mdolla: 9 Traits Early Startups Should Look For in a Marketing Hire

As a founder, you will face numerous challenges along the tumultuous yet rewarding entrepreneurial journey. Building the right team to support you during the journey is fundamental to a startup’s success.
However, finding the right person to scale your marketing efforts is not easy. Not all marketers are made equal. For example, the challenges that marketers face in a large organization or agency look very different from those in an early stage startup. Thus, the attributes you should look for are also unique to startup marketing hires.

Here are the unique traits you should be looking for:

1. Resourcefulness

Startups are working with limited budgets, and you will have to get things done with little (or no) budget. Look for someone who is able to work with limited resources and iterate on loose frameworks. There won’t be much handholding, so ensure your first marketing hire is excited by the challenge of navigating the unknown.

2. Ability to zoom out to the big picture and zoom in for attention to detail

A marketer in an early startup will need to keep the big picture in mind while executing on the details. When vetting your candidates, the best picks are those who can understand the fundamental goals for the company and has the skills to make them a reality. Find someone who can understand all the moving pieces and also articulate the detailed execution of getting there.

3. Critical thinker

While there may be a clear vision to follow, there will also be hundreds of decisions (big and small) every day that will require critical thinking and decisive problem solving. How will I get the attention of my customers? Should I set up an email marketing campaign or ads first? How should I phrase this copy? Hire someone who can think critically and can confidently make those decisions.

4. Ability to multi-task

Although the marketing role is specific to a set of objectives, this new hire will likely be involved in several projects at the same time. Startups are notorious for being a little chaotic, so it’s essential that your early marketing hire is someone who can seamlessly multitask on various initiatives.

5. Creativity

Creativity and startups go hand-in-hand. Building a company requires someone who can think outside the box to find new (and better) solutions. Find someone who is creative enough to understand which rules are meant to be broken at what time. Success often means finding unusual solutions that are not obvious at first glance.

6. Embraces new technologies

The best early stage hires are those who leverage technologies to automate processes. We are in the age of digital marketing where new tools and platforms are launched every day. The best marketers are those that are on top of new technologies and love developing their own strategies to make your marketing better and faster.

7. Flexibility

The roadmap changes. Daily fires spring up. Budgets ebb and flow. Find someone who is flexible and adaptable to new situations. It’s inevitable that things move quickly in a startup so your early stage hires should be people who present an unfazed can-do attitude, even in the midst of crisis.

8. Good Listener and Communicator

Listening and communication skills are integral both internally and externally. Not only will he or she be responsible for communicating the company’s vision to the world, the rest of the team will rely on this role too. For instance, your marketer may need to get feedback from core users and then relay concise points back to the product team.

9. Team Player

In any startup, collaboration is key. The success of the company will be contingent upon team dynamics. A unified team with transparency between all aspects of the business: product, marketing, and sales will make for a stronger path to market.

At the end of the day, the technology and opportunities are constantly changing – and the truth is – the nitty-gritty details can be learned on the job. But the resourcefulness, creativity and results-oriented perspective of an excellent marketer cannot be taught. So make sure to integrate these values into your startup family.

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