Marketing is necessary for business success. Whether you are building brand awareness, promoting your products and services, or simply trying to improve the customer experience, the success of your goals will depend on the effectiveness of your marketing team. You need skilled and experienced professionals by your side if you want to reach your objectives and support success. With that in mind, here is how you can structure your marketing department with the most essential roles:

SEO Specialist

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important digital marketing strategies today. It is also a complex and multi-faceted field, which is why a specialist is needed in your department. This professional will use SEO tactics to optimize your website and ensure you remain at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). Along with SEO analysis, a specialist will also develop related digital marketing campaigns. This individual will work closely with most members of your marketing team to ensure your website content remains optimized for SEO, especially as your site goes through redesigns and changes. Now, SEO can be a very technical job, so understanding its requirements can really help you get the best seo specialists for your marketing department. George at The Digital xx has written an in depth guide on what SEO is here.

Content Marketer

This individual should be versatile, flexible, and comfortable working with various mediums and channels, including video marketing, content writing, social media, and even podcasts. They will create, manage, and facilitate the content that represents your company both on your own website and other platforms, such as guest posting opportunities. The content marketer you hire will collaborate with multiple different team members regularly, but their main partners will likely be design and SEO specialists. Remember that knowledge and experience aren’t enough for this role – you will also need creativity, innovation, and great communication skills.

Social Media Manager

With social media being an increasingly important marketing resource for companies of all types and sizes, an expert in this field will be another valuable member of the team. The roles of a social media manager might vary depending on the business, but their responsibilities are often quite similar. They include expanding your company’s paid and organic social media presence, following trends and key performance indicators (KPIs), managing content calendars, creating social media content, promoting the company on various platforms, collaborating with influencers, overseeing the entire social media team, etc.

Chief Marketing Officer

The chief marketing officer (CMO) will take on the direction, strategy, and leadership in the marketing department, representing an important stakeholder in your company. They will often collaborate with other executives and managers, as well as the CEO. The CMO will be responsible for the company’s branding, marketing strategies, marketing and sales alignment, long-term customer value, and business growth. As such, they need to be highly skilled and knowledgeable. Investing in extensive leadership training is also recommended. This competency will enable them to lead their team toward the company’s vision with greater success.

Project Manager

Although often overlooked, project managers are vital in fast-paced and complex marketing departments. Their role is to oversee all projects, including planning and organizing, managing team members, and making sure each project is completed in a timely manner. They will also be in charge of project resources and the overall budget, tracking progress along the way and managing the necessary documentation. Consider hiring a project manager experienced in marketing and your industry alike to ensure high productivity and effectiveness.

Visual Designer

Visual brand cohesion and strong design elements are necessary for enhancing your marketing strategies and ensuring success. A skilled visual designer will be capable of performing a number of important tasks, from creating social media graphics and advertisement layouts to developing large-scale solutions like ebooks, webinar slides, and expo banners. If possible, it might be a good idea to find a visual designer who’s also talented at video editing to support all your marketing efforts. If not, consider including a video marketer in your team due to the increasing importance of this medium.

Data Analyst

No marketing campaign will bring you positive results without using specialized tools to measure its progress and leveraging collected data to determine its effectiveness. That is exactly where a good data analyst comes in. This professional will be a critical asset in your marketing department, helping to gather valuable data, analyze important information, and provide crucial insight into the performance of your marketing strategies. Another vital role they play involves utilizing tests and tools to identify new marketing opportunities and communicate them to the whole team to support marketing effectiveness and business growth.

Public Relations

Public relations (PR) specialists are seen in nearly all organizations, and should be a core member of your marketing team as well. The PR professional will communicate all news related to the company, such as leadership announcements, multimedia storytelling, community relations, influencer relations, and more. They will also be responsible for brand management and the public perception of your company’s brand. PR experts often work closely with the entire marketing department to ensure the consistency of your brand image across platforms.

Marketing offers endless potential for your business, but you need the right team in order to leverage it effectively. Use the advice above for structuring a great marketing department and ensure long-term growth and success.