Avoid marketing and get ready to shut your shop – it’s that simple! This is especially true if you’re a startup in the 21st century. While an established business can go wrong somewhere and survive the heat, as a startup, the first thing that welcomes you among your clients is – suspicion or doubt. So, along with some great products, you’ll need robust marketing to survive and thrive. After all, history hasn’t been kind to startups. Here are some facts: About 90% of startups fail. More than 22% of them fail due to poor marketing, and 18% fall short of success because of having the wrong team. Since every wise business person knows the value marketing holds, it’s time to look for the right people at the right place. But first, let’s check out some of the skills to look out for in your next marketer.
Vital Marketer Skills
Some attributes that make for a champion marketer other than the raw will to excel. These can be:
Communication and Interpersonal Skills
It never was a one-person job. Marketing is always about group effort. So a successful marketer needs to be a great communicator, both verbally and in writing. In addition, pleasing and compassionate personalities are essential for good teams aiming for great corporate goals.
Critical Thinking and Analysis
Your marketer needs to be a razor-sharp, focused individual—a problem-solver with an analytical mind. These are essential prerequisites in this vastly dynamic marketing landscape. A savvy marketer should be able to come out of the everyday challenges and outperform its peers.
Social Media and Advertising
You can’t bear to make mistakes as a startup, not with social media and digital advertising. So having some experience in these realms is important. You must check these out while hunting for a good marketer.
CMS and SEO
Every website is hosted on a CMS (content management systems, like WordPress, Joomla, etc.). While some content management systems like WordPress are pretty straightforward to get used to, others can have a steep learning curve. So, it’ll save your resources to have an individual with experience in your website’s CMS. Similarly, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a skill that is needed from day one. Put simply, SEO is used to show your content on the first page in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Because page two, as the famous cringy SEO quote, is the best place to bury a dead body. Because it never gets seen. So, either hire a great marketer with a proven SEO track record or train them hard. So now you know about the imperative skills, check out this list for hiring a perfect marketer for your startup.
GrowTal
GrowTal is a good place to start your hunt for a US-based marketer without any upfront cost. It starts with a small questionnaire to get matched with a handpicked talent for a quick 30-min introductory call. Subsequently, you can start working on a trial basis or get another marketer if things don’t seem well. You can also request specific location-based talent for on-site work or hire full-time.
Mayple
As of this writing, Mayple hosts experts from the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada, Europe, and Israel. You can initiate the process by briefing about your business. Afterward, Mayple’s AI algorithm searches for the perfect match from the 600+ global pool of talent. A business can revise the recommended choice until they find one of its standards. And you don’t pay until you find and approve an expert to commence the project. In addition to the expert, you are also assigned a dedicated growth strategist to further align your business interests with the marketing strategy. Finally, all Mayple subscriptions come with a free monitoring service that tracks 180 key performance indicators for your marketing campaigns.
Upwork
Upwork is one of the best places to start with your search for a great marketer. It’s one of the biggest avenues where people find people of specific skills. The procedure to search starts with a simple job posting mentioning the particulars. Afterward, prospects approach you with their responses, and you set the further course of action. Upwork charges a 3% fee on every payment to all its clients.
MarketerHire
MarketerHire takes a different approach; it acts as a mediator. The process starts with the client (you) describing your requirements by filling a form. Subsequently, you get contacted with a list of marketers best matching your needs. Marketer Hire is free for clients to find their perfect business match.
Hire A Marketer
While Upwork gives you a chance to find people matching just about any skill, Hire A Marketer specializes in marketing. Coming from Upwork, the website looks a bit dated, but it’s useful from the very get-go. You can search for professionals in specific categories, tools, or expertise. There is a self-managed page within the expert section dedicated to each marketer containing portfolio and contact information. And the best thing is, you don’t need to create an account to get started.
Indeed
Indeed is a huge portal matching global talent with employers. You can post jobs for free or promote them by making them sponsored. They also have a guide to get you started with them.
Fiverr
On Fiverr, one can search for professionals based on the skillset. Every freelancer has a self-managed page giving out the relevant information about price, past projects, etc. Fiverr charges USD 1 for an order total of less than USD 20. This fee shoots up to 5% for order value over USD 20.
Hire Digital
Next on the list of the marketplace to hire a marketer is Hire Digital. They act as the middlemen, much like Marketer Hire. To search for profiles, one has to enter the resources section and then click talent profiles from a particular category to see a list of available people.
Advisable
Advisable tout themselves as not just another freelance network. They protect their freelance profiles with quite a bit of effort, as there is no way to search inside the pool of talent. Instead, they go with the mediator path, like some of their peers. You apply and tell them the requirements; then, they act as a matchmaker. Finally, you can interview from the curated list given by them, and the process continues. It’s a great way to avoid spammy clients and unnecessary web traffic. But this strategy forces you to start the hiring process without knowing if they have the right people for your requirement. Advisable is free for the clients and charges an undisclosed commission to its service providers.
Traktion
Similar to Advisable, Traktion doesn’t give you access to its freelancer marketer’s network. The Start Hiring button takes you to a short survey about your necessities. Afterward, you are expected to get contacted by their team with a list of talent. It takes a 15% commission from the freelancer’s income but acts free for the job providers.
Wrapping Up 👨🏫
There is very little that can go wrong with these hiring techniques. All of them come with NO COMMITMENTS. These marketplaces are a refreshing change from the general hiring mechanisms. Most of them ensure to do the vetting part, and some also assure a money-back guarantee. So, there is a high chance that you’ll get a client-winner marketer in there.
