Hiring your first marketing professional? There are some fundamental things you should consider beforehand. Perhaps it feels like the right time for the business to hire a senior marketer but it’s important to know what you need, and can offer, so neither party is disappointed later on. So, are you ready? Read on to find out…
1. What Do You Really Need?
So maybe you’ve got high growth plans and want a marketer to bring in leads, but before you post that job advert, it’s important to confirm the following:
Preparation:
Does the job spec actually explain what you need from this person? Often, job specs can be vague, this is your chance to target people with specific skills, so make it as in-depth as possible, with clearly defined expectations. See the table in the next section for an overview on marketing roles.
What are their key objectives and KPIs? Experienced marketers will always ask for this. Without these, they won’t know how to align efforts to meet the wider goals of the business. Marketers can certainly help you define their own objectives and KPIs, but you should have a basic idea at least.
Are you looking for a “growth marketer” or a generalist? Setting KPIs will help determine what you actually need, if it’s doubling your lead generation, then you need to look for particular skills. If it’s creating content and increasing media coverage, it’s different skills again.
What is their marketing budget? Please don’t hire a marketer and expect to triple your social media following or website enquiries if they have no budget. Even the world’s most creative campaign won’t reach many people, or the right people, without some budget behind it to boost on social media, or to even create assets. Bear in mind, internal resources are also a cost. So you might have in-house designers to create materials, but their time would be billable for a client, and it’s the same for in-house requests, otherwise your marketing team will struggle to book their time and they might need to use an external resource if your designers are fully booked on client or other work.
Is there a budget to expand the team? If you’re hiring a top marketer there’s only so long they’ll be happy with daily administrative tasks like setting up ads and posting to social media. Marketing tasks can be vast, so it’s important to scope out when you could possibly hire marketing support.
2. Do You Know Your Performance Marketers From Your Brand Marketers?
You don’t need to know everything about marketing, but it’s good to know more about the different types of marketing roles. Some will specialise in certain areas, whereas others will be more generalist. As mentioned previously, director or VP level professionals probably won’t want to be bogged down with general marketing tasks, so you might actually need someone at manager level who can grow into a more senior role and is happy to get stuck into the strategy and planning, as well as doing basic daily tasks.
Marketing roles can be generalist or specialist and can vary so much in-between. The table below gives a nice overview of four key marketing areas:
Generalists typically have experience across most, if not all, of the key marketing verticals and a fair few will also have external and internal communications experience. Generalists are good for companies that need an all-rounder for general marketing activities, from setting strategies to planning PR and events, to managing content and platforms. They can be strong in more than one area, but it’s still important to know what you need.
3. Is Now The Right Time?
If you need someone right away, you might need to hire a marketing agency whilst you look for someone full-time. Planning in advance is important in all areas of business and this includes marketing. Whether it’s a product launch or event, effective campaigns need at least three months of planning, six is even better!
It can typically take 3-6 months to find the right person, especially those at a senior level as they tend to have a 3-month notice period and the interview process could take around 1-4 weeks. Doing the prep beforehand will make the process a lot easier, which is another reason why following these steps is important.
A seasoned marketer can certainly join a company and “get on with it”, but they still need your time, so if you know you won’t be able to give them any regular time, especially in the first couple of months, then think about how you can give them what they need. Who will give them deep insights into the business and take them through the business strategy? How will costs and campaigns be signed off? Who can they go to to ask leadership-level questions across the business?
4. Finding the Right Talent
Referrals: Okay so you’ve established that you definitely need a marketer and when, now where’s the best place to find one? Referrals are always a great start, so ask your peers or networking groups for recommendations, but make sure you tell them exactly what you need.
Job Boards: Next step is a job advert. When I’m job searching my go to are; LinkedIn, The Dots, Indeed and Glassdoor. Now you know what you want, writing a job spec should be easy, but do reach out to a marketing contact to check it over for you if you can. The job market is picking up again, so you want to stand out if your company isn’t well-known yet. Culture is just as important as job title and salary these days, so if you’ve got a great culture, values and benefits, include them. Don’t forget to add the vacancy to your website’s job page too.
Social Media: Don’t underestimate the power of social media. Post a link to your ad on your company and personal channels with the relevant hashtags (yes, they do work sometimes!), try; #marketingjobs #londonmarketingjobs or use the area you’re in. Send the link to your network and ask them to share it with their contacts to maximise organic reach. But if you’re in a rush to find someone and have some budget, promote the ad.
Recruiters: They generally get a bad wrap, some are certainly justified, but there are some very good ones out there, so it’s worthwhile asking for recommendations. I’ve listed some of my own recommendations below.
Ultimately, this role will bring a new energy to the business but it feeds off the energy from those in the business, so treat it as a partnership that values openness, trust and transparency and good things are sure to happen.
Want more? I found this great article on First Round Review.
Recruiters:
- BPE Search – for senior corporate executive positions
- Career Moves – for specialist marketers
- Major Players – for specialist marketers
- Impact Recruitment – for creative industries
- Handle – for creative and brands
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