As a founder, you get your company off the ground, get started and keep up the hustle to hit the first milestone on your growth curve. Slowly, you see your company grow, stabilize and establish itself. Now it is time to up the ante. You need to push further and think a Marketing Expert will do the trick.
So, you try to describe the role, and responsibilities and list the talent you are looking for.
But Marketing as a function has evolved exponentially in the last couple of decades. As you already recognise, today’s marketers need to be adept at all things digital - understanding the different channels and platforms available, where to find the target audience, social angles, the influencers in the industry, email marketing, and more.
If you are a growth-stage startup or scaleup, you probably already hired someone to do some of these activities including Digital Lead Generation, Content Marketing and someone to even manage your lead generation through paid channels.
But now you want to level up.
You want greater visibility.
You want a strong brand presence.
You want to be seen as a market leader.
And that's where a Marketing Manager comes in: Someone who can steer your company in the right direction and build your brand intentionally by running online and offline campaigns across various distribution channels, nationally and internationally.
Click here to read more about hiring during growth.
So who should you hire?
The characteristics
An ideal marketing manager should have a good mix of the following characteristics:
While marketing needs a diverse mix of skills, like creativity, digital savvy, or brilliance at PR and communications, it is best to prioritize what you currently need and hire someone who has hands-on experience in that area. For example, if you want to increase your visibility, you might hire someone with experience in PR and communications.
Hire a marketer who understands sales as all marketing activities ultimately boil down to sales conversions. While impressions, open rates, clicks, and reshares are reassuring and good to have, sales mean undeniable tangible success. Click here to read more about hiring the right salesperson for your organization.
More than anything else,you need someone who can get things done - an excellent executioner. You need a marketer who can turn a strategy into action and derive pleasure from the numbers it can generate.
Do I know who I want?
Before you hire, also ensure that the candidate you choose has a deeper understanding of one of the marketing functions: brand, product/service, communications or growth, so that you are clear on what immediate success looks like.
Here are a few questions that can help you think through,
Which marketing channels have been successful for your company so far?
Where does your target audience engage, hang out and get their information from?
What are your competitors doing?
What level of expertise are you looking for? And in which area?
The role of a Founder
As a founder, you probably started by doing all the marketing yourself. You believe in what you are building, you are the greatest advocate for your company and you love pitching your products/services. But hiring a marketing manager will change that. And understanding what role you will play going forward is a critical step.
Of course, this transition will be hard.
Think about your strengths and what you can bring to the table to complement the strengths of your marketing manager. Maybe you have a strong vision for your brand and are adept at building brands. Then you might want to hire someone who can focus more on either growth or communications.
While all this is great in theory, finding the right candidate for your marketing needs can be challenging.
If you need help in hiring a marketing manager for your organization, do reach out to us.
FlexiBees has a large pool of 50K+ experienced and qualified women, who work part-time and remotely. This gives you the additional advantage of hiring someone from anywhere in the world! We have a deep vetting process that matches the right candidate to your exact business needs, taking all the nuances into account. We will do all the preselection for you and provide you with only the best three screened candidates for interviewing.
