Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I know that quite a few of you reading this will be small UK businesses and have some experience of employing staff to help with ever increasing levels of work.
We would be grateful for any advice or experiences that you've had when employing staff in an online marketing role.
The advert's gone on our web site:
<snip>
What do you think?
Thanks,
Jon.
[edited by: engine at 3:45 pm (utc) on Oct. 23, 2002]
[edit reason] no urls, please [/edit]
Hire the person, not a list of skills.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld!
Some things I would ask in an interview:
-What is it they like about the internet?
-Ask about his/her favorate sites, and the reasons they are the favorate. If they know what makes them hang around websites, they will have a good sense of how to make your site sticky also.
-Ask about their favorate ads on the internet. Do they talk about the shift in ads to become larger, more integrated into site content, and more frequent use of rich media?
-Ask if they have heard of SEO, and if not, get a sense if they would be eager to learn about it.
-Ask if they know about affiliate programs
The goal is to get an overall impression of their interest in the online environment, their creativity, and their willingness to learn new advertising methods.
Getting a marketing person in that has good copywriting skills would be a benefit to your website.
Not only will they be good at contacting other orgs by email or snail mail, but they could also write effective copy for your site.
You should note the difference in someone marketing your website (ie a search engine optimiser) to get more traffic, and someone marketing your web business (ie a marketing officer) to increase brand awareness in the real world.
The former (a marketing literate IT professional - a SEO) would usually have proven IT skills, but if those skills already exist within your business, you may be better of with an IT literate marketing professional to promote your business offline and online (by creating and implementing marketing strategies).
Personally, I studied both marketing and IT at uni and can tell you that very few marketing graduates have a high enough level of IT literacy to undertake SEO duties.
On the other hand, most IT graduates do not have the business literacy of marketing graduates, and would not be much use to you offline.
If you post the objectives and job role that you want your online marketing person to undertake, I could perhaps help to advise you on which route to take.
Im also a part time recruitment consultant! ;)
All round Jackofalltrades! :)
JOAT
Thanks for the thoughts, very useful.
Travoli: the job spec is on our website but I'm not allowed to post it here, suffice to say the domain is 'alphaquad' and its a dot com ;) You'll find it in the recruitment section.
Cheers,
Jon.
If this gets cut I'll cut and paste it in :)
Id suggest sticking in a "but training can be provided" tag to the additional skills - this way you will attract a broader range of candidates (after all, the job can be done without these skills, which arent that hard to pick up).
Also, a "This position would suit..." section would be useful. Id aim at recent graduates, either marketing or business studies (perhaps graphic design). I dont think the role would suit IT graduates, unless they had a particullar interest in online marketing.
Regards
JOAT
ps ill send my site URL by sticky mail (you can post free job ads).
Yes, WebmasterWorld does not allow posting of personal site URL's. Discussing issues in a way that applies to everyone is worked out great. Instead of doing site reviews for individuals, we talk about good site layout strategies, etc...
There is rarely a need to speak about a particular site, in order that everyone finds the information applicable to their own business.
Forum members are always able to find your website in your profile.
Once again, welcome, and I hope you find these forums as helpful as I have.
I have been in marketing, advertising and sales for some 20+ years and have hired many marketing types to compliment existing staff.
The one thing I always tried to do was seek out those qualities the rest of the team did not possess. If one person on your team is slow and methodical in their approach, find someone who is a little more spontaneous and who thinks on their feet. Even if 90% of the ideas they come up with are trash, there are always those little gems they will hit on now and again making your investment entirely worthwhile.
If you have a reliable and productive staff member who is the "horder" type and does not like to share his or her domain of creativity ... find someone who will challenge them and force them to share ideas and develop concepts as a team rather than as individuals.
In other words, if there is someone out there who will add a new perspective and personality to the team you already have, then pick that person over the skills they may possess. They will pick up those skills they lack in short order if the team is playing nicely together!
I have had tremendous success in the past with teams which were made up of very different types of people. They always (somehow) got the job done, on time, every time.
P.S. It was the slow, methodical one who managed to push the team (with his constant harping) to make sure they never missed a deadline! Those types are important too.
P.P.S. The most creative marketing manager I ever had was a full blown, falling down drunk. He used to sit in a bar and "force" himself to stay there until he came up with the winning idea. The bar tabs were outrageous, but the creativity was worth every penny! :) (Better his liver than mine!)
There is so much to online marketing that the most important qualities are: 1. brains 2. ability to learn quickly.
Someone with these 2 qualities who enjoys working on the web and has a good personality will have a good chance of doing well.
When I interview I rarely ask about someone's experience on the web
The web is just a different medium the principles here are the same as everywhere else.
If the role they will fill is marketing...
they had better know the fundamental's in marketing.
Awareness - develops Interest,
Interested people need to be motivated to do something, or they generally won't.
Acting on the movitation is indeed the hardest thing to get people to do... this is where those creative people get lost.
Your goals maybe to creates sales... but that isn't the customers goal.
Marketing people must address this.
I personally would hire the one that best understand this process and can come up with multiple conclusions to answer the last hurdle.
