11 Key Roles to Hire for Digital Marketing Teams in 2022 (+ Example Job Descriptions)

Digital marketing can generate incredible ROI, but to capture that potential value you need a well-organized team of experts.

If your Facebook ads are already driving leads, a paid media expert and a skilled marketing designer could optimize the ads to deliver leads that are higher quality. If a blog post is capturing 20 email addresses each month, the right writing and SEO skills could help it capture 50. 

Building a team that can maximize the impact of your digital channels isn’t just a case of hiring extra digital marketers. Instead, the most successful marketing teams are structured in a way that focuses on digital marketing results and includes specific key skills.

You can use these links to jump to a specific section:

• Two hiring approaches that hold teams back
• What a digital marketing team should include
• How to structure a marketing team
• Digital marketing team role descriptions

When you're ready to start hiring, click here to download our Marketing Leader Job Description Template.

Two hiring approaches that hold teams back

Many teams that are trying to generate more leads through digital marketing are slowed down by growing their team in inefficient ways:

Hiring generalists 

Hiring a Digital Marketer or Digital Generalist can seem like a quick fix solution to build the digital muscle on your team, but they are unlikely to have the expertise you need to target specific channels. To increase the value you get from digital channels, rather than just increasing your digital marketing output, your hiring should focus on specialized roles and skillsets.

Not shifting to a digital-focused structure

Even if you’re bringing talented digital marketing specialists on board, adding them to a team that isn’t structured to focus on digital means you’re likely to get inefficient use of resources and conflicting objectives. If digital marketing is going to be the team’s priority, establishing a digital-focused team structure that new members will fit into makes it easier to strategize and collaborate. 

What should a digital marketing team include?

A comprehensive digital marketing plan involves multiple channels and formats. As a result, you need to have a range of skills on your team to get the most from each platform. Depending on your marketing strategy, you'll likely need many (or even all) of the following skillsets on your team.

Key skills

• Strategy
• Use resources effectively
• Identify opportunities to drive leads
• Project management
• Prioritize projects by value
• Ensure on-time and on-budget delivery
• Data analysis
• Measure and report on performance
• Test effectiveness of alternative approaches
• Technical skills
• Maintain the website for a smooth user experience
• Increase organic traffic with technical SEO
• Design
• Improve brand image
• Support content creation
• Copywriting
• Increase brand authority
• Nurture leads through the funnel
• Virtual events
• Capture email addresses of potential leads
• Add value for existing customers
• Social media
• Launch paid ads
• Increase brand awareness
• Paid media
• Increase paid traffic with ads and PPC
• Find the best return for paid media budget
• Email management
• Nurture leads with drip campaigns
• Communicate with existing customers

For smaller teams, you may be able to combine multiple skills into each role, or outsource certain skilled work to freelancers and agencies. 

How do you structure a marketing team?

Before you begin hiring or reshuffling your marketing team, map out what your ideal structure would look like to cover the necessary marketing skills. 

The right size and structure for your marketing team depends on four key inputs:

1. What stage of maturity is the business at?

Depending on where you are in your growth journey - whether you're a startup, you're in series A, or you're owned by private equity - your needs and resources are going to look very different.

 

In the video below, we take a look at five common phases of marketing maturity and what team structures commonly look like in each phase.

 

You can find a deeper dive into the impact of marketing maturity in this marketing team structure post.

 

2. What’s your business model?

Are you selling a low-ACV product to a large market, or are you an enterprise B2B company with limited targets you're going after? This informs your acceptable CAC and the approaches that make sense for your business, so it also informs the skills and number of team members you need. The diagram below gives a rough framework for this. Green indicates sub-functions worth focusing on; yellow indicates sub-functions that may be worth a limited effort; pink indicates sub-functions that are unlikely to be productive. 

 

3. Which growth opportunities do you need to prioritize?

For example, if you’ll be focusing on cross-sell or upsell initiatives, your team will look different than if net new or inbound marketing is the focus. Map out the growth opportunities and relative priority levels, then note the skills your team needs to leverage each opportunity. 

 

4. What are your revenue targets and budgeting plans?

The targets you have to hit and the budget you have to achieve them are essential considerations for sizing the team and proposing new hires. Work backwards from your revenue targets to the number of MQLs marketing needs to generate, and then the bandwidth you need in each sub-function to generate those leads. 

 

Based on these four key inputs, you can build a team structure. For a phase two marketing organization, that might look something like this:

 

In this example, the marketing director gets a big-picture view of the overall digital strategy and how each sub-team is contributing to marketing targets. This also helps establish a cohesive set of approaches and processes so it’s easier to work on projects across function areas. 

