12 Key Marketing Team Roles

Marketing teams drive growth and customer engagement to fuel business success. However, structuring them can be challenging for startups and established companies.

Building an effective marketing team means defining roles, sizing the team and ensuring sales and marketing alignment.

In this guide, you’ll learn how marketing teams are structured, the roles that make up a marketing team and how to build a team from scratch.

What is a marketing team and what does it do?

A marketing team is a group of professionals that promotes a company’s products or services. Marketing teams develop and execute a marketing strategy to connect businesses to customers, build awareness and drive business growth.

Marketing team names may vary. They may be known as growth teams, demand generation teams or brand teams. Regardless of the name, this team is responsible for designing and executing effective marketing efforts.

They create marketing materials that educate and persuade, run marketing campaigns that generate interest and perform data analysis to understand what works.

Modern marketing teams also embrace “smarketing” (sales + marketing alignment). The collaboration helps nurture leads and ensure consistent messaging that turns interest into revenue.

How is a marketing team structured?

Marketing team size and structure can vary dramatically. It might range from a single business owner wearing several hats in a small business to large marketing departments with multiple specialists.

What matters most is having clear ownership of vital marketing roles that align with your business goals.

Here are three common ways to structure a team:

1. By function

A functional structure groups marketers by their skills and focus areas. It creates clear ownership and helps the entire team build deep expertise.

Here’s an example of functional organization for a typical marketing team:

Each team has a specific role in the marketing department. In this case:

• Digital marketers manage online channels – social media, email marketing, paid ads and search engine optimization (SEO) – ensuring platforms work together to reach customers

• Brand marketers shape company culture, voice and visual style

• Product marketers become experts in specific offerings and target audiences

• Content teams handle content creation and content management for blogs, guides, podcasts, webinars and educational materials tailored to different stages of the customer experience

• Marketing operations handles marketing automation, data and campaign execution

• Marketing analytics employs data analysts to measure performance and find opportunities

• Communications manages public relations (PR) and external messaging

Functional marketing team structures work well for larger organizations but can create silos between departments. Implementing regular cross-team check-ins, shared goals and collaborative tools helps mitigate this risk.

2. By discipline

Discipline-based teams master specific marketing channels and balance deep expertise with agility.

Each discipline focuses on a specific channel or marketing approach:

• Content teams create, manage and distribute valuable information that builds trust, drives engagement and moves audiences through the marketing funnel

• Paid media specialists run advertising campaigns across search, social and display networks and measure campaign performance through detailed marketing reporting

• Inbound marketing attracts and engages target audiences

• Email specialists nurture leads through targeted messaging

• Marketing research studies market trends and customer interactions

• Social media builds community and manages brand presence

• Customer marketing develops programs for existing customers

The “discipline” approach works well for companies looking to grow their business while maintaining agile, self-contained teams. However, coordination between disciplines is crucial to prevent fragmented strategies.

3. By product

Product-based marketing teams dedicate their marketing efforts to specific products, services or business lines. These teams focus on particular market segments.

Each product team manages everything from positioning to promotion, with deep knowledge of their product, customers and competition.

Product marketing teams oversee activities that ensure their product’s success in the market, such as:

• Market research for their specific segment

• Product messaging and positioning

• Sales enablement materials

• Customer case studies and success stories

• Product launch campaigns

Dividing by product helps companies with diverse lines meet customer needs using targeted strategies and specialized teams. Technology companies often assign dedicated teams to each product or platform.

Using shared guidelines, workshops and communication tools helps keep the brand consistent and encourages creativity.

Essential marketing team roles

To build a marketing team, focus on roles that shape strategy, handle execution and deliver results. From leaders to specialists, every role plays a unique part in driving business growth.

Leadership positions

Marketing leaders set the vision, guide marketing management and oversee team execution. These roles require marketing expertise, business acumen and communication skills to inspire teams and align with company goals.

Chief marketing officer (CMO)

The Chief marketing officer (CMO) steers the overall marketing direction and connects it to business goals. They manage multimillion-dollar budgets, build executive relationships and make strategic brand decisions. CMOs also:

• Monitor market trends and competition

• Lead innovation in marketing approaches

• Build and develop high-performing teams

• Define marketing metrics and ROI targets

• Contribute to the company’s business plan and 5-year plan

CMOs turn business strategies into marketing initiatives that drive growth.

