Question for all my marketing peeps out there:
How many of you have ever read a job description or applied for a marketing job that listed these as required areas of expertise?
1. Marketing Strategy
2. Data Analytics (Google Analytics Certified)
3. Design - Adobe (Photoshop & InDesign)
4. Photography and Videography
5. Web development basics - HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, and Drupal preferred.
6. Writing (Please submit 12 -15 examples)
7. Social Media (must be an influencer with 15K followers minimum)
8. Paid media buyer and analyst (working with budgets and monitoring spend from 12 am to 4 am, 7 days a week)
9. Must have a good attitude, willingness to work hard, and entrepreneur spirit.
10. Oh and it would help if you could help bake - our owner likes cookies.
Okay, maybe I went a little too far with the last one, but you get my point ;)
To all my #smallbusinessowners out there. PLEASE, I'm begging you, stop doing this!
If you want a winning marketing team, don't ask one person to possess all of the skills that a 15 person agency has. I know your budgets are small. I know you need someone that has lots of skill and lots of drive, but this is not only unrealistic, you're setting yourself and them up for failure!
In a book published by Gallup called "Strengths Finder 2.0", the author Tom Rath states,
"If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything."
He goes on to say, "It appears that the epidemic of active disengagement we see in workplaces every day could be a curable disease…if we can help the people around us develop their strengths."
Letting the person you hire on your marketing team be truly good at the part of their job that they've trained for in college, in internships, at previous jobs is essential to success in all avenues. So now it begs the question, what do you do instead of looking for a Super Women (or man) marketer? Here are just a couple of suggestions:
Alternatives
Grow slow - focus on one marketing goal for one year and hire for that position. If your company continues to grow under your guidance, next year, hire another position that helps you accomplish your goal.
Hire an agency - yep they can be expensive, but they know their shit and they have all that you need under one roof. Do your homework, create a partnership with them (don't just be a vendor) and you'll know they have your best interests at heart all along the way.
Hire contractors - if you have one or two people on your marketing team, but would really like to step up your photography and videography game on social, hire a photographer or videographer. Use platforms like UpWork or Fiverr or reach out to your network and ask for someone that does this on the side. These people you know you'll be able to trust.
Good luck out there and now go take down or modify that job description to be specific to your marketing goals!
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash