Right People. Right Seats.
First popularized by Jim Collins author of Good to Great, the term means that the power in any organization is having the people best suited for the role in the role.
And the power of right people, right seats goes well beyond just their skill set.
It also means people who have the passion, energy and willingness to give it their all.
Harness the power of right people, right seats and everyone benefits: your employees, your customers and your ability to scale your company.
When it comes to marketing, though, it’s a common misconception that one size fits all: a marketer is a marketer is a marketer . . . You get my drift.
It leads to hiring one person or one agency with a special niche to be “our marketing person.”
It leads to trouble!
Modern marketing is less a department than it is an ecosystem with lots of specialty players who can come together to create a marketing operations system that hums with revenue-driving power and performance.
Consider the advantage of building a marketing dream team like this one:
Marketing Strategist: A marketing strategist, often now using the title Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (FCMO), is someone who will help you develop a plan or roadmap that provides step by step guidance for developing marketing programs based on goals with a clear direction and project ROI. Your strategist should be the quarterback of your dream team, making sure the team works in unison for peak performance.
If you don’t start with this right seat person, you end up playing general marketing contractor instead of running your business.
Content Marketer: Content marketers are responsible for the creation, development, and distribution of content for a company. They ensure that the content aligns with the company’s goals, brand identity, and target audience. As content is the most important element of most modern marketing programs, the right person in this seat can have an immediate impact on your revenue generation. Your right seat content market is one who most loves words and telling stories and seeing the impact these stories have on the audience.
Web Development Team: Multiple skills are needed for effective web development and the best web development happens when the team includes both a backend and frontend developer proficient in coding and SEO and a User Experience/User Interface (UX/UI) expert who knows how to help visitors navigate your website in an engaging way. Without that integration of technical capability and user experience, your website can’t become the lead generation engine it should be.
Graphics Designer: Your graphics designer is your visual communications expert. Their role is not just to create images, it is to tell your company’s story in the most visually compelling way. Your right seat graphics designer loves to create visual art and understands how to integrate imagery into the content marketers story to increase audience appeal.
Campaign Manager: Marketing campaign managers are responsible for the lifecycle of a marketing campaign. This includes planning, executing, and reviewing a campaign to ensure that it meets goals and delivers the anticipated YOU’RE YOUR right seat campaign managers is a natural organizer and conductor of your marketing execution team. They work with the marketing strategist to ensure the planned roadmap is followed or by finding new routes around unexpected barriers.
Analytics Expert: The marketing analytics manager works with data from marketing automation, customer relationship management (CRM) software and other business intelligence tools to get insights on marketing campaign performance and the return on investment. As more marketing programs become data and AI-driven, this pivotal yet often overlooked role is gaining ground in mid-size marketing departments. Knowing your numbers and driving marketing decisions by data rather than “gut-feel” is key to maximizing your marketing investment. Your right seat analytics expert is a data nerd not a creative magician.
At this point you may be thinking I can’t afford to hire all these people!
The good news is you don’t have to. Every one of these talented experts is now available in a fractional role for a few hours a week or month.
Make your first hire your fractional CMO marketing strategist and they will pull your marketing dream team together.
If you are a marketing consultant, use this list to build out your own network of trusted referral partners so you can offer the full range of marketing services your growing client will likely need.
Need help finding the right marketing partners for your dream team? Let’s Chat!