What Is The Total Cost Of A Marketing Team In 2022? – Plexus Communications
Earlier this year, Gartner published the results of their annual CMO survey, which captures the state of the marketing budget and strategy in 2022. This survey indicates that budgets have recovered yet still lag at pre-pandemic levels. The technology sector reported the most significant increase in budget year over year, jumping from 5.0% of total revenue in 2021 to 10.1% in 2022. As enterprises work hard to focus on growth under a backdrop of financial and geopolitical uncertainty, the marketing function needs to be more agile than ever. It needs to flex and adapt as and when customer journeys inevitably change. Gartner’s report states that 61% of CMOs need more in-house capabilities to deliver their strategy. This article will review the labour costs of hiring a comprehensive in-house marketing function and touch on some of the top capability gaps CMOs are currently experiencing.
The changing role of marketing in the digital age
The skills required to execute a comprehensive marketing strategy have always been diverse, ranging from creative professionals skilled in graphical and motion design to talented copywriters and, more recently, social media and digital experts, all guided by a strategy leader who must have deep industry expertise and knowledge of customer personas. Marketing technology has moved forward at an incredible pace in recent years, shifting the role of marketing to that of a technologist foremost to navigate the tools available and utilise paid channel algorithms for maximum return on investment (ROI).
What marketing skills are most lacking in 2022?
CMOs responding to the 2022 Gartner survey reported that they were confident in their capabilities to manage brands, but strategically essential capabilities gaps persist. Not surprisingly, marketing technology featured highly, supporting our assertion that the role of marketing is now very much technology-led.
- Marketing technology – 22% of CMOs placed in the top three.
- Marketing data and analytics – 26% of CMOs identified this as a maximum three capability gap.
- Customer understanding and Customer Experience (CX) management – 23% of CMOs placed in the top three.
Marketing is experiencing an unprecedented surge in talent demand in 2022, so prioritising the resource mix should be a top priority for all marketing leaders. A balance between in-house and outsourced marketing capabilities has long been the norm within the technology sector; however, with changing skill sets and the current talent shortages, this balance and the overall costs of a marketing function now need careful consideration.
Safeguarding your marketing talent pool from staff attrition and turnover
Staff attrition and turnover is the departure of employees from the organisation for any reason (voluntary or involuntary), including resignation, termination, illness, or retirement. The recent pandemic and shift to remote working for many industries has fueled The Great Reshuffle, with many people seeking to change roles or career paths entirely. Marketing is no exception, with LinkedIn reporting 618,000 marketing job departures in 2021, plus a 31% growth in job changes among LinkedIn members year over year. Loss of talent pool through attrition and turnover is costly for any organisation, both from a recruitment and training perspective. With the Plexus Way model, you are effectively safeguarding your talent pool since we cannot be headhunted, nor will we be looking to abandon you like a job hopper merely out for a better salary or benefits package.
Calculating the cost of your optimum marketing team
Hiring an internal marketing team that can cover EVERY function you require can be incredibly expensive. Companies often hire a marketing manager with great hopes that this individual can cover many bases or build and guide a strong team. According to Glassdoor, adding a senior marketing manager to your staff in the UK will cost roughly £65K/yr. In salary, not including benefits.
Unfortunately, your perfect marketing team will require more than one person’s skills; hence, establishing a solid team is critical for success. Let us explore the expected salary costs for a group consisting of roles such as social media managers, PPC managers, graphic designers, copywriters, web developers and more senior roles such as CMO or marketing directors that are required if you are a larger organisation.
Chief Marketing Officer/Senior Marketing Director
Role: A CMO oversees the marketing management team, guiding the creation of business plans and marketing strategies to help the company reach its goals. CMOs are the company’s consumer voice throughout and must be outstanding leaders.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £117K/yr.
SEO Specialist
Role: A CMO oversees the marketing management team, guiding the creation of business plans and marketing strategies to help the company reach its goals. CMOs are the company’s consumer voice throughout and must be outstanding leaders.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £117K/yr.
