How to Hire a Marketing Team That’s Worth Every Penny

Bring in the best people the right way

By Ivana Taylor

Published on September 9, 2024

Hiring a Marketing Team: Should You Do It?

Although 70% of small business owners and entrepreneurs work more than 40 hours a week, there’s just not enough time in the day to handle marketing effectively. And if you want to really connect with your target audience and grow your customer base, you need someone on your side who lives and breathes this stuff.

Think about it – hiring an external marketing team can get your brand in front of more eyes. They track data, measure results, and refine your marketing strategy over time using marketing automation.

Compared to managing an in-house marketing team, an external team offers a hands-off approach and seamless collaboration with experts who know what works (and what doesn’t). Digital marketing experts can help refine your strategy over time.

Things to Consider Before You Hire a Marketing Team

I know, you want to be “in action” and it’s tempting to jump in head first and hire a marketing person as soon as possible. Take your time to analyze your business needs, conduct market research, and determine what types of marketing professionals you should start with.

Take some time to write down where you want your business to go. What marketing channels will benefit your goals the most? Do you need someone to create digital content? What is your content strategy?

Do you need help with social media marketing?
Do you want to generate leads through paid advertising?
How important is your content marketing strategy?

Outline Your Marketing Strategies and Tasks

Before you even think about a marketing hire, you have to be very clear about what this person is going to do:

Email marketing
Social media marketing
Marketing projects
Marketing automation
Content creation
Video marketing
Brand strategy
SEO and Google analytics
Market analysis
Lead generation

This is just a quick list of things off the top of my head, there are literally thousands of tasks that marketing pros do that will help you meet your business goals.

But first, you have to know exactly what you need and in what order.

Here’s how to do that:

Get a notebook and start a list of all the marketing related tasks and challenges that you have over the course of about a month – whether you’re the one doing them or not. Make the list fairly detailed about what you currently have and what you want. For example: “My website is really slow, I need help to speed that up.”
Go through that list and highlight the tasks that ONLY YOU can do. For example, if you have webinars on your list of marketing activities – and you’re the presenter. Only YOU can be on camera during the webinar.
Group your list of marketing tasks by skill set. This is where things can get tricky. No matter what marketing tactics or tasks you have, there are specialists for every one of them. For example, let’s look at all the things involved in running a webinar: Create a landing page, write the copy for the landing page, set up the email marketing system to collect registrations, write the emails, social media promotions – I can keep going. But you get the idea. So spend some time grouping these tasks so that you know exactly what skills and capabilites you’re looking for.
Prioritize your marketing projects. Look for the marketing strategies and tactics that are going to require the least amount of work and that will generate the most leads and customers. For example, say you want to do podcasting and webinars. It would be smart to put webinars ahead of podcasting because webinars require sign ups, generate leads, and allow you to reach out directly to attendees as prospects. Not only that, the skills involved in promoting webinars will come in handy when you’re ready to add podcasting.

Come Up With Your Marketing Budget

Yea, you’re gonna need a marketing budget in mind before you hire someone. This is where most business owners get stuck and spend entirely too much time

crucial to ensure you can allocate resources effectively and avoid financial strain.

These are all things you need to figure out BEFORE you start putting feelers out there to hire a marketing team or a freelance marketing manager. You also need to figure out if you need full-time employees, if you want to outsource your marketing, or if you are looking for something in between.

Searching for Marketing Superstars

Think outside the traditional job board box. Use the power of LinkedIn (where the professionals hang out.), online marketing communities, even industry events. Don’t discount word-of-mouth marketing when looking for your new team member. Understanding and identifying specific marketing needs is crucial in this process.

Network: It’s not just what you know, it’s WHO you know (cliché, but true.).
Get Social: Platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t just for ranting about traffic anymore. The marketing world thrives online, so get in on the action.
Research and search online marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr.

Once you’ve started to make a shortlist, ask to see portfolios and client testimonials. A picture (or glowing review) says a thousand words, am I right? Take the time to really look at their experience in media marketing.

Clearly Define the Marketing Roles, Skills, and Capabilities

There are two kinds of marketing skill sets; building and optimizing. Hence, there are two kinds of marketing people; builders and optimizers.

Builders are people who can create and build marketing systems and processes, create and implement marketing plans, strategies, and tactics. These types of marketers tend to be researchers, trend-watchers, strategists, and planners. They are great at creating and building — not so great at optimizing.

Marketing managers often handle specific areas of responsibility such as communications, brand positioning, and public relations management.

This is also true for designers; some are great at taking limited amounts of input and coming up with full out designs that will blow your mind. And others are much better at taking your specific requirements and making them look professional.

