Common Mistakes to Avoid when Hiring a Digital Marketing Professional

Exciting news, you are about to hire a marketing professional. Your team is understaffed and as a business owner, or manager, there is a lot on your plate. In addition to your daily operations, planning and strategy, financial responsibilities, and management decisions, you will most likely devote some time as well to the hiring process.

I still remember one of my clients back in 2016 asked “why can’t the content person own Social media ads?”. That indeed sounds like a legitimate question to many of us. In fact, ever since, I see more and more small business owners commit similar mistakes as they hire one single marketing person assuming that he, she, or they can fulfill (too) many diverse marketing needs. A few months later they end up with under-delivered goals, loads of work, and the realization that another hire, or an additional one, is urgently required.

A bad hiring decision is estimated to represent at least 30% of the individual’s first year expected earnings according to the U.S. Department of Labor. These are some of the related costs that can easily accumulate due to a bad hiring decision:

  • Time and expenses associated with onboarding & training new employees
  • Hours spent in the recruitment process
  • Time and results of bad performance
  • Reduced productivity from disrupted projects
  • Impact on the team
  • Impact on the clients
  • Increased risk of legal fees from termination related claims

If you aren’t a marketing professional, there’s a 99% chance that you are not even aware of the various marketing types and functions that exist within the broad marketing world. 

Even as a marketing professional, there’s more than a 50% chance that you aren’t entirely familiar with all the marketing-related fields and roles out there.  So, the odds are against you when it comes to hiring the right talent if you have no external help.

By now it’s evident that hiring the right talent is crucial to the success of your business. In this article, we will review and distinguish between the various skills required indigital marketing (also known as online marketing). 

This knowledge will serve you in understanding what talents can best match your business needs and thus help you avoid the common mistakes that other businesses make when they hire the wrong marketing professional. 

Don’t Confuse Digital Marketing Channels with Traditional Marketing

Digital marketing, also referred to as online marketing, is a form of advertising that utilizes onlinechannels to reach new audiences. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing has been evolving since the 1990s so it’s a relatively newer form of marketing. The skills required to successfully manage online activities are different from those required with traditional or other types of marketing. So first, let’s go over the common online channels that serve businesses in generating traffic to their website and reaching their potential customers:

  • Google, Yahoo!, and similar search engines (aka SEO and SEM)
  • Email marketing
  • Social media through Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Linkedin, Pinterest, Tiktok…
  • Influencer and partnership traffic
  • Display traffic generated through various websites
  • Mobile traffic generated through mobile-optimized websites and apps

If you are looking to promote your business using at least one of these channels, then focus on hiring professionals with a digital marketing background. To learn more about online channels, visit my blog post ‘8 Digital Marketing Channels that every Business Should Know’. 

Before you Focus on the Role, Focus on the Goal

If you are in search of a specific marketing role that will guarantee your business success, please allow me to save you some time and reveal that there is no such magic formula. Instead, I recommend you focus on your business goals. 

For example, if your business goal is to increase your brand’s visibility then social media channels are powerful in spreading the word out and enhancing brand recognition. If your business goal is to convert prospects into clients then email marketing is likely where you’d want to invest your resources. In addition to social media and email marketing, there are several other channels you could take into account, as earlier mentioned, for allocating your advertising and recruitment budget. Once your business goal is clear, you can take the next step and identify the role that will successfully lead to achieving your goal.   

Don’t Assume that Designers can also be Planners

Understanding what channels can serve you in achieving your business goals is important, but it’s not enough to determine what marketing professional to hire.

In fact, the successful operation of each channel often requires more than one skill, aside from professional experience. 

For example, email marketing is a form of a commercial message sent to a group of email addresses. Businesses use email marketing to stay on top of consumers’ minds and to encourage their target audience to perform a certain action. To maximize the response rate, different elements play an important role in the success of the campaign. The subject line must spark curiosity, the content must be convincing, the image in the email body must be visually compelling, and this is just the email. What about the analysis and measurement of the campaign results? And how about the maintenance and growth of the various email lists? Then let’s not forget the technical integration that is required in order to allow the dispatch of emails. Only in this simple example, there are at least 5 evident skills that a strong candidate should possess in order to efficiently own the entire operation of email marketing: 

  • Strategic planning skills
  • Design skills
  • Content creation skills
  • Data analysis skills
  • Email marketing experience

Apart from these, some other common skills that make your candidate a great digital marketer include: 

  • Customer service skills
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Technical orientation skills
  • Sales orientation skills
  • SEO and SEM experience
  • Social media experience
  • Display advertising experience
  • Mobile advertising experience
  • Influencer & partnership marketing experience

But, is it even realistic to find a digital marketer who possesses all these skills? Thanks to the fast evolution in technology, digital marketing tremendously grew, and it is now necessary for almost every business that wants to grow online. Demand and supply go hand in hand in this case and marketing professionals keep developing their skills so they can stand out against the competition… Those top-tier digital marketers come with a price.

Low-Tier Budget Can’t Buy you a Top-Tier Professional

You are finally set with your business goals, and you have defined the skills that your ideal candidate should possess but if you are a small business or a business with a limited budget, make sure your expectations are in line with the remuneration package you can offer. 

A top-tier candidate is someone who has experience with at least 4 out of the 6 channels listed above. He also possesses at least 6 out of the 8 skills listed above.

A top-tier digital marketer who accepts a low-paying job is either a lower-rather-than-higher-tier digital marketer in disguise or perhaps a worthy candidate who will soon find out what he’s actually worth in the market and will then leave you for the competitor. In both cases, you risk ending up with some of the accumulated costs mentioned earlier, as a result of a bad hiring decision. 

Conclusion

A bad hiring decision can cost you a “great deal” of money, time, resources, and reputation. To make a smart hiring decision that will highly benefit your business, in this article, you received valuable tips which your competitors didn’t consider before they committed the same mistakes. 

  • First, understand what are the channels that online marketing consists of.
  • Second, define your business goals and prioritize the online channels that will help you get there.
  • Then, carefully consider the skills and experience that you expect your candidate to bring to the table.
  • Finally, make sure to align your hiring expectations with the remuneration package that you are able to offer.

We at Flyit Online offer consultation services to startups and medium businesses that are looking to grow their revenue through online marketing channels. Expanding your team is a natural part of your business growth and development process. Through this article, we transfer you some valuable knowledge that can help you make better online-marketing related decisions and help your business grow sustainably.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *