Lesson 17: Building a Marketing Team

Building Marketing Teams

A good mix of marketing talent is one of the most important facets of a business. Even if you create the best product or service in the world, if it’s not properly promoted, no one will know it exists. Today, marketing has become an analytics market with thousands of tools for every type of marketing imaginable.

With all the rapid technological advancements and updates that affect every aspect of marketing, business owners need to equip themselves with everything they can to conduct a smooth operation.

Here are several tips to help build a top-tier marketing department for your start-up.

1. Educate yourself

Most people aren’t savvy marketers. But in our increasingly competitive economy, entrepreneurs need to develop a firm grasp of the current concepts and strategies in their industry. Marketing fundamentals play an enormous role in how a company’s messaging develops.

There are many components of modern marketing: SEO, social marketing, content marketing, email, mobile marketing, and more. How well do you know these strategies and how do they apply to your industry?

While launching and running a start-up leaves you little spare time, immersing yourself in the basics of digital marketing is one of the best investments you can make.

Towards that goal, there are many integrated digital marketing courses available online that you can take at your convenience. Google offers free courses and certification in Google Analytics and Google AdWords. Hub post offers free courses and certification in inbound marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, and more. Such courses familiarize you with the tools and practices most marketers use. Take advantage of these vast treasure troves of free information.

2. Hire diverse skill sets

By nature, marketing requires versatility. While you want to hire candidates with specialized skills and talent, you don’t want to limit people. For example, you may look for a skilled copywriter. But it would also be beneficial if this person had experience in client relations so he or she could communicate directly regarding any changes or questions.

Alternately, you may look for a marketer with a background in design or data analytics who can help to streamline your start-up’s processes for making the proper optimizations.

In a start-up environment, hiring versatile employees has many benefits. For one, this will keep your labour costs down considering you can’t afford to bring on multiple specialists with exclusive skills. Second, people can jump in and solve issues quickly without all the back-and-forth. Three, both your business and your employees will be constantly expanding their savvy.

Marketing is far from a one-dimensional entity. The specialists you hire shouldn’t be, either.

3. Invest in reliable collaboration systems

Incorporating collaboration and task-management software into your internal workflow should be an easy decision. Reason: The cost of poor communication hurts your company’s revenue. Good collaboration and teamwork can reduce these errors.

An efficient marketing department requires a great deal of both collaboration and teamwork. The earlier you test and establish a system at your company, the more effective your efforts will be in the long run.

The key to any successful business operation is having transparency and accountability on each execution.

4. Encourage frequent feedback

An innovative marketing department should constantly look for new ways to improve the status quo. The best way for entrepreneurs to do this is by going straight to the source and asking those on the front lines for their input, just as they do for customer feedback. Make it a priority to gather feedback once or twice a month.

Sometimes the most difficult part of this process can get your employees to be honest, as some may believe that saying what they think will jeopardize their job security. Always invite anonymous submissions.

Using a tool like WUFOO, you can choose from a variety of templates and create forms that ask the most crucial questions related to your department. The more detailed and honest your employees are with their answers, the easier you’ll find it to address hiccups and eliminate the bottlenecks. Look for patterns and common snags that are impeding both short-term and long-term goals.

A great company is nothing without a great marketing team. Properly executed strategies bring your product or service to the next level. As an entrepreneur, you need to give your team the resources they need to succeed. Use these tips to get your operation going on the right track.

The Changing Landscape

Agencies are going out of business right and left because frankly, marketing has always been a “I think” and “I feel” business versus now it’s a data and test-driven business, and overall, experienced marketing executives are having trouble keeping up the latest technology trends and products.