It takes a village to bring a marketing campaign to life. It can involve strategists, writers, designers, social media experts, web developers, executive sponsors, accountants, agency support and more.

While everyone who contributes to a campaign is valuable, here are five friends every financial and professionals services marketer must have in order to be successful.

1. Executive sponsor. You can’t get a marketing project off the ground if you don’t have cash to pay for it. To get budget dollars, you need executive sponsorship. It’s critical for you to have good relationships with leaders who have control over the purse strings and can approve marketing initiatives.

With more marketing executives coming up through the ranks because of their financial and analytical acumen, it’s important to earn their respect and long-term advocacy by demonstrating results. This is the best way to turn them into sponsors for your programs.

2. Creative director. A campaign can’t succeed without stellar, world-class creative. In today’s congested media marketplace, no one will pay attention to content that doesn’t jump off the screen (or page) and grab their attention.

You need a solid relationship with a great creative director to make sure your campaigns get noticed and earn high engagement. An experienced one can put you in touch with writers, designers, videographers, editors and the other talent you need to develop content that will connect with your target audience.

3. Digital expert. Marketers simply can’t keep up with the extraordinary advances in digital technology happening every day. That’s why you need to build a relationship with an expert in digital marketing who can provide information and advice on the latest online and social media opportunities and how you can integrate them into your initiatives.

Tip: There are a limited number of digital marketing experts available for hire. That’s why many financial marketers turn to digital marketing agencies for advice and support.

4. Numbers pro. Many marketers come from creative backgrounds. For them, data analysis is a secondary skill.

With more and more marketing organizations focused on the bottom line, it’s critical that marketers get access to solid metrics generation, reporting and analysis support. If you have an opportunity to add headcount to your team, consider a data analyst. If you can’t do this, see if you can find people in your firm’s tech and accounting departments to help you generate numbers, analyze them and create reports.

Another option: Bring in outside professional support to help you find the data you need and package it in ways your stakeholders will understand. It’s a small investment in being able to prove your marketing efforts are contributing to your company’s bottom line.

5. Outside counsel. Admit it. Every now and then you get stuck in your own thinking. You need someone to inspire new ideas and ways to approach projects.

Having access to outside consultants and agencies is a good way to do this. They have experience working with firms within and outside your industry and can provide fresh insights based on best practices on building strategies, implementing programs and developing creative that gets results.

Want to grow your circle of marketing friends?

Unfortunately, most marketers don’t have all the support they need. That’s where Carpenter Group can help. We can provide you with the creative, digital and metrics capabilities you’re lacking. We’re also great at providing fresh perspectives on marketing strategies and creative executions. Check us out online then contact us to discuss how we can help.