marketing-plan · team-and-agency-model

Team and Agency Model — Hire for Strategy, Outsource Execution

The marketing operations stack (Section 11 of every plan) describes what gets done. This doc describes who does it — the operating principle, the org shape, the first hire, the agency model, and how it evolves as the company scales.

Excerpted and adapted from Founding Marketing by Corey Haines.

The principle

Strategy lives in-house. Execution can — and often should — be outsourced.

Two failure modes are common when founders ignore this:

Hire junior tactician first. Founder hits a milestone, raises a round, hires a junior to "do marketing" (run ads, write blogs, post on social). Six months later: scattered tactics, no coherent strategy, disappointing results.
Hire expensive agency for strategy. Burns cash while the internal team struggles to execute on recommendations they don't fully understand. Strategic insight gathers dust; tactical needs go unmet.

The traditional advice — "hire full-time for competitive advantages, only use agencies for commoditized work" — made sense when marketing moved slowly and talent stayed for decades. That world is gone. Full-time hires take months to ramp and years to develop deep expertise. The best agencies and contractors deliver results immediately, with cross-industry pattern recognition you couldn't build in-house affordably.

What stays in-house

The strategic heart of the marketing operation. Specifically:

Strategic direction and vision — the "why" behind every move
Customer and market understanding — only comes from daily immersion in the business
Positioning and deep market knowledge — represents the company's unique place in the market
Core product and service delivery — the heart of the value proposition
Long-term institutional knowledge — the compound interest of experience

These are not delegatable. An external partner can sharpen the articulation, but the underlying conviction must come from the team.

What's safe to outsource

External expertise shines in specific contexts:

Best-in-class implementation of specialized skills (paid media operators, technical SEO, video production, designers)
Burst capacity — launch sprints, campaign cycles, one-off content production
Well-defined strategies — when the scope, deliverables, and success metrics are clear
Fresh eyes on old problems — external perspective when the team is too close to see clearly

The trick is defining what's being outsourced. Vague briefs ("help us with marketing") produce vague results. Specific briefs ("ship 20 RSAs across 4 ad groups by month-end with the CTR benchmarks in the brief") produce shippable work.

The three core functions

Every marketing engine has three primary functions. Whether you have a team of 1 or 50, the functions exist — even if one person owns several.

Growth Marketing — the demand engine

Optimizes campaigns
Manages the funnel
Operates distribution channels
Runs the marketing tech stack
Data-driven; constantly testing and measuring

Drives quantitative outcomes: leads, signups, paid traffic, conversion rate, CAC.

Product Marketing — the story engine

Transforms product benefits into compelling messages
Powers product launches
Equips the sales team
Owns pricing and packaging communication
Bridges what's built and why people should care

Drives positioning quality, message-market fit, launch impact, sales enablement.

Content Marketing — the trust engine

Maintains the brand voice
Manages the editorial calendar
Produces content that reaches and teaches the audience
Proves impact through customer stories
Shapes industry conversations through thought leadership
Supports sales with closing content

Drives organic traffic, brand affinity, thought leadership, trust signals.

These three functions are interconnected. Growth without story is performance with no positioning. Story without distribution is a great pitch nobody hears. Trust without demand capture is brand affinity that doesn't compound into revenue.

The first marketing hire

The most consequential decision in building the marketing engine isn't about channels or technology — it's who leads.

The first marketing hire should be a strategist, not a tactician. Counterintuitive when there's a mountain of tactical work to ship. Essential for sustainable growth.

Look for π-shaped, not T-shaped

The standard advice is to hire a T-shaped marketer: broad knowledge across many areas, deep in one. That's fine for a tactical IC role.

For the first strategic hire, look for π-shaped: two deep skill sets, plus broad surface-level competency across the rest. The two depths create unique leverage through their combination.

High-leverage combinations

Product Marketing + Growth Marketing

Owns positioning and drives distribution
Crafts the message and gets it to market
No gap between planning and doing
Best for technical products or complex sales

Product Marketing + Content Marketing

Translates product into compelling stories
Owns voice and positioning together
Creates content that compounds
Best for thought-leadership or education-driven markets

Growth Marketing + Content Marketing

Builds the demand engine and the content that fuels it
Closes the loop between SEO/social distribution and conversion
Best for content-led growth motions

The wrong shape for a first hire: deep paid media specialist alone, deep SEO specialist alone, deep designer alone. These are tactical depths; they need a strategic owner above them.

Title and progression — don't inflate

A common mistake: making the first marketing hire a "CMO" or "VP." Creates problems when you actually need to scale the org, because there's no headroom above them.

The right progression:

Title	Scope
Manager	Individual contributor, co-manages freelancers
Lead	Senior IC, manages freelancers/agencies
Director / Head	Manages ICs and vendors
VP	Manages Directors
Chief (CMO)	Manages VPs

The first hire is almost always Marketing Manager or Marketing Lead. They should be able to:

Define positioning — not just describe what you do, but why it matters
Identify best channels — from data, not intuition
Create the messaging framework — consistency across touchpoints
Build the marketing engine — systems that scale beyond any individual
Manage external resources — get the most from agencies and contractors

Both strategic and hands-on. Comfortable setting direction and rolling up sleeves. Most importantly: a builder — creates processes, frameworks, and systems that scale beyond their individual capacity.

The marketing engine — three components

Think of the marketing organization as an engine. Each part has a specific role; the magic is in how they work together.

The Fuel — Strategy

What powers everything else. Without good fuel, even the best engine sputters.

