Hiring a Marketer? Here’s What You Should Consider When Developing a Marketing Job Description

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com as one of Christine Pilkington’s contributions as a member of Forbes Business Council. You can find the original article linked at the bottom of the piece.

If you don’t have a marketing background, hiring a marketer can feel like trying to learn a whole new language. For example, what’s the difference between a growth marketer and a performance marketer? Should you hire an ad specialist or a content strategist?

Unlike other business areas like accounting or legal, there isn’t a whole lot of standardization across job titles or the scope of a given role in marketing. Add to that the constantly changing landscape of new channels, tools and trends, and it’s easy to see why a lot of companies get it wrong.

Having hired dozens and dozens of marketers on behalf of clients and for my own fractional marketing agency, I’m here to tell you that most business leaders miss the forest for the trees when it comes to building their marketing team. Like marketing itself, hiring a marketer is less about individual channels or tactics and more about understanding where these things—and this person—fit into the bigger picture of the business and its marketing strategy.

Many companies make the same mistake when hiring a marketer.

Time and time again, I see marketing hiring decisions happening at the wrong level. A great marketing department has a balance of strategic leadership and talented execution, but so often, companies will hire only executors (who can get things done but often lack strategic vision) or only strategists (who can build plans but might struggle or be reluctant to execute them).

To understand what a great candidate looks like and what to look for in the hiring pool, it’s important to first get clear on the scope of the role. Here are some questions to ask yourself when developing a job description.

What is the role, and what are the responsibilities?

Do you need someone who can execute a strategy or develop one for others to follow? Do you need a broad generalist who can handle a range of marketing activities or a specialist with a deep understanding of a certain channel or marketing application?

Understanding where the role fits on these two spectrums will help you assess the skills and experience that they might need.

Do you need someone full-time, part-time or fractional?

How much of a resource do you need, and how much budget do you have? Are your expectations fair for one person in terms of what will be on their plate and the depth or breadth of expertise you expect them to have?

When budget is a major factor, business leaders often look to internships or junior hires as the answer. But if the upcoming hire will be your only marketing resource, bringing on a more senior marketer on a part-time or fractional basis might be a better solution in terms of experience and cost.

When considering a fractional hire, make sure their experience is relevant. If your company is B2B, hiring someone with only a B2C background might not be the best fit. Likewise, if this marketer only has experience working with large brands and your business is smaller, you might want to seek out someone who can meet you where you’re at and make the most of a limited budget. Additionally, when hiring a marketer fractionally:

• Determine how ready you are to delegate. If you’d like to truly get marketing off your plate, you’ll have to place your trust in a fractional hire in order to do so. In this situation, hiring someone more senior is often the best move. If you’d still like to maintain a high degree of oversight over your hire, understand that this will demand more of your time and energy.

• Look for someone with a strategic mindset. Someone who understands the role of marketing within your business, rather than someone who just executes marketing tasks for the sake of it, will help you move the needle on what really matters. To get a sense of this when hiring, ask questions about what marketing activities they might propose and why.

What seniority level do you need?

For marketing to truly drive growth, it needs executive-level involvement. Without being tied to business objectives and given visibility into the vision and strategy of the broader company, marketing efforts typically end up siloed and fail to move the needle.

Ideally, this would mean hiring a marketer at a senior level, like a CMO, who can contribute to business decisions rather than just executing them. If this isn’t possible on an ongoing basis, having a consultant set or audit your strategy can be a great option.

A rule of thumb: Anyone working at the level of a marketing manager or below will usually need a strategy in place to ensure marketing aligns with the company’s vision and revenue goals.

What is the reporting structure?

Who will this person report to? How much mentorship, support or oversight will they require? I’ve seen many CEOs in the weeds and unable to delegate marketing because they hire someone who requires more supervision than they might have anticipated. If you have a lean team, hiring a marketer on a fractional basis or at a more senior level can alleviate this.

What about soft skills?

Soft skills are harder to define but no less important. Ask yourself what characteristics they might need to be successful based on:

• The nature of your organization or industry

• Who this person will be working with

• What their day-to-day work might look like

In general, a strong marketer has good written and verbal communication skills, can work both independently and with a team and is highly organized. Depending on the role, you might also look for someone who is analytical and data-fluent, or creative with a penchant for writing or design.

Strategic and critical thinking are valuable no matter the level of seniority, as is empathy, as marketing is all about connecting with an audience by understanding their needs and motivations.

Ultimately, every marketing hiring decision will benefit from foresight, planning and an awareness of where this individual will fit into the department and your company. Setting this person up for success, both in terms of their career and your organization, requires having clear and reasonable expectations of how marketing fits into larger business goals—and putting the strategy and structure in place for them to achieve them.

This article was originally published here.