How to create a high performing marketing team
If you run a marketing team, you will realise a few things; firstly that no marketing team can be all the same, and secondly, a mixture of personalities and skills is required for optimum performance. When choosing a team, it's best to steer away from selecting people just like you, or like another person who you rate as being a good marketer on your team. The reason is simple; a strong, competent, successful marketing team has to have a mixture of personalities that collaborate, support, encourage, nurture and push each other to reach their full potential both individually and as a team.
While this may seem idealistic, it's a reality for any competent marketing manager who has the 'balls' to think outside the box when they are putting together a team of people to take a company to the next level.
While this may seem idealistic, it's a reality for any competent marketing manager who has the 'balls' to think outside the box when they are putting together a team of people to take a company to the next level.
Marketing Eye is often hired to conduct marketing audits on marketing departments and external agencies. It's fascinating to see so many marketing teams that look and feel the same. Your team is not a brand - it is an elite sporting team that has to kick as many goals as possible in order to achieve the success that the team is destined for.
After years of studying marketers, and moving away from 'people I like' to encouraging our team to select people that 'bring something to the table', I have been to establish the 10 personality traits that every marketing team needs to achieve optimum results.
- Project Manager or leader: This is someone who champions the marketing strategy and takes 100 percent responsibility for the entire team delivering on each and every goal. They are meticulous by nature, with a strong sense of understanding the business goals and how marketing is going to deliver on them. They are competent at project management and managing a team and have coaching capabilities along with an ability to bring the entire team along with them on the journey.
- Optimistic Motivator: This person has a glass not only half full but brimming at the top. They pick everyone up when they are having a bad day, and never dwell on a challenge that is put in front of them or the team. They don't ever use the word 'can't' and know that there is a solution to every problem. They believe in the brand and know that by motivating everyone around them, as a team, they will all perform, supporting each other and having each other's back.
- Educator: This person is an avid reader, conference goer, webinar participant and sharer of information. They cannot learn enough and know that it is impossible to know everything about marketing, but they as sure as hell try to keep abreast of the latest in marketing, technology, communications, influencers, and market trends. They not only learn this for themselves, but they share knowledge with the team, so that the entire team is able to become more educated in all aspects of marketing, and can use new and useful information in their everyday jobs.
- Tech-nerd: Someone who loves numbers, analytics, technology, artificial intelligence, robots, software and APPs. They know every single new marketing solution that comes to the market, and they know which one is going to fit the business best, so that the entire team can do more results driven marketing campaigns, use data to change campaigns that are not gaining enough traction, and have a faster, smarter mentality knowing that using technology, they will be able to cut the amount of time they would normally spend on tasks. They use analtyics and not gut-instinct on every aspect of marketing, and they champion the use of technology amongst the team, giving the team the business case needed to find the marketing budget to invest in better performance.
- Marketing Practitioner: This is the tactical person in the group that delivers on all the goals using the tools that they have in front of them. They are critical as without them, nothing gets done.
- People person: This person is the communicator in the team. Not only do they communicate internally, but they know how to communicate with clients, stakeholders, influencers, team members and customers. They usually light up a room with a good story, and can tell your story and that of your clients better than anyone.
- Writer: Every team needs a writer. Someone who can write in any format, using the tone needed to connect with the audience of any piece of written material. This role is critical in any marketing department, because even eith the best creative, it is impossible to truly connect with audiences with content.
- Creative: Creative people are hard to find. We all think we are creative until we meet someone who blows your mind and you look at what they have done with such a simple brief in awe. Every marketing team needs a creative person, and every agency cannot survive without this person playing a pivotal role in clients work.
- Determined: Someone who is determined to succeed. They may be competitive by nature, and they usually hate losing. They have the determination to bring together all the components of marketing at a level higher than it was yesterday.
- Collaborator: This person brings everything together and ensures that people are working together to get the best results. They bring teams together, people together and improve the environment in which excellence is possible. They usually take the lead in ensuring that everyone understands what they bring to the table and how they can best work with stakeholders to get the most out of what they are trying to achieve.
This is the ultimate marketing team. If you have this team, the sky is the limit. Anything and everything is possible. 10 people can change any company's outcomes and if you look hard at these personality types, you will realise that their natural inclination may not be to work together, but as a full team, they are capable of moving mountains, and reaching any goal.
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