“ I can’t hire the right marketing people nor can I hire them quickly enough” is a key problem for Marketing & Product Marketing leaders, and for many across the SaaS and software community. If you're wondering how to a hire marketing manager or director, read on.
Optimyze1 can help with your urgent hiring needs whilst you focus on what you do best: taking care of business. The amount of time taken away from key business and spent on countless interviews talking to the wrong people, could cost your business thousands in delayed projects or excessive freelance fees to short-term marketeers.
What should you consider to speed up hiring for your marketing roles?
Prepare in advance for your Marketing needs
Pre-empt when you may need your new marketing manager onboard, to ensure you’re not rushing through the process. Understand in advance when you may need this person to join your software business. This will enable you to spend adequate time assessing the talent pool and properly conduct your analysis of whom to hire for your key marketing position.
Ensure that you determine the key job prerequisites in advance for example you should consider the following
Determining the key “mission” and 6-12-18-24 month goals for the new Marketing hire
Types of marketing activities the person should be responsible - digital marketing, content marketing, offline marketing, field marketing etc
Whether they need to be more hands-on and tactical or more strategic, or a mixture of both
Create a scoring system, ensure you understand which key skills are weighted more and why, and ensure to test these throughout the process
Training your interviewers - what doesn’t get asked isn’t measured, ensure you know what questions are being asked by whom.
Determine the split between behavioral interviews and case-study interviews, and the purpose of each - what are you trying to understand from each stage of the process?
Be Flexible and Make Time for Hiring for your Marketing team
Block out time in people’s diaries dedicated to interviewing marketing talent. Ensure this is a priority whilst you have open roles in your software organization. The last thing you want is to identify a fantastic candidate and not be available to interview them that same week.
Having dedicated recruiting time set aside means you will go through the interviews quickly, compare a few candidates at the same time and be able to make a decision quickly. In the war for talent, understanding whom you want and making decisions fast means you will beat your competition.
Furthermore, just because you’ve only interviewed 2 relevant candidates who fit the bill, doesn’t mean you should spend endless time interviewing many more.
At any one time, there is only a limited pool of candidates who a) fit your organization b) are interested in your company c) are within the budget for the salary range d) are available in your region. If someone fits your criteria, make a decision quickly and efficiently.
Have High Standards but Allow for Flexibility
You may have some ideas on what kind of candidate you need for your start-up, and you should definitely focus on those attributes, however, throughout the recruitment process for your marketing hire you may come across someone that doesn't fit all the requirements but could make a great addition to the team. If you are flexible on one or two requirements, you will have a larger pool of candidates, more options to interview and you get a better sense of the marketing talent out there, and you can form an opinion on who you do and don't want.
Remember, saying that you want someone with 10 years of marketing experience on your job description doesn't mean you should discard those with only 9 years' of marketing experience, especially if the candidate fits other criteria or can bring value to your team.
Interviewing Marketing Talent
Understand all the factors when it comes to interviews. Who is responsible for interviewing, what topic are they assessing, who is part of the hiring committee, who makes the ultimate decision, and when, where and how you will run the process.
Ensure these are planned out in advance so you can manage expectations of the candidate
Be realistic about what data points, indicators, skills and behaviours you can test in the process. The process should be two-sided - one that challenges the candidate but also allows you an opportunity to really showcase your company’s culture, mission, product and career opportunity. Ensure you don’t forget that you should invest the time and be deliberate about the candidate experience of your marketing hire.
Businesses that ensure they have a consistent, challenging but informative process increase their offer acceptance rate for marketing candidates.
Over communicate to your marketing candidates
Delays do happen in recruiting processes, managing expectations is key.
If you’ve done steps 1-4, this part should be easy. Once you’ve defined the recruitment process for your marketing hire, ensure you communicate this to candidates so they know what to expect. Your marketing candidates want to hear back as soon as possible, which is understandable. However, make sure you’re agile and communicative if there are any delays. Manage their expectations well with any new timings, so they’re not left wondering if the process is finished or if you’ve made a decision. Lastly, make sure you don’t “ghost” your candidates as this is a bad candidate experience and can impact your employer brand negatively. Candidates will talk to others about their negative experience if you don’t respect their time or communicate with them on a regular basis.
Pre-close your marketing talent with competitive offers
All the above make up the ‘candidate experience’ and the more positive the candidate experience is, the more likely they are going to accept your offer. It’s best to set expectations about the start regarding the potential offer or salary range to ensure candidates know what to expect.
We can help
As a technology-first search & selection firm, we pride ourselves on our knowledge of the industries and sectors we cover. We understand the market, your requirements, and your pain points, to help you find solutions to fit and solve them when it comes to Marketing & Product Marketing.
We have the insight and access to thought leaders who are always able to support businesses like yours on the Marketing & Product Marketing journey. Whether it’s advice on salary, resource planning, choosing the most effective solutions, DEI initiatives, and coaching and training, we are here to be your business partner of choice. Contact us
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