Have you ever felt like your marketing efforts were fruitless and been tempted to write off the entire marketing function as “not worth the effort”? This is especially true with privately owned companies where the marketing function is not yet developed. In such cases, a part-time marketing manager could be the key to effectively managing your marketing projects and ensuring they deliver the desired results.
What is marketing management?
When people hear “marketing,” they immediately associate it with creative advertising. But this represents just the tip of the iceberg. Effective marketing is fundamentally a management endeavour, and sometimes, bringing in a part-time marketing manager can make all the difference.
By aligning the right resources – including suppliers, software, and well-defined processes – businesses can bridge the gap between hoping for successful marketing –and actually delivering it.
To make your investment in marketing count, it must be implemented well. While this sounds obvious, many businesses concentrate so much on the communication aspect of marketing that they overlook the management required to maximise their endeavours.
Good marketing management ensures just that: assembling, orchestrating, and optimising the most suitable resources for each task.
Here are three things you can expect from a part-time marketing manager worth their salt.
Three things a good marketing manager does well
1. Bringing out the best in your suppliers
Marketing suppliers – be they agencies, in-house contractors or a team of freelancers –must excel in their work; otherwise, the outcomes will consistently fall short.
A marketing manager’s role in a business is to ensure that suppliers perform to standard. This starts with carefully selecting providers within budget and according to their strengths, followed by clear instructions, timelines, and detailed feedback.
Too many marketing managers don’t know how to bring out the best in their suppliers, which results in poor outputs. That’s where Firejuice’s coaching services come in, training your marketing managers with the skills and strategies to effectively manage suppliers and achieve first-rate results.
2. Using software to boost efficiency
It’s common to think of marketing as “digital”, but this perception mostly applies to producing content (or output) on platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube.
But there’s another digital side to marketing: the input. In other words – the software that helps marketers do a better job. Digital tools and apps abound to make your marketer’s work simpler, faster, more professional and easier to measure.
Is your marketing team proficient at using AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly for help with brainstorming or drafting copy? Can they use Canva for basic design elements, Microsoft Planner, Asana, or Monday.com for project management, and BI tools like PowerBi or Looker Studio to visualise and interpret trends?
An informed marketing manager knows what’s available on the market and where these tools can plug into your business to enhance your marketing efforts.
3. Streamlining key processes
Ultimately, effective marketing management boils down to a set of finely-tuned processes. Examples of such processes include providing thorough, written briefs to suppliers (instead of verbal “orders and opinions”), maintaining project timelines,
tracking marketing expenses, reporting on progress and providing detailed reviews on outcomes and their implications to the leadership team.
Consistently following tried and trusted processes turns the marketing function into an engine room that can deliver and improve with each iteration, boosting your brand awareness and the efficacy of your sales efforts.
Bridge the gap between marketing expectation and reality
At Firejuice, we understand the challenges of building a strong marketing team, especially when resources are tight. That’s why we offer businesses the option of a part-time marketing manager to help them until they can stand on their own feet–we become an extension of their team.
For example, we partnered with Ener-G-Africa, a leading energy solutions provider, back in 2020. They were launching in Southern Africa and needed support from brand building to retail strategy and expansion. We acted as their outsourced marketing department for four years, helping them establish a strong market presence.
Our goal is always to empower your internal team. We work closely with them, sharing our knowledge and best practices so they can eventually manage all the marketing themselves in-house.
Want to explore how a part-time marketing manager can help your business do better? Let’s connect.
