5 Key Roles in a Digital Marketing Team Structure

Table of Contents 

• Why Your Business Requires a Digital Marketing Team
• 5 People Who Should Be Part of Your Digital Marketing Team 
• Key Takeaways
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Maybe you are a startup founder whose company has just started growing. Or perhaps you’re a digital marketing manager who has just been asked to join a new company. And now you have to build a digital marketing team structure from scratch. In any case, you’re looking to expand your marketing team, which is probably why you are reading this article. You have come to the right place. Building a digital marketing team is no easy feat. It requires a lot of strategic thinking and high-level planning. Only then you can imagine satisfactory results for your organization. 

Digital marketing has evolved tremendously over the years. Earlier, digital marketing was centered on advertising which included budget allotment, direct deals, creativity, partnership with agencies, etc. Now, digital marketing has completely transformed as the world gets more and more technical in nature. There are a plethora of marketing tools and software available, which is quite important when you are recruiting digital marketing professionals. 

There are different specialized roles that have evolved in the process, such as marketing operations, SEO experts, paid ads expert, outbound manager, inbound specialist, among others. Gaining this knowledge and then building a digital marketing team can get intimidating. 

If you have a limited budget, and you wish to get the people your digital marketing team absolutely requires, then here are 5 digital marketing roles that you definitely require in your team. But before we get to that, we wish to address why exactly you should build a digital marketing team. 

Why Your Business Requires a Digital Marketing Team?

This age is called the “creator economy” or “gig economy”. Now there is a higher number of freelancers and it is easier than ever to start your own business online. But one thing separates a successful online business from an unsuccessful one. And that thing is digital marketing. 

Almost everyone now has an online presence. All your prospective customers are browsing Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Almost every website is an opportunity for you to market your product through ads, paid partnerships, etc.  If you market your product properly, you will get a good amount of leads. What separates a great digital marketing team from a good one is that the former not only get leads, but it gets quality leads. 

This talent has not yet been automated, and perhaps never will be. The synchronization between a well-built team of talented and experienced marketing professionals is key to a business’s success. A digital marketing team will become the voice of your product. It will take your product from being a “nothing” to a “something” that people want and will wish to buy. Slowly, you will see your product’s popularity outperform that of your competitors’. You will also receive customer feedback through marketing activities, which will be pivotal in shaping your product’s journey. 

5 People Who Should Be Part of Your Digital Marketing Team

A good digital marketing team structure is the catalyst that will help you see more success in your business. So which are the five digital marketer roles and responsibilities you absolutely need in your team? Let us have a look. 

1. SEO specialist

SEO will always be popular as long as the internet exists. SEO is what drives web pages to populate search results. It’s what helps content writers show their work online and expose it to a million views/impressions and even more. 

SEO helps people search and find what they require online. You absolutely should have an SEO specialist in your team. They should be someone whose knowledge goes beyond finding keywords; they should know off-page and on-page SEO, how to rank better, which SEO tool to use, how to develop an SEO strategy, etc. Here are some things that you must look for in a search engine optimization specialist:

• Whether they have helped their previous organization or clients rank better on search engines. Ask for proof of betterment in rankings, website traffic, impressions, etc. 
• Whether they know how to tie their website traffic to quality leads
• They should have used at least one SEO tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Ask them exactly why they like that particular tool. 
• They should be aware of Google’s most recent search updates. 
• They should be well-versed with off-page SEO.
• Check how they measure the success of their efforts.
  

2. Marketing operations specialist

Marketing operations is a slightly new role, but it is highly underrated. A good marketing operations specialist helps bring uniformity to your team. They help your digital marketing team build better synchronization with the sales team. When the sales team and marketing team get along, there is definite growth in the business. 

The role of the marketing operations person is to create a technical and digital framework that can map all your marketing campaigns and collaterals with the number of conversions you are getting. Since automation is an important part of digital marketing now, it’s important that campaign performance and measurement is also automated. This is exactly where you require a marketing operations specialist. 