Marketing director

Marketing directors turn strategy into action, leading teams to execute campaigns and initiatives.

Day-to-day tasks differ based on company size, but typical responsibilities include:

• Setting campaign direction and measurable goals for demand generation or brand awareness

• Managing team performance through regular coaching and feedback

• Ensuring all projects align with broader company objectives and timelines

• Allocating budgets across marketing initiatives and tracking ROI

CMOs focus on strategy and alignment, while directors handle campaign execution, team management and process optimization.

Directors often specialize in areas like demand generation, brand building or product marketing based on company needs and structure.

Marketing manager

Managers ensure that strategic marketing plans are executed flawlessly and yield measurable results. Their hands-on role bridges high-level strategy with daily execution.

They own essential marketing programs – such as email campaigns, content calendars or paid media initiatives – and guide specialists in executing them. They need both tactical expertise and project management skills to:

• Develop campaign timelines and workflow automations

• Provide day-to-day guidance on campaign execution

• Track metrics and adjust tactics

• Meet regularly with stakeholders to report on progress and results

Unlike directors, who focus on aligning campaigns with high-level strategy, managers are in the trenches. They review campaign assets, refine tactics and ensure deliverables meet deadlines and quality standards.

Specialist positions

Specialist positions focus on specific marketing disciplines, bringing deep expertise and innovation to critical areas like content, SEO and paid media. These roles require technical knowledge and creative skills to execute specialized marketing activities.

Content marketing manager

Content marketing managers develop and execute content strategies that attract, engage and convert target audiences. They:

• Plan content calendars and topics

• Guide writers and designers

• Ensure content aligns with brand voice

• Optimize content for search and conversion

• Create long-form and short-form materials

Beyond creation, they analyze content performance, looking at things like page views, bounce rates and lead generation metrics to identify opportunities for improvement. Content marketing managers work with subject matter experts and graphic designers to create materials that highlight company expertise.

Their work forms the foundation for many other marketing activities, powering social media, lead generation and sales enablement efforts.

Social media manager

Social media managers build online communities and amplify brand presence on social media marketing platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. They create engaging content that sparks conversations and drives meaningful engagement.

Daily responsibilities include:

• Creating platform-specific content

• Responding to comments and messages

• Monitoring brand mentions and trends

• Managing paid social campaigns

Social media managers excel at quick, timely interactions. They need strong writing skills and cultural awareness to navigate online conversations.

These professionals shape the brand’s digital persona by creating relatable posts, engaging in trends and humanizing its voice.

SEO specialist

SEO specialists boost organic growth by improving content visibility in search results. They blend technical expertise with content strategy to help businesses rank for valuable keywords.

Their core responsibilities include:

SEO professionals work closely with content teams to create search-optimized materials. They partner with web developers to fix technical issues like broken links, site speed or mobile responsiveness that might affect rankings.

Email marketing manager

Email marketing managers design and execute email campaigns that nurture subscriber relationships. They turn email into a powerful channel for driving engagement and revenue.

Key responsibilities include:

Beyond basic newsletters, these specialists build sophisticated journeys that guide prospects toward purchase decisions. They track email analytics like open rates, click-through rates and conversion data to refine their approach.

Digital marketing manager

Digital marketing managers orchestrate online campaigns across multiple channels to reach business goals. They oversee tactics like:

• Paid advertising, like pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and display ads

• Organic content strategies such as SEO-optimized blogs and social media

• Conversion optimization through landing pages and A/B testing

• Their work covers optimizing landing pages, tracking digital metrics and managing advertising budgets

Unlike channel-specific roles, digital managers need broad knowledge of many platforms. They track performance, find opportunities and identify impactful activities.

These professionals analyze performance metrics and data, using real-time insights to test, adjust and refine strategies that improve ROI and drive growth.

Supporting roles

Supporting roles in marketing teams provide the foundation that allows core marketing functions to focus on strategy, creativity and execution. These positions ensure smooth operations, actionable insights and effective project delivery.

