Finding the perfect marketing professional

In today’s climate, it is more important than ever to ensure that you put the right people in the right jobs within your organisation. Having unqualified or unsuited personnel in key positions within your organisation is a mistake that no one can afford to make in the current economic landscape. It is vital that you are aware of the key characteristics required for the position you are trying to fill.

Nowhere in the organisation is this more important than in your marketing division – get this wrong and you may not be able to stay afloat throughout the economic downturn. Whether your marketing department is tasked with organising events, running communications campaigns, conducting market research, dealing with public relations or advertising, a misjudgement here could cost you your customers and future business.

Marketing professionals come from a variety of backgrounds but the basic choice you will have to make is whether you want to hire an experienced applicant or a graduate. Both have their advantages and disadvantages so it will depend on what you are requiring for the role. Experienced candidates have the advantage of being able to step into a struggling department with a clear strategy that can be discussed at interview. This type of candidate will usually have management experience and, if they have worked in your field previously, may come to the role with a wide range of useful contacts.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for staff to fill less senior roles but who are also up to date with current technologies and legislation, a graduate may be your preferred choice. Graduates are eager and still willing to learn and are generally easy to manage into your company ethos. Additionally, they require less compensation, which may be a critical consideration for many companies.

Regardless of which path you decide to go down, there are a number of qualities you will want to ensure your interview process can identify in your candidates. Good marketing professionals should possess excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, creativity, an understanding of various technologies and a sound ability to organise and plan both their time and resources.

Include a written assessment

The requirement for strong communication skills is predominantly self-explanatory but that doesn’t mean that all companies get it right. It is one thing for someone to list ‘good communication skills’ on their resume but it is quite another for people to be able to evidence these skills. A CV will provide you with some idea but it is important to remember that CVs are usually crafted over many months and are continually revised and therefore may not be an ideal indicator of written communication skills. If this aspect of your position is important, it may be prudent to include some sort of written assessment in the interview element of the process. This will allow you to critically assess the applicant’s capabilities before you continue the process.

Additionally, it is easy to believe that you will be able to ferret out verbal communication issues at interview but this is not always the case. Many interviewees rehearse continually in order to give themselves every advantage during this stressful process. An ideal way around this is to ask for an improvised pitch or speech during the process, which will give you the opportunity to monitor their skill. Another technique is to ask a fairly outlandish question, which will help you to judge communication skill and creativity as well as their ability to think on their feet.

Creativity and the ability to think outside the box are critical characteristics to look for in your applicants. Creative marketing professionals are the most successful and will be able to view problems and situations from an unusual perspective, often presenting uniquely perfect solutions to any issues. Additionally, if there is a PR element to the post, you will need to ensure that the candidate is creative enough to respond to potentially troublesome questions posed by the public and the press.

In this day and age, it is also vital that any potential members of staff are fully up to date with current technologies. They should be proficient in everyday packages such as Office and any sector-specific programmes. They should also be aware of social networking media such as Facebook and Twitter and know how these sites can be used to your company’s advantage. Many new and established organisations have enjoyed success or suffered losses based on their use or misuse of these important tools.

Most importantly of all, your candidate must be able to organise their time and resources. Chances are they will be working to limited budgets and tight timescales and you need to be sure that they will be able to cope within these constraints. Applicants must be able to evidence this skill through either past employment or specific questioning designed to ascertain this information. Good communicators who are creative and know how to utilise social networking sites will be of no use to you if they are unable to put their plans in place due to poor organisational skills.

There are many skills that require being unearthed at the hiring stage in order to save your company time and money down the line. Careful screening and planning can ensure that you hire the right people for each post in order to secure your organisation’s future.