Marketing Team for Small Business: How to Build, Structure, and Scale the Right Team

Kristen Johnson
6 days ago
7 min read

Key Takeaways:

An effective small business marketing team starts with clearly defined business and marketing goals that drive decisions about structure, hiring, and outsourcing.
Small teams should balance in-house generalists with external specialists or fractional leadership to maintain consistent execution while managing budget and bandwidth.
As your business grows, evolving from ad-hoc execution to a structured team with strategic leadership is essential to ensure marketing efforts align with growth objectives and deliver measurable results.

Building and leading an effective marketing team for a small business is one of the hardest functions to get right. The role of marketing within an organization varies, and there are many types of marketers with different backgrounds to consider when hiring. On top of that, most marketing teams include a mix of in-house and external talent, whether it’s freelancers or agencies. Making the wrong choices when creating and growing a marketing team can cost your company profits and waste your time as the leader. But don’t get frustrated! By considering the tips in this article and partnering with an experienced senior-level marketer, your small business can build a marketing function that drives growth without taking up too much of your valuable time.

How Can I Build an Effective Marketing Team for a Small Business?

If you’re wondering how to make sure you’re setting your company up for marketing success, start with these three steps:

Step 1: Define Your Business and Marketing Goals

How are you going to grow revenue for your company? Effective marketing teams align their efforts with the business's goals. Most small businesses need to grow revenue by bringing in new customers. However, others want to grow by releasing new products or organically growing their existing customer base. Different marketing strategies are needed depending on how the business wants to grow, which determines how the marketing team is structured and who you should hire.

Step 2: Decide What to Hire vs. Outsource

Companies of all sizes run marketing with a mix of internal and external resources. An internal team is critical for maintaining a consistent marketing schedule and for having people who understand the business and products well to create marketing pieces. External resources, like freelancers or digital marketing agencies, help with specialized needs or during peak marketing seasons when a quick turnaround is needed.

Budget is often a deciding factor in determining the marketing team for a small business. A rule of thumb is that a company spends between 6% and 12% of its revenue on marketing. That includes salaries, plus costs for content production, advertising, and marketing technology such as email or analytics platforms. With that in mind, you have a guideline for how much you can afford to keep in-house vs outsourcing.

Step 3: Determine the Management Structure

Marketing is an area that needs ongoing oversight, which becomes more complex as your marketing team grows. For many small businesses, a marketing manager or director can run marketing with the CEO as a strategic guide. If you decide to hire a marketing agency, that doesn’t mean you can offload the time you spend on marketing. Someone needs to direct the agency, educate them on your business, ensure they are working in the right direction, and evaluate their work.

If marketing takes more time than you, as the CEO, have, or if your marketing expertise isn’t enough to evaluate and direct marketing strategies, then part-time senior-level support can be brought in, such as a Marketing Mentor or a Fractional CMO, to support your existing staff.

Small Marketing Team Structure: 5 Models for Small Businesses as They Scale

There are many ways to structure a marketing team based on goals, budget, and skills, and the structure changes as marketing becomes more important and revenue grows. At the very start, marketing is usually ad hoc and handled by whoever can help within the company. This approach, however, makes it difficult to see results. One critical component of successful marketing is consistency. Potential buyers need to see a brand or product 5+ times before even noticing it. Everyone is busy, and it takes persistence to get attention.

As your business grows, it will become time to invest in resources who can continually market your company. Here are five models to consider for a small marketing team structure:

1-Person Marketing Team Structure

1 full-time employee who is a marketing manager to keep track of projects and execute marketing
The company CEO directs the marketing manager on what to work on
The marketing manager handles as much marketing execution as they can, but also works with freelancers to help with bandwidth and fill any skills gaps
Freelancers might help with social media, writing, or website updates

In-House Small Marketing Team Structure

2-3 full-time employees
Led by a marketing manager or marketing director who keeps projects on track and contributes to executing marketing
The company CEO works with the marketing manager or director to ensure projects align with the business
The marketing manager/director is a marketing generalist who can handle various marketing functions, like design, writing, and project management
Other employees are specialists, based on the marketing needs. This might include a full-time digital marketer to handle SEO/AEO, website updates, and emails. Or a content specialist to develop webinars, blogs, and social media posts.

