Written by Catalina Bertón
To be the new hire, it’s never easy. And if we add that we’re coming to a company to create a new department, then challenges multiply. I’ve been in charge of creating Marketing departments a few times in my professional career.
Although no experience is ever like the one before, I can account for similar aspects that happen every time: first, most people on my team are multifaceted and willing to learn what’s new; second, I’ve always worked with people from different nationalities.
This article will go over what I consider to be the most important aspects when creating a new team.
The challenges of the new trends
Joining a company to create a new department must never be easy. Still, I work in marketing and communications, careers still considered “new” for some people, and that adds an extra complication: it doesn’t matter how many diplomas we hung on our wall, we have to fight every day for a place on the big table.
Before we continue, I would like to mention some facts so that we’re all on the same page:
In Marketing, we study market trends, target users, and generate strategies to reach the companies goals.
When we work in communication, we create strategies to show the company to the world, to generate dialogue and engagement.
Thus, neither of them has to just upload pics to social media.
Now that we all see eye-to-eye let’s go over the strategies to create a new and great marketing team.
Don’t re-invent the wheel when your feet are off-ground
First things first, when we join a new company, we must understand what their needs are. More than once, I’ve been assigned a to-do list on my very first day because somebody read an article that said that every business needs a blog or needs to be on social media.
That might be true, but it might not be as well. Which social media should we choose? What should we write about in those blog articles? How are we going to promote those articles? If we’re in charge of the department, that to-do list needs refinement and study before implementation.
Also, once or twice I’ve been sat in front of a to-do list that needed more than one person to get things done. If we’re new in the company and are required to do a Podcast (e.g.), well, we will need help.
But there are things that we can do right away while we get familiar with the company and try to negotiate time and money. Items that require little to no money but are necessary:
Make sure the company description text it’s relevant in each platform.
Create an email signature, or make sure all emails use the same signature
Perform a basic market research
Above all, talk to the coworkers: they are the ones who know what’s going on behind those doors.
Show value
No company will loosen their money unless they perceive the value of the strategy we want to implement. As a new department and a modern field, we need to constantly show value to internal and external customers.
One of the companies where I ended up creating a department was looking for a Community Manager. A few months forward, my boss understood the necessity behind creating a structure to out-perform sales.
Hiring a team doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to hire individuals; we can also partner with the right agency and outsource some of the heavy load. The important thing here is that one person can only do many high-quality items on the to-do list. That is why it’s paramount to show the value of every single action so that we can count on extra help when needed.
Be patient (very, extremely patient)
With the coronavirus pandemic, the digital marketing sphere changed: we can consider ourselves valuable now, at least in some circles. That doesn’t change some old fashion situations, e.g., one person can do it all.
And yes, we can (working extra hours). In some countries, it’s still a common thing to find an HR calling asking for a Digital Marketer who can write, design, has SEO knowledge, knows some HTLM, and care for social engagement. All of that for an entry-level salary.
Besides that, we live in a society where everybody believes they know how to use social media, take a photograph; then, they read a few blog articles and believe they can do it all.
Do not lose your temper, thank whoever is giving you advice for their goodwill, and then go and do what you know best.
Take nothing for granted.
Each of our careers has a specific vocabulary. For instance, I have the lexicon of a person who studied a career in Arts and Humanities. During my first week working at a tech company, I had to learn to talk again.
The misunderstandings were so big that they were hitting me in the face. For example, to me, when something is “in production,” it means that it’s being produced. While, for the web developer working on my team, when he “sent the web to production,” it meant that it was live, and everybody could see the changes.
It is the same thing for things that we consider routinary but might be new for other people in the company: things like the importance of the photographs or if our brand speaks with emojis or it doesn’t; we can’t talk under the assumption that we’re all in the same page, that we all talk the same language and, most significantly, that we all understand that most decisions are made due to emotions.
Closing arguments
Am I saying that we need to promote and promote our department to other people in the company? Yes, that’s precisely what I’m saying.
Our goal as marketers is to reach the business objectives of the company we work for. To do that, we need to align all people to work in our favor. The good news is, Marketing and Communications it’s fun, and once people understand their value, then all actions seem more manageable.
At Sud Creative, we outsource marketing and communication services. We’ve been in positions several times where we need to help the “Inside Person” show and explain the value of what we do; that’s why all actions have KPI associated. But above all, Marketing and Communications are about people, so our first job should be to understand who we work with.
This article was written by Catalina. She is our Founder & Marketing Consultant.