Marketing organisation structure: roles and responsibilities for small teams

Why marketing organisation design matters

Structure is strategy in action. The way you organise people decides how fast work moves, how clear ownership feels, and whether budgets map to outcomes. Founder led and mid market teams need a simple, intentional structure that fits the plan, not a copy of a big company org chart.

This guide shows you how to design a lean marketing organisation with clear roles, responsibilities, and spans of control. Use it to align hiring, agencies, and fractional leadership to your one page strategy and quarterly roadmap.

Start with the work, then assign the roles

Design follows your plan. Capture strategy, quarterly priorities, and the operating rhythm before you write job descriptions.

• Strategy. Use one page marketing strategy.
• Roadmap. Translate into initiatives on your quarterly marketing roadmap.
• Rhythm. Keep delivery tight with build a simple marketing operating rhythm.

The five core functions for a small team

• Leadership. Owns strategy, budget, prioritisation, and partner management.
• Growth and channels. Runs paid search, paid social, SEO content, partnerships, and PR.
• Content and brand. Owns message, creative, website copy, and asset production.
• CRM and lifecycle. Drives conversion, onboarding, retention, and expansion.
• Operations and analytics. Keeps data hygiene, tracking, dashboards, and tooling healthy.

To put the five core functions for a small team into practice, use the steps above: clarify the outcome, choose 1–3 channels, set a test budget, and track weekly so you can double down on what works.

Role profiles you can adapt

Marketing lead or fractional CMO

• Outcomes. Commercial targets met, priorities chosen, budget allocated by objective.
• Responsibilities. Strategy, governance, agency management, and the operating rhythm.
• Span. Three to six direct reports depending on maturity.

Growth manager

• Outcomes. Qualified pipeline and efficiency metrics.
• Responsibilities. Paid search and paid social, channel tests, and performance reporting.
• Span. One to three channels directly, plus agency oversight if used.

Content and brand manager

• Outcomes. Clear message, consistent brand, and assets that convert.
• Responsibilities. Editorial calendar, creative production, website copy, and asset QA.
• Span. Writers, designers, and creators via in-house or agency.

CRM and lifecycle manager

• Outcomes. Conversion rate lift, repeat purchase, and expansion revenue.
• Responsibilities. Email, onboarding, nurture, and winback flows, plus segmentation.
• Span. Close collaboration with sales ops or RevOps.

Marketing operations and analytics

• Outcomes. Reliable tracking, clean dashboards, and fewer data debates.
• Responsibilities. Tagging, UTMs, integrations, and the scorecard.
• Span. Works across all functions and with vendors.

Spans of control and when to add headcount

• Add roles when a function is needed weekly and work exceeds quality thresholds.
• Use agencies for specialist or burst capacity. Keep daily iteration roles in-house.
• Bring in fractional leadership when you need senior decisions without a full-time cost.
• Reassess spans quarterly. If a manager has more than six reports and projects slip, split or add a lead.

For resourcing decisions, use marketing resourcing: in-house, agency, or fractional support.

RACI and governance that keep ownership clear

Write a one page RACI for recurring decisions such as budget shifts, creative approvals, and tool choices. Tie it to decision windows so approvals do not stall work.

To put raci and governance that keep ownership clear into practice, use the steps above: clarify the outcome, choose 1–3 channels, set a test budget, and track weekly so you can double down on what works.

Operating rhythm to make the structure work

• Weekly standup by function. One line per owner: status, insight, next action.
• Monthly performance review across functions. Decide continue, scale, fix, or stop.
• Quarterly reset. Update priorities, budget envelope, and role focus as needed.

Cadence details are covered in build a simple marketing operating rhythm and measurement in build a marketing scorecard.

Example structures by stage

Early stage

• Roles. Generalist marketer, fractional CMO, and an agency for production.
• Focus. Fix message, stand up paid search, and establish CRM onboarding.

Scaling

• Roles. Marketing lead, growth manager, content and brand, CRM and lifecycle, part-time ops.
• Focus. Compound proven channels, introduce PR or partnerships, improve conversion.

Expansion

• Roles. Channel owners, data ops, and regional content support.
• Focus. Localise content, protect brand consistency, and add partner programmes.

Hiring sequence and job scopes

1. Document the one page plan and quarterly priorities.


2. List capabilities needed for two quarters. Mark weekly needs versus project bursts.


3. Define job scopes tied to outcomes and the scorecard, not vague duties.


4. Decide hire versus agency using frequency, differentiation, and cost.


5. Write briefs and SLAs for partners. Review monthly against KPIs.

Budget rules and splits are covered in marketing budget: split spend by objective.

Common org design mistakes to avoid

• Copying a big company structure. Design for your size and goals.
• Hiring before writing the plan. Roles drift without outcomes.
• Too many direct reports. Managers become bottlenecks.
• Outsourcing ownership of message. Keep core positioning and proof in-house.
• No operating rhythm. Structure fails without a cadence.

Final checklist

• One page strategy, roadmap, and rhythm documented.
• Five core functions mapped to outcomes.
• Role profiles and spans of control defined.
• RACI and decision windows written.
• Hiring and partner plan tied to budget and KPIs.
• Quarterly review booked to adapt structure.