Successful Marketing Team Structures

Over the past seven years I’ve worked with more clients than I can remember, so I’ve seen how many different marketing teams operate. During this time I’ve gotten a good sense of what types of team structures are good at executing and driving results. Part of these observations naturally includes what types of teams work best with a third party paid media partner.

There are a few common traits that I’ve seen from fast executing teams, but maybe the most impactful is when a team has centralized ownership over vision and decision making.

In my opinion, this doesn’t only apply to marketing teams, but I’ve seen that having a centralized owner for any project increases chances that the project actually moves forward. When marketing teams have one person responsible for the overarching vision of a program, and one person who has the final say on reviews and what gets published, I see more projects actually cross the finish line.

At the same time, I believe there’s a clear line here. I don’t think marketing teams should fall in line with one dictatorial person in a leadership role.

For example, I provide strategic recommendations to all of my clients, and we work collaboratively on almost every project. However, when one internal marketing stakeholder owns the total marketing strategy and how it will connect to other departments within the business, this stakeholder can make more effective decisions because they have a systemic view of the company.

Eventually, after I’ve been working with a client long enough I get a good sense of how this stakeholder views the marketing program and we can move together in lockstep.

On the contrary, I’ve also seen marketing programs with different team members in charge of individual pieces (ex: one person in charge of search, one person in charge of creative, etc…). While I understand that at some large organizations this is necessary to a certain degree, it is possible to have too many cooks in the kitchen.

When reviews are coming from multiple places a deliverable can be bogged down and eventually forgotten in feedback purgatory. Leaner teams with clearly defined roles and expectations can move faster, learn more, and increase their chances of launching successful tests.

That’s why I prefer to work with teams who have one or two main marketing stakeholders so that we can develop a strong working relationship and execute on projects quickly.

Delivering quality marketing is definitely important, but there’s also something to be said for generating more at-bats. The more swings you take, the greater your chances of hitting a home run.

Have questions, considerations, or critiques? I’d love to hear them! If you’re reading this via email, just hit respond. Otherwise, you can find me on LinkedIn.