skip to Main Content

How To Hire Marketing Staff

How To Hire Marketing Staff
Post Series: How to Hire

Sourcing the best staff to lead or be a member of your marketing team requires putting many moving parts into place. Hiring marketing team members can be costly and time-consuming if you don’t get it right, and poor hiring can leave your company lacking the experience and skills it needs to successfully implement its marketing plans and marketing strategy.

Download Job Advert Template

However, by following the proper steps, you can implement a marketing recruitment process that will see you hiring good marketers or marketing managers on time and within budget. Harness effective recruitment solutions appropriate to your business, and you can tap into the resources you need to make a marketing hire that will help develop your growth strategy.

In this step by step guide, we lay out the steps to hiring a successful marketing team, including:

  • Preparing To Recruit Marketing Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page
  • Writing A Marketing Person Job Description & Job Advert
  • How To Hire All Marketing Staff
  • Advertising Your Marketing Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards
  • Reducing Marketing Team Hiring Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS
  • Screening Marketing Candidates & Conducting Interviews
  • Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Marketing Hires

Preparing To Recruit Marketing Staff: Your Employer Brand & Company Careers Page

How To Recruit Marketing Staff

Before you begin to advertise externally for a marketing person or marketing manager, you should review your existing candidate touchpoints to ensure you are promoting a positive employer brand. You ultimately only secure the best candidates if you show that you are a highly desirable employer. Remember, the best marketing managers and marketing staff are seeking more than just a pay cheque.

It would help if you considered how you portray your company culture, company values, and your company’s own success, along with other elements such as employee training and career development. In our Guide On How To Hire, we delve deeper into topics such as Why Should SMEs Build An Employer Brand and What Should Be On A Company Careers Page.

Writing A Marketing Person Job Description & Job Advert

Writing A Marketing Person Job Description

Writing an effective job description and job advert for your marketing department is only possible if you speak to key decision makers in the hiring process, including the position’s line manager:

Marketing Job Descriptions

Writing a marketing job description will help a hiring manager speed up the hiring process. The best practice is to have one on file for all positions, which can quickly be updated and used to create the job posting whenever recruitment needs arise.

Download Job Advert Template

For SEO, it is best to use keywords and phrases that job seekers might search for in a search engine. It should have a clear message to attract the most suitable marketing candidates. It also helps to refrain from using too much industry jargon and excessive punctuation.

When writing job descriptions for a marketing role, consider:

  1. Identifying and outlining typical company-wide requirements
  2. Collating today’s minimum marketing skills, qualifications, and experience
  3. Reviewing what your competitors are saying in their job descriptions
  4. What your new team member should look like
  5. How you want your brand to be perceived

Our Job Description Templates can help you get started; we appreciate writing this content can be challenging. You can discover the most popular Marketing Job Descriptions here.

Further useful resources include How To Define What People Do In Their JobsPreparing Job Descriptions, and Key Roles And Responsibilities In Marketing.

Marketing Job Adverts

Your marketing person job descriptions form the basis of your job ad. There are other elements to add to attract the best talent, so ensure your job ad includes:

  1. An accurate job title – examples include marketing manager, paid marketing executive, brand strategy expert, market research professional, data analysis expert, blog content writer, email marketing professional, and product marketing expert
  2. An opening statement – saying why marketing candidates will want to work for your business
  3. The job’s description
  4. A list of responsibilities – such as email marketing, introducing fresh ideas, developing organic campaigns, managing paid ads, lead generation, team management, social media strategy development, running marketing campaigns, influencer marketing, implementing marketing strategies, digital marketing, and working within a marketing budget
  5. Qualifications, personality traits and preferred marketing skills, including soft skills and hard skills – such as a digital marketing degree, a proven track record, hands on experience managing digital channels, or proficiency with Google Ads, content marketing, and marketing tools
  6. Job location – does your marketing team work in an office or do you support remote workers?
  7. Pay range and benefits – check the average salary for a good marketing manager or content team professional here
  8. Next steps – potential candidates should email xxx

You can use a job advert template to get down the basics and fill in the more unique aspects of your company, its marketing efforts, business goals, the position, and what the best candidates will look like.