A marketing operation specialist will sit at the heart of your digital marketing team structure. They will help the SEO expert map website traffic to actual conversions in order to figure out exactly which audience to target; they will set up dashboards to measure leads, they will figure out exactly which marketing tool or platform to use for a certain end-goal. Here are some things that you must look for in a marketing operations specialist:

• How well-versed they are with marketing tools and platforms? Ask about their experience with working with different tools for different purposes like newsletters, blog, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, outbound marketing, etc. 
• What is their approach to marketing funnel optimization?
• How well can they create landing pages and do they know front-end development for minor optimizations?
• Which customer relationship management (CRM) platform are they most comfortable working with? Will it be difficult for them to transition to another?
• How can they improve the marketing tech stack of your company when they are hired?

3. Paid ads specialist/PPC manager

Ads are a part of all of our lives. The minute we start browsing the internet, ads appear on different websites, before and after YouTube videos, in our social media feeds, in our LinkedIn messages, etc. Even though the online world is trying to experiment with subscriptions, a majority of the website publishers still rely on paid ads to grow their brand.

Ads are here to stay, which is why you must absolutely look for an experienced paid ads expert or PPC manager for your team. They should know how to use Google Ads, how to identify the right audience, must be good with budgeting, and be aware of all the different ad formats that are available. They must also have a good professional network because sometimes direct deals can also do wonders. Here are some things that you must look for in a paid ads specialist:

• They should be good with statistics. They should know how to interpret the massive audience data that will be captured when they interact with the online ads that you run. They should be able to make sense of it and capitalize on it to earn more clicks and impressions at a much lower cost. 
• They should either know how to write great ad copy themselves or know how to work with a content writer to get the most out of their ads. 
• They ought to know Google Ads well. 
• They should have a knack for knowing their audience. They should think like your customers and know exactly what they want to see and are likely to click on. 

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4. Social media manager

Any B2C brand’s presence on social media is incredibly important. These days, even B2B brands are not shying away from being active on social media. There is a constant online competition to look more active, social, and quick-witted on social media platforms when it comes to brands. For this, you should hire an amazing social media manager who can really turn your social media strategy around and give your brand a massive online following. 

A great social media specialist or manager will know how to operate the different social media channels that are available. They will be well-versed in writing interesting copy and will have a grip on how algorithms work. Here are some things that you must look for in a social media specialist or manager: 

• Whether they have a comprehensive social media portfolio
• How much do they know about social media analytics? How well do they know to make the most out of social media data?
• What is their approach to different social media algorithms? 
• How do they plan to grow your brand’s popularity the minute they are brought into your team? 
• Can they write or create social media copy themselves? 
• What is their posting schedule like and which social media tools do they generally use for posting consistently?
  

5. Marketing strategist

For all the other team members to work with a common vision and goal, you require a glue that holds them together. This glue is the marketing strategist. This person will be a leader and will point the direction in which your team moves. It is the job of the marketing strategist to strategize and figure out exactly which campaigns to run, when to run, what kinds of benefits will come in if the team runs those campaigns, how to do all of this within the budget, etc. 

The marketing strategist must know what your product is all about. They should also be able to effectively define and redefine your buyer persona. Here are some things that you must look for in a marketing strategist: 

• They should know how to plan and create a content and campaign calendar that the rest of the team adheres to.
• They should know how to read data well and make sense of analytics. Knowing when and what campaign to run is a marketing strategist’s skill. 
• They should have a good social record and must get along with other teammates. It’s important that they work in sync with others.
• They should be the jack of all trades: they should know a little about all marketing roles and how to perform them. 
• They should be great with budgeting. They should know how to help your business grow.

Key Takeaways

• If you wish to grow your business, you must work towards building a digital marketing team that comprises experts.
• Digital marketing experts become the voice of your brand. 
• You need marketing professionals in your team who can work towards a common goal.
• You require an SEO specialist, a marketing operations person, a PPC manager, a social media manager, and a marketing strategist who can lead the team. 
• It’s crucial to recognize the importance of social media and technology marketing solutions if you wish to grow your business. 

Conclusion

We hope these pointers help you in building a great digital marketing team structure, which can drive traffic and revenue to your business. These days, hiring a marketing team is easier than ever, with many talented people ready to upgrade their skills. We hope you build an amazing team that expands your business.

FAQs