Although demand gen, SEO, content, and operations form the four pillars of this structure, they bring complementary skills, and an effective marketing team will focus on collaboration to achieve KPIs. For example, the SEO Manager may need extra copywriting skills from the Content Specialist, or the Marketing Programs Specialist could work with the Demand Gen Specialist and Designer to run a series of paid ads for an online event.

If the company in this example was building their team from the ground up or working with a tight marketing budget, the first two levels of this structure would be the most important to start with. The core team of Marketing Director, Demand Gen Manager, SEO Manager, Content Manager and Marketing Operations Manager would cover the main skill sets a comprehensive digital marketing team needs.

However, as they look to grow their digital channels, adding the third level with direct reports in each function area would give them the bandwidth to scale up day-to-day execution. This allows the manager and director levels to focus on strategy and building campaigns. 

 

11 key marketing roles

The team structure above includes 11 common roles that many companies will need to include in their marketing strategy. Let’s take a closer look at what each of these common roles contributes and what to look for if you’re hiring. 

Role	Responsibilities	Key skills	Salary
Marketing Director	Leads all marketing activities and oversees project management	Strategy, project management	$100k-$130k
Marketing Operations Manager	Analysis, reporting, and marketing automation	Analysis, project management	$85-$120k
Content Manager	Content and communications strategy	Strategy, content	$75-$105k
Content Specialist	Content writing and email  management	Content, email	$50-$75k
Marketing Programs Specialist	Events, webinars, partner relationships	Virtual events	$70-$95k
SEO Manager	SEO content and strategy	Strategy, SEO	$70-$100k
SEO Specialist	SEO assistance and social media	SEO, social	$50-$75k
Demand Gen Manager	Paid media strategy and data analysis	Analysis, strategy	$100-$130k
Demand Gen Specialist	Paid media assistance and marketing automation	Paid social, ads, PPC	$70-$90k
Front-End Developer	Technical SEO and website maintenance	Technical support	$90-$115k
Designer	Designs all content	Design	$55-$80k

Quick note: The salaries above are based on 2022 salary information from businesses based in the US.

 

Marketing Director

The Marketing Director brings an overall strategy and leadership to the team. They turn data into strategic decisions that help optimize team activities and refine the way they use each channel. This role also has oversight of the marketing budget and key results, so can prioritize how the team uses resources and keep them on track to generate maximum ROI. Having a marketing representative on the senior management team ensures marketing stays front and centre in key discussions and decisions. 

Key functions

• Analyze, forecast, and report on the impact of marketing activities
• Manage marketing budget 
• Prioritize and optimize use of marketing resources
• Lead and mentor the marketing team
• Develop and oversee execution of marketing strategy from a growth perspective
• Refine and expand channel strategy 

 Knowledge and skills

• 7+ years in demand generation or marketing roles
• Extensive experience leading a team
• Experience selling SaaS technology
• Proven ability to analyze campaign results and recommend changes
• Experience in digital marketing with a focus on driving revenue growth

Example job description: UberFlip, Director of Growth Marketing

As the Director, Growth Marketing, you will be accountable for the strategy, development, and execution of marketing programs and campaigns designed to drive awareness and demand for the company's products and services. 

Through a combination of inbound, outbound and ABM strategies, you will be responsible for driving both pipeline and revenue. You will have the support from sales executives, marketing operations, content and events, and product marketing teams as we collectively work together to accomplish our goals.

Marketing Operations Manager 

The Marketing Operations Manager uses data to assess the performance of all elements of the marketing team and to suggest processes and approaches that can increase ROI. This includes finding ways to get more value from the software and marketing automation tools that the team are using. 

This role is particularly important as a support to the Marketing Director. The Marketing Operations Manager ensures that the data being used to inform key strategic decisions is accurate and clearly presented, and helps communicate marketing results to the executive management team.

Key functions

• Manage tech stack and identify ways to optimize software use
• Build dashboard and reports to monitor data and trends
• Manage contact database to ensure data hygiene and completeness
• Explore and implement new marketing tools
• Establish and document team processes to increase efficiency
• Present marketing operations to other teams
  

Knowledge and skills

• 4+ years in digital marketing roles with a focus on data analysis
• Proven experience implementing processes that increase ROI
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to collaborate with multiple teams and present data in an engaging way
• In-depth understanding and experience with marketing automation tools

Example job description: Hyperscience, Manager, Marketing Operations

Reporting to the Director of Digital Marketing and Operations, Hyperscience is looking for a marketing operations manager with 3+ years of experience administering marketing technologies, supporting campaign planning with actionable insights, and strong analytical skills and experience with marketing reporting and data manipulation and analysis. 

