There’s a moment most growing organisations reach. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it builds gradually.
Start up momentum and referrals that once kept things moving start to slow. Pipelines feel less predictable. The team is stretched, juggling delivery and growth. Marketing support, which once felt optional, starts to feel essential.
So, you hire a marketing manager. A good one. Because if you are going to bring someone in-house, you need to do it properly.
I understand this decision deeply because before starting Focused Marketing 20 years ago, I was that person. I know the role. I know the expectations. And I know how much gets placed on one set of shoulders.
What I have seen over the years, working alongside so many growing organisations, is not that this decision is wrong. It is that it is often misunderstood.
Because what looks like an interesting and exciting marketing role is actually something much bigger.
Marketing is a team sport
This is one of the biggest lessons I have learned over two decades. Firstly, from being the person in the role and then importantly as our agency has evolved over the years.
“Marketing is creative. It is strategic. It is technical. It is data driven. It is behavioural. It is digital.
It is constantly evolving and no one person, no matter how experienced, can be exceptional across all of it.
It also takes energy. Real energy. The kind that comes from fresh thinking, shared ideas and different perspectives coming together. That is where creativity builds and where better outcomes start to take shape.
Yet, time and again, I see organisations trying to solve a capability challenge with a single hire.
What happens next is predictable and it is no reflection on the person in the role.
- Some areas move well. Usually, the ones that align with the hire’s core strengths.
- Other areas slow down or quietly fall away.
- Design still gets outsourced.
- Digital still needs support.
- The website needs attention.
- Campaigns stall.
- Content becomes inconsistent.
Six months in, there is a sense that things should be further along. Twelve months in, the role either expands beyond what is sustainable, or narrows into a function that no longer matches what the business needs.
And underneath it all is one constant. Pressure.
I have sat in that seat. I know what it feels like to want to do everything well and not have the capacity and sometimes the capability to do ALL of it.
To move from strategy to execution in the same hour. To switch from writing content to reviewing analytics to design, often without the depth and sometimes skill each deserves.
To be the person everyone in every department relies on, while quietly knowing that marketing is moving but not always moving forward.
These are capable, committed professionals, but they are still one person.
The part that rarely gets planned for…momentum
When marketing sits with one person, everything flows through them…When they are busy, things slow down. When they are on leave, things pause. When they move on, everything resets.
For a growing organisation, that lack of continuity can be costly, not just financially but in lost opportunity.
Because growth does not wait.
And great marketing does not happen in bursts. It needs consistency, energy and ongoing collaboration of a marketing team to keep building. That is where real momentum comes from, and where results start to compound over time.
Working alongside so many internal teams, my perspective changed. I stopped thinking about marketing as a role to fill and started seeing it as an entire function to build.
A proper marketing function, or marketing team, has a few essential characteristics:
- It brings together different skill sets.
- It balances strategy with execution.
- It maintains consistent momentum.
- It adapts as the business evolves.
That is very difficult to achieve through a single hire.
It often starts as a cost conversation. But it is rarely about cost.
On paper, hiring a senior marketing manager feels like a strong step forward. A capable salary. Someone to take ownership. Someone to bring direction and with that investment comes expectation.
This person will:
- Lead strategy.
- Deliver campaigns.
- Manage stakeholders.
- Protect the brand.
- Write content.
- Oversee the website, social media and other digital channels.
- Support tender writing and submissions.
- Keep everything moving.
It is a big ask. Not because people are not capable. But because marketing, when done well, is not one discipline. It is many.
This is the bit where you analyse your investment
Over the years this is often the point where the penny drops with many of our clients, because regardless of whether you hire mid weight or senior, the salary is only part of the story.
Every in-house marketing role comes with layers of additional cost:
- Superannuation
- Annual leave
- Sick leave
- Onboarding time
- The natural dips in productivity that come with any single resource.
Then there is the operational layer that often gets overlooked. Subscriptions alone can be significant. Design software, social scheduling platforms, SEO tools, AI tools, analytics platforms, stock libraries, project management systems. The list grows quickly, and each one requires time, knowledge and ongoing management to be used well.
Add IT support, hardware, training and upskilling, and the real investment looks very different to the number on the contract.
And even with all of that in place, you still have one person. One person managing priorities, one person carrying the workload, one person unavailable when they are on leave or unwell.
When you look at it through this lens, accessing an external team starts to feel less like a cost comparison and more like a value decision.
Not necessarily to replace that very qualified person, but instead to support them, as an extension of your in-house capabilities.
For a similar level of investment on a marketing team, organisations gain access to:
- A multi-disciplinary marketing team
- Specialists across every key marketing function
- Tools, platforms and systems already embedded
- Consistent delivery without downtime or disruption
- Strategic thinking alongside execution
- The ability to scale effort up or down as priorities or budgets shift
And importantly, continuity.
Work does not stop when someone is on leave. Projects do not stall. Momentum is maintained.
More than anything, it gives leadership teams confidence. Marketing is not sitting with one individual so things will keep moving forward.
It also gives confidence that the function can evolve as the business grows. That is where momentum really starts to build.
What I have seen work, time and time again
The organisations that gain real traction approach marketing differently. They do not rely on one person to carry it; they build access to a marketing team. Sometimes that includes an internal marketing lead. Sometimes it is fully outsourced. Often, the strongest model is a combination of both.
An internal person who understands the business deeply, supported by a broader team that brings specialist expertise across areas like:
- Design
- Digital and website development
- SEO
- Content and copywriting
- Campaign execution
- Brand and strategy
- Tenders
What this creates is not just more hands on deck. It creates capacity, capability and continuity. And most importantly, it removes the pressure from one individual to be everything.
It also changes the nature of the work. This is where I see the biggest shift…
When marketing sits with one person, it often becomes reactive.
“Can you update this?”
“Can you pull something together for that?”
“Can you fix the website?”
When it is supported by a marketing team, it becomes more intentional. The conversation is more around…
What should we be doing next?
Where are the opportunities for growth?
How do we build consistency over time?
And that is where the energy lifts, ideas sharpen and better results start to follow.
If you can do both, even better
There is also a model I see work incredibly well. An internal marketing lead, supported by an external marketing team. That internal person has visibility, relationships and day to day connection with the business, and they are then backed by a team who can bring depth, specialist skills and additional capacity when needed.
It is not about replacing one with the other. It is about building something stronger, together.
The lesson, 20 years in
If there is one thing I would share with any growing organisation, it is this, marketing is not a role you fill. It is an entire function you build.
Trying to place all of that responsibility on one person is not just unrealistic. It is unnecessary, there is a better way to do it. A way that is more sustainable, more effective and ultimately, more rewarding for everyone involved.
And if you are in that moment right now.
Feeling the pressure. Knowing marketing needs to step up or even start…wondering what the right next move is.
Take some of that pressure off by leaning on a reliable marketing team and approaching it like what it is; a team sport.
It might not look exactly how you first imagined it. But with the right structure, the right support and the right mix of skills around you, it becomes a lot clearer and a lot more achievable.
That is what 20 years running a marketing agency has taught me.