Setting up a marketing team is no small feat, especially for startups. You have probably heard the popular saying “people cannot buy a product that they don’t know about”. This statement emphasizes the importance of effectively marketing your products, as this is an essential lifeline for business sustenance. To do this, you need a regular update on marketing trends. As well as a strategy and execution to leverage available information to grow your business.

As a business owner, you are likely to come to the realization sooner or later that “Marketing is a team sport”. Irrespective of your education or range of skills, the set of activities needed to effectively market your products require the combined effort of a team of skilled professionals. So how do you set up your first marketing team as a small business? What skill sets do you Lookout for? And how can you combine them to achieve your first milestones?

What are your marketing needs?
Most businesses share similar marketing needs when starting. It often comes down to creating awareness for the new business and its products among potential customers. Then leveraging data gotten from these to keep refining its strategies until complete product-market fit is achieved. Then pushing further beyond for growth. For most new businesses, this has to be achieved within a limited budget while aiming to get maximum returns on investment.

How to set up your first Marketing Team as a Small Business (5 Key Roles)
Figuring out your marketing needs is the first step to setting up your marketing team
These returns are not always in the form of revenue or customers, as it is for the Sales team. Rather they could be other parameters that play a role in supporting sales. They may include other valuable metrics like application downloads, platform sign-ups, leads generated, website visits, community members, engagement, event attendance, and more.

Setting up your marketing team for your small business comes down to identifying and recruiting team members with the skills to achieve this.

Key roles and skills to onboard on your first marketing team as a small business
Content writer /storyteller:
A content writer is someone who effectively expresses your business ideologies in the form of writing. This is usually done across digital channels like blogs, emails, social media, online advertising channels, etc. A skilled content writer is very essential to your marketing team because they help to craft your product stories in a way that your audience in each channel can connect to them. Persons to be hired into this role must be skilled at

a. Human psychology and understanding how to trigger people towards a set of goals.



b. Researching topics related to your industry (combining online sources, interviews, and studies)

c. Writing clear marketing copies to promote your products and services.

d. Preparing well-structured drafts using Content Management Systems.

e. Making their content visible online through optimization for searches.

f. Hands-on experience with Content Management Systems (e.g. WordPress)

Some other roles your content writer may temporarily stand in for include content marketer, market trend analyst, copywriter, scriptwriter, and PR officer.

Digital marketer:
As the world constantly heads towards full digitization and internet-based activities. Digital marketing is an important skill set to source for when setting up your marketing team, irrespective of its size. It offers a less expensive alternative to customer acquisition and retention with precise customer targeting and measurable results.

A skilled digital marketer understands the algorithms and nuances of different digital channels and how to use them to generate leads and build brand awareness. Your digital marketer should be able to work seamlessly with the rest of the marketing team to ensure that all online activities complement offline efforts


Feature
Start Up
How to set up your first Marketing Team as a Small Business
Chima Ezeokoye by Chima Ezeokoye
May 6, 2021
1
Setting up a marketing team is no small feat, especially for startups. You have probably heard the popular saying “people cannot buy a product that they don’t know about”. This statement emphasizes the importance of effectively marketing your products, as this is an essential lifeline for business sustenance. To do this, you need a regular update on marketing trends. As well as a strategy and execution to leverage available information to grow your business.





As a business owner, you are likely to come to the realization sooner or later that “Marketing is a team sport”. Irrespective of your education or range of skills, the set of activities needed to effectively market your products require the combined effort of a team of skilled professionals. So how do you set up your first marketing team as a small business? What skill sets do you Lookout for? And how can you combine them to achieve your first milestones?

What are your marketing needs?
Most businesses share similar marketing needs when starting. It often comes down to creating awareness for the new business and its products among potential customers. Then leveraging data gotten from these to keep refining its strategies until complete product-market fit is achieved. Then pushing further beyond for growth. For most new businesses, this has to be achieved within a limited budget while aiming to get maximum returns on investment.

How to set up your first Marketing Team as a Small Business (5 Key Roles)
Figuring out your marketing needs is the first step to setting up your marketing team
These returns are not always in the form of revenue or customers, as it is for the Sales team. Rather they could be other parameters that play a role in supporting sales. They may include other valuable metrics like application downloads, platform sign-ups, leads generated, website visits, community members, engagement, event attendance, and more.

Setting up your marketing team for your small business comes down to identifying and recruiting team members with the skills to achieve this.

Key roles and skills to onboard on your first marketing team as a small business
Content writer /storyteller:
A content writer is someone who effectively expresses your business ideologies in the form of writing. This is usually done across digital channels like blogs, emails, social media, online advertising channels, etc. A skilled content writer is very essential to your marketing team because they help to craft your product stories in a way that your audience in each channel can connect to them. Persons to be hired into this role must be skilled at

a. Human psychology and understanding how to trigger people towards a set of goals.



b. Researching topics related to your industry (combining online sources, interviews, and studies)

c. Writing clear marketing copies to promote your products and services.

d. Preparing well-structured drafts using Content Management Systems.

e. Making their content visible online through optimization for searches.

f. Hands-on experience with Content Management Systems (e.g. WordPress)

Some other roles your content writer may temporarily stand in for include content marketer, market trend analyst, copywriter, scriptwriter, and PR officer.

Digital marketer:
As the world constantly heads towards full digitization and internet-based activities. Digital marketing is an important skill set to source for when setting up your marketing team, irrespective of its size. It offers a less expensive alternative to customer acquisition and retention with precise customer targeting and measurable results.

A skilled digital marketer understands the algorithms and nuances of different digital channels and how to use them to generate leads and build brand awareness. Your digital marketer should be able to work seamlessly with the rest of the marketing team to ensure that all online activities complement offline efforts.



Persons to be hired into this role must be skilled at one or more of these;

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Content marketing
Social media marketing
Pay per click (PPC)
Affiliate marketing
Native advertising
Marketing automation
Email marketing
Online PR
Sponsored content
Inbound marketing

Some other roles your Digital marketer may temporarily stand in for includes Growth manager, product manager, PPC specialist, marketing strategist, marketing automation specialist, and customer retention manager.

Continue reading here... https://www.sme360.ng/2021/05/06/how-to-set-up-your-first-marketing-team-as-a-small-business/