How to Build a Bespoke Marketing Team (Like Lloyds)

Most companies get this wrong: they hire “a marketer” and hope that one person (or one generalist agency) can cover strategy, paid media, creative, analytics, CRM, and conversion.

Then you read a move like this: Publicis shifting the Lloyds Bank media account out of Zenith and into a bespoke team drawing talent from across its network. That’s not a fun org-chart reshuffle. It’s a signal about how serious brands are getting on focus—and how they’re designing teams around outcomes rather than agency labels.

For UK solopreneurs and one-person businesses trying to grow through online marketing, this matters because you don’t have to be Lloyds to benefit from the same principle. You just need a smaller, sharper version of it.

What “bespoke team” really means (and why it’s happening now)

A bespoke team is a dedicated, account-specific unit built from the best-fit skills across a wider organisation. Instead of one agency doing everything inside its own walls, the client gets a tailored blend—media planners, performance specialists, data people, creative partners, maybe even martech and measurement—assembled specifically for the job.

This shift is happening because marketing has changed in three important ways:

1. Channels multiplied, but attention didn’t. You can run paid social, search, retail media, CTV, influencer, audio, out-of-home, CRM, and more. Most teams can’t do all of it well.
2. Measurement expectations got tougher. Boards want clearer ROI, incrementality thinking, and faster feedback loops.
3. Speed matters more than process. Modern campaigns live or die by iteration: creative refresh, audience testing, landing page tweaks, budget reallocations.

A bespoke team is a structural answer to that reality: put the right specialists in the same room (or Slack) with clear ownership.

Snippet-worthy: A bespoke marketing team isn’t “more people”. It’s fewer handoffs and clearer accountability.

The big-brand lesson startups can actually use

Here’s the thing about the Publicis–Lloyds move: you can’t copy the budget, but you can copy the logic.

If you’re a solopreneur, you’re already a “bespoke team” of one. The risk is that you become a bespoke mess—doing everything inconsistently, without a repeatable system.

The big-brand takeaway is this:

• Specialisation beats generalisation when growth is the goal.
• Coordination beats talent when execution is the bottleneck.

For one-person businesses, that translates to building a micro-team around your growth engine—usually content + conversion + distribution.

A practical mapping: Lloyds-scale vs solopreneur-scale

You don’t need a full Publicis network. You need to cover the same functions in a lightweight way:

• Strategy / positioning → you (plus a monthly mentor/copy consultant if needed)
• Creative production → a freelancer (design/video) on a retainer or per-batch basis
• Paid distribution → a specialist for setup + a simple weekly optimisation routine
• Measurement → one analytics setup project + a monthly reporting template
• Conversion → landing page + email sequence + 2–3 key experiments per quarter

If you’ve found yourself posting content “for awareness” but not seeing leads, it’s usually because one of those functions is missing—or owned by nobody.

How to structure your marketing like the pros (without hiring a department)

The best team structures start with one decision: what’s the one growth outcome you’re accountable for in the next 90 days?

If your campaign goal is leads (and for most solopreneurs it is), your team structure should orbit a single pipeline:

1. Traffic (organic + paid)
2. Conversion (landing page + offer)
3. Follow-up (email + nurture)

Step 1: Define the “one metric that matters”

Big brands can hide behind dozens of KPIs. You can’t. Pick one:

• Qualified leads per week
• Cost per lead (if you run paid)
• Discovery calls booked
• Email subscribers (if you’re building a list-first funnel)

Then set a simple target, e.g. 20 qualified leads/month or 8 calls/month.

Step 2: Assign owners (even if the owner is a freelancer)

A bespoke team works because responsibilities don’t blur. For a solopreneur micro-team, you want clear lanes:

• You: offer, messaging, thought leadership, final approvals
• Freelancer A (creative): ad creatives, social visuals, simple video edits
• Freelancer B (performance): paid search/paid social build, tracking, weekly optimisations
• Optional specialist (conversion): landing page copy, email sequence, CRO experiments

If you can only afford one person outside yourself, hire for the biggest constraint:

• If you have traffic but weak results: hire conversion/copy
• If you have a strong offer but no reach: hire distribution/paid
• If you’re inconsistent on content: hire production/editing

Step 3: Create a cadence that forces learning

Bespoke teams win because they run tight loops. Copy that with a simple rhythm:

• Weekly (30 minutes): what happened, what we learned, what we’ll change
• Monthly (60 minutes): channel ROI, creative winners/losers, next month’s tests
• Quarterly (90 minutes): positioning review, offer review, funnel improvements

If you do this consistently, you’ll outperform “random acts of marketing” even with a small budget.

