Marketing department from scratch

What are the responsibilities of the marketing department?

Although formerly identified with the design of catalogs, flyers and banners, today they can play key roles in any business. The purpose of establishing a marketing department these days is to give the company a strategic partner that can help executives make decisions and contribute to the company's growth.

Marketing professionals make sure that they fill the sales funnel with leads. The specific tasks of the team actually depend on the business goals of the company and its customers. However, it is always marketing team specialists who accompany customers through the entire shopping path, working on brand reputation, inspiring trust and generating sales.

Building a marketing department: the AIDA concept

The overall mission of advertising and promotion staff is well reflected in the AIDA concept, according to which the various stages of marketing activities include:

• A – attention – attracting the attention of the target audience, e.g. through ads in the search network, SEO-optimized texts and other activities to increase website traffic;
• I – interest – arousing interest in the product by demonstrating that the product can help the buyer solve a relevant problem;
• D – desire – getting the customer to want to use the offer, find out what it can do for them, and realize the real value of the offer;
• A – action – an effective call to action (CTA).

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When does your company need a marketing department, if ever?

While it is true that every company needs to engage in some form of marketing, it is not always appropriate for the company's department to be in charge of such endeavors. Why? Simply put, the costs associated with keeping a team of specialists in-house can easily outweigh the profits. That's why both successful businesses that have been around for a while and startups rely on the services of agencies and freelancers.

Are you at the point where a marketing department could benefit your company?

First, answer the following questions for yourself:

• What is your position? Is it strong enough that you can afford to experiment?
• Is it financially viable to hire a large team of experts?
• Are the activities to be performed by your new employees already full-time tasks?
• Do you know the final shape of your business model?
• Do you know what channels you want to use to communicate with your audience?
• Have your marketing efforts so far made sense, and do you know for sure which way to go?

Key specialists in the marketing department

The diversity of specialties is a common source of uncertainty when establishing a marketing department. Since the marketing sector is expanding so quickly, new positions are constantly being given new names. These include, for example:

1. Marketing specialist – a position that combines multiple roles. Especially in small businesses, marketing specialists perform tasks that could be performed by several people (e.g. social media specialist, graphic designer, content marketer or SEO specialist). It is practically impossible for one person to effectively handle tasks from so many different areas.
2. Content marketer, among other things, is in charge of keeping the company blog, setting standards for the content presented in advertising materials, and taking care of the quality of texts on websites and product descriptions in the online store.
3. SEO copywriter – being often the same person as the content marketer, is responsible for making sure the site ranks high in search results.
4. Graphic designer – responsible for visual content and advertising creations.
5. Social media specialist – manages the company's profiles on social media channels.
6. Google Ads/Facebook Ads specialist or Performance marketing specialist – designs, implements and runs advertising campaigns on the search network, social networks and other communication channels.
7. Event specialist – organizes company events and takes care of the company's presentation at trade shows and industry events.
8. UX designer – responsible for designing the experience of the brand's audience by, for example, improving the functionality of the website.
9. Brand manager – manages activities directed at building brand awareness.
10. PR specialist/PR manager – maintains company's positive public image, communicates with the media and manages crisis situations.
11. Marketing manager – manages the entire team of marketers.
12. Digital marketing manager – supervises the work of those involved in digital marketing.

Is that all of them? The marketing department is open to other types of professionals as well, such as data analysts and conversion marketing specialists. The responsibilities of each employee are determined by the nature, size, and goals of the company.

How do you look for marketing experts?

As numerous studies show, chasing talents is one of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs and department managers. Utilizing external experts to temporarily join the internal team and assist in solving major issues is becoming an increasingly popular strategy for streamlining marketing operations. All managers who want to successfully and effectively implement their business strategies should consider the idea of working with specialists on demand rather than hiring them on a full-time basis.

Creating a marketing department: how to get started?

Before you start setting up your marketing department, keep in mind a few principles that will help you determine the stages of the process:

1. Try to understand your customers and their needs. Find out the source of your most valuable leads. Focus on the 20% that bring you 80% of the benefits.
2. List and analyze all your marketing activities to date. Consider whether their effectiveness has been satisfactory and whether any of them can be dropped because they haven’t produced any positive results.
3. Review your resources – including technological, financial and human ones. According to the CEO of Refine Labs R&D laboratory, Chris Walker, the most optimal ratio of marketers to all employees should be 10%.

Building a marketing team: stages

The specifics of the industry frequently dictate the stages of work when assembling an internal marketing team. The solutions will vary for e-commerce, B2B services, and consulting firms with a B2C model. The following action plan, however, always yields positive results:

1. Hire a specialist to coordinate outsourced marketing activities.
2. Select the activity that produces the most satisfying results and hire a specialist to enhance those results internally.
3. If your two-person department is doing well, you'll need another professional to support their efforts. For example, if social media ads generate real revenue, hire someone to run your company's profiles on social channels. If your site's traffic comes mainly from Google search, hire an SEO-savvy content marketer.
4. The next steps are very similar. Be mindful of team managers and leaders setting themselves apart from the marketing department as they eventually take care of their teams on their own.

In many instances, working with agencies and freelancers is still a viable option. There is absolutely no need for your team to manage all aspects of promotional activities. It is better to rely on outsourcing, particularly when running seasonal campaigns, implementing marketing automation or high-tech solutions.

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In-house marketing department vs. Human Intelligence on Demand

A solution that can be a great way to start setting up a marketing department or even an alternative to hiring your own specialists is to use Human Intelligence on Demand. In this model, top professionals in the fields of marketing, creative, strategy, performance, technology, and project management are ready to start working on your project immediately.

The concept of working with specialists available on demand means the following:

• less paperwork,
• zero recruitment problems and onboarding issues,
• no obligations to provide equipment,
• the shortest time to procure a contractor.

Alternately, you can hire someone full-time to work in your office and provide you with exclusive support. HI seems to be a fair middle ground that puts the least amount of risk on you. Contact us!