How to structure a powerhouse marketing team

Who should be on a digital marketing team? That’s an age-old question many marketing team leaders ask at each stage of an organization’s growth. Many factors will determine your digital marketing team’s structure — budget, size of your organization, business goals, and the list goes on. But there are still some core team members who will not only take your brand to the Super Bowl but also score the winning touchdown.

In this article, we discuss some of the people who should be part of your marketing team. Your brand may not be able to support hiring everyone on this list, but you need to ensure each team described below is represented in your final digital marketing team structure (even if that means hiring freelancers instead of full-time employees and having one person handle multiple roles on a team).

Marketing team structure explained

Your aim is to build a team that works cohesively to create and execute all of your brand’s marketing activities. That’s a huge responsibility you have to bear as the leader of them all. As you read this list, remember that the structure of your team ultimately depends on the nature of your business, your brand’s business goals, and the overall budget for your department. So, you may have team members playing multiple roles instead of some of the specialists described below.

1) SEO team

The search engine optimization (SEO) team uses on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tactics to improve your website rankings in search engines. Some of the skills members of this team need include data analysis, keyword research, writing, editing, proofreading, and problem-solving. Members of this team should also be proficient in using and interpreting data from analytics software.

The size of your organization determines the roles you should have on your SEO team. Some suggested rules include:

• SEO Manager: Guides the SEO team toward using SEO to accomplish business goals

• SEOStrategist: Creates an SEO strategy based on research and executes on-page, off-page, and technical SEO tactics

• Data Analyst: Collects and analyzes the results of SEO efforts

• Optimization Specialist: Optimizes content and web pages to increase conversions and website traffic

Common responsibilities of this team

• Develop (and execute) an SEO strategy to increase website traffic based on business objectives.

• Attract qualified leads to a website based on popular search terms that your sales team can then nurture into customers.

• Use keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs and SEMRush, to track keyword performance and website SEO health, track competitors’ search engine rankings, and identify content gaps.

• Evaluate the results of SEO strategies to determine what needs to be tweaked for greater optimization.

2) Social media marketing team

Social media marketing is the lifeblood of a brand — it’s what helps brands connect with their audiences. The social media marketing team works closely with the content, product, and graphic design teams to repurpose content in ways that benefit the target audience. That repurposed content then gets distributed across social media channels. But the social media marketing team also has other responsibilities, as described below.

Before looking at the team’s additional responsibilities, let’s look at some of the common roles for this essential part of the marketing team structure.

• Social Media Manager: Guides the social media team toward developing a social media strategy and using social media to accomplish business goals

• Social MediaData Analyst: Analyzes social media data (such as post analytics) to determine what’s performing well, what could be improved, and make recommendations for the best way forward

• Community Manager: Monitors, listens to, and engages with the brand’s social media communities

• Paid Ads Specialist: Creates, monitors, and evaluates paid social media ads

Common responsibilities of this team

• Develop (and execute) a social media strategy that supports content visibility, brand awareness, and the brand’s goals.

• Keep social media followers aware of important company updates.

• Provide support to customers who reach out via social media.

• Respond to direct messages (DMs) and comments on posts.

• Analyze social media analytics data to refine the strategy and deliver the best possible results for the brand.

• Work with the content marketing team to repurpose and distribute content assets.

3) Product marketing team

Product marketing teams get a company’s products in front of target customers. This team tends to function like a full-blown marketing team but with specific attention given to each of the company’s individual products. Key roles to have on this team include:

• Product Marketing Manager: Leads the team toward successfully executing all elements of the product marketing strategy

• Content Manager: Collaborates with the content marketing team to create content that generates demand and supports the product marketing strategy

• Partnerships Manager: Oversees partnerships with influencers and other strategic partners

• Product MarketingStrategist: Works with the team to develop and execute a product marketing strategy

Common responsibilities of this team

• Handle pre-product launch and post-product launch campaigns.

• Structure all product marketing campaigns, so they reach the target audience in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

• Determine product-market fit through detailed customer research.

4) Content marketing team

Digital marketing efforts are incomplete without content tailored to meet customers’ needs. That’s where the content marketing team fits in. They’re responsible for all aspects of content creation — blog articles, videos, podcasts, guides, white papers, case studies, etc. If it has to do with content, this team leads the way.