How To Hire All Marketing Jobs

HOW TO HIRE A MARKETING MANAGER

To hire a Marketing Manager, your job ad should begin by defining your company brand, size, and team. You can ask candidates to apply if they have extensive marketing experience or prior leadership experience, with expertise in leading projects and managing employees.

To secure a successful candidate match, include the role’s vital responsibilities, such as directing marketing team members and steering advertising campaign development and implementation.

Marketing Manager Job Description Example

Post A Marketing Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

To hire a Social Media Manager, start by describing your company, services, products, and online community. Must-have experience includes content management, written and verbal communication, and creativity.

To attract a social media manager, expand upon duties such as writing posts and assessing the response, replying to the reader’s comments, collaborating with the design and sales team, and ensuring a consistent brand voice.

Social Media Manager Job Description Example

Post A Social Media Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE A COPYWRITER

To hire a Copywriter, clarify if the position is within a regular business or for an SEO or marketing agency. It will help to secure the right individual if you describe the products, services, or clients. 

Enticing a good copywriting requires a good job description covering duties such as formulating content ideas, researching products and trends, engaging readers, and ensuring all content aligns with writing best practices and SEO standards.

Copywriter Job Description Example

Post A Copywriter Job

HOW TO HIRE A CREATIVE DIRECTOR

To hire a Creative Director, describe your marketing department, the services provided, and the team to oversee. Writing a candidate profile will help you attract suitable candidates and can include skills such as innovation, strategic thinking, and print and digital marketing proficiency.

Job duties that allure creative directors include collaborating on projects with graphic design teams, leading the creative department or group, and stimulating the company’s business growth strategy.

Creative Director Job Description Example

Post A Creative Director Job

HOW TO HIRE A MARKETING ASSISTANT

To hire a Marketing Assistant, create a unique text that covers your company culture, vision, team makeup, and career opportunities. Top-required skills include organisation, communication, attention to detail, and team-working.

To attract qualified applicants, include responsibilities such as providing input for creative marketing material design and increasing market share by implementing brand strategies.

Marketing Assistant Job Description Example

Post A Marketing Assistant Job

HOW TO HIRE A MARKETING PROFESSIONAL

To hire a Marketing Professional, you can leverage regular and marketing job boards, including links to your careers page and social media channels. A person specification can be used to qualify applicants and might include SEO best practices knowledge, creativity, teamwork, and commercial awareness.

Job tasks that entice applicants include analysing large data sets, researching new markets and trends, following the direction of the marketing manager, and working to client briefs.

Marketing Job Description Example

Post A Marketing Job

HOW TO HIRE A BRAND MANAGER

To hire a Brand Manager, briefly lay out your company story, including its products and target market. Highlight valuable sales or marketing skills and any preferred qualifications.

Elements of the role that encourage candidates to apply include building value and awareness of the brand, spotting trends, conducting research, planning campaigns, and measuring campaign success. 

Brand Manager Job Description Example

Post A Brand Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE AN EVENT MANAGER

To hire an Event Manager, begin by describing your business and the types of promotional events or conferences the marketing hire will oversee. A link to your company’s career page and social media accounts will help event managers discover more.

You can entice applicants by defining the role’s duties, such as negotiating prices with vendors, planning events following company or client briefs, and overseeing the delivery of event services.

Event Manager Job Description Example

Post An Event Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE A DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

To hire a Digital Marketing Manager, create a job text that clarifies where you advertise your business online, your audience type, objective, goals, and targets. Promote your employee benefits, such as full or partial remote working and average salary, to encourage applications from qualified candidates.

Download Job Advert Template

List the most attractive duties, including overseeing the implementation of digital marketing campaigns, developing growth strategies, directing social media channel activity, and increasing audience reach.

Digital Marketing Manager Job Description Example

Post A Digital Marketing Manager Job

HOW TO HIRE A MARKETING EXECUTIVE

To hire a Marketing Executive, it will help to define your services or products, target market, vision, and goals. Create a person profile including must-have skills, education, and work experience.

