What types of marketers exist today, and how do we assess the relevant competencies of a specialist during the interview stage?
The primary challenge in the job market is finding developers, on whom the successful creation of a product depends. However, marketers are also important; about 22% of startups fail due to a lack of a quality marketing strategy. Finding a suitable marketing specialist quickly takes work. Marketers will have access to hundreds of tools and even AI in 2023, ensuring a specialist for every need. According to a study by Avito Rabota, in the third quarter of 2023, the number of vacancies for marketers increased by 2.5 times compared to the same period last year.
Veronika Klimova, founder of the AI service for selecting marketers, Marketlead.me, explained why finding the right specialist on the first try is difficult. On average, companies make up to three attempts before they hire a suitable candidate. The risk of making a mistake and wasting time and budget is very high. Why does this happen?
Problem 1: Many specialisations, unclear needs.
Nowadays, there are no "pure" marketers left. About 25 different niches have emerged, including B2B marketing, content marketing, traffic management, e-commerce, and others. Marketers' experiences often vary, making it challenging to establish clear boundaries. For instance, if you hire a specialist who has dedicated their career to paid search traffic, they will most likely propose the same strategy for your business. However, there is no guarantee that this strategy will be as effective for your business as it has been before.
Problem 2: When there is no strategy, we search for a marketer through trial and error.
Often, companies start searching without a marketing plan or necessary tools, thinking that the marketer will be the one to create them. For this to work, you need to either hire a senior-level professional or look for a specialist from a company with a similar business model. Frequently, businesses go through three or four specialists in a row, getting a bouquet of approaches and ideas that lacks a cohesive system. Alternatively, the choice might fall on a specialist whose proposals address urgent issues but lack alignment with a unified global strategy.
Problem 3: Inflated expectations.
We often hope that a marketer will instantly immediately identify vulnerabilities in the marketing strategy and start attracting new customers. However, this is typically the domain of costly CMOs with an understanding of the interconnections between business metrics. The approach of "hire a marketer and wait for sales" won't work, especially if the business has never sold the product before. A niche specialist or a middle-level manager needs the expertise of a top executive or founder to create a successful strategy.
Finding the right marketer is like assembling a team of superheroes: you need to know exactly who you want on your side. I recommend focusing on their strategy, product expertise, or understanding of your business model.
Finding a marketer for your strategy
If you have a marketing plan and goals, the first step is to break the plan down into acquisition channels and look for niche specialists for each task. For example, if you want to work with contextual advertising, look for a PPC (Pay Per Click) expert. If your customers read case studies on your website, you'll need a content marketer.
Finding a marketer for your product
For new products, it’s better to choose a combination of a strategist (often a Chief Marketing Officer) and a product marketer. The product marketer will test new hypotheses and seek growth opportunities. This duo will help build a strategy and even make changes to the product and pricing.
Finding a marketer for your business model
If your business is already established and you clearly understand your sales channels, all you need to do is find a marketer with experience in a similar business model.
A specialist with experience in a relevant niche can quickly adapt proven methods. For example, if you decide to launch a product on marketplaces, you’ll need an e-commerce marketer to work with analytics, delivery services, and classifieds.
Who’s Who in the World of Marketing
A Digital Marketing Manager is the most versatile type of specialist, responsible for developing and implementing a company's overall digital marketing strategy. A Digital Marketing Manager is needed to create a sales funnel, drive traffic, test hypotheses, and establish a system. Typically, a specialist at this level can oversee several contractors, but there should still be a leader above him. A Digital Marketing Manager is suitable for any business that needs to ensure traffic growth and establish an incoming flow of leads. Ideally, the specialist you hire should already have experience in the specific niche.
Recently, we were approached by an online psychological support service for children. They wanted to hire a marketer who could fully handle the company's growth and client acquisition tasks. Their budget for the specialist’s salary was around 120,000–130,000 rubles. Essentially, they were looking for a jack-of-all-trades who could do everything at once. During the needs assessment and analysis of their global strategy, we found that their promotion strategy mainly relied on social media and viral content. Therefore, they did not need a senior-level specialist to manage social media. We suggested hiring two managers within the available budget but with different skills. Specifically, a Digital Marketing Manager with a salary of 80,000 rubles to manage multiple accounts and a part-time content marketer for 40,000 rubles to handle content creation. Now, the company has a fully complementary marketing team of two that works quickly and efficiently. If the company had followed the standard market scenario, they would have hired one manager with a salary of 120,000 rubles who would likely have struggled with deadlines and burned out within a few months.
Marketing Director/Strategist: Leads the department by developing and implementing comprehensive marketing strategies. They see the bigger picture, link all tasks to business goals, forecast revenue, and know how to influence metrics. If you are just starting to grow your business and have assembled a team of 4–5 people, an experienced CMO is exactly the person who will create the initial promotion strategy and help test different hypotheses.
