How to build a high performing marketing team
How to build a high performing marketing team
Whether you're building a team from the ground up or looking to improve your current one, marketing team building is key to getting great results. In this article, we’ll walk through how to build a strong marketing team, what skills and roles to look for, and how to create a team culture that drives growth.
Why Marketing Team Building Matters
Marketing is not a one-person job. A good marketing strategy needs different skills—creative thinking, data analysis, project management, and a consumer-first orientation. With the right team in place, your business will not only grow, but grow more profitable.
Stronger Collaboration
When your team works well together, ideas flow freely. People can share thoughts, test strategies, and solve problems faster.
Better Results
A well-built team understands its goals and how to reach them. With clear roles and a shared mission, they’re more likely to hit targets.
Long-Term Success
Good marketing team building helps your company grow for the long haul. With the right team structure, you’ll be ready for new trends, tools, and customer needs.
Building the Right Marketing Team
To build a great team, start by knowing what roles you need. Here are some common marketing positions to consider:
1. The Strategist
This is someone who sees the big picture and connects the dots between disparate data sources. They can triangulate insights across the business to develop and evolve your marketing strategy over time. A marketing strategy consultant or Fractional CMO can help you set goals and choose the best channels to reach them.
2. The Content Creator
You’ll need someone to handle content creation, including copy, graphics, and video for social media assets, blogs, videos, podcasts, emails, and more. Good content establishes your brand and connects with your target customer to bring your products into their consideration set. For this hire, you’ll look for skills like copywriting, design, and video editing. Most importantly, you want someone with a passion for the latest trends and good knowledge of your category, target audience, and influencers in the space.
3. The Growth Marketer
A growth marketer can make or break a business. When done right, a growth marketer will invest in the most profitable channels and optimize results toward profitability, not just topline growth. When done poorly, a growth marketer will burn through your cash, acquiring new prospects that either don’t convert or never return to buy again. This role may execute on their own, or manage external agencies to run campaigns or create assets. You’ll want someone deeply versed in the channels your business will likely rely on. For digital marketers, that means Meta, Google, and ideally more diversified channels like podcast, connected TV, native, and affiliate.
4. The Marketing Operations Specialists
This role can look quite different, depending on your business stage. Marketing operations may encompass cross-functional campaign development, email and SMS automations, and data management and analysis. In the short term, your content creator may act as a project manager, your growth marketer may act as an analytics manager, and either may own your email and SMS channel if you have an easy to use ESP. But as your business grows, you will need dedicated headcount. In a fully fleshed out team, you’ll likely want a marketing automation or customer lifecycle manager to run email and SMS, an integrated marketing manager to orchestrate cross-channel campaign development, and an analytics manager to support business insights and more advanced channel analytics.
5. The Brand Builder
A brand strategy consultant can help shape your business’s image, voice, and values. Brand trust takes time, but the right expert makes a big difference. This may not be a dedicated full-time hire, but is an essential role to set your brand guidelines for the rest of the team to execute against.
Tips for Effective Marketing Team Building
Hire for Skills and Culture
Look for people who are not just good at their jobs but also a good fit for your team. Great marketing teams work well together and support each other. Look for people who seem genuinely interested in your business category – my biggest mistakes have come from hiring for seniority over category passion.
Start with a Clear Vision
Make sure everyone on the team knows the business goals and how marketing fits in. This helps align efforts and avoid confusion. Review those goals quarterly and make sure each channels KPIs are measureable and attributable to the company objectives.
Provide Ongoing Training
Marketing trends change fast. Keep your team up to date with new tools, courses, or workshops on topics like growth marketing or product marketing strategy.
Use the Right Tools
Help your team stay organized with project management tools, analytics dashboards, and content calendars. The right tools save time and make communication easier. Encourage the team to use AI resources to streamline their projects and expedite workflow. But insist on a human touch to massage those outputs into ownable brand content.
Marketing Team Building for Startups
If you run a new business, building a marketing team can feel like a huge task. A startup consultant or startup marketing expert can guide you through the early stages.
Start Small
You don’t need a big team right away. Focus on hiring a few people who can wear multiple hats, then grow as your business does. Try to ensure those early hires have a clear upward path as the roles become more specialized.
Outsource When Needed
Don’t be afraid to bring in a marketing consultant or freelancer. For example, a product development specialist or branding expert can fill skill gaps without full-time costs.
Test and Learn
Startups should focus on testing different channels and messages. A flexible team is better at trying new ideas and learning from mistakes. If you’re not sure if a tactic will be an ongoing part of your strategy, it’s a good idea to work with external resources to test, then develop in-house competency as the tactic becomes a core business driver.
Creating a Brand That Lasts
Brand development is not just about logos and colors. It’s about the story you tell and how customers see you. A good brand building strategy makes you stand out in the market.
Make sure your marketing team understands your values and mission. The team should work together to share a clear, strong message across all channels—from your website to your social media.
Measuring Success
Use data to track progress. Develop dashboards that everyone understands and uses. Review your team’s progress regularly and celebrate wins. Look at key metrics like traffic, conversion rate, unit sales, revenue, LTV, CAC, and NPS to see what’s working and what needs improvement.
Performance marketing is all about results. Set clear goals, and give your team the tools to reach them.
Conclusion
Marketing team building is essential for business growth. With the right people, clear goals, and smart tools, your marketing efforts will pay off.
Want help growing your marketing team? Borrowed Salt offers expert marketing support and strategy.