Part III – Specialization 

I mentioned earlier that I would come back to this later and here we are. The marketing mix has existing for many years, as blend of specific disciplines that enable an integrated marketing strategy. But I see so many senior marketing leaders not grasping the specialism when it comes to recruiting members for their team. Time and time again  marketing teams are headed up by someone with a broad set of marketing skills and experience (which is necessary as I alluded to earlier) who recruit junior versions of themselves to support them. The result? A team of marketers that don’t explicitly understand any part of the mix in detail, that lack technical capability and one that will continue to rely on expensive agency support.

So, what’s the answer?

Well, if you’re the person heading up the team then the first thing you need to do is look at your marketing strategy and build a team around the demands on your team, minimizing the need for external support and making your team more efficient and effective by in-sourcing more of your run-rate marketing activity. My current marketing team consists of 38 people, spread across the world geographically, but each focused on specific marketing discipline or a specific customer market. The ‘Generalists’ in the team consist of marketing managers and marketing executives. The fact is, they are not generalists at all. Whilst I have hired them for their broad knowledge of the marketing mix and therefore, ability to effectively manage their plans, they are in fact, domain specialists, with an in-depth understanding of the vertical market(s) and product and service lines they support.

Take a look at O2 Enterprise, they recognized the need for vertically aligned marketing teams, Local Government particular, with head of vertical sector marketing Mark McCluskey achieving significant traction with a series of targeted initiatives – including a promotion to win $250,000 worth of consultancy services. Sound proof that vertical focus is fundamental.

The ‘Specialists’ within my team all fall into the following categories; Social Media, Digital Marketing, Internal Comms, External Comms and PR, E-mail and Automation, Brand and finally, Content. The marketing managers and execs have access to these specialists and can effectively utilize them as if they were an internal agency. This means that when we need to produce a piece of content, or integrate a social media element into a campaign, the person responsible is native to that discipline and not just doing it as part of a much wider remit. This provides focus, speed and efficiency.

Mace integrated its marketing team in 2012, with the combined department delivering across five disciplines: marketing, communications, public relations, bid management and customer satisfaction. Each discipline has a strategy owner managing a team of skilled individuals and a part of the recruitment strategy is to challenge what added value each individual contributes to ensure a dynamic mix of thinking. Team communications are transparent and regular, with weekly department updates on email, weekly strategy owner meetings, functional and quarterly meetings, brainstorms, training clinics, and ‘lunch and learn’ sessions.  A great example of how large, multi-discipline teams can collaboratively work as one.

Nike is another great example, they actively encouraged individual members of the marketing team to

become thought leaders in particular areas or disciplines, and to reinforce that status by conducting what it called Town Hall lectures for other stakeholders in the business. Topics for these lectures included: ‘the importance of fast lead turnaround’; ‘reporting enhancements to marketing campaigns’ and ‘best practices in lead management’. This is a great example of how sharing internal knowledge across different teams can enhance customer facing staff’s ability to talk about their product and service offerings competently.

Talk Talk Business bought in specialists and up-skilled their existing marketing team to make them more customer centric, in the aftermath of its re-brand from Opal Telecom. This has resulted in greater focus of individual specialists of all members of the team, including the marketing communications manager to be more focused on creative work and media planning, and the content manager to produce content better focused on different elements of the buyer journey. This refocusing, together with the implementation of marketing automation, resulted in a 25 per cent increase in sales qualified leads and a 25 per cent reduction in marketing costs.

So in summary, building a dynamic and effective B2B marketing team is simple. It requires a leader with a broad, yet detailed understanding of all aspects of marketing. An, open working environment that embraces innovation and creativity and supports a marketing strategy that isn't afraid to push the boundaries. And finally, a team skilled up to cope with the most demanding requirements across the full marketing mix.







Luis Esparza is a social media marketing expert and the Founder and CEO for Vitalogy Interactive Marketing.