There tends to be some overlap between the content marketing team and other marketing roles. Some of the most important people to have on your content marketing team include:

• Content Marketing Manager: Oversees all content marketing efforts and monitors their success while ensuring all content is effectively repurposed and distributed

• Videographer: Creates video content and manages video content production

• Graphic Designer: Designs blog post images, infographics, repurposed content assets, thumbnail images, and any other designs necessary to make content appealing and engaging

• Content Strategist: Determines the best content strategy based on customer research, keyword research, and the brand’s overall objectives

• Content Writers: Creates written content based on the content strategy

Common responsibilities of this team

• Create content based on a document content marketing strategy that’s based on detailed customer research.

• Work with the SEO team to optimize content for search engine visibility.

• Track data on content performance to better define your content strategy and adjust it accordingly.

• Work with the social media team to repurpose and distribute content.

5) Graphic design/web design team

The graphic design team works alongside the content marketing, product marketing, and social media marketing teams to create attractive and impactful graphics, content assets, websites, and landing pages. This team is usually led by a Creative Director who provides the missing link to other marketing teams within the brand.

• Graphic Designer: Works with other marketing roles to create client-branded visual content

• Web Designer: Coordinates with graphic designer, content creators, and other relevant members of the marketing team to build client websites; usually has coding experience

Common responsibilities of this team

• Create graphics for content and web pages.

• Create the graphics for PDFs and other downloadable assets.

• Develop a brand style guide that governs a brand’s design practices.

• Create wireframes for web pages and execute on them.

6) Data and analytics team

The data and analytics team works across the entire marketing department to help each team understand market data, future trends, and various marketing efforts. Data-driven decisions are what help marketing teams attract marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and increase conversions. This team has three key roles:

• Marketing Data Analyst: Analyzes market data to determine trends

• Data Scientist: Predicts the future based on past and current data

• Performance Marketer: Tracks the performance of all elements of your brand’s digital marketing strategy and advertising efforts

Common responsibilities of this team

• Analyze market trends and provide recommendations.

• Keep track of the performance of each element of a digital marketing strategy.

• Provide the metrics the marketing team needs to make data-informed decisions.

7) Writing and editing team

Content writers, copywriters, and editors are critical to the success of any digital marketing effort. They use the power of words to convince potential customers that your brand is the right fit for their needs. Attractive graphics, visuals, and videos can be powerful on their own, but their impact increases significantly when accompanied by words that impact emotions.

The writing and editing team works closely with the SEO, content marketing, product, social media, and graphic design teams to ensure that all of a brand’s written content helps achieve business goals.

Common responsibilities of this team

• Content Writer: Writes blog articles, case studies, whitepapers, guides, research reports, video scripts, and other written content for the brand

• Copywriter: Writes copy for landing pages, email marketing strategies, other website pages, and paid ads to increase conversion rates

• Editor: Reviews all written material from the marketing team to ensure there are no grammatical errors, grammatical errors, and style errors; suggests ways to enhance written content so that it’s more appealing to the target audience and represents the brand’s tone of voice

How many people are on a marketing team?

It depends. The number of people on your marketing team depends on the size of your business and your growth plans. Small brands (less than 100 employees) tend to have less than 10 team members who operate as generalists taking on multiple roles. Larger brands tend to have a wider spread of team members who take on specialized roles.

Common challenges of marketing teams (+ how to overcome them)

There are some challenges common to all marketing teams. We discuss a few of them below and provide solutions to help you address them. 

Attracting talent and retaining talent

The North America Talent Attraction and Retention Survey by WTW finds that 70% of employers expect to have challenges with attracting employees, while 61% of employers expect to have challenges with retaining employees. Marketing departments across the board aren’t immune to The Great Resignation. Research from LinkedIn shows that there was a 374% increase in marketing jobs in 2021, which is an indication of growth across companies and marketers leaving their current jobs in favor of other opportunities.

Solution: Encourage a healthy work/life balance and positive work culture

People thrive in healthy work environments. 

In fact, 94% of managers agree that a positive workplace culture creates a resilient team of employees. Resilient employees are willing to stay the course and work together to help marketing teams thrive.

Here are some tips for creating a healthy workplace culture:

• Recognize your team for their efforts, no matter how small.

• Encourage self-care.

• Display empathy.

• Provide opportunities for bonding outside of work.

• Plan an effective structure and flow so that your team isn’t always scurrying to complete last-minute requests.

Lack of funding for resources

The marketing budget for a CMO at billion-dollar companies is roughly 9.5% of total company revenue. But the lion’s share of the market consists of companies with annual revenue that’s far less than $1 billion. You probably work at such a company where you’re lucky to get even 5% of total company revenue for your marketing budget.

A lower budget means you don’t have the funding to support all the marketing ideas, staffing, and resources you’d ideally want. The key to getting more funding is to help the CEO and other C-Suite executives understand the value of marketing, so they don’t view your department as a cost center.

