Structuring a Marketing Team, Done Properly
The roles and responsibilities needed to run marketing for a business of a given size.
Samir Haddad
At a glance
- Generalists and specialists early teams need generalists, scale needs specialists
- Channel ownership each active channel needs an owner
- Capacity channel count should match team size
- Agencies extend capacity but need internal management
Why it matters
Why it matters: Small teams spread across every channel do everything badly, and structure forces choices about focus.
Best practice
- Limit active channels to what the team can run well
- Name an owner per channel
- Decide what to keep in-house and what to outsource
- Budget internal time for managing agencies
- Review structure as the business changes
Common pitfalls
Watch out for:
- Two people running eight channels
- Channels with no owner
- Agencies managed by nobody
- Structures copied from much larger companies
When to call in a specialist
Bottom line Bring in help when marketing output spreads too thin.
Where this comes from
- U.S. Small Business Administration — Marketing and sales
- Microsoft Learn — Customer data platform
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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