Driving marketing at scale: Moving from a decentralized to centralized model

A new article on Martech.org reports that the classic conundrum of when to centralize or decentralize marketing functions continues to challenge marketing leaders, especially those in fast growth companies.

The author says that marketing organizations in fast growth companies are like that voice -cracking, pimple-speckled teenaged who’s just hit their growth spurt. Your all-hands-on-deck/jack-of-all-trades marketing delivery approach which propelled early growth is now struggling to scale, resulting in too-tight shoes and highwater pants which cannot be coaxed to magically expand and stretch.

While a more decentralized approach enabled rapid response and amazing agility during hyper-growth, as your company matures you need efficiency, program sophistication, and tighter compliance that comes from specialization. Done right, centralization can help your marketing org bridge from the awkward teens into adulthood while maintaining some of the magic that made you high growth in the first place. But buying longer pants and larger shoes every six months only allows revenue to grow at the same rate as cost — as a savvy leader you seek to grow revenue faster than cost.

While a more decentralized approach enabled rapid response and amazing agility during hyper-growth, as your company matures you need efficiency, program sophistication, and tighter compliance that comes from specialization. Done right, centralization can help your marketing org bridge from the awkward teens into adulthood while maintaining some of the magic that made you high growth in the first place. But buying longer pants and larger shoes every six months only allows revenue to grow at the same rate as cost — as a savvy leader you seek to grow revenue faster than cost.

The elements of a marketing model

Marketing models are comprised of the people, processes, and platforms which bring your programs to life. Different from marketing strategy, a model focuses on the operational aspects of marketing and how they harmonize to enable that strategy. People perform the work. These are strategists, content builders, copywriters, analytics and martech specialists (to name a few). Processes govern work and ensure consistent outcomes via intake mechanisms, handoffs between teams, approval, and compliance rules.

Platforms are the technologies used to power and measure performance. These are (but not limited to) marketing automation platforms, content management systems, event tools, marketing databases, and reporting platforms. Programs are the marketing content and campaigns which bring strategy to life: demand generation, loyalty and retention, or product launches.

Common marketing model challenges

Within each marketing model element, there are common operational challenges that can hamstring marketing strategy; for a high-growth company, the challenges hit faster and harder leaving you gasping for breath before the next growth wave hits. These difficulties range from an inability to measure marketing impact, to weak privacy compliance, or difficulty getting the most out of martech investments. Left unchecked, these obstacles rob brilliant strategies of their power and become a bottleneck to future growth.

Marketing models

It’s not all doom and gloom as a thoughtful marketing model can overcome or neutralize these challenges. Models fall into three categories: centralized, decentralized, and hybrid. When selecting the right model for your marketing team, there is no silver bullet to manage growth. But, having a clear marketing strategy and understanding of your delivery needs, you can weigh the tradeoffs in model selection, find the right balance, and achieve success.