Jamie Viggiano
Contributor
Jamie Viggiano is the chief marketing officer at Fuel Capital, an early-stage enterprise capital agency investing in client, SaaS and infrastructure companies.
“Who should my first marketing hire be?”
This is (by far) the most typical query I’ve obtained since beginning as Fuel’s CMO, and for good cause. Your first marketer may have an outsized influence on group dynamics in addition to the general strategic route of the model, product and firm.
The nature of the marketing operate has expanded considerably over the previous twenty years. So a lot in order that when founders ask this query, it instantly prompts a number of new ones: Should I hire a model or development marketer? An offline or a web-based marketer? A scientific or a inventive marketer?
Once upon a time, the variety of marketing channels was pretty restricted, which meant the operate itself match right into a neater, tighter field. The variety of methods to achieve prospects has since grown exponentially, as has the scope of the marketing function. Today’s startups require no less than 4 broad features below the umbrella of “marketing,” every with its personal array of subfunctions.
The actuality is that anybody who excels throughout all marketing features is a unicorn and practically not possible to seek out.
Here’s a pattern of the marketing features at a typical early-stage startup:
Brand marketing: Brand technique, positioning, naming, messaging, visible identification, experiential, occasions, group.
Product marketing: UX copy, web site, electronic mail marketing, buyer analysis and segmentation, pricing.
Communications: PR and media relations, content material marketing, social media, thought management, influencer.
Growth marketing: Direct response paid acquisition, funnel optimization, retention, lifecycle, engagement, reporting and attribution, phrase of mouth, referral, search engine optimisation, partnerships.
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As you’ll be able to think about, that’s quite a bit for one individual to handle, not to mention be an skilled in. What’s extra, the ability set and expertise required to excel in development marketing is sort of completely different from the ability set required to reach model marketing. The actuality is that anybody who excels throughout all marketing features is a unicorn and practically not possible to seek out.
So who do you hire first?
Unless you’re fortunate sufficient to nab that unicorn, your first hire should be a generalist who can are likely to the complete stack of the marketing operate, be taught what they don’t know, and roll up their sleeves to get issues accomplished. Someone sensible, savvy and tremendous scrappy who understands easy methods to experiment throughout marketing channels till they discover the right combination.
But this utility participant should additionally deliver deeper experience in one of many massive marketing features: model, product, communications or development. Before making this key hire, it is advisable to work out which marketing priorities are most pressing and, consequently, which marketing “persona” is most applicable for your enterprise on the earliest levels.
To work out which ability set you want most in-house, consider these 5 questions:
Which marketing channels have confirmed profitable up to now?
If you’ve accomplished some marketing experimentation beforehand, have there been any vivid spots? Which channels are proving essentially the most environment friendly from a buyer acquisition, conversion, retention, engagement, no matter your key KPI is, perspective? If you discover a promising space, discover a candidate that has experience in it. For instance, in case you are seeing good outcomes with Instagram advertisements, hiring a candidate who has experience in development marketing is smart.
Where are the goal prospects?
If you don’t have a lot knowledge from channel testing, consider how your goal prospects are at present discovering aggressive services or products. At TaskRabbit, we knew from early buyer analysis that shoppers had been discovering assist with residence providers both by suggestions from buddies or by asking Google (i.e., search engine optimisation and SEM).
So, that was a pure place for us to start out. Our focus from a useful resource and staffing perspective within the early days was on development marketing — driving extra phrase of mouth, plus optimizing our search engine optimisation and SEM.
How aggressive is the market?
How aggressive is the class you’re taking part in in? Are there dominant gamers with robust manufacturers? Do these manufacturers have infinite marketing budgets? Are CACs exorbitant as a result of well-capitalized opponents are outbidding one another? If so, you would possibly need to concentrate on constructing an distinctive model and product/buyer expertise.
That means disseminating a singular story by natural channels (phrase of mouth, PR, influencers and natural social media). A model marketer or somebody with deep PR and communications expertise is smart on this situation.
Where do the founder’s expertise lie?
Another facet to consider is the talents the founder(s) — or different members of the founding/early group — deliver to the desk. If a founder has a powerful imaginative and prescient for the model and intensive expertise constructing manufacturers, then focus much less on a model marketing hire and somewhat complement the branding ability set with one other marketing precedence (i.e., product marketing). Likewise, if a founder has a powerful imaginative and prescient for the model however nobody on the group is aware of easy methods to construct one, that’s a ability hole that your first marketing hire should fill.
How essential is belief constructing?
Trust constructing has turn out to be an more and more essential facet for manufacturers as prospects turn out to be increasingly discerning. But belief constructing tends to be extra important in sure areas than others: New, nascent industries or markets, sectors with loads of human interplay (providers companies, courting platforms, and many others.), industries which can be essentially altering client conduct (ride-sharing in its earliest days), or industries the place the stakes or price is comparatively excessive (luxurious items).
If belief constructing is important, consider a branding skilled who understands easy methods to construct belief and credibility, and construct an expertise that customers are keen about. This individual will possible have deep experience in PR and model constructing, as these channels are likely to encourage essentially the most belief amongst customers.
What stage of expertise is critical?
Once you’ve answered these 5 questions, you should have a fairly good thought of the kind of marketing expertise you need. But simply how a lot expertise should that individual have? I sometimes suggest that seed-stage founders search for senior supervisor or director-level candidates at midsized corporations.
At this expertise stage (six to 10 years), these candidates’ salaries are usually extra in step with a younger firm’s price range. Moreover, at this stage of their profession, they are usually each strategic and tactical. This means they’ll stage up and suppose strategically concerning the enterprise and the marketing operate, however they’re additionally pleased to get their palms soiled and execute — truly dive into the (*5*) platform and create advertisements, plan and host an occasion, or pitch a journalist.
