What Should a Basic Marketing Department Consist Of?

When you’re building a business from the ground up, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of moving parts. One of the most critical departments you’ll need to establish early on is marketing—because no matter how good your product or service is, it won’t sell itself. The good news is that you don’t need a massive team right away. A basic marketing department can thrive with just a few key players.

Graphic Designer

First, you’ll need a graphic designer. Visuals are the language of modern marketing, and whether it’s social media posts, flyers, or email campaigns, a graphic designer ensures everything looks polished and on-brand. Even basic promotional materials benefit greatly from professional design work, giving your business a credibility boost in the eyes of potential customers.

Social Media Manager

Next is a social media manager. Today, maintaining an online presence isn’t optional—it’s essential. A social media manager handles the day-to-day posting, engagement, and community building across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn, depending on where your audience lives. They keep your brand visible, relatable, and responsive, building the kind of trust that eventually translates into sales.

With video content continuously on the rise, you’ll need to have a video editor, essentially. However, we’re only looking at surface-level staffing here. What you can do is hire a deisnger and a social media manager who have video editing skills. In the ideal sense, this is not the way to go as their job should not go beyond their titles. Let both employees tag team on video content so that the workload won’t be too much for one.

You could implement this in the interim until such time your brand grows and you can hire a dedicated video editor for all you video content.

Marketing Strategist

You’ll also need a marketing strategist. This person connects the dots between creative ideas and measurable results. They help identify your target market, decide where to invest your marketing budget, and analyze which campaigns are working. A good strategist ensures your marketing efforts aren’t just attractive but also effective.

You’ll Serve as the Marketing Manager.. For Now

For now, since your business is still small, you’ll be wearing the hat of the marketing manager yourself. You’ll be the one coordinating these roles, setting goals, approving projects, and making sure your marketing efforts align with the bigger vision of your brand. It’s a lot to juggle, but it’s also an exciting stage—because you’re still hands-on, building the department from scratch with the personal touch only a founder can bring.

Once your business grows, you’ll eventually be able to hire a dedicated marketing manager. But until then, having a strong foundation with a graphic designer, social media manager, and marketing strategist will set you on the right path. (GFB)