For in-house marketing teams
Running the team, not buying the help
Most of this site is written for someone who owns a business and is buying marketing. These pieces are for the other job: running an in-house marketing team, with people, a budget and somebody upstairs asking what it all did. Same voice, different reader.
They are meant to be read in the order below rather than by date, because the early ones settle things the later ones assume. If you only read one, read the one that matches the problem in front of you this week.
The pieces
All articles
In-house teams7 min readSquads, scrums and agile: what they actually are, and whether a marketing team needs any of it
Agile, scrums and squads come from software, and the most copied model of all was a snapshot that its own authors warned you about.
In-house teams7 min readHow to set up agile in a marketing team, and what to do when it isn't working
Start with one cycle, one board and one review, and treat setting up agile as a project with an end date, not a permanent transformation.
In-house teams6 min readRunning a marketing team of one
If you're the only marketer in a company, you can't do everything. The job is deciding what you won't do, and explaining why to the people who ask.
In-house teams6 min readBriefing an agency so you get what you asked for
Most agency rework comes from three lines nobody wrote down. Here's what a brief has to contain before anyone starts.
In-house teams6 min readThe monthly marketing report your board will actually read
All a board needs from marketing each month is one page, four numbers and your view of them. The rest belongs in an appendix nobody will open.
In-house teams6 min readManaging an agency without doing their job for them
If you're rewriting your agency's work, you're paying for it twice. Here's the rhythm that keeps them honest and leaves the work with them.
In-house teams6 min readWhat to do when a marketing campaign fails
A good decision can still go badly. When a campaign fails, the review has to find out whether you made a bad call or a good one that didn't land.
In-house teams6 min readYour first marketing hire: generalist or specialist?
Your first marketing hire should be a generalist, unless you can show that one channel already brings in most of your customers.
In-house teams5 min readWriting a marketing job description that attracts the right person
Stop listing duties in your marketing job description. You'll attract better people with three accountabilities, a salary and one honest sentence.
In-house teams6 min readA marketer's first thirty days
A new marketer needs three things in place on day one. Without them, the first month goes on piecing together what nobody wrote down.
In-house teams6 min readMarketing team structures at five, fifteen and fifty
A marketing team breaks in a predictable place at each size. Knowing which break you have stops you reorganising for the wrong reason.
In-house teams5 min readA marketing skills audit: what your team can and cannot do
The skills gap that hurts a marketing team is the one nobody has admitted to. Two hours is enough to find it before a campaign does.
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