How can companies build the perfect digital marketing team in 2021

headless commerce, Rajiv Kumar, StoreHippo, customer experience, consumer behaviour, headless commerce solutions

By Abhinav Arora

Related posts

EXCLUSIVE – Crypto giant Binance controlled ‘independent’ US affiliate’s bank accounts

June 5, 2023

Why investing just to save tax may be bad for you

June 5, 2023

Three pivotal moments in the past few years that influenced en masse digital adoption in India: One, the jio launch; two, demonetisation; and three, the pandemic. As and when more eyeballs move on digital, the marketing naturally would have to steer in that direction.

If you’re someone who has not had significant experience dealing with the consumers digitally, you may find it an uphill battle. In such a scenario, it’s super tempting to outsource your “digital” marketing to a “digital marketing agency”. And anyway there is no dearth of such agencies around today.

But, I’m here to tell you something different: You need an in-house digital marketing team. If you can’t find a marketing message that resonates with your audience, no one else will be able to either. You can’t outsource marketing the way you’re probably hoping. It has to be a core competency. Read on – I’ll cover a few pointers that will help you set up your in-house team.

What makes a modern day digital marketing team?

A contemporary digital marketing team is way different from what it may have stood for three years ago. We’re in this new age of marketing that’s shifting away from plain advertising. Today’s times require a collaborative team made of folks skilled in analytics, content, engineering, and user experience. They are all data-driven and focused on a common goal – to acquire new customers for your business, retain them and monetise them.

There are five key people you want on such a team.

1. First and foremost is a data analyst

You need to make sure you’re monitoring everything. Every touchpoint should be tracked, there should be campaign goals defined, right metrics in place and absolutely every hypothesis should be tested. His/Her job is to load and fire, rinse and repeat. In a competitive market, you have to be out there throwing ideas as content or ads; and rapidly testing them. Double down on what works and kill what doesn’t. It’s a game of rapid iteration.

2. You need a leader (a VP Marketing)

They need to have experience running a team before. More importantly, they need to be able to collaborate well with the engineering (or product development) team and the user experience team. This is crucial because marketing doesn’t end at bringing the prospect, nor does it end when the prospect becomes a customer, nor does it end when the customer has been with you for over a year. It’s always on!

3. You need a content creator

A content creator would create content across all your customer touchpoints (could be LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube or even your app/website) and by doing this – they build an audience for your business. What does “building an audience” mean? It means to get a group of people to trust you. Content is an instrument that enables this – it builds trust amongst the people who consume it. It’s the most effective way to build a brand today. If your content is engaging, people will keep coming back and someday they’ll convert.

4. Next up is a UI/UX designer

Usually, their job is to create seamless experiences to ensure that your product meets users’ needs. But, when working with a marketing team, their scope is to leverage consumer touch points to ensure rapid growth. This could mean reducing friction, understanding user behavior and finding ways to build virality within the product. The designer designs the experiments, developers implement it, analysts test it and based on results, the leader decides the further course of action.

5. The last person on the list is a full-stack developer

Because in today’s age, you’re going to have to build more than just websites. She will be in charge of writing the code for your many experiments – be it a referral program or loyalty program or building an exclusive wallet system for your customers. It’s always a good idea to have a developer dedicated to your team than lending someone from other departments.

All in all

Assembling the perfect team can be daunting. What you’re essentially looking for are folks with an iterative mindset – who are open to getting results through the trial and error method, while optimising continuously for a better outcome.

The author is co-founder and CMO, Avalon Meta

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook