How to Hire Your First Marketing Person

Before you hire anyone to do your marketing, ask yourself a question that sounds simple. What do you actually need done? Not “marketing”, because that is a dozen different jobs wearing one name. Which one is it?

I ask because of what we see when owners hire for the first time. They look for someone who can do all of it. The writing, the social posts, the ads, the numbers, the website. They want one person to cover the whole list, and they are surprised when the person does a few things well and the rest badly.

Marketers are usually good at one thing

Marketing is a handful of different skills. Some people are strong at copywriting. Others are good at social media. Some are analytical and live in the data, and others are really good with ads. Very few people are well rounded and good at all of it.

So the more interesting question is not “what can you do?” It is “what are you not so good at?” Look for the person who answers that honestly. Someone who can tell you plainly that they are strong at one thing and weaker at another is someone you can trust when they tell you they can do the work you are hiring them for.

Hire the strength, then let them use it

Once you find that person, let them do that one thing and do it really well. Do not stretch them over the whole list. If you need the other pieces, cover them another way, with a different person, a partner or a tool.

I think owners underestimate what a strong presence on a single platform can do, whether that is a social media platform or an ad platform. Being really good at one platform is worth more than being average at five. A strong marketer on a single platform can carry a business a long way, to six or seven figures.

I have seen it. We have a client, an estate management company, that focused only on Google Ads. It went from about $300,000 a year to almost a million in its second year, with that one platform. Nobody was doing everything. One thing was being done really well.

What to ask when you interview

Here are the questions I would bring:

• What is the one thing you do better than almost anyone?
• What do you not do well, and what do you do when a client needs it?
• Can I see work you are proud of, and can I talk to someone you did it for?
• If I could only afford you for one thing, what would you pick?

The answers will tell you more than any resume. And a person who has to think hard about the second question is usually more honest than someone who answers it quickly.

You can read more about building the rest of your support team in Building Your Outside Team, and about how to pick which channel deserves your money in Choosing Channels by What a Customer Costs.

So what job are you really trying to fill? Is there one platform your customers actually spend time on? And who do you know who is great at just that?