Solution: Perform tracking and reporting on valuable performance metrics

One of the issues marketers have is tying marketing efforts to revenue — the key metric CEOs care about.

“Proving marketing’s value to senior leadership really comes down to one metric… revenue. But it’s less about a specific metric and more about the mindset. Which metric to judge the success of a marketing program or campaign depends on its objective…However, no matter what the objective of each individual campaign, at the end of the day marketers should be able to show how it all ties back to revenue for the company, that’s the business value leadership cares about.” 

-Winston Henderson, Founder of ICAD Marketing and The Revenue Alignment Podcast

Two things you can do to prove the revenue-generating value of marketing are:

• Track customer lifetime value (CLV) since that allows you to look at each stage of a customer’s journey leading up to a purchase (and even a repurchase).

• Collaborate with the sales team. Andrew Smith, Director Of Growth at Directive Consulting, shared on The Revenue Alignment Podcast that there has to be a collaborative effort between marketing and sales. “When sales views marketing as a partner, they’re less likely to complain to the CEO about lead quality.”

Collaboration between marketing and sales means there has to be alignment between MQLs and SQLs. Also, the marketing team shouldn’t just hand leads over to the sales team and let them do their thing. Instead, they should continue to nurture the leads and support the sales team in that regard. The marketing team should also support the sales team by creating content and campaigns that address common objections from prospects. Getting the alignment between sales and marketing right is the key to proving marketing’s value and upping your marketing budget.

Keeping your marketing projects organized is a great way to stay on top of KPIs and metrics. Teamwork.com’s project planning solutions can be just the tool you need to stay on track.

Generating traffic and demand generation

Both B2B and B2C markets are crowded with several brands vying for the same customers' attention. Marketing teams have to find creative ways to stand out and create demand for their content and products, and your team is no exception.

Solution: Boost your SEO efforts

SEO goes a long way in boosting online visibility and keeping your brand top-of-mind. Organic search contributes to 53.3% of traffic, and SEO is the best way to get your website (and YouTube videos) seen in organic search results. SEO is a great way to increase traffic and demand for your brand.

Showing ROI of marketing campaigns

Some marketing teams have either of the following issues (or both):

• Putting out marketing campaigns across traditional and digital media that aren’t being tracked effectively. So, the data is either inaccurate or haphazard (or both)

• Using data tracking tools that don’t provide the data needed to make informed decisions

If you fall into this boat, you can’t show the ROI of your marketing campaigns. This challenge leads right back to our previous discussion about the lack of funding for resources: CEOs won’t invest more in a team that’s viewed as a cost center.

See how hundreds of teams are using Teamwork.com 

Solution: Put in place the right analytical tools

A wide range of analytical tools cover all the data your marketing teams need. Google Analytics is often the go-to for all things data in marketing — but it isn’t the only solution. Here are some management and analytical tools grouped by marketing team. Look at what each has to offer and choose the one that best supports each team's needs.

• Product Marketing: Mix Panel or Heap Analytics

• Social Media Marketing: SproutSocial, Hootsuite, or Buffer

• Content Marketing: Dreamdata, BuzzSumo, or Kissmetrics

• SEO: Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMRush

• CRM: Hubspot, Intercom, or Act!

Not using the right tools

Aside from analytical tools, your marketing team needs tools that help increase productivity and efficiency while establishing workflows that bring all the teams together. Despite project management tools being the best solution to this challenge, only 23% of teams use them. The right project management tool will not only provide the platform you need to collaborate, track tasks, set goals and milestones, and manage projects. It will also provide the support you need to tailor the platform for your needs.

Solution: Consider a project management tool

Teamwork.com provides the missing link in your marketing stack. Each aspect of our tool helps you improve collaboration, execute your marketing strategy, and increase team efficiency. Learn more about how Teamwork.com can optimize your marketing team and highlight your team’s profitability.

Interested in learning more about why your marketing team needs project management software? Check out our free guide: 5 reasons your marketing team needs project management software.

Enhance your marketing team efforts with Teamwork.com

The key to marketing success is having functional teams that deliver results. Your marketing department structure should consist of seven core teams (SEO, social media, product marketing, content marketing, graphic design/web design, data and analytics, and writing and editing). It should have the right systems and tools in place to keep the team happy and engaged while clearly demonstrating the value of marketing and improving productivity and efficiency.

Teamwork.com is here to help your marketing team thrive. Sign up for a free trial today so you can use our tool to improve collaboration, execute your marketing strategy, and increase team efficiency.