The hidden advantage of bespoke teams: fewer handoffs

Most marketing underperforms for one boring reason: handoffs.

• The person writing the ad copy doesn’t see sales calls.
• The person running ads doesn’t see landing page heatmaps.
• The person posting on LinkedIn doesn’t know what keywords convert.

Publicis pulling Lloyds into a bespoke setup hints at a push for tighter integration across skills.

For a UK solopreneur, integration looks like this:

Keep three assets “shared” across everyone working with you

1. A message bank (headlines, proof points, objections, outcomes)
2. A creative swipe file (your top posts, top ads, top hooks)
3. A simple dashboard (weekly leads, conversion rate, CPL or calls)

When you share those, freelancers stop operating in isolation and start compounding each other’s work.

Snippet-worthy: If your marketing feels chaotic, you don’t need motivation—you need fewer handoffs.

A January 2026 reality check: budgets are tighter, scrutiny is higher

It’s January. Everyone’s setting targets, and plenty of founders are deciding what to cut. The temptation is to pause marketing until “things are clearer.”

I don’t love that move.

When budgets tighten, the winners don’t go silent. They get focused. A bespoke team structure is basically focus turned into an operating system.

If you’re doing UK solopreneur business growth the smart way in 2026, your plan should reflect three truths:

• Organic reach is unreliable, so you need repeatable distribution (email list, partnerships, or paid).
• Paid media is less forgiving without a solid offer and landing page.
• Trust signals matter more (proof, case studies, clear positioning) because buyers are cautious.

A micro-bespoke setup helps because you can:

• Produce fewer things, but ship them more consistently
• Measure properly (so you can stop guessing)
• Improve conversion (so every click is worth more)

“Do I need a bespoke team if I’m tiny?” (People also ask)

What’s the smallest version of a bespoke marketing team?

Two roles besides you is enough: (1) a conversion-focused copy/CRM person and (2) a distribution person (paid or partnerships). If that’s too much, start with the single biggest constraint.

Should I outsource marketing or hire in-house first?

For most UK solopreneurs, outsource specialised execution first and keep strategy in-house. Hiring too early often locks you into one skillset when you actually need flexible specialist help.

How do I know if my current setup is too generalist?

If you hear yourself saying “we tried ads” or “we tried content” without clear numbers—CPL, conversion rate, leads/week—it’s too generalist. Specialists bring clarity because they’re forced to measure.

What should I track weekly?

Track a small set you can act on:

• Leads generated
• Conversion rate (landing page)
• Cost per lead (if running paid)
• One quality indicator (e.g., calls booked or qualified lead rate)

Build your own “Publicis-style” team in 14 days

If you want a quick implementation sprint, here’s a realistic two-week plan:

1. Day 1–2: Clarify offer + ICP + primary channel (pick one)
2. Day 3–4: Set up tracking (GA4 events, pixel, basic CRM stages)
3. Day 5–7: Build one landing page + one lead magnet or call booking flow
4. Day 8–10: Produce a creative batch (10 posts or 5 ads + 2 short videos)
5. Day 11–14: Launch, review after 72 hours, then iterate weekly

This isn’t glamorous work. It’s the work that produces leads.

Where this fits in the UK Solopreneur Business Growth series

A lot of this series is about tools, content, automation, and social media. This post is the missing glue: structure.

Tools don’t fix unclear ownership. Content doesn’t fix a weak offer. Automation doesn’t fix a leaky funnel.

The lesson from Publicis moving Lloyds into a bespoke team is simple: serious marketing is organised marketing. Build a small team that matches your growth goals, run tight feedback loops, and stop trying to do everything at once.

If you’re planning your Q1, what would change if you stopped thinking “I need more marketing” and started thinking “I need a tighter marketing team”?