How to Structure and Source Your Dream Team

Written by: Susan Marshall

As the CEO and founder of Torchlite, a SaaS platform that provides access to a network of freelance marketing experts, people often ask:

• How should I structure my marketing department?
• Who should I hire?
• What should I outsource?
• When should I use an agency?
• How do I get everything done?
   

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. But there are three guideposts that will help you get started. These pillars guide how we build, source, and execute our marketing plans at Torchlite and hopefully, they’ll provide clarity as you think about how to staff your marketing team, continuously improve, and get more done.

1. OUTCOMES

When thinking about how to resource your team, it starts by getting clearly aligned around your marketing objectives. Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it may seem.

Many marketing departments are tasked with too many objectives and launch campaigns that don’t ladder up to those objectives. This makes it nearly impossible to resource a marketing organization effectively. Once you clearly articulate WHAT you are doing and WHY you’ll be on a faster path to figuring out WHO should do what.

2. METHODOLOGY

Marketing leaders need to embrace a new way of working and collaborating to get work done. We often refer to this as an Agile Methodology. This methodology will enable your team to move rapidly and drive better outcomes.

At Torchlite, we define Agile Marketing as a way to:

• Break big marketing plans into small tasks
• Assign specialists to those specific tasks
• Use technology to ensure the entire team is rapidly sprinting towards a common goal.
   

So, whether you are simply sending monthly emails to a small list of prospects or building very complex, data-driven customer journeys, the methodology still applies.

Break down your marketing plan into deliverables

• Examples: eBook, Website, Email, Social Publishing, Advertising
   

Break down deliverables into specific tasks

• Examples: Write copy, Design Email, Code Email, Test Email
   

Align individuals to specific tasks

• Write Copy (Jen/Copywriter)
• Create logo (Bob/Designer)
• Build landing page and email (Lisa/Email Marketer/Web Developer)
   

Fill in the gaps

• (No Designer!)
• (No PPC Specialist!)
   

Related: How to Jumpstart Your Marketing Strategy

3. TECHNOLOGY

Your existing marketing stack should also factor into how you source projects. For example, if your company has already made an investment in HubSpot, you’ll need to ensure you have specialists who can build inbound campaigns, write content, create landing pages, design images, and also build custom workflows that map to your customer lifecycle.

Again, it’s about breaking your marketing plan into specific deliverables and tasks, so you can begin to identify gaps and fill those gaps with the right resources.

At Torchlite, we use roughly five martech tools to get everything done.

Each one requires a specialist.

Not all of the specialists are on staff. We simply couldn’t afford it. Plus, we don’t need 100% of everyone’s time to get done what we need to get done.

Instead, we hired full-time marketers to own our marketing strategy, operations, and branding, and we outsource the technical work.