How Org Structure Fits Into Marketing Strategy – and Helps You Make Your Number

A top-flight marketing strategy builds buyer preference for the company’s product. It also positions the sales strategy for success.

Done well, marketing strategy is a powerful piece of revenue-generation planning. But it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Other factors and forces influence how successful a marketing strategy will be.

Because your team executes your marketing function, structure and strategy are tightly intertwined.

Five Vital Marketing Strategy Steps:

We’ve identified five steps in pinpointing the right marketing strategy:

1. Planning is where you develop the brand, the budget, the plan to hit the number.
2. Engagement defines the marketing team’s outreach to customers and prospects.
3. Org is the organizational structure – the personnel who execute the plan.
4. Execution is strategy implementation, from product marketing to lead management.
5. Support backstops sales, making internal processes easy to navigate.

For this post, we’ll pull  “Org” from the lineup for a closer look. You need all the others, of course, and in the right order. And we help you with those, too. Register for SBI’s “How to Make Your Number in 2016” Workshop

Put Marketing Strategy and Org Structure Together:

But in this post, we’re going to zero in on how org structure fits into marketing strategy. Because your team executes your marketing function, structure and strategy are tightly intertwined. For success, be sure you’ve meshed them smoothly. This will be critical to hitting your revenue goal in 2016.

For that reason, set up your org structure carefully, thoughtfully. You need the right personnel. And you need to get them into the right jobs.

Watch how people perform in their assigned roles – your staff is your organization’s bedrock resource. Put people’s strengths to work where they’re most effective.

Sometimes a position switch makes a big difference. You need to deploy your forces for best results. That means defining the best structure and determining the correct headcount.

Apply Your Managerial Talents:

Here is where your own managerial talent comes into play – and it’s important. This is the team you’re counting on to take your company where it needs to go. Guide your marketing group in meeting your objectives.

One of today’s challenges is meeting the needs of mobile, socially networked business executives. That may call for creating a new organizational model – which presents its own risks. If it’s the wrong decision, it can be complicated, disruptive and expensive.

As you identify potential problems and developing solutions, look through a marketing strategy lens. There are many points to consider in this organization design stage. But they all come down to one thing: making your 2016 number.

Here are a few of the pertinent questions to ask yourself:

• What organizational model best accomplishes our marketing objectives?
• What roles need to be filled? What are the responsibilities for each?
• How should we transition from the structure we have today to the structure we need going forward?

There are others, and you’ll find them starting on page 131 of “How to Make Your Number in 2016.” 

Sometimes a solid organizational structure calls for going outside the organization. You can’t staff every need, and some needs will be fractional or temporary. In some cases, budget is better applied to outsourcing. That would call for an agency relationship, and the SBI report offers good direction for managing that, too.

In fact, SBI is happy to help you apply any element of the study. It’s all about making your number. We offer face-to-face workshops – we’ll bring it to you. Click here to register for your custom “How to Make Your Number in 2016” Workshop. Do it now – it’s almost 2016.