A young woman working at her laptop from home.

Hybrid Marketing Team Structure (In-House + Marketing Agency)

2-3 full-time employees
Led by a marketing director who keeps projects on track and contributes to executing marketing
The company CEO works with the marketing director to ensure projects align with the business
The marketing manager/director is a marketing generalist who can handle a range of marketing functions, including design, writing, and project management. Other employees are specialists, based on the marketing needs.
A marketing agency takes on specialized work that the internal team can’t handle due to bandwidth or skill set constraints. The marketing agency is usually a digital agency that handles online marketing: website updates, SEO/AEO, advertising, social media, and blog content.
The marketing agency is managed by the marketing director, who makes sure the agency’s work is aligned with business goals and the brand, and keeps track of projects and evaluates performance.

Hybrid Marketing Team Structure (In-House + Marketing Mentor)

2-3 full-time employees
Led by a marketing director who keeps projects on track and contributes to executing marketing
Marketing mentor works with the marketing director to implement a strategic framework for aligning marketing with business goals
The marketing director works with the marketing mentor to ensure marketing is aligned with business goals and reviewed with the CEO
The marketing manager/director is a marketing generalist who can handle a range of marketing functions, including design, writing, and project management. Other employees are specialists, based on the marketing needs.
A marketing agency might take on specialized work that the internal team can’t handle due to bandwidth or skill set constraints. The marketing agency is managed by the marketing director, who ensures the agency’s work aligns with business goals and the brand, tracks projects, and evaluates performance.

Hybrid Marketing Team Structure (In-House + Fractional CMO)

2-3 full-time employees
The marketing director keeps projects on track and contributes to executing marketing
The fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) ensures marketing is aligned with business goals and is a part-time member of the company leadership team
The fractional CMO leads the marketing team and their priorities
The marketing manager/director is a marketing generalist who can handle a range of marketing functions, including design, writing, and project management. Other employees are specialists, based on the marketing needs.
A marketing agency might take on specialized work that the internal team can’t handle due to bandwidth or skill set constraints. The marketing agency is managed by the marketing director, who ensures the agency’s work aligns with business goals and the brand, tracks projects, and evaluates performance.

How to Structure a Marketing Team for Long-Term Growth

As marketing plays a larger role in your small business, you might find yourself adding resources to get more marketing done. But producing more doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get the results you’re looking for. If you find yourself wondering why marketing isn’t doing more for your business, it is probably because you are missing a marketing strategy.

The easiest way to explain the impact of a marketing strategy is through an analogy. Think of a hockey team. You can have six skilled players out on the ice, all doing their own thing. The forwards are taking shots, defense is keeping the puck away from the net, and the goalie is making saves. Everyone knows their role and is working hard. But without a clear game plan, they’re not working as a team. Forwards keep getting stopped because they’re not passing. And the goalie is getting slammed because not enough people are helping with defense. Individually, they are good, but they are losing games because they’re not working as a team.

A professional ice hockey team during a game.

Marketing works the same way. You can have strong execution across channels: emails are getting clicks, the website is easy to navigate, and social media posts are getting shared. But without a marketing strategy, each effort is working in isolation. Marketing activities might be targeting different audiences, using inconsistent messaging, or not aligning with what the business needs. A strategy is a game plan that helps you win consistently.

Developing a marketing strategy takes an experienced marketer. There is a transition in every marketer’s career from the specialist, manager, or director of marketing who gets things done to a strategic marketing leader who ensures what is getting done is the right thing for the business.

As your small business grows and you add new team members, ensure that you have someone on the team who is developing a marketing strategy, whether that’s someone in-house or with external help from a marketing mentor or Fractional CMO, in order to get what you need for the business.

Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Marketing Team for Your Small Business

Creating the right small business marketing team structure isn't one-size-fits-all. Determining your goals and budget will drive decisions about your initial hires. As marketing contributes more to the company, the marketing team's structure and size will evolve, including a mix of in-house and outsourced support. As it grows, ensuring the marketing team is led by a strategy, and not just busywork, will get you the results your company is looking for.

When your small business needs strategic direction and senior-level marketing leadership, whether through a Structured Marketing Mentorship Program or as a Fractional CMO, Wise Marketing Strategy can help. Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation.