We have previously discussed the best strategies to recruit, select and train best sales employees – If you have been with us until now we trust you have successfully hired your star-studded sales team, your business is making traction, and you’re starting to look for the next step forward asking yourself “should I hire a marketing person”. Before Hiring A Marketer there are some important questions you must address….
The tech sector and SaaS industry are absolutely booming at the moment. You don’t need to look far to find innovative Saas businesses making waves in the industry, but for all the excitement and opportunity in the air, there is vast competitiveness. If you want to stand out from the crowd and be the next big thing in Saas, Savvy marketing might be the answer. Like anything, it’s important not to jump in the deep end without first doing your research. Poor marketing can be just as detrimental to your business as no marketing at all. Here are some questions you should ask yourself before hiring a marketer …
Do I actually need to hire a Marketing professional?
Starting a SaaS business can be difficult; you need to make sure that all departments or parts get adequate funding. Whatever your background, you’ve probably been the one trying to spread the word about your SaaS business at some point. The key to becoming an overseer is learning when to let go of the reins, as you will need to do in every aspect of your business.
*Marketing is for businesses of all sizes and stages.*
If you can answer these questions efficiently and confidently perhaps you’re more than capable of executing the marketing activities, if not then hiring a marketer will indeed be necessary;
- Would you be able to develop marketing strategies with clear objectives, action plans, and analysis?
- Which marketing tactics are right for your business? Do you know enough about them? e.g. content marketing, PPC, social media.
- Are you familiar with the different steps of marketing funnels? How do you market to different stages?
- Is it possible for you to stay updated on current best practices?
- Which marketing automation system is the best for my business? Do I have a sufficient understanding of marketing automation?
What skills should I look for when hiring a marketer?
If marketing is still new to you might be wondering what skills, traits, and qualities you should be looking for in your marketing professional. If the candidate ticks all these boxes, you might just have a keeper…..
1. Initiative: Your employees doing exactly what you ask is a great thing. It’s even better if they spot an issue on their own and come up with a solution.
2. Creativity & Innovation: What new ideas do they have? Have they kept up with current technologies, platforms, and trends? Are they artistically creative, creative problem solvers, or both?
3. Data-Driven: Google Analytics, email metrics, HubSpot, etc. They must be able to identify, manipulate, and understand data when using any of these marketing tools. Data analysis is an important aspect of any business, focus, and skill in this area can go a long way towards aligning your sales & marketing departments.
4. Legal Grounding: As the industry around big data grows at an ever alarming rate, it’s critical to be aware of privacy laws and GDPR. Mishandling data and being on the receiving end of a lawsuit can destroy a business.
5. Social Media Savvy: An understanding of the various platforms and their business applications is essential. Who is your target audience? Where do they go? How do they access it? On a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet? Do they know how to track it? Awareness and familiarity with common social media analytics tools will be essential.
6. Curiosity & Passion: A natural curiosity, passion, and love for the work will be the difference between people who succeed and thrive in a rapidly changing business environment, and those who just get by. Do they approach new tools and challenges like with the awe and wonder of a child with a new toy?
What are your marketing goals, objectives & budget?
Before hiring a marketer It’s important to relate your marketing goals to your business goals. What is the number of leads you must generate to achieve a specific revenue target? Are you using the right strategy to generate those leads?
Then, once your goals have been established and you know how to achieve them, you must determine whether you have a sufficient budget to realize your strategy. You might be asking what is the cost to hire a marketing consultant, there is no straightforward answer to this as it will depend on your organisation’s needs and the level of experience you expect, your Budget will ultimately determine how many new hires you can take on.
How does your company culture adapt to the use of systems?
It should go without saying – but a lot of time, effort, and headaches can be saved by nailing marketing basics before recruiting a professional. Even having a simple, functioning website in place and working knowledge and implementation of software such as a CRM can speed up.
CRM software usually takes the form of a cloud-based service – its function is to strategize how companies manage interactions with customers and potential leads. Organizations benefit from CRM by streamlining processes, building customer relationships, increasing sales, improving customer service, and enhancing profits. Although all CRM’s have shared functions research should be done before deciding on the right CRM for your business.
Entire books have been written on web development, the subject far outstretches the scope of this article. You don’t need to be an expert web developer to create a functioning website. Having a basic understanding of the following topics should be an excellent jumping-off point for your studies!;
Content Quality: Is your content too thin? Do you have duplicate or orphaned pages?
SEO: Has your website been optimised for search engines? Is your keyword strategy working, are you keyword stuffing?
Linking: Internal/External/Linking – learn the differences and implement accordingly!
Images: Are they compressed and do they have alt attributes?
UI/UX: Is your site well laid providing a good user experience? Will design elements adapt to different devices?
This only the tip of the iceberg but if you understand these topics you’ll be off to a good start. There are many tools, free and paid, which you can use to optimize your site; Our top pick for dealing with a range of issues is the marvelous (and FREE!) Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
Should I hire internally or outsource talent acquisition?
You’ve decided you want to up your game by hiring A Marketer, great! So, should you hire a marketing agency or hire marketing freelancers? Outsourcing marketing activities to an agency has its place, this can often be the ideal route for small-scale, short-term campaigns.
In our humble opinion, serious business looking to develop a Saas marketing strategy for the long term should not outsource their marketing. An agency will have many clients and will in no way be able to commit themselves to your organisation’s brand and image the way an in-house Saas marketer would.
If your Saas Marketing plan needs a dedicated in-house professional then the next step will be deciding to hire in-house or outsource talent acquisition to a recruitment agency. Both have their perks; what’s best for you and your organisation will largely depend on your goals, objectives, and budget. For those unfamiliar with the best hiring practices outsourcing talent can often be the best option. As well as being cost-effective, outsourcing talent acquisition gives you access to a unique pool of candidates. Research also suggests an increase in employee retention rates can be among the many benefits of outsourcing talent acquisition.
If you want help from the experts to hire a marketing professional reach out and Find Hiring Solutions for your business today! Since 2015, Ingenio has been providing SaaS staffing for top technology companies. Our experts at Ingenio are passionate about finding and placing Saas staff, so we remain at the forefront of innovative recruiting approaches.
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Written by James Coffey
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