The Next Era of Marketing Teams: Are You Ready for What's Coming?

Marketing Unfiltered 40 - The Future Of Marketing Needs You Today

📝 AUGUST 1st | EDITORS NOTE 📝

Welcome Back, Marketing Leaders ☀️!

This week, I look inside my crystal ball and answer a question I keep receiving lately: What does the future Marketing Departments look like and how will they operate?

A BIG Thank You! We were over the moon with the amazing feedback on our LinkedIn newsletter (don’t worry, it’s the same that lands in your inbox) from Harry’s 35 ways to handle and get the most out of your job hunt. We share every Friday morning, so if you want to share your thoughts or talk through the newsletter - hop on over and let us chat!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Danny Denhard - ( 👋 wanna connect - email or LinkedIn)

THINKING ABOUT RESHAPING YOUR MARKETING DEPARTMENT

The Next Era Of Marketing Teams: Are You Ready for What's Coming? 

There’s a journey that Marketing leaders should embark on, reshaping and designing the Marketing organisation of the future. 

With this in mind, I thought I would delve into how you could shape your Marketing functions for the next few years and future-proof early. 

Methodology & Disclaimer
I took the most common “roles” across D2C, B2C & B2B. If you look after customer support or customer success teams happily include them as separate teams or connect them to where they operate in your org
Most departments won’t have the full range of roles included, and many teams will be smaller, where team members will have to wear multiple hats; however, it will help you to design your org and get ahead of executive questions in the very near future. 

What The Present Day Looks Like 

• Teams are often bundled together under a discipline

• Many teams are disconnected - even within Performance teams, they will not share learnings and proactively collaborate as they have different goals or OKRs

• Marketing ops has become particularly popular in recent years. We have seen this team grow and could potentially grow again in 2026+

What The Near Future Could Look Like 

• Despite the headlines, we might well see Marketing departments grow while they show growth through AI, consolidation of competitors and M&A

• We could see new roles within the content teams, including content producer and specialist roles within content distribution

• We may see the planner (potentially calling the role a Strategist) brought back into play with more content output and a requirement to plan out bigger bang campaigns and more Product Marketing campaigns needed

• There will likely be new dedicated roles within AI, including a specialist AI Marketer role and with the push in AI into Voice, it could be a role that integrates across “Community & Audience”, Brand, “Content Marketing” and “Product Growth”

How Many Set Up Their Orgs Currently

• It is important to call out how most orgs are designed around

  • Goals (or OKRs)

  • A set of skills

  • High performers, whether in a management or Manager of Managers role or teams connected to a high performer

• In the future, these might have to change and be deliberate in understanding how to cross-functionally get the most out of people and improve performance

• Consider how you set up your org design and how it might need real thought in shifting to new tech shifts, new demands on roles and the decline in certain channels

Being Cross-Functionally Minded 

• Another way you could consider mapping out teams and talent is by connecting how they will sit cross-functionally, whether that’s in operations towards the beginning of the funnel or in mid to the end of the funnel or when inside of the Product.

• You can then apply goals and visually show how the teams connect together and have to play within the same space(s)

• Will we finally see a move away from “user” and “database” to community and audiences where many can feel freer to create and curate content and product features that work for sets of cohorts?

Entering The Phase Of Full Funnel Roles

• Something I believe will happen is that roles will evolve to fuller funnel Marketing roles, not just statically sitting at the top of the funnel or concentrating at the bottom of the funnel. This will mean working across the funnel and often working at different stages more smartly.

• Roles such as PR, community/social media, brand, Product Marketing and Growth often will work up and down the funnel, but in the new world, they may need to be called out as full funnel roles. Specialists will have to become more generalists and work with their colleagues far more closely and effectively.

How Might We Look At Grouping Team Members Together 

• Another framing that lands is how you might frame these roles, could roles land under Brand, Performance, amplification and distribution? With AI changing the Marketing landscape, will these new classifications make it clearer for your business and team members to understand where they are placed and streamline some leadership

• Although some of the above can be seen as conflicting, the fluid nature of Marketing, there is going to have to be real clarity for team members

A Question To Ponder:

Where would you apply teams and talent in the newer funnel to incorporate community, AI and new forms of referral and WOM? 

Will 1950s Disney Be Your Inspiration To Map Out How To Win?

Could you be inspired by how Walt Disney mapped out Disney’s business in the 1950s to gain alignment and show how your department will work moving forward?

Want To Map Out Yourself Or Run Your Own Exercise? 

Here is a list of roles I collated, and if you want to run your own mapping exercise, you can use it accordingly or request access to the slides here. 

Current Common Roles:
Brand, PR/Comms.
Paid Media, Performance, SEO, Content Marketing, Digital, Analytics. Customer Experience.
Product Marketing, Growth (Product + Marketing)
App Marketing, ASO
Lifecycle, Email, CRM 
Marketing Ops 
Project/Campaign Marketing 
Marketing Research 
Social Media, Influencer Marketing, Community Manager, Marketing Manager (Generalist), Affiliate Marketing 
Event Marketing, Field Marketing 

Role Reintroduced: Planner 

Future Roles: AI Marketing Manager / Strategists, Voice Marketer, New Device Marketing 

Over to you, I believe this will be a great exercise for any team or Department leader.

» If you’d like to revisit or prefer video, here’s NotebookLM’s latest feature converting this article into a short-form video 👇

The Next Era Of Marketing Teams

Thanks for reading, and if you’d like to discuss this or need some help crafting your future, drop me a DM on LinkedIn or just hit reply to this email.

Danny Denhard 
» If you need help: I coach leaders, consult with startups and challenger brands and advise companies looking to grow, so get in touch

Want some other MU articles to read this weekend

• CMOs: Here’s how and why to assign an AI leader

• The evolution of the CMO role and what’s next 

• Why playing the game is not optional for Marketing leaders 

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5 Takeaways From Last Week’s MU Article

Here are the top 5 takeaways from Harry’s article on job seeking and productivity.

1. Resilience: Losing your job is emotionally tough, but resilience and self-care are key to bouncing back.

2. See It As An Opportunity: Time off is a rare gift; use it to upskill, reflect, and pursue passions you’ve neglected.

3. Build Your Personal Brand: Personal branding and networking are more important than ever; amplify your presence, especially on LinkedIn.

4. Unpredictable: The job market is unpredictable; pivoting or mentoring others can be both fulfilling and strategic.

5. Discipline Required: Financial discipline during unemployment extends your runway and builds better habits for the future.

Read the full article: https://www.marketingunfiltered.co/p/39

Thanks For Reading This Week ✅

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Danny Denhard