Build Your Marketing Team for Success

Why the Right People — in the Right Roles — Are the Engine Behind Outcomes

Every growing business eventually hits the same moment of clarity.

It usually arrives after a quarterly review, during budgeting season, or while staring into the abyss of a marketing dashboard that looks more like a desert than a pipeline.

It’s the realization that strategy alone won’t get you to your goals.

You need a team.

A real one.

Not a “collection of well-meaning generalists doing heroic random acts of marketing.”

(We wrote a whole section about that in the book for a reason.)

Whether you’re a founder, CEO, or marketing leader, there comes a point where you can no longer outrun the truth:

Your marketing outcomes depend on the capability of your marketing team.

And this is where so many SMBs struggle.

Building a modern marketing team isn’t about copying what the big companies do.

It’s about designing the right-sized, right-skilled, right-sequenced team for your stage, your goals, and your Bets — exactly as outlined in Chapter 6 of Outcome Marketing.

This blog will help you do that.

Why the Team Matters More Than the Tools

In Outcome Marketing, we talk about the marketing engine — the system that turns Bets and Story → Execution → Scalable Results.

But engines don’t run without operators.

And hiring the wrong team is one of the fastest ways to break that engine.

Some CEOs think hiring a marketer is like hiring a magical unicorn who can:

• write copy
• design graphics
• run digital ads
• build email sequences
• set up HubSpot
• produce webinars
• do PR
• manage events
• create content
• plan campaigns
• and occasionally fix the WiFi

We love unicorns.

But we don’t build strategies around mythical creatures.

In the book, we walk readers through a simple truth:

Marketing is a set of capabilities, not a single job title.

When you think in capabilities, you stop hiring “Swiss Army Knife Marketers” and start assembling a real team with complementary strengths.

Start With Clarity: What Outcomes Are You Trying to Achieve?

Your marketing team should reflect your Strategic Drivers — the capability and investment priorities required to activate your product–market Bets.

Your Bets define where you will grow (products, markets, motions).
Your Drivers define what the team must be excellent at to execute those Bets.

If one of your key Drivers is owning the conversation in your category, you need:

• strong content capacity

• SMEs

• editorial excellence

• someone who can build thought leadership flywheels

If a Driver is accelerating pipeline contribution, you need:

• demand generation skill

• funnel mechanics

• measurement discipline

• tight alignment with Sales

If a Driver is expanding through product-led growth, you need:

• lifecycle marketing

• digital experimentation

• CRO skills

• customer insights

Your team should match your Drivers — which is how you activate your product–market Bets — not the other way around.

This is where most SMBs get stuck.

They hire the person they can afford, not the person the strategy requires.

Part of leading is resisting that temptation.

Designing Your Team Structure: A Scalable SMB Blueprint

In Chapter 6 of Outcome Marketing, we talk about building a team that balances:

• what you must have
• what you can outsource
• what you can grow into

Below is the Outcome Marketing–aligned blueprint for SMBs.

The "Core Three" Roles Every SMB Should Have

1. The Strategic Leader (Head of Marketing, CMO, or Fractional CMO)

This role is your:

• owner of Bets
• champion of Story
• navigator of metrics
• translator between marketing and the rest of the business

Without this leader, the team devolves into tactics without direction.

With this leader, the team becomes a well-oiled engine for growth.

In the book, we call this the person who owns the marketing narrative and alignment with the CEO.

2. The Demand Creator (Demand Gen Lead or Performance Marketer)

This role:

• builds campaigns
• manages the funnel
• optimizes conversions
• drives pipeline contribution
• owns LTV:CAC, paid channels, and SEO strategy

This is the “marketing math” person — the one who brings the accountability that CEOs crave.

3. The Story Builder (Content Lead / Writer / Creative Producer)

Blogs, videos, guides, emails, social posts, product content, sales enablement, thought leadership — none of it exists without content.

As we note in Chapter 8:

“Content is the fuel for your entire marketing engine.”

You don’t need a content factory.

You need one excellent storyteller who deeply understands your POV.

The “Extended Team” — As You Scale

These roles come next, depending on growth stage:

Marketing Operations

Systems, automation, attribution, dashboards, data integrity.

This is the glue of your tech stack.

Product Marketing

Critical once you have more products, deeper competition, or complex buyer journeys.

Events or Field Marketing

If in-person or virtual events are one of your top Bets.

Social or Community Manager

When the brand and POV reach a tipping point.

Creative or Design Support

Often outsourced, but essential for consistency and style guide compliance.

(The Outcome Marketing style guide makes this much easier.)

The Smartest SMB Leaders Know What to Outsource

In the book, we discuss resourcing constraints and prioritization.

You don’t have to hire full-time experts for everything.

You can (and should) outsource:

• design
• SEO execution
• paid media management
• long-form content
• video production
• specialized email sequences

Your core team sets the strategy.

Specialists help execute it.

Culture Matters: Your Team Must Be Built for Innovation

One of the most overlooked insights from Chapter 15 is the “innovation test.”

Your marketing team needs:

• curiosity
• the ability to experiment
• time to think
• space to create
• a culture that celebrates learning, not perfection

In Outcome Marketing, we emphasize:

“If the team doesn’t have time to be creative, test ideas, or think, you won’t get far.”

The best teams are not the biggest —

they’re the ones with the healthiest environment.

How to Know If You’ve Built a Successful Marketing Team

Here are the signals (all tied to book metrics):

1. Pipeline contribution increases

A core metric from Chapter 5 — the first sign the team is operationally effective.

2. Inbound begins to rise

Your content and Story are working.

You’re attracting the right people at the right time.

3. Sales velocity accelerates

Better messaging + better targeting + better content = faster deals.

4. You feel aligned

Sales and Marketing are working like relay partners, not rivals.

5. You stop doing random acts of marketing

Everything is tied back to your Bets and metrics.

6. You have time to innovate

That’s when you know the engine is running.

Closing on Clarity and Capabilities

Building the right marketing team isn’t just a hiring exercise.

It’s one of the most strategic decisions you’ll ever make.

Because your team is the force that turns your vision into outcomes.

You don’t need a big team.

You need a capable one.

You need clarity of roles, clarity of strategy, and clarity of expectations.

And you need people who believe in the mission, the values, and the Story you’re building — just as we emphasize throughout Outcome Marketing.

If you get the team right, everything else gets easier.

And if you’re still figuring out what the right team looks like for your stage?

You’re not alone.

Every great marketing leader — including those of us who wrote the book — started exactly there.

There’s hope.

There’s a roadmap.

And now, you have a team-building strategy rooted in the same frameworks used by the best SMB leaders in the world.