For companies practicing remote team management, these supporting roles become even more critical in maintaining smooth operations and clear communication channels.

Marketing operations manager

Marketing operations managers ensure the team’s processes, systems and technologies run smoothly.

Their core responsibilities include:

• Managing marketing automation platforms

• Setting up tracking and reporting systems

• Creating workflows for campaign execution

• Documenting standard operating procedures

• Evaluating and implementing new marketing tools

They work closely with IT on system integrations, with sales operations on lead management and with finance to ensure accurate campaign ROI calculations.

Marketing analytics manager

Marketing analytics managers turn data into insights to refine strategies, manage budgets and achieve measurable business outcomes.

They monitor performance across channels, spot opportunities in the data and help teams understand which activities create the most impact. Without solid analytics, marketing teams risk misallocating resources, missing growth opportunities and relying on gut feel instead of data-driven evidence.

Analytics managers typically:

• Track campaign metrics and KPIs

• Create automated performance dashboards

• Develop attribution models

• Forecast marketing results

• Build custom reports for stakeholders

Analytics managers work with marketing operations to ensure accurate tracking, seamless data flow and reliable insights.

Project manager

A marketing project manager coordinates campaigns and initiatives from concept to completion, ensuring everything stays on track and within budget.

Teams without strong project management often struggle with missed deadlines, unclear priorities and wasted resources. Project managers bring order to complexity and help teams deliver consistent results.

Their daily work includes:

• Planning project timelines and milestones

• Allocating team resources effectively

• Managing project budgets

• Running team meetings and check-ins

• Documenting decisions and next steps

• Balancing competing priorities

Project managers serve as the central point of contact, coordinating between creative teams, external vendors and stakeholders. They need organizational skills, the ability to inspire collaboration and the ability to motivate teams without direct authority.

How to build a marketing team from scratch

Building a marketing team from scratch is no small feat, especially with 82% of marketing and creative managers reporting challenges in finding skilled talent. The following strategic steps can help you overcome this hurdle and assemble a high-performing team.

Assess your marketing needs and gaps

Start with an honest assessment of gaps and priorities to ensure your initial hires contribute to solving them.

Look at your existing marketing activities and results to identify:

• Channels that drive the most value, such as email or social media

• Where customers discover your business, like search engines or referrals

• Content and campaigns that perform best based on engagement or ROI

• Time-consuming tasks with low returns

• Areas where you lack expertise, such as SEO or analytics

Match these findings against your business goals. A software company focused on enterprise sales needs different marketing capabilities than an e-commerce brand targeting consumers.

Focus on filling critical gaps first. Identify two to three roles that would create the biggest impact – such as a content marketer to build your brand – and then expand from there.

Create your hiring roadmap

A hiring roadmap is your plan for growing a marketing team. It maps out which roles to hire, in what order and when.

Without a roadmap, teams risk skill gaps, inefficiencies and higher costs.

A basic hiring roadmap includes:

Key milestones and timing	Hiring a content marketer within three months to improve brand visibility, followed by a paid media specialist within six months to drive conversions.
Budget allocation per role	Budgeting $60,000 for an email specialist vs. $90,000 for a digital manager based on ROI.
Required skills and experience	Hiring a paid media specialist with expertise in Google Ads and Meta Business Suite or a content marketer skilled in SEO and storytelling to optimize engagement.
Training and onboarding plans	Creating a 90-day plan that includes tool training, brand guidelines review and mentorship pairings.
Dependency mapping between roles	Hiring a social media manager before a content creator is necessary to ensure a targeted plan for content creation and distribution.

The most effective roadmaps are flexible and evolve as business needs change. For example, they might shift focus to product marketing during a launch or prioritize hiring a generalist over a specialist when resources are limited.

Plot your first three to four hires based on current priorities to address your most critical gaps. Outline later phases as your team matures to prevent overwhelming your resources while ensuring steady progress toward a complete marketing function.

Structure your recruitment process

A recruitment process creates a consistent system for finding, evaluating and hiring marketing talent. It turns hiring from guesswork into a repeatable method that identifies the best candidates.

Without structure, teams waste time and miss great talent. A clear process ensures fairness and speed.

