How should a 10-person company do marketing?
Short answer
A 10-person company should choose one clear customer, one clear message and two or three channels. Run them steadily for at least one quarter before changing anything. Budget as a share of revenue: Gartner's 2025 survey of 402 marketing leaders found budgets averaged 7.7% of company revenue. Give one person ownership of the plan, and bring in outside help only for work you cannot staff yourself.
Last updated:
Start with one customer and one message.
Most small teams try to speak to everyone. This makes every message weaker.
Write down who your best customer is, what problem they have, and why they choose you instead of the alternatives. Keep it to three short sentences. Every campaign, page and post should work from those three sentences.
Choose two or three channels.
A 10-person company cannot run six channels well. Pick the two or three where your best customers already pay attention, and do those properly.
- Look at where your last ten best customers first heard of you.
- Choose one channel that creates demand (for example content, video or paid social) and one that captures it (for example search or email).
- Add a third only when the first two run without extra effort.
Set a budget from revenue.
Gartner's 2025 CMO Spend Survey reports average marketing budgets of 7.7% of company revenue, and paid media at 30.6% of the marketing budget. The survey does not break out small businesses, so treat 7.7% as a reference point, not a rule. Companies that want to grow faster often spend more; companies that are stable often spend less.
| Annual revenue | 7.7% per year | 7.7% per month |
|---|---|---|
| £1m | £77,000 | about £6,400 |
| £2m | £154,000 | about £12,800 |
| £5m | £385,000 | about £32,100 |
Decide who does what.
Give one person ownership of the marketing plan, even if marketing is only part of their job. Then match the work to the right kind of help.
- Strategy and direction: you or a senior person, with outside input if the direction is unclear.
- Creative and content production: a freelancer, an agency or an AI-led subscription.
- Channel management and reporting: whoever can show results each month.
Track three numbers.
Track leads per month, the cost to win one customer, and the share of leads who become customers. Review them once a month. If a channel has not moved any of the three after a full quarter, change the approach, not just the budget.
Common questions
How much should a 10-person company spend on marketing?
A common reference point is 7.7% of revenue, from Gartner's 2025 survey of 402 marketing leaders. For a company with £2m revenue that is about £154,000 a year. Start lower if your customer and message are still unclear, and spend more once a channel has proven it works.
Does a 10-person company need a marketing hire?
Not always. You need one person who owns the plan. That person can be a founder or an operations lead. Hire a specialist when you have enough proven demand to keep them busy.
How long before marketing results show?
We recommend a minimum of one quarter on each channel before judging it. Some channels, such as paid search, show signals sooner. Content and brand work take longer.