On Walker's podcast, State of Demand Gen, he dove deeper into the why. He argued you need two main things for marketing: content and distribution. 

While he believes marketing teams should leverage in-house subject matter experts to create content, he found early success in outsourcing video production. 

Rather than hire an SDR, his first hire was a freelance videographer. 

“You don’t need to scale by sales headcount anymore,” he reasoned. “You can scale by marketing efficiency.”

It’s certainly working for Walker. His marketing agency hit $1MM ARR in 10 months without paid ads, cold calling, cold emails, or a sales team. 

Here are the four core marketing roles Walker says departments need to fill:

1. The architect — Whether a CMO or growth marketer, this role handles marketing strategy. 
2. The distributor — This role ensures content gets seen (via paid or unpaid reach).
3. The creative — This role handles video, design and written content.
4. The subject-matter expert — This role provides deep insights that inform all content.
   

Jeffrey Mack, senior director of marketing and demand generation at recruiting platform iCIMS, recently shared what he’s learned about building a marketing organization for a startup:

Mack’s marketing hiring recommendations:

• Hire a content marketer who’s an SEO expert.
• Set up marketing operations ASAP.
• Work closely with a designer.
• Get someone to do product marketing (even if the someone is you).

He also advises startups to capture existing demand by focusing on search. That could mean hiring an SEO expert or paid search marketer.

While Vaynerchuk now has a team of 30+ marketers helping him create and distribute content across social media, he believes you only need three or four marketers to start scaling your content marketing and, through that, revenue.‍

‍

1. The math person — This person knows how to run and manage ads.
2. The art person — This designer knows how to stand out in the feed. 
3. The video person — This videographer can film and post-produce.

‍

The “written word” person — This person can handle short-form copywriting and long-form content.

“This is all media, it will always be media,” says Vaynerchuk. “There is no reason to do anything other than act like a media company in today’s digital age.”

If Privy CMO Dave Gerhardt was the GM of a marketing team, here’s who he’d draft first:

1. The promoter — You could also call this person a content marketer. This is someone who can write and distribute content.
2. The designer — This is a cross-channel creator who can help you move fast. ‍
3. The math person — This is someone who can set up funnels and optimize for conversions.
   

‍Case study after case study, MarketerHire proves the same point: You can often grow more efficiently through expert marketing executed by consultants who have done it before.