Brands and organisations searching for efficacy, flexibility against their marketing investment as well as those that are looking to build internal capability often wonder about the right mix of skillsets, people and composition for their marketing teams. We walk through some factors to consider with a focus on generalist vs. specialist capabilities and working with consultants to build or optimise an in-house marketing function.
In a previous article, we shared that tactical marketing – perhaps pointed at short-term objectives – would benefit from proper planning and structure. With structure, it becomes simpler to allocate and optimise resources to accomplish objectives. With a strategic communications plan, the organisation (and the marketing team) has agreed-upon objectives, steps, positioning and messaging as well as selection of marketing channels, and target audiences and segments.
Apart from the plan, there is a need for the right team to execute on the strategic communications plan. Organisations typically look to build a ‘fully complete’ marketing function composed of members with varying experience levels, a good balance of generalists and specialists, capped with some prior experience from the same sector, industry or a competitor. The last factor being a hope that learning or taking some ‘best’ practices over might help the brand improve.
Given the evolution of the pandemic, and how the customer has adapted while brands are trying to keep up, what would a near-future in-house marketing function look like?
From the top, it’s important to have generalists responsible for successfully owning and executing the strategic communications plan. Generalists – that have worn many hats over their career or even been the entire marketing team in prior roles – are the ones with the best chance at understanding how the ‘big picture’ can be distilled into all the different component parts. They can understand the push and pull (and explain clearly) of stakeholders or weigh the arguments for cost vs. ROI. Critically, these generalists are best placed to adapt and customise (some might say wrestle) positioning and messaging to map to channels and deliver that holy grail of a seamless customer experience.
Lean on these team members to distil the essence or key points of the master plan in order to prepare campaign and project plans. Look for those with project management capabilities or experience as their role revolves around keeping the wheels moving, in order for the organisation to achieve and keep momentum going.
Next up, are the role of specialists in the marketing team. These are also important team members responsible for bringing efficiency to the operations through their understanding of the subject matter as well as their skillset in optimising their area to deliver the output required to drive the marketing engine and organisation objectives. From an organisational perspective, it’s not important to have a full suite of specialists as it is to have the right specialist in play at the timing the strategic communications plan requires them.
This is not football where a player (specialist or super-subs) carries the team and the game. This is more a field mission where having the wrong combination of talent and capability in the campaign or project team can result in a negative outcome. Choose your campaign and project team members with care proportional to how important the mission outcome is.
For example, media relations campaigns (perhaps a product launch or an announcement) might require a communications specialist to draft and distribute a news release, pitch editors and creatively offer exclusive angles to media titles. The same specialist might be wasted working on a performance marketing campaign seeking to deliver leads and prospects through digital funnels.
Finally, outsourcing and working with agencies or building with consultants, what’s the deal with this option when building an in-house team?
For organisations that are just starting to build their function, or when budgets are dependent on revenue outcomes (yes, always the case, but more so with starting or smaller brands), a gap solution is to outsource the specialist or performance outcomes to a freelance or agency. This can help the brand deliver against plan, contribute to revenue outcome, and build a marketing budget for an in-house team.
Outsourcing means more time upfront for management to align organisation and marketing goals and outcomes with the freelance or agency brief, workflow and output. However, it can be a win-win to balance budget vs. cost vs. ROI at different stages of an organisation’s growth.
Contractors and agencies can help a brand hit big targets through the aggregation and execution of specialists and their core capabilities without the need for headcount growth within an organisation. However, once the specialist marketing channel starts to grow or deliver strong results, it might be the trigger to hire a specialist into the in-house team.
Working with a consultant is slightly different. Depending on the scope, a consultant can be brought on to help with the strategic communications plan, provide the connection (and actions) between generalists and specialists at the beginning as well as coach and train the in-house team. The scope of work and the project duration should be limited by time with suggested outcomes being the ability for the in-house team to operate independently, and the increase in capability of the in-house team.
Organisations can use specific milestones in the master plan for the consultant to aim for. Preparing the in-house team to achieve the milestone provides a target, confidence and teamwork practice as well as an achievement once the project is completed.
When the in-house team takes over the reins, the consultant can be deployed to support strategic or creative projects in order to continue tapping on their deep understanding of the organisation and brand goals.
We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, professional services, retail, travel and technology spaces.
Our principal founder is a registered management consultant, certified and recognised by the Institute of Management Consultants Singapore.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
· Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
· Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
· Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
Discover more about our services at our website or book an exploratory consultation through this link.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
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