Let’s talk about today’s marketing team member.
Tell me if this sounds familiar... I started a new role in a marketing team on a Monday. The job duties were pretty well defined in the interview process and reasonable for a single team member.
By Tuesday afternoon, the role changed dramatically andnow I'm responsible for all of these activities and more.
FROM THIS...
Initial Responsibilities:
Branding, Sales Enablement and Events
TO THIS...
Email Marketing, Retargeting Campaigns, Content Marketing, Thought Leadership, Sales Enablement, Affiliate Programs, SEO, SEM, Web Design, Events, Collateral Design, Direct Mail, Copywriting, Branding, Product Positioning, Product Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Media Buying, Lead Generation, and AnalyticsFeeling Overwhelmed?
Do I have experience in all of these different specialized areas? Yes.
Do I believe I could do all of these different activities? Yes.
Do I believe I could do anything more than the minimum for each of these areas? No.
I could just get by doing the minimum and shining in at most 1 or 2 areas. The rest would have to just be good enough. Feeling overwhelmed? I sure was!
Introducing The T-Shaped Marketer
As I tried to make my way through the to do list where all of those activities were a priority, I learned about the T-shaped marketer.
This concept of T-shaped persons describes the abilities of people at work. Often times the word “generalist” is used to apply to a T-shaped person.
The vertical bar on the letter T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field. The horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge in areas of expertise other than one's own.
The T-shaped marketer diagram creates a blueprint for how someone could grow their marketing skills created by Brian Balfour.
T-Shaped Marketer Components
According to Buffer, there are 3 components of the T-Shaped Marketer.
Base knowledge is the non-marketing-specific areas that everyone on the team should have. In theory, anyone who applies for a marketing role within your company would have competence with these abilities, and anyone on the current marketing team would focus on leveling up in these areas first and foremost. These basic abilities trickle down and inform the other skills you need. Are we saying they need psychology degrees? No, but having a basic understanding of behavior psychology, persuasion and influence definitely help when crafting campaigns.
Marketing foundation is the marketing-specific subjects that are useful across most all marketing channels. Some of these foundational skills aren’t the foundational skills at every company. Most teams don’t expect everyone on the team to have foundational skills in CRO. The marketing foundation at your company is likely to have some unique areas of value meaning this T shaped model will have a unique set of components for your business.
Channel expertise refers to audience and acquisition channels. The idea with channel expertise is that someone will have one or more channels for which they have great depth of knowledge. This would be where we feel we have the most expertise.
It's Your Turn
This is the breadth of the marketer. Think right now of your existing marketing team. What are their strengths? Where are the weaknesses?
Remember: They can’t do everything. You want a marketer that is really good in one to three areas. If they are producing amazing work in those 1-3 areas, you will see results. As a generalist, if you want them to be great in all areas, they will produce ok work. Is OK really good enough to push your business forward?
Let’s use me for example. I have a degree in psychology and am self taught in design (for the last 20 something years). I’ve been building on my skills with analytics and testing. However, if you asked how amazing I am at databases or SEO, I’m not, but that’s where my team complements me. However, I’m confident in my ability to write product messaging, create emails that get opened and design a beautiful, highly converting website.
This T shape could easily be applied to any of your marketing team members with varying depths of expertise. Line up your team members and see how many areas are missing expertise.
Map one team on paper
The skills map sounds like a workshop. It is a spreadsheet and forty minutes.
Here is a hypothetical. You have three people in marketing. List the 20 activities down the left side and the three names across the top. Each person scores themselves on every activity: 3 for "I am great at this and like it," 2 for "I can do it well enough," 1 for "I can fake it," 0 for "please no."
Then read the rows, not the columns.
In this example, six rows have a 3 somewhere. Those are your real strengths: say, events, sales enablement, email, design, social, and copy. Nine rows top out at 2. Workable. Five rows have nothing above a 1: SEO, paid search, analytics, the marketing database, and video.
Now put the company's goals for the year next to the sheet. If the plan depends on organic search and reporting to the board, two of your five weak rows sit directly under your biggest goals. That is the gap that matters. The other three weak rows can stay weak.
One caution. People score themselves generously on things they enjoy and harshly on things they hate. Have each person bring one piece of recent work for every 3 they claim. The conversation that follows is the most honest one your team will have all year.
Reconciling Gaps
Once the team is lined up and you have areas of expertise mapped out, you will notice some obvious gaps. These gaps may be small and easily covered by a re-prioritization of your team goals. These gaps may also show that it may be time to bring in some help.
Before we jump right into hiring a team member, is it necessary? Some gaps require a full-time internal team member. Some gaps can be filled with the right marketing partner. We know we can’t do it all and we can’t do it all well. That’s where a marketing partner comes into play. Partners have the resources and expertise you need to help you achieve more with your marketing. Let’s be clear. This is a partnership. It’s not taking away anyone’s job from someone on your team. To be successful, they are a part of your team. They work with your team and align on goals, strategies and tactics to accomplish the organizations goals.
Three ways to close a gap, and how to choose
You found the gaps. Now the temptation is to post a job listing. Slow down.
Stop doing it. The cheapest fix and the one nobody picks. If a weak row is not tied to a goal this year, take it off the list entirely. A team doing twelve things well beats a team doing twenty things at "good enough."
Train into it. Works when someone already scores a 2, wants the 3, and the skill is close to their strength. A strong writer can learn SEO. A strong writer will be miserable learning database administration.
Bring in a partner or hire. Use this rule. If the work needs someone every day and deep knowledge of your company, hire. If it needs real expertise a few days a month, or you need it working next month, a partner is faster and you are not carrying a full role for part-time work.
Then write down who owns every row. One name per activity. Most of the overwhelm in a small marketing team comes from work that belongs to everyone, which means it belongs to whoever feels guiltiest that week. If you are weighing outside help, here are eight questions to ask when hiring a marketing partner.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
At Rockstarr & Moon, we are marketing rockstarrs who partner with your marketing team to help them get back to business. From strategy through execution, we are an extension of your marketing team and as so, we get up to speed immediately and start delivering results faster than you can bring on a new hire.
We are the small business partner who can help you develop a plan, advise on tactics, provide playbooks for overcoming challenges, document the journey and most importantly, help you define which metrics matter.
Frequently asked questions
What is a T-shaped marketer? A T-shaped marketer is someone with deep expertise in one to three marketing disciplines and working knowledge across many others. The vertical bar of the T is the depth. The horizontal bar is the breadth that lets them collaborate with specialists and understand how their work connects to the rest of the plan.
How do I structure a small marketing team? Structure a small marketing team around the two or three activities most tied to this year's revenue goals, and staff those with real depth. Give every remaining activity a single named owner, a partner, or a decision to stop. Three people each covering a few things well will outperform three people covering everything thinly.
How do I figure out what skills my marketing team is missing? List every marketing activity your company expects, have each person rate their own ability on each one, and look for rows where nobody rates high. Then compare those weak rows to your goals for the year. Only the gaps sitting under an actual goal need fixing now.
What is the biggest mistake companies make when building a marketing team? The biggest mistake is hiring one generalist and expecting specialist results across twenty disciplines. That person ends up doing everything adequately and nothing exceptionally, and usually burns out. Decide which few activities matter most, hire or partner for depth there, and be honest about what the team will not do.
When should I hire a full-time marketer instead of using an outside partner? Hire full-time when the work is needed daily and depends on deep, ongoing knowledge of your company and customers. Use a partner when you need specialized skill for part of the month, or need it running faster than a hiring process allows. Many teams do both, with the partner covering the gaps.