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Did you know that 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs will fail in their first year of business? Sadly, just one bad hire has the potential to cost you 30 percent of your annual revenue. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re hiring a marketing manager that is the right fit for your business.
In the beginning, you’ll naturally want to do almost everything yourself. However, hiring a marketing manager so you can focus on high-value tasks you enjoy is something you need to keep on top of your to-do list.
Obviously, the two most important skills you need to outsource include sales and marketing. Hiring someone who’s skilled in these areas almost guarantees your success. Ideally, you should hire someone who’s a master at marketing who can perform the job better than you can. If you can’t afford that level, you can alternatively hire someone who’s eager to learn and willing to be trained.
Here at Balkan Hire, we’ve successfully matched over 50 marketing managers with growing online businesses. During that time, we’ve noticed one major mistake that entrepreneurs make when hiring someone for this position.
The Number 1 Mistake when Hiring a Marketing Manager
The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when they hire a marketing manager is they expect them to do too many things. In other words, they expect them to be a jack-of-all-trades.
Of course, it’s common knowledge among entrepreneurs that multitasking is the wrong way to approach your work. It’s incredibly inefficient, and it can even affect your mental health. And yet, many entrepreneurs expect their marketing manager to do just that. They expect them to be their copywriter, graphic designer, SEO expert, and everything else.
This approach usually happens because the CEO overestimates their marketing manager’s skills and underestimates the time needed to accomplish these tasks.
In truth, there’s much more involved in marketing than you might realize. Just to drive the point home, let’s take a look at some common marketing tasks and positions.
- Technical marketing
- On-page and off-page SEO
- Website building and optimizing
- Landing page building
- Sales funnel strategy
- Upsell strategy
- Expanding to a new audience or market
- Product strategy
- Creating new content
- Social media management
- Copywriting
- Email marketing
Does that sound like the work of one man? Obviously, one person can’t perform all of those tasks adequately by himself. You don’t need one person to do everything. What you need is someone who can oversee the work of an entire marketing team.
How to Hire a Marketing Team
Now that you know one of the biggest mistakes recruiting marketing manager, let’s look at some more effective approaches to hiring a marketing team. Each of these strategies is equally viable. You should choose the one that’s most appropriate for your budget and situation.
The multi-tiered approach
With this approach, you’ll be hiring an experienced marketing strategist who can help make your vision a reality. Ideally, this person will have between 8 to 10 years of marketing experience and a portfolio that can back it up. Perhaps he even ran his own marketing business in the past.
This person’s job will be to create a strategy for growing your business. He’ll accomplish this by creating a budget, figuring out what tasks and positions need to be filled, and setting 3-6-12 month SMART goals for your business.
From there, you can hire a medium level manager. The ideal person for this position will have 3-5 years of experience with growing businesses. They’ll also be highly organized and have great management skills.
This person’s job will be to implement the strategy that was created by your marketing strategist. To accomplish this, they’ll work within your budget to hire freelancers and part-time workers that can perform all the necessary tasks. For this reason, it’s important that your medium level marketer is able to manage the fine details of your business without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Hiring a marketing director
Another strategy is to hire a marketing director who will more or less be your right-hand man. This person will essentially oversee your entire marketing department. This should be a person who has much more marketing experience than you do. Furthermore, he understands the vision you have for your business and how to fulfill that vision.
Some of the marketing director’s main responsibilities will include forming a strategy, creating a budget, and hiring a marketing team. A person like this is obviously a great asset to your business. However, because this is such a high-level position, they’ll also require a higher pay rate. Therefore, this plan is best for entrepreneurs who have a larger budget.
Hiring someone you can train
Maybe you have a gift for marketing yourself. Maybe you enjoy the work and still want to be involved with it. If that’s true, then you should consider hiring someone you can train to eventually take your place.
In this case, you should hire someone who has 1-3 years of experience in your industry. This person should be a fast learner, well-organized, and eager to learn.
The goal is for this new hire to eventually become your top marketing manager. They will then be in charge of onboarding and new hires. While this strategy isn’t ideal for everyone, it is the most affordable plan we’ve listed. This makes it a good option for entrepreneurs with a small budget.
Core Team
Now let’s take a closer look at the members of your core marketing team. This list might change depending on your individual needs. But generally speaking, these are the people you need to have to grow a small business.
Marketing director
This is the main manager of your marketing team. Again, this person will essentially be your right-hand man. This is your main strategist and the person who keeps the big picture in mind. This is the most important member of your team, so make sure you choose wisely.
Content marketer
Next up is your content marketer. The content marketer handles organic content such as blogs and lead magnets. He also handles social media, content strategy, and managing content calendars and writers.
Ads specialist
Depending on your needs, you might also need an ads specialist. Ads can be very expensive, so they need to contribute to your profit directly to make them worth your time. Therefore, it’s helpful to have an expert to ensure you have a good ROI.
Product marketing manager
The product marketing manager’s main role is to help consumers learn about your products. More specifically, they research current products that are trending, establish timeframes for releasing new products, and help establish the messaging and branding of a product.
Additional Team Members
In addition, it can be helpful to have the following people as part of your marketing team.
SEO manager
Obviously, SEO is an important aspect of any startup. For that reason, it can be helpful to have a specific person oversee this part of your business. This person could be a freelancer or project-based worker rather than a permanent part of your team.
Copywriter/content creator
As you probably know, having a steady flow of content is often key to building a successful business. You need someone who can create this content on a regular basis. Once again, this can be a freelancer or project-based worker.
Video editor
Youtube and TikTok both represent excellent marketing possibilities. Creating videos can be a great way to spread the word about your product or service. That’s why a video editor could be a very important member of your team.
Influencer marketer
With influencer marketing, you leverage the influence of key individuals within your industry to market your products. An influencer marketer can identify those individuals and help enlist their services. This can be a great way to get your name out there, so don’t overlook it.
Graphic designer
A graphic designer can be great to have for countless reasons. Their responsibilities could range anywhere from designing your brand logo to designing ads for your products. As with many of these positions, you might consider hiring freelancers rather than permanent team members.
PR manager
Finally, a public relations manager can be an essential member of your team. This person is in charge of maintaining your business’s public image. They can help you handle potentially negative publicity and ensure the public sees your business in the best possible light.
How to Find Your Dream Team
Now you know the common mistakes of hiring a marketing manager and how to avoid them. Now it’s time to start hiring your team. Here at Balkan Hire, we have a team of experienced recruiters that can match you with the right people. We have the best candidates from all over the Balkan region, including Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro. These are experts in their field and the perfect people to have on your remote team.
Having the right people can make all the difference in the world. Let us help you build your team so you can focus on building your business.
