Every business should be thinking about digital marketing. But not every business needs to handle marketing internally. There are plenty of benefits in outsourcing the work to a digital marketing agency.
There comes a point when your marketing needs exceed what you’re able to do on your own or even with the help of an agency. Perhaps that means you’re ready to hire a marketing person on your team.
Hiring the right person for this critical role can elevate your business to new heights. But hiring the wrong person is a waste of time, money, and energy. That’s why it’s virtual to prepare before entering this process.
Follow this simple process to decide if you’re ready and to make the correct decision.
Make Sure You’re Ready
Before you start this process, take some time to ensure that this is the right decision for your business. Avoid making a hire and only then realize you aren’t ready to train or pay them. Here are some things to consider:
- Have the marketing needs exceeded what your current team can handle?
- Do you have the budget to pay this person’s salary for at least the next six months?
- Are you prepared to wait that long before you start seeing revenue results?
- Are you ready to start training this person and answering all their questions?
- Do you understand what their role will be and what your expectations are?
- Could you more easily outsource the work to an external marketing agency?
Once you’ve fully agreed that this is the right move, it’s time to write a job description.
Write a Job Description
Finding the right marketing candidates begins with a solid job description. This is the map that will lead the best people to your business. The goal should be to both attract good talent, while also giving them a clear understanding of what to expect from the role.
Here are the key elements that every marketing job description should contain:
- The job title: will they be a marketing coordinator, manager, or director?
- Who they will report to: is it you or someone else on the team
- A bulleted list of their basic job responsibilities
- The key skills they’ll need to excel in this role: do they need to know specific software?
- What qualifications are you looking for: do they need a college degree or certifications?
- A rough salary range: this helps avoid over or under-qualified candidates
- Where they’ll be working: will they need to move or is the job remote?
Take the time to include enough information upfront, or you’ll have to answer these questions repeatedly to the wrong job candidates.
Post a Job Listing
With a solid job description in hand, you’re ready to start sharing it. You won’t find any decent potential team members unless you spread the word. Although this largely depends on your industry, here are some places to consider posting this job description.
- Your company website
- Your company’s social media channels or email newsletter
- Major job listing sites like Indeed, Zip Recruiter, or Simply Hired
- Local job listings like your chamber of commerce or business association
- Industry networking Facebook groups
Depending on the role and your budget, you may want to pay to list or boost your opening on some of these sites. It’s also important to note the best source of quality candidates comes from people you know. Reaching out to a few trusted contacts might generate the right person.
Be sure to get all candidates to fill out the same application form. That way, you’re comparing apples to apples at the end of the process.
Narrow Down the Applications
Decide exactly how long you want to leave the job open to applications. This will largely depend on how quickly you need to make a hire. Be sure to give yourself a few weeks to interview and negotiate with candidates. Two to three weeks is usually a good amount of time.
- Once you close the application process, collect all the applications in one place.
- Gather anyone who will need to help with the hiring decision.
- Give them access to the applications and resumes.
- Review all the applications individually and then meet to discuss.
- There are usually a few resumes that are easily dismissed and a few that stand out.
- Begin by scheduling interviews with the leading candidates.
Conduct the Interviews
Schedule interviews with 3-4 candidates at once. Be sure to note how these individuals communicate during the scheduling process. Failing to respond quickly or professionally is an easy sign that they may not be interested or organized.
It’s usually best to hold interviews with a small group at first, otherwise, you risk overwhelming the candidate and failing to get good responses. Here are some example questions to ask:
- Why are you interested in this role and working with our company?
- Based on what you know of us, what marketing practices would you implement?
- How do you stay updated with digital marketing platforms and trends?
- What marketing platforms are you personally most active on?
- Which marketing tools can you not do your job without?
- How do you juggle the constant demands of digital marketing?
Take good notes of their responses so you can share them with the rest of your team. Be sure to give them space to ask questions at the end of your conversation. The thoughtfulness of these questions is also another indicator of their interest and insight into your business.
Onboard Your New Team Member
After picking the right candidate and making the offer, your business officially has a new marketing person—congratulations! But the work isn’t over yet. Even once they start working, you’ll need to train and guide them to ensure their work is successful.
Be sure to include the following steps in your onboarding process:
- Provide access to all digital marketing tools and channels
- Introduce them to your staff and give them time to meet with departments
- Meet to set goals for their first quarter of work
- Walk them through the current marketing process and ask how they might improve them
- Share any documentation of processes or helpful notes
- Give them the time they need to settle in and start making a difference
