Category: Marketing

How to Hire a Great Marketing Person

I got this question asked and figured others might be curious on how I do it.

The challenge about marketing output is that it’s not always numbers based and the ROI isn’t immediate. With that being said I think it can be and here’s how I would solve how to find and how to know if someone is good.

How to find?

  • Look for advertising, marketing tactics or things you like and look backwards to see which marketer did them.
  • Look back into your own community / customers / users to see if there is anyone who gets it. I find this most helpful.
  • Look at specific companies you admire and check LinkedIn for their marketing folks.

Those have been my best ways of finding marketing people. Word of caution: most marketers suck.

How to know if they are good?

  • They Love your product. I did at Mint so marketing was easy.
  • Objective based. Easiest way to test someone on marketing is give them a challenge and see if they ask whats the objective. Most will just start rambling bullshit or ideas. Others will start with what do we want this to accomplish. I like them.
  • Metrics. I personally like people that can quantify and prove what they are doing is backing out to numbers.
  • Personality. This is general but just want to say it.
  • Relevance. If they are already in your industry it’s a bonus cause they’ll have the connections, it’s ideal, not required.

Here’s a test I gave someone to help run AppSumo, has a few marketing related questions and ideas to see how people think through things.

One of my fav questions for marketing is just giving them limited budget questions and a # of people to reach. See what they come up with, hear their thought process and if they provide #s related to their decisions.

Hope this helps.

No related posts.

Want More? Get new articles via email:

people read Okdork everyday!

10 Responses to “How to Hire a Great Marketing Person”

  • David
    January 19th, 2011
    1:39 pm

    I would add to “how to hire a marketing person”: Do it in person. Sure, find them through the various means mentioned above, but forget about the resume. You’ll get more out of a conversation than you will from a resume any day. Plus, if they are a marketer, they’ll likely (hopefully/should/don’t bother if they don’t) have more than just a resume to show you… a blog(s), company websites, twitter feed, projects, etc. Plus you’ll get a better sense of their attitude and passion for what they do.

    Love the quiz. I’m STILL thinking about the $1000 to reach 100K people. Hmmmm….

    Thanks Noah.

  • Josh
    January 20th, 2011
    9:31 am

    Any advice on how to test if someone is right for your brand? ie a marketer who is helping maximize different components of a marketing strategy versus a marketer who wants to weave themselves within the brand and help push the company in general. While both can help achieve desired ends, the latter I feel would be more ideal.

  • Sharel
    April 13th, 2011
    5:11 am

    Gr8 analysis…
    I loved the part of “They Love your product” i think its a key metric for anyone in the company.. especially marketing :)

    Thanks,
    Sharel

  • 5 Top Marketing Blogs by Entrepreneurs | Scripting4U Blog
    April 14th, 2011
    7:26 pm

    [...] How to Hire a Great Marketing Person [...]

  • Web_Man
    April 14th, 2011
    10:17 pm

    In the ways of finding if a marketer sucks or not, you mentioned Personality, I have a question. What kind of personality is good for marketer? Specifically extroversion and introversion? Personally I believe introversion is little bit better since: 1. I am a introversion, 2. They tend to good at Objective based and know how to dig in Metrics.
    What do you think?
    Thanks for the good advise!

  • Paul McArdle
    April 16th, 2011
    4:54 am

    Hi Noah,

    Thanks for these notes.

    Will refer to these, and other notes, when we start the process for hiring our GM for Identifying & Attracting Clients, and meeting their Needs.

    In a late response to Josh’s comment, I’ve learnt the hard way (i.e. wrong people on the bus) that a “right fit” needs to include all of the above:
    1) Alignment with Mission, Vision & Values.
    2) Compatible temperament (in terms of how they like to work) – hence alignment with culture
    3) Ability.

    To do this more effectively, we’re evolving a series of tests, conversations and other methods all aimed to provide a richer set of data from which to select the best candidate.

    Paul

  • Richwell Phinias
    June 7th, 2011
    1:56 am

    insightful. great advise. there is nothing as bad and demotivating as realizing three months down the line that you hired the wrong person. especially when you are launching a new product and you are using venture funds!!!!

  • Planning a Startup Launch? Here's Your Reading List
    September 9th, 2011
    9:11 am

    [...] 2010 Growth (Bostinnovation.com)How I Grew a Waiting List of 20,000 at Mint.com (Noah Kagan)How to Hire a Great Marketing Person (Noah Kagan)How to Signup Users Before You Launch Your Startup (Mashable)How to Get Your First [...]

  • Planning a Startup Launch? Here’s Your Reading List | Tech Start Hub
    October 5th, 2011
    8:59 am

    [...] How to Hire a Great Marketing Person (Noah Kagan) [...]

  • Sandy Albaytar
    November 5th, 2011
    9:24 am

    Whew… Thanks for the great insights. The opening certainly hooked me. This is definitely a morale boost for marketers who are working to death and are yet to see the fruits of their labor – which will take time. Sometimes it’s hard to decide whether to hold on to a strategy when things (numbers, ROI, etc.) don’t happen in an instant. Thanks for the great tips!

Leave a Reply




Additional comments powered by BackType

Most Popular Posts...EVER!

    will brb.

Noah.licio.us

May's Top Commenters