The marketing operations manager role owns the administration of our marketing automation platform and related tools, supports integrated campaign execution, and provides reporting to help measure operational success and opportunities for improvement. 

You will combine your analytical experience with Marketo and knowledge of B2B lead management flows to better enable our marketing execution efforts to be more efficient, measure results more effectively, and improve processes. You will own marketing dashboards, reports and performance optimization.

Demand Gen Manager 

The Demand Gen Manager drives leads, particularly from paid media channels. This role develops strategy for the way you use PPC, search ads, display ads, and paid social ads, and oversees the execution of these campaigns by the Demand Gen Specialist. 

The Demand Gen Manager conducts analysis of lead generation data and organizes testing, and so helps to show progress towards lead targets and to identify opportunities to optimize paid media. 

Key functions

• Allocate paid media budget across channels based on data analysis
• Explore ways to grow pipeline and accelerate sales cycle

• Lead execution of paid media campaigns and monitor progress
• Establish processes to measure and optimize progress towards targets
• Evaluate use of tools and channels and make recommendations for how to increase efficiency and performance

Knowledge and skills

• 3+ years of experience in paid media management or marketing management with ROI-focused goals 
• Strong problem-solving skills 
• In-depth knowledge of marketing automation and paid acquisition channels

• Exceptional data analysis skills and ability to report findings in a compelling way
• Experience managing direct reports

Example job description: Atlassian, Demand Generation Manager, ITSM

Atlassian is looking for a Demand Generation Manager to help drive end-to-end campaigns and increase demand for our ITSM suite of products. Your role will be to build and execute the B2B demand generation strategy working alongside sales and product marketing and other internal teams. If you get excited about building and launching new businesses by partnering with teams across Atlassian, you'll love it here.

We are looking for a lead generation machine. You thrive in funnel analytics and speak in acronyms like MQL, SQL, ROI and conversion rates. You love the science of marketing as much as the art and enjoy building, implementing and measuring new systems, processes and campaigns. You will work with world-class product teams and new emerging businesses within Atlassian.

SEO Manager 

The SEO Manager drives organic traffic at the top, middle, and bottom of the marketing funnel. Organic traffic can have incredible ROI, so a good SEO Manager will generate lots of leads with very little investment. This role brings strategy and expertise to your SEO activity, using their experience of best practices and a constant evolution of tactics. 

The SEO Manager will also monitor and analyze traffic reports and conversion rates, and oversee the implementation of SEO tactics by the SEO Specialist, Front-End Developer, and additional content creators if needed.

Key functions

• Develop and lead SEO strategy and processes
• Manage SEO content production by internal and external creators
• Establish scalable link building strategy and oversee implementation
• Perform ongoing keyword discovery
• Monitor SEO trends and best practices to identify new opportunities

Knowledge and skills

• 3+ years of experience in SEO management
• Expertise in content performance measurement
• Experience with content management systems and common SEO tools
• In-depth understanding of search engines and technical SEO
• Experience collaborating with external contractors and managing freelancers

Example job description: Amazon Music, Sr. Global SEO Manager

We are seeking a talented Sr. Global SEO Manager, advancing SEO content initiatives, growth, testing and optimization globally. In this role, you will identify large-scale opportunities for search engine optimization and translate those opportunities into business requirements, projects and site features. 

You will drive custom SEO content efforts, working closely with dedicated SEO engineering teams. You have an excellent understanding of current best practices, as well as where the industry is headed. You are also a persuasive communicator, evangelizing the value of SEO amongst internal stakeholders.

Content Manager 

The Content Manager role brings strategic oversight to your content creation, including sales enablement, brand communications, downloadable assets, webinars, and educational content. They manage the production of content, prioritizing high-impact projects and ensuring customers get a cohesive experience supported by high-quality content.

The Content Manager generates creative ideas for content that will support initiatives like cross-selling and upselling, informed by performance data. 

Key functions

• Establish scalable growth-focused content strategy
• Manage content creation by internal and external sources 
• Create a content roadmap to structure content creation
• Adopt best practices for each channel and identify opportunities to optimize
• Establish frameworks to produce content that upholds the brand voice and addresses the target audience
  
  

Knowledge and skills

• Demonstrated success creating content in a variety of formats and for a range of channels
• Experience managing content strategy in SaaS companies
• Strong writing and editing skills with particular attention to detail and tone.
• Experience working with content creators 
• Track record of generating creative campaign ideas

Example job description: Wix, Head of Content

We are looking for a star head of content to make significant impact through smart, creative, and measurable content experiences that will fuel Wix leadership stand across various audiences. You will focus on content concepts for every stage of the customer journey— from awareness to advocacy—to shape perception and drive action.

