When it comes time to add the first dedicated marketing person to the staff, business owners should downplay the creative elements of the job and focus on sales support.
Marketing is often thought of in terms of designing logos and websites, liaising with journalists or working a trade event. So, when an SME owner comes to employ a marketer, they favour a specialist who excels in one of these areas but has a narrow comfort zone:
• The Designer – great at creating logos and impressive collateral but “doesn’t do words”
• The Digital Marketer – great at website UX and Google Ads, but can’t book a van to get to your trade event.
• The Schmoozer – great at trade show relationships but can’t plan a campaign
Your first marketing hire needs to bridge the gap between the grunt work of sales – like pushing out collateral, data input, review/reporting – and the grunt work of marketing – like pushing out collateral, data input, review/reporting.
Make a hierarchy of marketing skills you actually need
If you read enough job descriptions, you’ll be under the impression that there are a lot of marketers who balance InDesign experience alongside PR, negotiation and Google Ads skills. That person doesn’t exist.
And I don’t believe it should be the choice between getting a writer to learn the basic rules of design or a designer to learn the rules of grammar.
The real budget-wise uses of a new marketer are more prosaic. Your first marketer should be set to work supporting the sales initiatives you have in place. This work is more likely to involve admin support, booking a printer, managing the sales funnel with follow up emails, and event support at trade fairs. You, as the business owner, may think: “but I can do all that myself, or the admin staff can, what I need is someone that can do the stuff I’m rubbish at, like designing”. Actually, you don’t.
It’s tempting to think your first marketer will be redesigning your logo, creating new printed collateral or starting up a company YouTube channel. I believe in creativity as an important part of marketing. But I don’t believe that sales will shoot up if you change the font and the colour of a brochure.
When you need a designer, outsource for a design template you can replicate. That will do you for the time being.
For your first marketer, focus on a marketing communications all-rounder who has skills that deliver more mundane yet profitable results: Here’s two:
• Quick and accurate writing/editing
• Making the bookings
Ads and brochures get printed, social media messages get posted and direct mail gets sent out. Your company starts to reach your market through a methodical process. It’s more mundane than a TikTok channel but will reap more rewards for your average SME.
To ask a question about my B2B marketing services: info@jasondoggett.com