This document provides guidance on hiring a marketer or marketing agency. It recommends being clear about your goals for marketing and how marketing will drive growth. It also suggests identifying who will lead marketing internally and how an external marketer will be integrated. Potential partners should be identified based on expertise in areas like lead generation or specific marketing channels relevant to goals. Proposals should request clear services and timeframes to avoid scope creep, and stick to budget while ensuring the expected personnel actually work on the project.

1. BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOALS
AND WHY YOU NEED A MARKETER
Are you trying to solve a problem?
Are you addressing organizational gaps? Are your competitors doing
better? Does marketing simply seem like the right thing to do?
Next, what are your goals? What are you looking to do? Is it brand
awareness, higher sales, downloads, Website traffic, or media
coverage?
Again, be clear about how marketing will drive growth.
WHO'S GOING TO LEAD THE CHARGE?
Who's going to lead marketing and/or be the marketing
champion internally? If marketers are left to own devices,
it's a recipe for disaster. Okay, I'm dramatic but a
marketing needs structure and discipline.
How do you want to work with a marketer? Do you want
them to work at the office one, two or five days a week?
Will they be integrated into the organization, or can they
work remotely?
If you have a marketing team, a crucial consideration is
making sure they're willing to work with a marketer.
IDENTIFY POTENTIAL PARTNERS
Now, here's the hard part.
You need to identify potential partners from hundreds of options. First,
go back and look at why you need marketing help.
If the focus is more leads and sales, for example, hire people with
customer acquisition expertise. As important, consider the marketing
channels used to target prospects and customers.
You need to decide if you want a marketing generalist (someone who
knows something about everything) or a specialist.
ASK FOR PROPOSALS
Then, ask for proposals. Be clear about the services that
you're expecting and the timeframe. Many marketing
projects suddenly get out of control due to scope creep.
When it comes to a project's cost, stick to your budget. It
is easy to be seduced by the promises of a marketer,
whose prices are more than what you can afford.
While cost is important, you want to know who will be
working for you. Is it the senior people who took part in
the interviews, or junior people assigned to the project
afterward?
BOTTOM LINE
Hiring a marketer isn't easy.
For many organizations, it's a big decision to leverage
marketing to accelerate their growth. As a result, you
don't want to make a mistake.
Be clear about your needs, do your homework, engage
with potential partners, and make a decision based on
expertise, experience, approach, and budget.
HOW TO HIRE A MARKETING
CONSULTANT OR AGENCY