Product marketing creates positioning (foundation of all communication)
Content marketing develops stories (features → benefits that resonate)
Brand marketing establishes identity (memorable and meaningful)

Quality of the fuel determines efficiency. Poor positioning, weak stories, inconsistent branding waste energy regardless of execution.

The Engine — Execution

Where strategy turns into action.

Growth marketing drives distribution (right message to the right people)
Demand gen creates opportunities (attention → interest)
Operations maintains systems (everything running smoothly)

Needs to be well-maintained and properly tuned. Right processes, tools, people in place to execute consistently.

The Dashboard — Analytics

How you know if you're heading in the right direction.

Metrics track performance (measuring what matters)
Attribution shows what works (cause and effect)
Data informs decisions (evidence over opinion)

Without good instrumentation, flying blind. Need both leading and lagging indicators.

Working with agencies — selection framework

Not all agencies are created equal. Ranked from most appropriate for early-stage to least:

Individual contractors

Most flexible — adapt quickly to changing requirements
Direct relationship — no account-management layer
Often most cost-effective — pay for pure expertise
Best for specific skills (paid media op, technical SEO, video editor, designer)

For most pre-Series-A companies, this is the right answer for nearly all outsourced work.

Small niche agencies

Specialized expertise — deep knowledge in specific areas
Personal attention — often working directly with senior team
Often founder-led — experienced practitioners calling the shots
Clear focus — they know what they're good at
Best for specialized needs with some complexity (full SEO program, lifecycle email program, brand identity work)

Small generalist agencies

Broader capabilities — handle multiple needs
More resources — team approach to problems
Multiple skill sets — cross-functional
Usually more expensive — paying for convenience
Best for companies needing broader support and willing to pay for the simplicity of fewer relationships

Large agencies (not recommended for most startups)

Long contracts, high minimums, junior account teams, slow turnaround
Useful only when the brand spend is large enough to command senior attention

Setting agencies up for success

The difference between a successful and failed agency relationship usually comes down to structure and management.

Before starting

Define clear objectives — what specific outcomes are we seeking?
Set realistic timelines — when do we need to see results?
Establish communication channels — how do we stay aligned?
Agree on metrics — what defines success?
Document processes — how do we work together?

During engagement

Regular check-ins — weekly tactical, monthly strategic
Clear feedback loops — both ways, positive and constructive
Data sharing — give them what they need to succeed
Performance reviews — measure against agreed metrics
Strategy alignment — ensure they're moving with the business

Red flags

Scope creep beyond core expertise — trying to do too much
High team turnover — losing institutional knowledge
Missed deadlines — failing to deliver as promised
Poor communication — lack of proactive updates
Unclear reporting — can't demonstrate value

The best agency relationships feel like partnership: they understand the business, care about success, bring expertise you couldn't build in-house affordably. Takes work on both sides — clear expectations, open communication, mutual respect.

Scaling the model by stage

The right ratio of internal to external resources isn't static. It evolves with stage, needs, and market conditions.

Early stage (pre-product-market-fit)

Mode: discovery and iteration

Internal: 1–2 strategic hires leading the charge (often the founder + one π-shaped marketer)
External: specialized contractors for execution (no long-term commitment)
Agency relationships: project-based, testing approaches before bigger investments
North star: solid foundation while keeping fixed costs low

Growth stage (post-PMF, scaling what works)

Mode: optimization

Internal: small but mighty core strategic team that owns marketing direction
External: balanced mix of contractors and agencies, each chosen for specific expertise
Agency relationships: deeper, longer-term — partners who grow with you
North star: double down on channels and approaches that have proven successful

Scale stage (multi-channel, multi-segment)

Mode: coordination

Internal: larger strategic team focused on coordination and oversight (not execution)
External: specialized agencies, each bringing deep expertise in specific areas of the mix
Trusted contractor network: flexibility for variable workloads and special projects
North star: finding efficiencies, improving processes, maximizing return

The metaphor: a symphony orchestra. The internal team conducts. External partners play their instruments with expertise.

How this informs the plan

Section	What to include
3 (Current state)	Team composition — every person who touches marketing, what they own. Identify where the team is π-shaped vs. T-shaped vs. tactical-only. Flag gaps.
9 (90-day roadmap)	If the team is missing the strategic owner, the first move is the first marketing hire (Lead or Manager). If the team has strategy but no execution capacity, the first move is the first contractor or specialized agency.
10 (12-month outlook)	Map team evolution against funding-stage capability unlocks (see `funding-stage-unlocks.md`). When does the second hire come in? When does an agency relationship deepen?
11 (Marketing operations stack)	RACI is more honest with this model: "owned by" = internal strategic role; "executed by" = internal IC, contractor, or agency. The plan should make it explicit who does what.
13 (Open decisions)	If "first marketing hire" is open, name it as a top-three decision. If "in-house vs agency" for a specific function is open, frame the tradeoff using this doc's heuristics.

Operational guardrails

Don't title-inflate the first hire. It paints the org into a corner.
Don't outsource positioning. Even the best agency can articulate it back to you, but only if the conviction came from the team.
Don't full-time hire for a six-month sprint. Use a contractor. The hidden cost of full-time is the months of ramp + the awkwardness of letting them go if the work doesn't compound.
Don't agency-hire to delay a strategy conversation. Agencies execute; they don't replace strategic owners. If the internal team can't tell the agency what to do, the agency can't help.
Don't measure team size as a success metric. Measure output, not headcount. A 4-person team with the right π-shaped leader and great external partners out-performs a 15-person team without strategic clarity.