Your Guide on How to Structure a Marketing Team

We’ve talked a lot about building a digital marketing strategy, implementing it, fine-tuning it, and measuring its results, but how do you even build a marketing team to do all that in the first place?

In this article, we’ll be giving you some insight into how to structure a marketing team based on the size of your business, as well as an overview of what each marketing department does and how to find the right people to run them.

Feeling overwhelmed trying to structure your marketing team? WebFX is well-equipped with a dedicated team of digital marketing strategists ready to help businesses of all sizes develop a comprehensive marketing strategy. Give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today to get to work!

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How to structure a marketing team based on company size

Before we discuss how to structure a marketing team, we first have to go over the three general business sizes in today’s marketing industry:

• Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs): 99 or fewer employees
• Mid-sized businesses: Anywhere from 100-1,000 employees
• Large enterprises: 1,000+ employees

When it comes to how a marketing department should be structured, you have to take into account the size of your business.

The larger your company, the more structured you need to be in terms of specific roles within departments and overall leadership roles. Whereas smaller businesses, like SMBs, may not require that much planning and structure (don’t get us wrong though, structure is key to a smooth-running marketing team).

Whether you’re looking to learn how to structure a small marketing team or a large one for an enterprise, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at a general overview of marketing team structures for each type of business.

Overview of key marketing departments and structures

Here’s a brief overview of the different departments that make up marketing teams for businesses around the globe. Remember, every business is different, so you may not need every single team or role on this list.

A great marketing team includes well-rounded communications professionals who aren’t experts in one skill set, but are proficient in multiple areas. This way, all teams work together simultaneously rather than independently.

1. Social media team
2. Web design team
3. SEO team
4. Paid advertising team
5. Content creation team
6. Leadership roles

1. Social media team

Social media marketers are your go-to people for determining what social media channels your business should utilize, planning and scheduling content to post on said channels, and all other tasks associated with running a social media marketing campaign.

Skills needed for team

When choosing candidates for your social media team, look for people with skills and qualities like:

• Organization, creativity, and writing skills
• Knowledge of social media platforms
• Excellent communication skills
• The ability to analyze and interpret social media data (post-performance, engagement indicators, etc.)
• Awareness of social media trends and topics

Potential roles on social media teams

For SMBs and mid-sized companies, you might consider filling only one or two of these roles in the beginning with well-rounded individuals who could attend to several roles at once. As your company expands, the roles could be more defined, with tasks separated out as the quantity and quality of your business increase.

Here are some roles to consider:

• Social media manager: The head and strategy lead of the team. A social media manager is responsible for developing and executing the social media strategy, along with managing the social team.
• Content creator: Tasks included for this role are writing content, creating images, and possibly shooting videos. Certain complex items can be outsourced, which the content creator will oversee.
• Community manager: The social media community manager acts as the brand’s voice. They engage with the audience by responding to all comments and messages.
• Social media analyst: They will focus on measuring the effectiveness of the social channel activities and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Web design team

Your web design team is responsible for creating, maintaining, and updating your showstopping website. When something starts acting wonky on your site, whether it’s a link that isn’t working or a page that’s crashed, they’re your knights in shining armor, ready to save the day.

Skills needed for team

When choosing candidates for your web design team, look for people with skills and qualities like:

• Knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Knowledge of best practices for layout and design
• Attention to detail
• User experience (UX)/User interface (UI) experience
• Familiarity with web server management and content management systems (CMS)

Potential roles on web design teams

You can often identify websites that have a well-structured design team behind them, as the site is well-thought-out and engages the user. Key roles for a dream web design team include:

• Project manager: The project manager fills the spot of the overall overseer of the website project. They ensure everything stays on track, that budget is allocated, and the team is cohesive.
• UX/UI designer: So much more goes into this role than just ensuring the initial design is user-friendly. They have to do constant user research and usability testing, create wireframes and user flows, and ensure that the design works on different platforms.
• Front-end developer: Their focus is on the client-side interface, ensuring that functionality is operational on all devices.
• Back-end developer: The back-end developer handles the server-side of the website. The functionality they oversee includes data storage and processing requests.
• Designer: All elements, from banners and logos to icons and aviators, have to be consistent with the brand’s identity. The designer handles these tasks.

3. SEO team

With SEO specialists on your team, you can begin ruling search engines! SEO specialists do everything from auditing websites and existing SEO strategies to identifying and implementing new SEO strategies.

Skills needed for team

Job responsibilities vary by company, but you can usually find SEO specialists conducting keyword research, optimizing on-page elements, and doing what they can to get your website on page one of search engines.

When choosing candidates for your SEO team, look for people with skills and qualities like:

• Analytics skills
• Ability to read and understand data
• Writing skills
• Working knowledge of SEO ranking factors
• Familiarity with programs like Google Tag Manager, Semrush, and Ahrefs

Potential roles on SEO teams

Each team member brings specific skills and experience to ensure that all SEO efforts are aligned with the digital marketing strategy. A few key roles on the team include:

• SEO manager: The SEO manager adheres to the strategy and works closely with all departments involved.
• SEO analyst: The analyst will focus on the data to understand the performance of the campaigns. They often report recommendations and insights on how to improve strategies going forward.
• On-page SEO specialist: Each web page must be optimized with meta-tags, images, and internal links. The on-page SEO specialist will collaborate with content creators to ensure best SEO practices are adhered to.
• Off-page SEO specialist: The off-page SEO specialist focuses on building the website’s authority. They concentrate on external activities that affect the site’s rankings, including link building and social media engagement.

