What to Do When Your Head of Marketing Quits

Many businesses across the country are starting to feel the effects of “The Great Resignation.” Whether it’s team unity, a clear direction forward, missed sales marks, or lower overall output, there are no shortages of problems for companies when employees leave. 

Specifically, when your head of marketing quits, it can be incredibly hard on the business as a whole. Marketing, after all, is responsible for helping raise awareness, generate leads, and ultimately drive revenue and company growth. 

If your marketing team is down, that can very quickly lead to down revenue and missed opportunities. But it doesn’t have to. 

Here are some helpful tips for business owners to ensure a smooth transitional period:

Get Feedback and Make Changes

First and foremost, the most important thing you can do when losing a marketing team lead is to get genuine honest feedback from them about why they are leaving. Make a list of action items and implement them. 

Do NOT be the boss who thinks it was ‘just them.’ It was at least a little to do with you and your business. 

Document, Document, Document

Have your lead document everything before they leave (if you haven’t already been doing this). Have them document their day-to-day activities and their processes. 

For their day-to-day activities, it might be insightful to have them write out a rough overview of everything they do on a typical week every day. 

When it comes to processes, nothing should be overlooked. Depending on what the marketing team lead was responsible for implementing, make sure they document things like:

• How content is produced and edited

• What software and systems are used for what tactic

• What vendors are used and how they are paid

• How they monitored ad spend

• And so on. There is no shortage of activities a marketing team lead is responsible for! 

It’s important to note that while your company may already have “everything documented,” processes inevitably change in the day-to-day actual implementation, typically to more efficient and effective processes. 

So EVEN IF this documentation already lives somewhere, get this person’s processes documented, compare and contrast to what was originally documented, and adapt. 

Know Who Understands These Current Processes Best

Who next on the team understands the processes and overall day-to-day marketing team workflow best? Ask the team lead before they leave. 

You may want to consider approaching this person and ask them to review all the documentation and help either expand upon it or add in their input as well. 

Consider Hiring a Consultant

Transition periods can be tough and, inevitably, leave everyone else on the team inheriting a heavier workload. Not good for morale and can very easily make the problem worse by giving others on the team a reason to leave. 

Hiring a marketing consultant can help ease the workload and at the same time get a new pair of eyes on your marketing systems and processes. Not a bad idea to use the time to get a fresh perspective as you transition over to a new team lead.

Get Feedback About Their Team 

This is a tricky one and is easy to do distastefully, so tread lightly. Typically when folks are on their way out the door, they tend to be more honest. This is a great time to capitalize on that honesty by asking for their input on the rest of the teams’ strengths and weaknesses. No major decisions should be made based off of this alone, but it can be incredibly helpful for understanding how to structure the team moving forward and great insider information for the next marketing team lead. 

While these are great tips to ensure a smooth transition, unfortunately, this isn’t always possible when an employee doesn’t give at least 2 weeks notice and/or when they have reached a point where they are so far-gone that they just don’t care to put in any actual effort with your transition. 

And while the key to avoiding this situation in the first place is keeping your employees happy, even happy employees can leave for various reasons. 

The importance of having thorough documentation and training materials for all marketing software systems, tools and processes is crucial for keeping marketing consistently and effectively up and running.