Many small businesses get to a point where they assign or hire a single person to manage their marketing efforts. This is because they see it as a practical way to juggle the constant demands of strategy, content writing, graphic design, social media, web updates, SEO, ads, and analytics.
While you see marketing activity happening, you’re probably noticing that your leads and revenue aren’t increasing like you’d hoped. And the truth is, your marketing person can’t give you a solid reason why your marketing efforts aren’t working.
In this article, we will help you answer the question, “Can one person handle marketing for a small business?” In some cases, the answer is “Yes,” but for most, it takes more than a single hire to grow a small business.
Can One Person Handle Marketing for a Small Business?
Each area of marketing requires specialized knowledge and experience to be done effectively. If your business is still small enough, a single person could theoretically cover all of these elements. However, their lack of specific expertise is likely to mean their efforts won’t be as effective or impactful.
Essentially, you are creating a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. Consider this: Your marketing person starts their day checking social media metrics, then switches to writing blog content, followed by analyzing Google Ads performance, then designing a new email campaign. By lunch, they've context-switched so many times that their focus is scattered. The afternoon brings more of the same—a little bit of everything, but not enough depth in anything.
This scattered approach creates several critical problems. First, strategic thinking gets pushed aside for urgent tactical tasks. Instead of developing long-term growth strategies, your marketing person is constantly putting out fires and reacting to immediate needs.
Second, expertise gaps become glaring weaknesses. They might excel at social media but struggle with paid advertising, or understand content creation but lack data analysis skills.
This results in mediocre performance and inconsistencies across all channels. Your social media gets sporadic attention, your content lacks strategic focus, your ads underperform, and your overall marketing efforts feel disjointed rather than cohesive.
The Hidden Costs of Relying on One Person
More often than not, small businesses have a single marketing coordinator who manages everything and works with external vendors to execute various marketing tactics—whether it's local media outlets, digital marketing firms, or specialized service companies.
While this approach appears budget-friendly initially, it often leads to a costlier scenario. For example, your internal marketing person may lack the specialized knowledge to properly create a strategy, oversee what vendors are delivering, or see that these providers are focusing on impressive-sounding statistics or adding-on services that don't translate to meaningful business growth.
Without the right expertise to evaluate vendor performance or strategy, your business ends up paying for campaigns that look busy but aren't strategically aligned. Poorly optimized ad campaigns burn through budget without generating quality leads. Inconsistent content creation means missed opportunities for organic growth. Lack of proper analytics means you can't identify what's working or pivot away from what isn't.
More importantly, you're missing the strategic leadership that drives sustainable growth. Marketing isn't just about creating content or running ads—it's about positioning your business for long-term success, identifying new market opportunities, and building systems that scale with your growth.
What Other Marketing Options are There?
As a small business owner, you're eager to grow your company, but your current marketing efforts likely feel more busy than strategic. You're posting on social media, sending occasional emails, maybe running some ads—yet you're not seeing the growth results you need to take your business to the next level.
While your dedicated "do-it-all" marketing person brings valuable talents to the table, they may need support in specialized areas because sustainable growth requires more than a one-person generalist approach. Options like a fractional CMO or a fractional marketing team for small business can give you access to an entire team of specialists—all at a fraction of the cost of building an internal marketing department.
If you’re looking for higher-level guidance in small business marketing, you may want to consider adding a fractional CMO to your team. While they don’t create deliverables themselves, they bring the strategic thinking your business needs while coordinating specialized experts who excel in their respective areas. So instead of having one person trying to create and run content on a whim, you’ll have a strategic guide that works with them to ensure all your marketing efforts work together toward your business goals.
A fractional marketing agency then provides the complete marketing infrastructure your business needs. You get the content creator who lives and breathes storytelling, the paid advertising specialist who optimizes campaigns regularly, the SEO expert who understands search algorithms, and the data analyst who turns numbers into actionable insights.
These approaches mean each area of your marketing gets the attention and expertise it deserves. Your content strategy becomes cohesive and compelling. Your advertising campaigns are properly managed and optimized. Your SEO efforts actually drive organic traffic. Your analytics provide clear insights that inform better decision-making across all channels.
When it comes down to it, scaling businesses recognize that marketing has evolved beyond what any single person can effectively manage. The companies that thrive are those that invest in proper marketing infrastructure—complete agency or fractional CMO support with specialized expertise across all channels—rather than hoping a one-person marketing team can somehow master every aspect of modern marketing.
Treefrog Marketing is a fractional marketing agency based in Lafayette, Indiana, offering executive-level marketing leadership backed by a professional team. Our tailored, data-driven solutions transform businesses, accelerate growth, and enhance customer experiences. For more information, please visit our website. You can also connect with us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
