What’s the difference between a great company that outperforms the market and an average company? Great products, services, strategies and execution … and your employees are responsible for those successes. A company can accomplish far more with a strong team in place than it can with an average team.

Recruiting a marketing manager or team is an essential element of building an effective marketing department. And like marketing, recruiting is both an art and a science:

• Art: getting to know a candidate to understand whether s/he is the best fit for the job
• Science: defining detailed job requirements so you can search for the right candidates; conducting a wide search; using a process for moving candidates through the process; measuring results

It’s time-consuming to recruit marketers, sales reps, telemarketers and account managers. Yet these positions are the heart of your success, so give your recruiting efforts the time they deserve.

Recruiting for Marketing Key Concepts & steps

Before you begin

You may need to recruit to meet a variety of goals: grow your sales team, hire a business development executive, create an account management team, build a telemarketing operation, or add resources to another area of your company. Strive to recruit the best employees for all areas of your business at all times.

Define the position

• Evaluate the job responsibilities; prioritize the skills and experience your candidates will need.
• Develop specific criteria you’ll use to evaluate your candidates.

Write a compelling ad

• A good ad inspires qualified candidates to apply for the position. It needs to stand out among the ads they’ll be reviewing, and it needs to convey credibility, your brand and message.
• Think of your ad as a sales pitch to a prospect and write it carefully with your applicant in mind.

Cast a wide net

• Referrals are a great source for qualified candidates. Encourage everyone in your company to contact vendors, customers, friends and family about open positions. Create a job description they can pass around.
• Advertise in appropriate publications and websites. If you’re concerned about cost, measure your cost per applicant and per hire, then use the best-performing sources the next time around.
• If you’re not finding qualified candidates, keep investing … don’t settle for mediocre applicants just because you don’t want to spend more money looking.
• If you’re doing a lot of hiring, make sure to post open jobs on your website and include content that speaks to applicants. Good candidates will look at your site to learn about the company.

Follow your process

• Create a process and follow it: Resume review, phone screen, interview, maybe a second interview, reference check, offer. A good process saves time — for example, don’t invite a candidate for live interviews if you haven’t done a good phone screen; you may find that they’re not a good fit during the phone call.
• Respect the time and talent of all your candidates. Thank them for interviewing and let them know when you’ve extended an offer to someone else. You never know when you’ll cross paths again.

After Recruiting a Marketing Manager or Team

After you bring aboard new marketing and sales employees, make sure they understand your competitive positioning, brand strategy and messaging so they can deliver on those strategies every day.