The most appealing parts of the role include overseeing the marketing budget, spotting new market trends, and encouraging sales through advertising and marketing campaigns.

Marketing Executive Job Description Example

Post A Marketing Executive Job

Advertising Your Marketing Positions: Referral Schemes, Social Media, & Job Boards

Advertising For The Ideal Candidate

With your job ad in hand, you are ready to find and hire a marketing candidate. Your recruitment strategy might include posting your advert:

Internally (Employee Referral Schemes)

A non-incentivised or incentivised employee referral scheme is extremely valuable when you want to hire a marketing team. You will turn your existing staff into motivated recruiters, sharing that you need to hire a marketing person across their social and professional networks.

Staff referral schemes often bring in the best candidates who can help a fully developed or growing business. Your team’s connections will include like-minded professionals and marketing industry contacts. To engage this recruitment strategy, share your job descriptions with your team and reward referrals.

You can explore referral schemes further by reading Introducing An Employee Referral Scheme.

On Social Media

Hiring a digital marketing team or marketing manager through social media is effective, with free and paid advertising options. Ensuring your social media messaging is consistent with your employer brand and conveys a positive image is crucial. An active social media channel is helpful if you want to build a community of potential talent, just waiting for an opportunity to join your company or marketing agency. Recommended activity includes posting news, updates, expert opinions, and industry insights.

Our tips and advice for implementing a successful social media hiring strategy include:

  • Marketing yourself first
  • Joining industry groups and networks
  • Engaging with respondents and nurturing discussions
  • Using advanced search tools and Recruiter Lite on LinkedIn
  • Using Twitter’s advanced search tool and direct messaging
  • Building activity on your company’s Facebook page and encouraging staff engagement, turning them into employer advocates

We explore how to hire a marketing manager or team through social media further in our articles Social Media Hiring Strategies For SMEs and Job Advertising On Social Media.

On Job Boards

If you want to hire a marketing expert in an acceptable timeframe, advertising on job boards is essential. You can post a job advert on one job board, or many using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Job board resellers help you advertise your marketing job across multiple general, niche, and geographical job boards using their integrated ATS software, minimising the hassle and time of developing leads to hire the right candidates.

Leading General Job Boards:

Niche Marketing Industry Job Sites:

Aggregator Job Sites:

Geographical Job Sites:

You can advertise your marketing job on these job boards today.

Reducing Marketing Team Hiring Costs And Time: Recruitment Companies & ATS

Reducing Hiring Costs Of Marketing Managers And Employees

Budgets, deadlines, and administration require careful consideration whenever you instigate the hiring process. To get the best results, you may decide to work with recruitment companies with a UK wide focus, a global recruitment partner, or a niche recruitment company.

Download Job Advert Template

We discuss agency fees and recruiters in these two articles; How To Avoid High Recruitment Agency Fees and The Pros And Cons Of Having A Recruiter On Retainer.

Fixed Cost Recruitment

Fixed-cost recruitment allows you to hire at a flat fee governed by the level of service and functionality you desire.

The success of fixed-cost recruitment depends on the company offering the service, the methodologies they deploy, and their expertise and knowledge of your industry or business sector. You will need to determine which actions you need assistance with to use flat-fee recruitment successfully.

Four steps to leveraging fixed cost recruitment when hiring marketing staff:

  1. Place ads across leading job boards
  2. Search CV databases and social media channels
  3. Headhunt and shortlist marketing applicants
  4. Receive interviewed and qualified candidates

Useful resources:

Applicant Tracking Systems

Automatic Tracking Systems can significantly reduce the costs of recruitment by creating efficiency. Candidate, vacancy, and job advert management fall within the software’s parameters.

Team access creates a unified place to work, helping you build a seamless hiring process and candidate experience.

