Tip #1: Don’t hire the wrong marketer

Your marketing team – whether in house, outsourced, or some combination thereof – is arguably the single most important tool you have for driving growth at your firm. (I may be slightly biased, but I’m not wrong 😉).

Which makes hiring your marketers a critical decision for the future of your business.

The problem is that “marketing” has become a catch-all term for what actually encompasses a number of different skill sets and competencies, including but surely not limited to:

💪 Execution ninjas, highly skilled at implementing marketing tactics
🖼 Creative specialists like copywriters and designers
📊 Paid digital and demand generation experts
🤸‍♀️ Generalists that dabble in a little of this and a little of that
🦄 The very rare unicorn who can do it all — strategy and execution

There’s also what I like to call the people manager, someone adept at facilitating projects or hiring and working with agencies, but lacking any real strategic and tactical ability.

With all of these important but different proficiencies falling under the umbrella of marketing, it’s dangerously easy to pull the trigger on the wrong person, particularly if you or your hiring team aren’t deeply versed in the nuances of marketing orchestration.

Hiring the wrong marketer for your business’s needs and goals isn’t just costly and frustrating. It can also lead you to believe that marketing doesn’t work and therefore you don’t need it – and you can’t make a bigger business mistake than eliminating marketing.

So before you even think about opening a job rec on LinkedIn, consider these questions:

• What does your business need from this role?
• What are your growth goals for the next one to five years?
• How do you envision this person supporting those goals? Be specific.

Use the answers to these questions to craft your job description. And as you begin evaluating candidates:

1. Look for proven success driving growth for businesses like yours and in the same stage as yours.
2. Don’t be afraid to test candidates as part of the interview process, especially if you’re looking for a creative expert or someone to drive strategy.
3. Ask for referrals and use them. Make sure you’re not getting a people manager masquerading as an execution ninja.
4. Consider using a consultant to help you identify which candidate is which, and what you really need for your business.
5. Dig extra deep on the folks who claim they can do it all.  In my experience that’s 1% of marketers or less and you’re likely being punked.

Don’t let the wrong marketing hire derail your growth efforts. Spend the time up front to understand the skills and expertise you really need, and don’t settle until you find it.

🔔 Contact me if I can help you avoid this business booby trap.

Kelly Waltrich is Co-Founder & CEO of Intention.ly