Marketing 
Growth 
new post
Ginny Dwyer 
January 25, 2025
6 min read
Share Many growing businesses hit a plateau—and often, the culprit is hidden in plain sight: marketing overload on a single individual, a one person team. Asking one individual to fulfill the roles of strategist, designer, copywriter, analyst, and social media expert will not only result in burnout but also hinder growth.
A CEO’s main responsibility is to establish and implement the company’s strategic direction, ensuring that its goals are achieved, while acting as the company’s representative to stakeholders. As a growth minded person, you need to move beyond the myth of the ‘marketing unicorn’ and focus on building a well-rounded marketing team with diverse skill sets, recognizing that marketing encompasses a broad spectrum of disciplines.
We will discuss the limitations of relying on one marketer and offer alternative solutions to drive business growth.
Let’s begin . . .
The past ten years have seen drastic changes in the marketing landscape. It has grown more intricate, is driven by data, and divided across numerous channels. Brands must maintain cohesive identities across websites, mobile apps, social media platforms, email, search engines, and emerging channels. Marketing now spans a wide, specialized skill set.
Most businesses now face overwhelming content competition requiring higher quality and more specialized content to break through. Customers expect content and offers tailored to their specific needs, behaviors, and preferences. Seamless experiences across all touchpoints (online and offline) are now standard expectations.
Marketers are now expected to have an unrealistic range of skills. Not only do they need to understand real-time dashboards and analytics that are replacing outdated monthly reporting cycles but they also need to be up-to-date on GDPR and other regulations that affect how they collect consumer data.
What businesses are up against
The digital landscape is rapidly changing, creating a storm of complexity for marketing professionals. Businesses today are facing marketing challenges unlike anything seen in previous decades due to these rapid changes. They are operating in an ever-changing environment defined by three primary factors:
Rapid changes have become the only constant in marketing. Platforms launch and fade, features appear and disappear overnight, and what worked yesterday may fall flat tomorrow. Each week brings new tools, technologies, and techniques that promise competitive advantage—but also demand immediate attention and mastery.
Algorithm shifts happen with alarming frequency across every platform businesses rely on for visibility. Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and others regularly change how they determine what content appears before which audiences. These changes often arrive without warning, can dramatically alter visibility overnight, and require immediate strategic pivots to maintain effectiveness.
Buyer behavior complexity has intensified as consumers now research, evaluate, and purchase through increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable pathways. They expect personalized experiences across multiple touchpoints and demand engagement.
The environment creates an impossible situation on a single marketer’s shoulders. The days when one talented individual could manage all aspects of a company’s marketing have disappeared. Businesses clinging to this outdated model find themselves perpetually playing catch-up, watching competitors race ahead, and wondering why their growth has plateaued despite having a “marketing person” on staff.
When your marketing model isn’t working, it can manifest in various ways, impacting your team and your business’s bottom line. Some of the most common indicators include:
Turnover or burnout in marketing positions: A high turnover rate or frequent burnout among your marketing staff can signal that your current model is unsustainable and places undue stress on your team.
Bottlenecks in reporting, campaign launches, and content creation: If your marketing team is constantly facing delays in reporting, launching campaigns, or creating content, it could be a sign that your current model is inefficient and lacks the necessary resources or structure to support your marketing efforts.
Overdependence on one person: When your marketing operations rely heavily on a single individual, it creates a significant risk for your business. If that person leaves or is unavailable, it can disrupt your entire marketing strategy and leave you scrambling to fill the void. This can also stifle innovation and limit your ability to scale your marketing efforts.
Difficulty testing new strategies or adapting to trends: A rigid marketing model can make it challenging to experiment with new approaches or stay ahead of industry trends. This can result in missed opportunities to reach new customers, improve your marketing ROI, and stay competitive in your market.
Mediocre execution across multiple channels: If your marketing efforts are spread too thin across multiple channels without a clear strategy or adequate resources, it can lead to mediocre results and a lack of focus. This can dilute your brand message and make it difficult to achieve your marketing goals.
Missed strategic opportunities: A flawed marketing model can cause you to overlook valuable strategic opportunities, such as partnerships, collaborations, or new market segments. This can limit your growth potential and prevent you from maximizing your marketing ROI.
Slower business growth: An ineffective marketing model can hinder your business’s growth by failing to generate sufficient leads, drive sales, and build brand awareness. This can result in missed revenue targets and a loss of market share.
Limited innovation and creativity: A restrictive marketing model can stifle innovation and creativity within your team, preventing them from exploring new ideas and pushing the boundaries of your marketing strategy. This can lead to stagnation and a lack of competitive differentiation.
By recognizing these signs and addressing the underlying issues, you can optimize your marketing model, improve your team’s performance, and drive sustainable business growth.
When a business outgrows its one-person marketing model, it’s time to consider more strategic and scalable options. Rather than depending on one person to manage every aspect of marketing, growing businesses can explore alternative structures to distribute the workload, utilize specialized expertise, and increase overall efficiency.
These options include building an in-house team, adopting a hybrid model with freelancers or agencies, outsourcing key functions, or investing in marketing technology. Each of these paths can alleviate pressure, drive results, and ensure the future success of your marketing efforts.
In-house + Freelance + Agency:
This approach allows you to leverage the benefits of each type of worker. In-house employees provide stability and company knowledge, freelancers offer specialized skills and flexibility, and agencies bring a wealth of experience and resources. By combining these different types of workers, you can create a marketing team that is both efficient and effective.
Team Structure: Consider a team with a marketing manager overseeing specialists in content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Hybrid Model Benefits:
SEO, Email, PPC, Social, Content: Each of these marketing functions requires specialized knowledge and skills. By outsourcing these functions to experts, you can ensure that they are being handled effectively.
Benefits of Outsourcing:
By partnering with an agency that provided a team with diverse experience and resources, an innovative SaaS company was able to double its qualified leads. Previously, the company had relied on a one-person marketing team.
Responsify created a unique content strategy for growth that included research and strategy, content and premium offer production, along with email and social posting automation. Through the actions of both parties their revenue increased by $200k in 6 months.
‘Responsify has been an invaluable partner for our lean marketing team, especially in the realm of SEO and lead nurturing. Over the nine months we’ve worked together, our website traffic has increased by 25% compared to the previous nine months. Moreover, we’ve experienced an impressive 70% increase in traffic over the last 90 days alone. Their approach makes them feel like a true partner, and for any marketer juggling multiple responsibilities, Responsify is the secret weapon you need.’ Emily Pratt, Director of Marketing at MobileMind
While initially appealing, relying on one person for all your marketing needs can hinder progress, weaken strategy, and lead to burnout. As your business expands, so should your marketing efforts. This could mean growing your team, utilizing specialized external services, or implementing technology for streamlined efficiency.
The goal is to create a framework that fosters sustainable growth. Successful businesses understand that a single person can’t handle everything; they establish scalable, adaptable marketing structures that yield consistent results.
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