Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

What's your vision for your position - what are you planning to achieve and how? Once you have this view where do the staff fit to make this come into reality? How much work is required in each area delivering the marketing you want to carry out? If the two parts are in silos at present then it will be because each of your managers is pursuing their own view. As the senior manager and you'll need to define the strategy and bring them together and make your view happen.

The decision should be driven primarily by what you are trying to accomplish and the nature/definition of your target audience(s). Once you have those well articulated and understood the decision should be easy.

The only other things that might enter the decision (short-term) are the interests and skill-sets of the incumbents. No sense recruiting for the same skill-sets if you already have them in-house.

The one other thing you might check is whether you can hire outside expertise more economically than having full-time employees. If you don't have enough work to fully utilize the employees, you may find it more cost-effective to hire and manage outside resources.

You asked "Do I really need a digital marketing manager AND a marketing manager or does it make sense to hire a marketing manager who would handle digital and traditional marketing and an associate marketing manager?". You also mentioned silos, and suggested hiring a MM and assistant MM instead.

I am guessing out of this that one of you major concerns is about hiring two positions that don't work well together. Of course, this could be a big concern. Online and offline does need to work together. But can that connection be done well enough at your level (through your team meetings)?

In regards to do you need a certain amount of people or level people, that depends on what work you expect to get done and how best to do it. If you haven't yet, hash out the major activities you expect to need to do and then start trying to figure out the type of people you'd need to do it.

Something to keep in mind in all organization issues like this - there is no one optimal structure (at least that anyone would ever be able to determine). There are pros and cons to one structure versus another, but both options likely would work well enough. I would go with what seems best to you, but also take into account any downside to going against the desires of other people who can affect your job (the folks who hired you). If the are really set on a structure and you don't have strong reasons why that won't work, really consider using their structure.