A Marketing Leader's First Hire

Where are my marketing teams of ONE at?

It's a tough job.

But let's talk about what to do when the time comes for you to hire someone for your team.

In my opinion, going from only you to a team of 2 is one of the hardest changes and one that often gets messed up.

Here are the tips I give to marketers looking to make their first hire.

✅ In most cases, it is best to hire a t-shaped marketer who has skills in several areas and a deep skillset in the area or channel that is already proven for your company. This is not the time to hire a pure specialist who can only do one thing or an experimental role to test new channels.

✅ Think about what a dream team of 4-5 people would look like and consider how this first role would fit that team. You want this first hire to build into more as the company and opportunities grow, not pigeonhole you.

✅ Make sure that the work they will take off of your plate is meaningful. You will still own many things, but you want to make sure that the overall capacity for the team grows substantially.

Truly offloading areas of marketing for them to own will have far more impact than you still trying to own everything, and dumping a bunch of busy work and low-impact tasks on them will be a marginal gain for you and the company.

Take the time to shape this role thoughtfully, and it can make a big difference in whether your marketing team of two struggles or thrives.