Three steps to consider when Structuring and Leading Your Marketing Team

March 1, 2022

Today’s scale-ups struggle to effectively establish, build and lead their marketing teams. This continues to be one of the top challenges marketers face.  That’s why we were excited to have Kevin Banderk, CRO/CMO at ecobee join us for our inaugural OneEleven Marketing Masterclass to discuss structuring and leading your marketing team.  Off the back of Kevin’s session, we’ve compiled three essential takeaways for scaleups to take into consideration. 
  1. When building out your team, be customer-focused & strategically driven
Your corporate structure needs to be built from the customer in. Always consider the main goals for B2C and B2B companies:
  • B2C companies should be marketing-led, with the consistent goal of attracting new customers.  
  • B2B companies should be sales-led, with marketing as a support tool to close deals
In B2C and B2B scenarios, the needs of the customer will impact your overall approach and the structure of your team.  Remember to ask yourself, “Who is my customer and what is the problem I am solving?” Define your customer personas, market segmentation, and gather insights. 
  1. Start with generalists and evolve to specialists
When you start to build your team, you will likely start with more marketing functions than roles. This is unavoidable, but marketers can adapt by looking for the right people. This means that you will need generalists who can manage and execute, as they can create flexibility to evolve and adapt. As you start to scale and roles become more defined, you can start to invest in specialists. And make sure you hire people who are better, and smarter than you. Great people are the most important thing, and putting them in a position to succeed is your number one role as a leader
  1. Ask yourself the right questions as you are building your team
You’ll need to start with great people and enough context into the initiatives you are running to build a strong structure and process. Here are some questions to consider as you build your team:
  1. What makes you distinct? What’s your purpose, vision, mission, and brand positioning? You’ll need to account for company culture & values.
  2. Are you currently winning? Review and refine budgeting, make sure you reforecast and measure your goals.
  3. How do you make your goals a reality? What’s your go-to-market plan? 
In the end, a marketing structure is never fixed; great teams take time to build. Your brand may be fixed, but your marketing tactics and team members should remain agile. Play with your marketing mix to figure out what works and resonates with your audience. And remember that hiring great people and enabling them to succeed is the most important thing.   This article was contributed by Long Story Short, the full-service marketing and advertising agency

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