Make sure you include:

• Resume screening criteria like SEO experience, familiarity with tools like Google Analytics and a track record of measurable results

• Skills assessment methods like portfolio reviews, case studies or practical tasks like creating campaigns or analyzing datasets

• Standard interview questions like “How would you increase organic traffic by 20% in six months?” or “Describe a campaign you managed and its results”

• Evaluation scorecards to rate candidates on technical skills, cultural fit, problem-solving and communication

• Reference checks should assess the candidate’s ability to meet deadlines, collaborate, handle challenges and verify achievements or metrics shared in interviews

Keep it simple at first by focusing on core requirements and cultural fit. Add complexity as your team grows and needs to become more specialized.

Use employee referrals and specialized platforms like Pipedrive for recruiting to recruit and find qualified candidates. Involve current marketing team members in interviews to evaluate collaboration potential and ensure cultural alignment.

Develop your onboarding process

An onboarding system guides new marketing hires from acceptance through their first 90 days. It turns raw talent into productive team members while reducing stress for everyone involved.

Unfortunately, only 12% of employees think their company excels at onboarding new employees. Poor onboarding leads to slow ramp-up times and early turnover. A structured system helps new hires contribute faster and feel more connected to the team.

Essential onboarding elements include:

Week 1
First month	Marketing tools training Brand guidelines review Process documentation Initial projects
90-day plan	Milestone check-ins Performance metrics Skill development Regular feedback

Once you’ve created a 90-day roadmap, take it a step further by refining your onboarding process.

For example, create clear documentation for everyday tasks and procedures. Assign an experienced team member as a mentor to guide the new hire through processes, answer questions and provide feedback. Implement a learning management system to standardize training and track progress.

Establish your team workflows

Team workflows create clear, efficient paths from idea to completion while keeping everyone aligned.

Random processes waste time and create confusion. Structured workflows help teams collaborate smoothly and deliver consistent results.

Core workflows include:

Project management	Task assignment methods Progress tracking Review cycles Approval processes
Communication channels	Daily updates Team meetings Decision documentation File sharing
Tools and templates	Project briefs Content calendars Campaign trackers Asset libraries

Start with simple workflows that cover basic needs. Add more structure as your team grows and projects become more complex.

How to improve sales and marketing alignment

Poor sales and marketing alignment creates friction that wastes resources, frustrates customers and undermines revenue growth.

Bridging this gap is critical to closing more sales, and 29% of respondents in our “The state of sales and marketing 2023/2024” report have implemented “smarketing” as a new approach.

Here’s how you can improve marketing-sales alignment:

• Define shared goals and metrics. Both teams need to rally around the same performance objectives, such as achieving $1M in quarterly revenue, generating 500 marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) monthly or maintaining a 90% customer retention rate. Shared targets help unify teams and ensure accountability.

• Implement regular communication channels. Set up structured meetings where the sales team shares customer feedback and marketing presents campaign results. Slack channels, weekly stand-ups and monthly reviews create ongoing dialogue and prevent misalignment.

• Standardize lead management processes. Create clear definitions for marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs) so both teams know when leads are ready for sales contact. Document steps, criteria and timeframes to prevent qualified leads from slipping through the cracks.

• Create unified customer journeys. Map unified customer journeys, covering touchpoints like marketing emails, sales calls and follow-ups. Align messaging across campaigns and sales conversations to avoid mixed signals and create seamless transitions as prospects move between marketing and sales.

• Build technology bridges. LinkedIn’s research shows that 85% of marketing and sales teams rely on centralized customer data tools like customer relationship management(CRM) software to align their efforts. Invest in a CRM that facilitates sales team collaboration and enables content marketing automation for better efficiency.

Marketing team FAQs

Final thoughts

A well-structured marketing team creates the foundation for sustainable business growth. However, structure alone doesn’t guarantee success. Teams need transparent processes, shared goals and the right tools to reach their full potential.

Start by understanding your core marketing needs and build from there. Focus on establishing strong alignment between sales and marketing early since this connection becomes more complex to fix as teams grow.

Ready to improve sales and marketing alignment in your organization? Pipedrive helps teams collaborate better with shared dashboards, automated workflows and integrated customer data. See how it works with a free trial today.