If you are highly creative and collaborative, have an exceptionally strong foundation in storytelling, love to stretch your content-development muscles and remove friction via words - then you’d love to be part of building an ownable narrative that drives brand and business performance.

Designer 

Digital marketing channels are highly visual mediums, and the design that customers see can give a lasting impression of your brand. A Designer will bring a professional aesthetic to your content assets, ads, and social media posts, and can make your website more user-friendly. 

Having a dedicated Designer on the marketing team makes it easier to connect the visual appearance and growth goals of each project. For example, a Designer and Demand Gen Manager working closely together can develop A/B tests for ad content.

Key functions

• Ensure brand is cohesive across all marketing materials
• Design new web pages and work with the Front-End Developer to implement them
• Design emails, reports, decks, white papers, educational materials, infographics, social posts, etc.
• Create or oversee creation of videos and photography
• Generate creative design ideas to improve content performance

 Knowledge and skills

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent qualification) in design
• Professional design experience, preferably for SaaS companies
• Experience with relevant design programs and photo-editing software
• Demonstrated knowledge of digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, and website design best practices

Example job description: DayTwo, Marketing Designer

The ideal candidate is a design professional with a strong marketing background, original and distinctive creative ideas, superior data visualization skills, and relevant experience across the health and wellness industries.

To be successful, you’ll design winning and relevant creative for campaigns that engage, educate and service our customers throughout their lifecycle. The Marketing Designer will have a keen sense of what types of creative and design make sense with different audiences, roles, and levels in the relevant healthcare verticals.

Front-End Developer 

You may already have similar roles within the wider company, but as you scale your digital marketing there will be regular technical work (particularly on the website) that require a developer’s time and skills. Having a Front-End Developer on the marketing team allows you to control which projects they should prioritize, and ensures they have the bandwidth to help you scale at speed. 

A Front-End Developer that also has experience with SEO and digital marketing will give you insight into technical optimization and ways to improve the user experience of your website.

Key functions

• Develops creative experiences on desktop, tablet and mobile platforms 
• Develops coding and logic for A/B testing
• Works with SEO team to implement technical optimisations
• Maintains website and implements new strategies to increase conversion
• Establishes processes to combat common issues and work more efficiently

Knowledge and skills

• Bootstrap, HTML, jQuery, JavaScript & CSS
• Knowledge of responsive design principles
• Experience with content management systems
• Knowledge of SEO and accessibility best practices

Example job description: Jjill, Digital Front End Developer

Works on implementation and development of content and functionality on jjill.com, coding front end web pages. Collaborates with Ecommerce Content team and cross functional partners to ensure flawless execution of monthly site refreshes and content updates in support of the best possible site experience.

Demand Gen Specialist 

The Demand Gen Specialist runs the day-to-day paid media and implements the strategies of the Demand Gen Manager. Managing paid social ads, PPC, and paid search ads can be time-consuming and require regular updates to keep performing at the best rate. This role focuses on generating the best ROI from these platforms, so the Demand Gen Manager can focus on data analysis and strategy. 

Key functions

• Execute paid media campaigns to drive pipeline growth 
• Test alternative paid media strategies according to industry best practices
• Monitor and report on campaign performance
• Collaborate with sales, SEO, and content teams to leverage paid media for cross-team projects

Knowledge and skills

• Experience in marketing with a lead-generation focus
• In-depth understanding and experience of Google Ads
• Experience using marketing automation systems
• Strong understanding of sales funnel and strategies for driving leads
• Excellent analytical skills and experience measuring marketing programs

Example job description: Alliance Defending Freedom, Paid Media Specialist

As the Paid Media Specialist, you are a vital part of the Direct Response Team. In this role, you are responsible for maintaining, optimizing and growing the internal paid media channels, such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and more. 

You will be responsible for aligning paid media best practices with the goals and objectives of the direct response team to engage and grow current audiences and inspire the paid media audience to partner with Alliance Defending Freedom.

SEO Specialist

Similar to the Demand Generation Specialist, this role executes most of the day-to-day SEO tasks, allowing the SEO manager to focus on strategy and identifying new opportunities. The SEO specialist will write and optimize content to rank for keywords the SEO manager identifies, and work on generating more backlinks.  