Optimizers, on the other hand are exceptionally good at measuring existing processes, marketing funnels, and digital marketing strategies and tactics and optimizing and improving them so they are always generating better and more consistent results.

So, when you’re thinking about hiring marketing team members, think about whether you need or want someone to create or someone to run, optimize or improve.

Start with figuring out EXACTLY what you need help with. Your marketing plan should determine the marketing roles that need to be filled.

Do you want to dominate the world of social media? Find yourself a Social Media Manager.

Need help getting your website to the top of Google? You’re looking for a seasoned SEO Marketer.

Is email marketing more your style? Hunt down a talented Email Marketer who lives for open rates.

Crafting Killer Job Descriptions

Remember when I talked about dating? Well, imagine writing a dating profile but for your business, highlighting its awesomeness (think company culture) and what you’re looking for in a perfect match (those marketing skills we just talked about.).

Be clear about expectations, responsibilities, and sprinkle in some personality. You want them to SWIPE RIGHT. Seriously though – think of your ideal marketing manager. Attracting top marketing talent through well-crafted job descriptions is crucial to finding the right candidates.

In-house Team, Freelancers, or Marketing Agency – What’s Best For You?

Next, let’s tackle the million-dollar question: who are you going to hire? You can go with freelancers, marketing agencies, or if you’re ready – hire an entire marketing team in-house. Although, I wouldn’t recommend that as your first step.

Start with a freelancer: This is going to be your highest value choice because you can focus on adding specific skills and talents for specific projects. Freelancers typically get paid either by project or by the hour.

And, if you’ve done the detailed task analysis that I’ve recommended, you’ll know exactly what specific strengths and talents this person needs.

This saves you a ton of money because you can test out freelancers with small projects and if it’s a good fit for the both of you, you can get into a longer term relationship.

Another benefit to hiring and working with freelancers is that you can literally expand the services that your business offers by adding the best players to your team.

Consider a smaller agency: After working with and managing several freelancers, you’ll find that this, too will start chewing up a lot of time. And when that happens, you can consider a smaller agency. There are folks out there who actually run virtual agencies. The agency owner manages the freelancers. I really like this because freelancers (whether they are independent or with an agency) are often highly skilled professionals who simply don’t want to deal with scaling a business or trolling for customers. So they will team up in an agency.

You Can’t Offload Your Marketing Work to a Marketing Agency

I want to say a few words about marketing agencies. I’ve worked with dozens of marketing agencies over the last 35 years with mixed results. So I’m going to share a few tips that will help you grow your marketing team with a reputable agency:

Do your homework, know your industry, know your customer, and most importantly, know your primary strategy. Most marketing agencies specialize (even though they say they work on everything). You have to know what you’re looking for.
Train your marketing agency teams: Agencies will sell themselves as full service where they do the research and all this stuff. But let’s face it, they aren’t going to know your industry, business, or customers the way you do. Pull your research together; marketing plans, customer journey’s, sales processes, etc. Also include any data that you’ve collected. Explain what you do, why you do it, etc. This way, they can make recommendations based on a solid foundation that you’ve been working from.
Make sure that you have experienced managers on your project: Agencies are often filled with young marketing managers, account executives, and interns. Make no mistake, you will have a lot of young folks or new graduates working on your projects. There’s nothing wrong with that, just make sure that you have experienced marketers leading the project and approving all their work.

I know this can feel as overwhelming as a first date. What’s the best approach here?

Option Pros Cons Freelancers

Often a budget-friendly option, great for short-term or specialized tasks.
Access to niche skills and a variety of perspectives.
You only pay for the work you need.

May require more hands-on management.
Less integrated into your company culture.
May juggle multiple clients.

Agencies

Provide a wide range of services, from strategy to execution.
Often have established processes and a team of experts.
Great for a comprehensive marketing overhaul.

Higher cost compared to individual freelancers.
Might not offer the same level of personalized attention.

In-House Team

Deeply invested in your brand and goals.
Seamless collaboration and communication.
Full control over your marketing strategy.

Most expensive option, with salaries, benefits, and overhead.
Requires a significant time investment in recruitment and onboarding.

How to Find Your Perfect Marketing Hire

Now that you’ve got the basics down, let’s get you set up with the right people. If you’re worried about this step, I can understand. Building and managing a team of people is the third most common complaint I hear from small business owners.

I’m going to brag here and say I have NEVER had this problem. I have consistently found, hired and worked with the best, most generous, most engaged, and skilled people for more than 20 years. I just find them. So I’m going to share my tips with you.

Look for candidates with experience in the specific tasks that you’ve highlighted and prioritized. This is the reason I recommend starting your search in freelancer marketplaces like Upwork or Fivrr. Search on specific terms or projects or software experience that you’re looking for. You will learn a lot about the different skills and capabilities that folks offer.