We once worked with a B2B SaaS company that had just secured an investment and entered an accelerator program. At that time, the team was using only a few channels for promotion: Yandex Direct, managed by a direct marketer, and social media, handled by a marketer. However, a startup that has secured investment needs to prepare for double growth. Typically, a startup needs to handle a new budget with calculated ROI, CAC, LTV, and other metrics, so 1–2 traffic acquisition channels are clearly insufficient.
Additionally, participating in an accelerator means increased attention from stakeholders, including the media and other investors. This means the company’s channels need to be well-prepared: website, press releases, news, founder’s social media, FAQ, and product videos. Usually, this results in a burned-out founder trying to find qualified managers for these tasks.
At Marketlead.me, we suggested hiring a CMO on a part-time basis who could set up processes and oversee the intricate workings of the large mechanism. The CMO was able to scale the team, set up CRM, implement scripts in the sales department, connect end-to-end analytics, hire a content creator, and revamp the website. In such cases, the CMO can build the system that a startup desperately needs during the investment phase.
The Product Marketing Manager searches for market fit for a specific product, conducts market research, develops positioning, and creates a promotion plan. A Product Marketing Manager is needed by businesses launching a new product or seeking new growth opportunities for an existing one. The ideal stage is during product development and market research. It’s advisable to bring such a specialist onto the team right before the market launch to ensure proper positioning, strategy, and a quick start to sales.
One time, we faced the task of finding a Digital Marketing Manager for a new product at one of our partner companies. During the strategy analysis, we discovered that the company’s weak areas were product value proposition, positioning, and content on digital platforms. If we hired a Digital Marketing Manager focusing solely on product promotion, the company would risk wasting its budget due to poor value proposition.
Therefore, we decided to first find a Product Marketing Manager to handle that and positioning, and only then bring in a Digital Marketing Manager. As a final touch, we suggested hiring a traffic manager to ensure high-quality traffic flow.
Marketing Analyst: Implements metric tracking, collects market data, studies consumer behaviour, and evaluates the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Most companies assign a classic marketer, or CMO, to this role. At an early stage of company development, having a separate specialist for analytics is not always necessary.
Performance Manager: Focuses on increasing the efficiency of advertising campaigns and maximising ROI. Often, they oversee traffic managers with expertise in specific channels. This specialist is essential in B2C niches and anywhere where it is important to measure and optimise marketing campaign results. This could be e-commerce, online services, IT startups, or any business with a medium budget for user acquisition. A Performance Marketer should be brought onto the team when the business is ready to invest in advertising and has clear KPIs for the marketing department.
Ecommerce Marketer: Specialises in sales on marketplaces, optimising online store operations, and increasing conversion rates. The specialist’s skills are specifically in understanding the algorithms of marketplaces and classifieds.
B2B Marketer: Specialises in marketing directed at business clients rather than end consumers. Uses relevant tools and channels: social media, content marketing, email marketing, and conferences. The distinction between these specialists lies in their ability to work with relevant channels and industry knowledge.
CRM Marketer: Works with the company’s customer database, increasing the number of contacts with potential clients, segmenting customers, setting up email campaigns and chatbots across various channels, and planning campaigns for working with warm leads and retaining customers.
Growth Marketer: Analyses data and focuses on the rapid and effective growth of a product or brand in the market. A Growth Marketer is needed for service and product companies. Unlike a traditional marketer, this specialist is characterised by deep analytics, working across the entire marketing funnel, and making changes directly to the product. A Growth Marketer must have tools for analytics, performance, content, and product management.
Mobile Marketing Manager: Promotes mobile applications or the product through them. Promotion is achieved through targeting, contextual advertising, and in-app advertising. One of the main tasks of a Mobile Marketing Manager is to elevate the app to the top of the mobile app rankings.
Influencer Marketer: Collaborates with social media influencers to promote products or services and plans the scenarios for advertising integrations. Working with influencers is a specific type of traffic channel that is very effective in Russia, especially after the departure of major players. Its advantage lies in its established connections with influencers and advanced communication skills. Can a traditional marketer perform these tasks? Yes, but it will likely take twice as long and be more complex.
Content Marketer: Works on promoting the company through content of any type: articles, videos, infographics, surveys, or podcasts. It is important that a content marketer understands the connection between all promotion tools and can adapt texts for different platforms. Content marketers are often confused with PR specialists because their tasks also involve working with content. Yes, there is overlap, but they have different objectives.
Email Marketer: If you think email marketing is dead, it’s just that you haven’t had a competent specialist with experience in this area. An email marketer should know how to drive targeted actions through text and visual elements in emails and be able to set up analytics, including connecting Yandex Metrica and Google Analytics to email marketing services.
The key to making a real impact isn't just force; it's knowing the pain points. If you find a specialist whose experience matches your business needs, you'll avoid many problems. They won't have to learn about your business and make mistakes at your expense. Instead, they'll bring ready-to-use strategies and help boost your company's revenue.
Originally published on Cossa