Marketing Strategy

Are You A Marketing “Inbetweener”?

This article explores the phenomenon of the marketing inbetweener.  This refers to those companies who want to market themselves better but don’t want to invest significantly in the “dark art” that is marketing.

When should a business invest in marketing?

Most businesses don’t have much in the way of resources in the early days and it is only when they start to generate a regular stream of income that they can consider bringing in outside marketing resource to support them.    However, this is when a company will either invest whole-heartedly in marketing, or they will become a marketing “inbetweener”.

What is a marketing “inbetweener”?

Well, typically they will do one of two things.  They will either assign “marketing” to someone who is already working within the business – alongside their existing day job.  This is usually an existing administrative role, or a very junior role within the business (as they are usually good at social media).  It is also not uncommon for it to be given to a family relation of the business owner.  Alternatively they will recruit someone into the business with a hybrid role, which includes marketing.

These two types of scenarios are the marketing inbetweeners.  They are, in their mind, investing in marketing, but they are not fully embracing marketing as its own function within the business.  So what is the problem with this?

Issues with being a marketing inbetweener

One of the key issues with being a marketing inbetweener is that although you may have a resource to carry out activity, the chances are that they have not been classically trained in marketing.

This is no fault of the person who has been tasked to carry out the work.  They have never been trained in how to think like a marketer, create a solid marketing strategy for the business, nor put the mechanisms in place to track performance.

How to improve a marketing inbetweeners performance

Well there are four main options.

  1. Restructure your marketing function to bring in an experienced marketing manager.
  2. Invest in some marketing training to increase their awareness and improve their all-round marketing skillset.

There is no right or wrong – it is just what works best for you and the long-term vision for your business.  Remember if “you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got”.  If you are not 100% happy with the results that your marketing efforts are currently generating then you need to change something.

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Ian Kirk

Founder at Opportunity Marketing

Ian is the founder of Opportunity Marketing marketing, with over 18 years of experience in successfully setting up marketing departments, creating marketing strategies and implementing these strategies across a wide number of SME companies in both the B2B and B2C sectors through a variety of channels.

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