Create a simple pared down project with a budget of say $50 or $100: Using the task list you created, come up with a simple project should only take a few hours to complete. If and when you get to your top 3 choices, give each of them this project, and pay attention to how the process goes. Yes, you’ll get 2-3 of the same project, but this will be the perfect way to actually experience working with these people, their timeliness and attention to deadlines and details. This is so much better than wasting a couple thousand dollars to have a bad experience.

Write out your project tasks, instructions, and requirements: This is a critical success factor. YOU are responsible for clearly communicating what the project is, any instructions you want them to follow, providing screencasts or videos. Be sure to mention: how you prefer to work (email, chat, phone, zoom, etc. and see if that works for them, talk about your time and deadlines. Are you stickler for time? When do you want to know if there’s a delay, etc.

Pay attention to rapport: Sometimes I like to have a phone call first. This is an opportunity for me to get to know the person, get an idea of who they are and how they like to work. One question I always ask is “What is one thing you love to do, you are really good at doing, you do quickly and easily, and want to do all day long if you can?” — you’ll be amazed at what you hear. I ask this question because every marketing person is good at something. And you want to hire them to do that one thing. They will get it done, you’ll get the project done on time and at the lowest total cost.
Schedule a meeting via CHAT: I recommend this because a LOT of your interaction with freelancers is going to be via chat and email. So I want you to practice preliminary conversations in text only, using screenshares and videos. This is good for YOU and for the freelancer. You can do this after the phone interview and just before you give them the project.
Have a debrief with the freelancer: Let the freelancer do the work per your instructions. Pay attention to whether or not they ask for clarification, is it too often, not enough. How are they on timely delivery? Do they communicate? How well do they communicate? Evaluate the deliverable with the freelancer. Talk about what is good, what didn’t come out as planned and what issues they had with the instructions.
Choose a freelancer: Based on your conversations you’re most likely going to have a clear preference for a freelancer based on your workflow experience and quality of the product delivered. Just remember, your instructions are the biggest predictor of the overall quality of deliverable. If you didn’t get what you want, it’s probably because your instructions weren’t clear enough.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

I know the thought of hiring a marketing team might seem daunting (especially with a million other tasks on your plate). Remember to focus on YOUR strengths (that’s why you started this business, right?) and delegate the rest to professionals you trust. Take the time to find people who are not only skilled but also passionate and excited about helping your vision come to life. Because that, my friend, is how you build a kick-ass team.

FAQs About Hiring Your Marketing Team

How much does it cost to hire a marketing team?

I know, the dreaded budget question – no one wants to talk about money, right? I’ll be honest – It’s going to depend on their experience, the marketing skills required, location and even your specific industry. The average marketing hire could set you back between $66,000 and $122,000/year. Of course, you always have the option of getting started with an amazing freelancer – just be sure their experience and skills are up to par.

Should I choose the cheapest option?

NO! Do NOT just choose the cheapest option. You really need to look at what task you’re asking someone to do. The cheapest freelancers are out of the US. So, if you need copy written, that requires mastery of English and writing marketing copy, you’re better off paying more. But if your project is basic data entry or even research, you can afford to skimp there.

When you’re hiring copywriters or email marketing experts, anything that requires mastery of copywriting, storytelling, writing marketing copy, etc. look for someone who is in the middle of the pricing pack.

How do you find good marketing people to hire?

Remember my dating advice? Finding the right marketing team means having those “good stuff” conversations with them.

Passion: Did they start a side hustle related to their skills, run a marketing blog or even manage their dog’s fanpage on Instagram (I’m kidding.. kind of.). Are their eyes lighting up when they’re talking about content marketing or SEO?

Drive: Are they eager to grow both professionally and personally?

Humility: This one’s big, my friends – owning up to their mistakes and being open to feedback is HUGE in the ever-evolving world of marketing.

Is it worth hiring a marketing company for my business?

If you’ve got the budget, it absolutely can be. Just make sure to do your research, ask tough questions (remember the dating analogy – good communication is EVERYTHING), and find a company that vibes well with your brand and understands your goals. Think of it like choosing a business partner, not just another vendor – because that’s what they should be. Marketing companies can help manage and measure the success of marketing campaigns, ensuring your investment yields the best possible results.

How can I hire someone to help manage my social media?

Social media is crucial these days – everyone’s on it – so yeah, if you want to stay top of mind you need a strategy. Figure out which platform (or platforms.) align best with your target audience – you’ll need someone to post, create graphics, respond to messages, maybe even set up ads – because posting the occasional motivational quote is not going to cut it, guys. Incorporating search engine optimization into your social media management can significantly drive organic traffic and improve online visibility. Don’t forget sites like Upwork – but again – look at reviews.