Marketing office: opportunities for the company?

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The presence of a structured marketing office is the key to good management and organization of corporate marketing activities. Of course, in many realities it is a function carried out by small if not very small teams, composed of one or two people.In other realities it is the entrepreneur himself who takes care of it, perhaps with the help of a young graduate fresco who is loaded with more responsibilities than he has the knowledge to manage them.

So let's start by examining what are the opportunities for an SME that really wants to be the protagonist of the change taking place in B2B marketing. We do this by indicating what a well-structured marketing department should be. Because if we shouldn't how things should be done how do we get better?

 

Marketing

If we want to summarize the marketing result as much as possible, we can say that it has the specific purpose of providing information on the use, quality and value of a product or service in order to promote it and support its sale. In a nutshell, marketing has the function of finding points of union between the needs of the reference market and company products.

The task of marketing is to convey information on the use, quality and value of a product or service in order to promote it and support its sale.

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The importance of a marketing office in PMI

Marketing is a key part of any business. Even if there were a product that sells itself "by itself", there would always be the problem of widening the circle of those who could be potential buyers.

The company that does not have a structured marketing activity within it is a company that navigates in the dark and that significantly reduces the possibility of increasing its customer base and existing ones.

Of course, there may be an enlightened entrepreneur who carries marketing activities on his shoulders but in general they are short-term projects. And today, with the complexity introduced by Digital marketing, it is easy to go from shortness of breath to breathlessness.

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Duties of a marketing department and of the marketing manager

The team of a corporate marketing office must be directed by a marketing manager who knows how to structure the tasks of:

• promote the company's products and services according to the corporate objectives,

• create a fertile ground for the sales actions of the sales team, on which the responsibility for closing orders falls.

The above highlights the importance of perfect harmony between the two teams, the need for an open flow of information, and the mutual knowledge of the actions on the market carried out by both teams.

Returning to the marketing department, there are four main areas of expertise, on which all the activities aimed at achieving company objectives are governed in cascade.

1. Identify the areas where the product fits - This is where the company should focus its marketing strategy and, therefore, spend its budget for maximum reach and results. I am not referring only to the identification of new markets, but also to the strengthening of sales on already acquired markets with the development, for example, of new products.

2. Build relationships with the reference interlocutors - The task of the marketing department is to expand the customer base by creating new contacts (Lead generation). To do this, develop awareness and knowledge of the company, the brand, its products and services. Furthermore, with a subsequent action plan, the marketing team will accompany the contact along the purchasing process, acquiring more and more information to create new business opportunities for the company. At this point the new contact will pass to the sales force who will have to transform him into a customer.

3. Involve the acquired customer - Another responsibility of the marketing department is the involvement of existing customers. The best way to do this is to listen to what they have to say and their needs in order to provide what they need. With respect to customers already acquired, the marketing team can, for example, implement up-selling and cross-selling activities.

4. Monitor the market, the competition, the results - To carry out its business in the best possible way, the marketing department must monitor the market and the competition. Each company lives in an entrepreneurial fabric that changes and changes over time. Not recording these changes means ingesting one's promotion into outdated and therefore no longer efficient models.

Similarly, it is essential to analyze the results of marketing activities to verify their goodness or to introduce changes to better achieve business objectives.

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How a marketing office is structured

Know that there is no quick rule to define what to use to organize a marketing office. There are several variables involved:

• primarily the needs of the company: the type of product, the breadth of the market.

• company size,

• the budget available to create the marketing team and to support its activities,

An example title is how a marketing office could be structured:

1. Marketing Director (CMO) - It is the person who sits on the board (or company management) to whom he is responsible for the results of the marketing strategies. He is the one who translates the directives of the company management to the marketing department in order to develop the most suitable strategies to achieve the company objectives. He will then have to evaluate, examine plan, approve or reject what is submitted to him.

2. Marketing director - It is the function of the development of marketing strategies and which must oversee their application by analyzing the results. It responds to the CMO, unless this function is integrated with that of CMO (or vice versa).

3. Head of Marketing - It is the operational arm of the CMO or the Marketing Director. Depending on the organization, there may be multiple Marketing Managers each dedicated to a particular aspect of the marketing activity. His responsibility is the translation of marketing strategies into concrete actions. He will have to create (or oversee the creation) of messages and choose communication channels. He may have his own team, of which he is responsible, to carry out his duties.

4. Responsible for data analysis and market research - This figure is responsible for market research and monitoring of sales data that guide the activities of the marketing department and its strategies. It is the figure who prepares the sales reports (and other types) for the various company functions including the management ones. Analysts use various tools to monitor sales trends and to gather useful information for marketing. If there is no dedicated figure, he also deals with the analysis and monitoring of the trends of marketing campaigns and results. The information processed will be evaluated by the Marketing Manager from whom it will be evaluated. In coordination with colleagues, the management and maintenance of the corporate CRM and internal promotion actions to spread its use often fall under his responsibility.

5. Head of public relations / press - He deals with managing all relations with the outside of the company. From trade associations, to local and non-local institutions (depending on the size of the company's market), and so on. He is in charge of corporate reputation and for this reason he coordinates with the Head of Social Media. If the company does not have a dedicated press office, this figure is also responsible for coordinating and managing relations with the press, creating press releases. It is also his responsibility to organize press conferences on the occasion of events (such as trade fairs), or of particular economic or production news or important orders acquired from the company.

6. Head of Digital Marketing and Social Media - Also in this case the two activities can be covered by two different figures even if for the most part they are carried out by a single person. All the online marketing of the company fall under his responsibility: managing the company website, planning digital campaigns, supervising SEO, managing email marketing campaigns and so on.

7. Head of corporate communication (internal / external) - It is the figure who owes the recognition of the corporate brand and is responsible for the image of the company in all the activities that are put into practice by his colleagues. Generally, he is also responsible for the commercial documentation and he oversees the realization of the technical one. Anything bearing the company logo, from letterhead, to packaging, to email signatures, to signs must be verified and approved by the Head of Corporate Communication.

8. Marketing assistant - When she is present she is usually covered by a Junior. He is the one who takes care of the administrative aspects and who manages the daily needs of the marketing department.