group that would find these offensive.

What is acceptable to one group of people could be seen as clearly offensive by others. This is just one of the many ways that creating a diverse team can really improve your marketing efforts.

This can also allow you to communicate more effectively with a new audience, adapt your messaging and more.

Equip Your Team with the Right Tools

Marketers need the right tools to be able to do their job effectively. There are hundreds of different tools on the market, each with their own distinct selling points.

Not every tool will be appropriate for your team, so it’s important to understand the problems they’re facing and whether these tools really offer solutions. There are free tools, like Google Analytics, that can give key insight into your marketing efforts but there are also third-party solutions to consider.

With the right tools, processes can become automated and your marketing team can do more with their resources. Use the most suitable tools for the job and assess whether they are truly worth any costs associated with subscription.

Onboard Constructively

When bringing in new members to your marketing dream team you need to onboard them well, so they can integrate with the group. You’re putting a lot of time and effort into culture, fit and productivity so you want your new hires to fit into this.

Use the time between the job offer and the employee fully settling in to show them what you expect from marketers in your team. Collaborative working and sharing knowledge are hallmarks of a successful marketing department, so encourage new hires to join in.

Onboarding is also impactful on the overall employee experience and plays a part in reducing staff turnover. Use this time well to get the most from your new employees.

Scale Your Team

As time goes on, growing companies will have more demands for the marketing department. With new services to advertise, platforms and marketing techniques they may become under-resourced.

This may mean that you add new team members to even out the workload. Scaling your department will give you the opportunity to add new specialists and skills to the team.

When the marketing department is smaller, there’s a greater need for generalists that can take on an abundance of roles. As it grows, there’s more space for specialists that improve the quality of your marketing campaigns.

If the organisational values change, then the roles within the marketing department may also change. Targeting new users, implementing different campaigns and using fresh platforms requires different skillsets. Creating a scalable hierarchy allows you to bring these experts in with ease.

Encourage Creativity

Marketing is, first and foremost, a creative industry. Creating the right environment to let these creative juices flow will bring even better results.

Brainstorming, collaboration and creative thinking bring about the marketing campaigns that really make your brand stand out. With the right environment and structure, your marketers will be in the perfect position to crank out these ideas.

This is where an adequate staffing level is essential, as burnt-out, stressed employees won’t have the time or energy to bring these ideas to the table. Give these teams time and space to plan out campaigns that will bring you real results.

With a cutting-edge marketing team, your organisation can experience an influx of awareness and new customers. Keep the members of your marketing team trained, engaged and creative to maximise this ROI.

Upskill your marketing department with online CIM-accredited qualifications.