4. Paid advertising team

SEO is one thing, but getting your site in front of users through paid advertising is another thing. That’s where a paid advertising team comes in. Your pay-per-click (PPC) experts can manage your paid ad campaigns and ensure they perform well.

Skills needed for team

When choosing candidates for your paid advertising team, look for people with skills and qualities like:

• Keyword research skills
• Knowledge of Google Ads Manager
• Knowledge of social media ad management platforms

Potential roles on paid advertising teams

The following are the roles to consider for creating a paid advertising team for your business:

• Paid advertising manager: The manager oversees the entire paid advertising strategy and ensures that all campaigns are run smoothly.
• PPC specialist: The key responsibilities of a PPC specialist are to create and manage all the PPC campaigns. This includes keyword research and monitoring the ad performance.
• Paid social media specialist: The paid social media specialist specializes in all advertising campaigns, including strategizing and executing them.
• Display advertising specialist: The display advertising specialist is responsible for all display ad campaigns on platforms such as the Google Display Network (GDN).

5. Content creation team

Your marketing team needs to be putting out quality content to supplement your marketing efforts, whether it’s blogs and articles or multimedia content for social media.

Skills needed for team

A month of quality content is fairly easy to create. However, coming up with new ideas, images, and marketing messages a year later can be a challenge for many content marketers. When looking to create your team, look for skills such as:

• Creativity
• Innovation
• Storytelling
• Research skills

Potential roles on content creation team

Audiences love original content, so having some of the following individuals on your marketing team can really help you round out your marketing team structure:

• Graphic designers
• Copywriters
• Video content specialists

6. Leadership roles

Established leadership roles are essential in maintaining a smooth workflow and successful communication between the departments within your marketing team.

The larger your business is, the more specific your leadership roles will be, like “Head of Social Media” or something else along those lines. Generally speaking, though, you’ll have leaders within your marketing team structure like:

• Project managers: These leaders will oversee specific projects, ensuring tasks are properly distributed to team members, goals are met, and the project itself is successfully executed.
• A creative director: This person is in charge of overseeing all marketing and advertising efforts, from planning, monitoring, adjusting, and evaluating the success of campaigns.
• Department coordinators: These individuals will oversee and help facilitate communications between departments.

Hiring a cohesive team

Building a team that works well together and fits with your current company culture takes time and strategic planning. You need to look for candidates who have the skills and experience and are a team player with your other employees. Here are a few strategies to keep in mind when building a super marketing team:

• Clear roles and responsibilities: Ensure every member you hire has a clear role definition to avoid confusion and overlap. If every team member understands their responsibilities, as well as everyone else, they can focus on their taste and support others if needed.
• Open communication: Use communication to ensure that team members can communicate with one another as required. Honest and open communication will ensure that everyone stays informed at all times.
• Regular meetings: Meetings should be productive opportunities for collaboration where everyone can discuss progress and address challenges. Other areas that can be encouraged during meetings are idea-sharing and problem-solving.

Collaborative tools and technologies

By equipping your team with the right digital marketing tools, youcan enhance collaboration and productivity. To give you an overview of the type of tools you will need, we’ve put together this list:

Project management software

You’ll need an overview platform to manage all your campaigns and assign projects to various roles within the team. Project management software should represent the best way you and your team work, visually and with digestible information. Here are three different platforms, all designed to manage projects, but each one in a different way:

• Asana: You can assign and track your team’s work and projects. You can also use Asana to work with other departments, such as sales and customer service, for collaboration projects.
• Trello: Individuals and teams can organize tasks and manage projects, but instead of a linear fashion, they do it with “boards.”  Each board can represent different stages, such as ‘in progress’ or ‘complete.’
• Monday.com: A different take to the other two, Monday.com is highly customizable and works with boards, workflows, and columns. You also get the option of different views to visualize data in unique ways.

Communication platforms

Communication platforms are a great way to stay in touch within a department, especially if you have members who work remotely, or have outsourced teams. You can all access these platforms to quickly check on items or to have a group discussion, depending on your needs.

Here are some options:

• Slack: Slack allows you to communicate individually with a person or within channels with multiple people. You can share files and links on the platform as well.
• Microsoft Teams: Similar to Slack, Microsoft Teams can also be incorporated with other Microsoft Office apps, including Microsoft Planner and To-Do for task management.
• Zoom: Zoom is a video-conferencing platform that gives you tools for virtual meetings, webinars, and team collaboration. You can use this tool for more personalized meetings and conversations, where you need face time.

[Bonus read: 25 of the best digital marketing tools to use in 2024]

Build a revenue-driving digital marketing plan with WebFX

Whether you’re an SMB or enterprise business, WebFX can help you develop a revenue-driving digital marketing strategy. We’ll act as an extension of your existing marketing team and help you track and measure your results so you can meet all your marketing goals.

Contact us online or give us a call at 888-601-5359 to get started now!