A great team should run like a well-oiled machine. Each part has its own unique role to play, and only when everyone is working together can true progress be made. It sounds simple on paper, but how do you put this into practice in your digital agency? By having the right structure and the right people in the right roles.
Digital marketing teams require a wide variety of skilled team members to help clients develop their brand vision and promote their products or services. And at the rate that digitisation is expanding, the list of essential roles is only getting longer.
As the demand for high quality digital content, strategies, and systems increases, those working in the industry is tasked with ever-greater responsibility. This can cause strain and tension within the team dynamics unless a strong structure is implemented.
A strong team structure means more engaged employees, improved communication, and higher quality performance. Here’s how your digital marketing agency can achieve just that.
Developing Internal Structure For a Digital Marketing Agency
All teams need structure to work together cohesively and be properly productive. Whether you’re a rugby team facing down your opponents or an agency of skilled digital professionals, this universal message rings true.
But different types of teams require different types of structures. In the world of digital marketing, communication, collaboration, and clearly established roles are vital.
If you are looking to build up a digital agency or reshuffle one that already exists, it can be helpful to seek guidance on team building and hierarchies within that particular sphere.
Knowing how to structure your agency is key to optimising time management, maintaining healthy relations between departments, and producing work that keeps both clients and employees satisfied.
In a smaller team (less than 10 people), there may be some role-sharing. But if you are hoping to expand your team to a point where it functions as a large-scale operation with a continuous flow of clients, it is much more efficient to have one (or more) persons focusing on their area of expertise. That way, you can streamline operations and develop momentum that keeps business flourishing and fresh clients pouring in.
So, what does a well-rounded digital agency team look like? Well, there are numerous ideal roles, so we’ve divided them into six sub-sections – all of which create a cohesive team unit when working together in the right roles.
Group 1: The Managers
Managers play vital roles in all organisations. Acting as the figureheads for different departments, they supervise both the day-to-day and big picture operations to maintain consistent productivity and quality performance.
Director of Business Operations
The DOB is arguably the most important role on an agency team. Their priorities are internal strategy, consistent workload distribution, and finding ways to continually uplift and optimise the agency.
Project Manager
Project managers play an absolutely vital role in any digital agency. Working to plan, organise, and supervise the progression of each project, these key managers make sure that roles are correctly assigned, tasks are executed in order, and the right KPIs are being hit along the way.
Content Manager
A content manager’s job is to conceptualise and draft different content ideas, whether they are textual, image-based, or brand oriented. They make sure that the content provided to clients speaks to their unique brand tone and ensure there is a high standard of content uniformity across the agency itself.
Project Coordinator
The project coordinator works closely alongside the project manager. While project managers handle client communications and other front-line responsibilities, project coordinators are tasked with more behind-the-scenes web development and anything else that needs a more technical approach.
Accounts Manager
Account managers are responsible for overseeing communications between the agency and its clients and assigning tasks to other members of the team. People in this role are also given the responsibility of managing client expectations, and ensuring that deliverables are met, and client satisfaction is high.
Human Resources
All professional teams need a human resources manager. Other members of the team can go to them with any issues regarding workplace environment issues such as burnout, harassment, mismanagement, or any other type of human-related problem. HR is the glue that holds an agency together.
Group 2: The Designers
Design and the digital world go together like two pieces of a puzzle.
Those in this department should be skilled in the art of conceptualising and creating visual web or social media components so that the client’s requests are fulfilled in the most engaging, creative, and dynamic way possible.
Creative Director
The role of a creative director is to develop visually engaging graphics and images while meeting the needs and expectations of a particular client. They are responsible for creative quality control and ensuring that the agency is well-represented by its content.
Graphic Designer
A graphic designer’s job is to interpret the creative director’s vision and produce the visual content or graphics that are assigned to them. Ultimately, they bring those visions to life. Infographics, emojis, images, icons, and social media graphics all fall under their umbrella of expertise.
Visual Designer & Developer
Like graphic designers, visual designers, and developers work to create graphic elements for social media, email newsletters, and webpages. However, their developing skills allow them to create and conceptualise graphics that are compatible with particular layouts such as desktop or mobile.
Group 3: The Sales Experts
A strong sales department is essential for maintaining a consistent level of growth over time and meeting the demands of consumer expectations.
Sales Manager
When it comes to business growth and expansion, the sales manager is in charge. They have the all-important job of relaying services and products to different accounts and communicating to the rest of the team what their growth strategies will mean for work capacity.
Sales Director
The sales director usually works closely with the sales manager to strategise and execute systems that boost revenue, growth, and ROI. They make sure that growth KPIs are being sufficiently met and spearhead the development of new growth policies.
Group 4: Client Relations and Accounts
Each account that develops between a client and your agency needs to be closely monitored and documented. Members in this facet of the team keep payments and policies on track.
Account Strategist
An account strategist’s role is to create and implement new strategies for dealing with clients. That involves creating improved customer or user experiences, identifying common client problems, and coming up with fresh revenue strategies that keep the cash flow flowing.
Finance and Accounts
Managing tax payments, effective budgeting, and performing internal audits are all essential for running a successful digital agency (or any agency, for that matter!). A finance and accounts expert will handle all these tasks while communicating their status to other managers and ensuring all finances are in order.
Group 5: The Marketers
Marketing makes up a big part of the digital world. With these people on your team, you can ensure that essential growth KPIs are hit, and clients are connecting with the strategies in place.
Social Media Marketer
Of course, every digital agency needs a strong social media marketing team. Someone (or several people) with a broad knowledge of social media systems supports the team by developing succinct media campaign strategies, setting consumer KPIs, and scheduling content in a tactical way.
SEO Marketer
SEO marketing is one of the most important components of a healthy digital agency. People in this role are there to research high-performing keywords, manage website blog content, and take responsibility for the right online activity metrics to be hit as trends come and go.
PPC Marketer
A PPC (Pay Per Click) marketer has a high level of experience with audience targeting, launching PPC campaigns, and adjusting bids to generate better ROI. They need to be able to oversee accounts on various search platforms (such as Google, Firefox, or Bing) and form effective search strategies.
Group 6: The Developers
Digital platforms don’t get pulled out of thin air. Someone must write the code (seamlessly) and make sure that all web pages run smoothly and efficiently and deliver a positive UX.
Web Developer
A strong team of web developers is crucial to the success of a digital agency. They have the fundamental job of designing and implementing user interfaces, writing code, integrating different types of media into a webpage, and testing web applications.
Web developers are also responsible for troubleshooting site performance issues and generally being accountable for the execution of digital web pages across the board.
Structure Equals Success
From organisational logistics to employee satisfaction, there are roles that every agency needs to fill. With a diverse team of employees, your digital agency can not only perform better, but it can also function like that aforementioned well-oiled machine behind the scenes.