Five steps to centralising recruitment with ATS:

  1. Find digital marketing and content marketing staff online
  2. Push and pull data from the software
  3. Review candidate scores
  4. Distribute personalised messages to a large candidate pool
  5. Automate responses
  6. Direct candidates to application forms

To explore all the features and benefits of Automatic Tracking Systems, read Centralising Recruitment With ATS.

Screening Marketing Candidates & Conducting Interviews

Screening And Interviewing Marketing Strategy And Content Marketing Staff

Before your interview process commences, you need to shortlist talent by reviewing their CVs. Indications that you have a marketing pros worth interviewing include:

  • Quantifiable evidence of past achievements, such as successful marketing campaigns resulting in business growth
  • The candidate has steady career progression
  • The individual is not job-hopping
  • The CV is free from spelling and grammatical errors
  • The applicant has the relevant experience and skills to meet the job and business needs

Decision-makers and hiring managers need to be prepared to deliver a consistent interview experience. Ensure that anyone who has candidate contact is on the same page and understands the brand’s vision, values and opportunities. Interviews should be challenging, supportive, engaging, and positive.

Video interviews are an increasingly popular recruitment solution, saving on resources and speeding up the recruitment and interview process. Video sharing, shortlisting, and feedback from hiring and line managers ultimately generate more successful outcomes. If you haven’t conducted a video interview before, read How To Conduct A Remote Interview to gain a basic understanding.

Our article Defining Your Interview Process, discusses interview questions, avoiding unconscious bias, and interviewing tips.

Presenting A Job Offer & Onboarding Marketing Hires

The Essential Elements Of Presenting A Job Offer

Once you believe you have the right person for your marketing job, you will need to present a job offer and onboard your new hire:

Making A Job Offer

The process of presenting the job offer to a marketing manager or team member varies depending on what has occurred before. If you don’t already understand the candidate’s current earnings, expectations are better managed over the phone. Phone offers should be confident but be prepared to make changes if the individual’s circumstances have changed. Reaffirm that the candidate is happy with the offer, clarify their acceptance, and proceed to a formal written offer.

A formal offer letter can be conditional or unconditional and should include:

  • Job title
  • Candidate name
  • Your conditions – i.e., this offer is made subject to…
  • Official start date, time, and location
  • Probationary period
  • Offer terms
  • Candidate actions and acceptance instructions – i.e., signed copy of job offer
  • Terms and conditions of employment (issued within two months of the start date)

You can read further on Presenting A Job Offer here.

Onboarding Marketing Staff

The onboarding process should support individuals as they become part of your marketing team and begin to work on your marketing strategy or marketing campaign.

When you hire a marketing professional, your onboarding steps might include:

  • Creating an employer identification number
  • Presenting the new hire with an employee handbook
  • An office tour, introducing the person to their marketing manager, team, and senior executives
  • Informing the person of the communication methods and company software to use in the new role
  • Presenting clear marketing responsibilities and duties
  • Defining new role expectations, standards, and performance indicators
  • Gathering feedback from new hires

Hiring Marketing Staff FAQs

Here we answer your questions on hiring staff to meet your marketing needs as your business grows.

What are the job titles within marketing?

Job titles for staff handling the marketing processes include:

1. Marketing Manager
2. Digital Marketing Executive
3. Digital Marketing Campaigns Manager
4. Marketing Agency Executive
5. Marketing Strategy Advisor
6. Google Ads Manager
7. Product Marketing Manager
8. Digital Marketing Manager
9. Public Relationship Manager
10. Brand Strategy Manager

What are marketing staff responsibilities?

Responsibilities of a marketing manager or individual include:

1. Overseeing inbound and outbound marketing
2. Managing vendors and paid ads
3. Email and print marketing
4. Writing social media posts, blogs, and page content
5. Leveraging Google Ads and Google Analytics
6. Creating competitions and giveaways
7. Developing the brand image
8. Planning marketing events
9. Conducting consumer research
10. Liaising and supporting sales teams

How To Hire Staff In Different Sectors

Find our recruitment guides for different sectors below:

All Marketing Job Descriptions

Post All Marketing Jobs

Back To Top