If social media isn’t a major organic channel for your business, your social accounts may be mostly bringing value as part of your SEO strategy. If so, it makes sense to incorporate organic social media into the SEO Specialist role too.

Key functions

• Outreach to high-quality link sources to grow backlinks and build content relationships 
• Utilize digital marketing tools to monitor performance and add value to the website
• Create and publish SEO content
• Optimize existing content 
• Manage posting on social media accounts to maximize SEO value

Knowledge and skills

• Experience in SEO, content marketing, or digital marketing roles
• Thorough understanding of SEO, including keyword research, audit reporting, on-page and off-page tactics 
• Proven experience of writing optimized content
• Experience with SEO tools, marketing automation software, and content management systems

Example job description: 1SEO Digital Agency, SEO Specialist

1SEO Digital Agency is looking for an SEO Strategist to work alongside our innovative and growing digital marketing team. The candidate will be responsible for delivering and managing organic search engine optimization efforts to support the SEO team. 

Daily workload includes, but is not limited to, link building, social media posting, campaign auditing, metric reporting, keyword research, on-page optimization, website/code editing, and web development.  The ideal candidate will analyze, review, and implement changes to websites so they are optimized for search engines. This candidate will be able to implement actionable strategies that will improve site visibility. 

Content Specialist

The Content Specialist creates the assets outlined in the roadmap that the Content Manager develops, and helps write SEO content for the SEO Manager. With so many digital channels relying on effective copy, an in-house writer may end up working on blog posts, website content, ad copy, video scripts, and more. 

The Content Specialist can also bring emails skills to the team. This role can write emails and drip campaigns, format and send them, monitor email engagement metrics, and maintain your mailing lists. 

Key functions

• Create copy that is informative and engaging
• Generate creative ideas for growth-focused content
• Manage email marketing
• Collaborate with multiple teams to create content that supports all aspects of company growth

Knowledge and skills

• Portfolio of professional writing
• Proven experience in SaaS content creation with measurable impact
• Strong understanding of customer journeys and lead generation practices
• Experience with content management software
• Experience creating email campaigns and using email software

Example job description: Bevi, Content Marketing Specialist

We are looking for an experienced, innovative, and polished writer to drive content strategy and create compelling content that elevates the Bevi brand and maintains a consistent voice. You will develop a deep understanding of our customers in order to produce engaging and relevant content that improves customer engagement, builds awareness, and ultimately drives sales. 

As part of the marketing team, you will write a wide range of content for every stage of the funnel including digital and print ad copy, social media posts, blog articles, thought leadership pieces, case studies, email, and more.

Marketing Programs Specialist 

A Marketing Programs Specialist brings content creation and relationship building skills to run online events like webinars, roundtable discussions, and podcasts. These formats help nurture prospects who are already in the funnel, and provide value to existing users. 

This role manages online events from beginning to end, including collaborating on content, investigating new platforms, meticulous planning, and marketing to relevant audiences. 

Role functions

• Create content for online marketing events and programs
• Build relationships with industry experts 
• Plan and execute multi-channel marketing plans that drive program participation
• Explore new channels and opportunities for marketing programs
• Monitoring and reporting on performance metrics of online events
  

Knowledge and skills

• Experience in building and executing digital campaigns
• Experience with analytical tools 
• Strong writing skills and understanding of design
• Relationship building with industry experts and content collaboration partners
• Experience with web content management tools 

Example job description: AWS, Digital Marketing Manager - Online Tech Talks

The Digital Marketing Manager will own marketing strategy and implementation to promote the AWS Online Tech Talks webinar program across internal (AWS website, AWS console, email, etc.) and external channels (paid search, display ads, paid social). 

This role will plan, create, and deliver online campaigns to drive program participation and capture learnings to improve conversion rates across marketing channels. The Digital Marketing Manager will work with external agencies to design and create marketing assets to use across internal and external channels. 

Building out your team

With your ideal marketing team structure and roles in mind, review the skills your existing team has and how they're being used at the moment. If you already have people with the necessary expertise on the team, consider adapting their responsibilities to fit with the new team structure.

Where you have gaps in your digital marketing skillset, consider either hiring new team members or engaging an agency. Some skills, such as content writing and design, are relatively easy to outsource to external agencies. Hiring costs, additional salaries, and ongoing agency fees are part of the investment it takes to build an effective digital marketing team. 

Structuring a team with digital marketing as the focus, rather than adding on to an existing marketing team structure, means the team has cohesive goals and strategy, while still having clear accountability for different function areas.