Web Developer
Role: The development of Internet applications using a client-server model is a web developer’s responsibility. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are among the standard coding languages used. Since most developers will specialise in a particular type of coding, multiple developers may be required to accomplish a single organisation’s objectives.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £36K/yr.
Web Designer
Role: A web designer oversees organising and styling all web page content. Web designers need to be aware of how to create aesthetically pleasing and functional websites from a Customer Experience perspective.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £30K/yr.
Graphic Designer
Role: A graphic designer is a visual communicator who can manually or digitally develop ideas. Their core function is to inform, captivate and inspire customers while guaranteeing their output precisely mirrors the organisation’s brand style and brand objectives.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £30K/yr.
Copywriter
Role: A copywriter specialises in creating pertinent text for websites, such as articles and page content. To maximise marketing efforts, a great content writer will also be familiar with keyword-based SEO. Additionally, copywriters will support other departments in producing text for press releases, social media, graphics and possibly data sheets and user manuals.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £31K/yr.
Social Media Manager
Role: The upkeep of an organisation’s social media strategy falls under the control of a Social Media Manager. Most of the time, social media managers will oversee the development of growth strategies for an organisation, communicating with target audiences and creating a stream of content that is engaging.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £35K/yr.
Database Administrator
Role: An organisation’s database security and upkeep will be overseen by a Database Administrator or DBA. This team member will frequently be involved in creating, troubleshooting, and planning databases to meet the business’s requirements and ensure the smooth operation of information throughout the entire organisation.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £39K/yr
Full-Stack Developer
Role: A Full-Stack Developer must combine front-end and back-end development skills, frequently taking on multiple projects to deploy a digital solution. App development and website development are two examples of the work done, with this role being vital for organisations that host an e-commerce website.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £50K/yr.
Software Architect
Role: Software Architects have extensive technical expertise. This role often serves as a liaison to assist business operations staff and any necessary technical teams in working toward a shared vision for both back-office and customer-facing applications.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £79K/yr.
The staggering cost of a 360° marketing team
If we now accompany our initially lonely marketing manager with a full team based on the current Glassdoor reported average salaries listed above, we reach a total of £545K/yr. (£45k/pm), not including benefits and the huge array of software tools and monthly platform subscriptions they need to perform their day-to-day roles.
Luckily, there is a better way to secure a marketing team.
The monthly cost of this level is beyond the reach of many smaller companies and start-ups trying to enter the market.
The team at Plexus knew there had to be a better way to make marketing more accessible for the technology sector. That is why we developed The Plexus Way model of outsourcing, which provides the skills of an entire team for the cost of a single senior hire. The model relies on the fact that skills requirements constantly change during the execution of any marketing strategy. For instance, graphics, motion design and copywriting have heavy requirements before the launch of a brand or new product. In contrast, digital social and PPC management skills will be required at launch, followed by PPC refinement and account-based marketing (ABM) as the campaign progresses, moving customers through the journey of brand awareness, solution consideration and ultimately sales conversion.
Within any organisation, there are periods where some aspects of the marketing team could be more utilised. This results in inefficiency, which cannot easily be rectified. By using the Plexus Way model, organisations can enjoy continuous marketing efficiency at a fraction of the cost of an internal team.
The Plexus Way – taking the risk out of marketing outsourcing
The beauty of The Plexus Way model is that clients can choose exactly how much or how little of our services they need to meet their current goals or objectives. Our service can be scaled up or down depending on requirements and the required services at any time.
The average monthly cost for the Plexus team to deliver all the functions listed above is around £5K, instead of the £45K you would expect to pay monthly if you hired an entire in-house marketing team. Your monthly costs may be even higher if you hire a marketing manager who must outsource to multiple agencies to cover various skills gaps. The £40K monthly saving is significant money that could fund PPC media spending and business development to supercharge your sales pipeline.
With The Plexus Way, you can be assured that we will never be looking to leave you, and neither can we be poached from you; all that will happen as more clients adopt our model is that our team will grow, further diversifying the range of skills that will be at your disposal.
