1 July 2023 by Angela Knox
If you’re running a business or managing a marketing function, you know that hiring experienced marketers at any level is currently a tough ask and takes much longer than it should.
In a recent Hubspot study,18% of businesses are predicted to struggle to recruit people with the right amount of marketing experience in 2023 - according to research that showed hiring top talent was number 2 on the list of marketing challenges coming down the track.
Why this situation is happening
There are a number of factors at play, one of which is the ever changing landscape of marketing itself as a discipline - whether you’re in a B2C or B2B business.
Technology moves at an unmanageable speed, and so you need to be ahead of the curve to maintain competitiveness and efficiency.
Getting the best bang for your buck when it comes to advertising and marketing activities is essential for maintaining and boosting your company’s profitability, and requires a mastery of an ever increasing set of marketing channels, all with the accompanying analytics functions and tools, terminology and metrics.
Most employers (not always justifiably in my view) seem to require their recruits to have experience in their particular sector.
If you’re in financial services or software, I can get on board with that stipulation, but many businesses that don’t require a particular skillset where learning the subject can be done relatively easily can relax their people search criteria a little, to broaden the numbers within the search pool.
If you’re a good marketer, you’re a good marketer - whatever the sector of business, especially if you’ve ever worked in a marketing agency where the need to become an expert on a multitude of topics is a necessary skill which you get used to honing.
Aside from all of the above, there’s the question of whether you can find someone who fits the DNA of your business - after all of the necessary requirements have been met.
Often it’s the case that someone who is less qualified or less experienced but has the right mindset and attitude has the advantage over the boffin type who may not have a personality fit with the business.
Recruiting professional marketers is a heavy duty responsibility that involves balancing a list of competing priorities, and one that brings considerable implications for the future success or otherwise of the business.
What you can do about it
Some businesses have a policy of keeping a constant eye out for skilled marketing professionals, whether they have a particular opening or not.
By proactively inviting potential recruits to make contact via the business’s website they are opening up the possibility of drawing good people into their net in preparation for a time when a job needs to be filled.
Maintaining a dialogue is always a good practice, and any HR pro worth their salt should have a bulging file (digital or otherwise) of people they can contact when the time is right.
The key to success here of course is planning ahead.
Most of the time, especially in large companies, identifying the need for a new marketing resource, cranking up the recruitment engine, getting HR to promote the vacancy and administer the process of recruitment is very long drawn out, and the department with the gap suffers the consequences until a person is eventually found.
I was once offered a senior marketing job by an extremely large UK company, only to be told that the ‘onboarding’ process (run by HR) would not happen for another 6 - 7 weeks due to lack of the relevant resource in the HR department (this was after 2 months of interviews). So I went to work elsewhere, even though the job itself would have been the better choice.
Falling at the last recruitment hurdle is really crazy when the process itself has already been long and frustrating, due to the shortage of the right types of people within the marketing workforce.
A valuable tactic, which should be a planned and sustained policy, is to build and maintain your employer brand, so that anyone thinking of applying for a job has a clear idea of what you stand for and feels a sense of belonging by working there.
Existing employees should also be encouraged and incentivised to refer potential recruits to the business - it’s an easy win and a cost-effective strategy.
How to plan ahead to avoid the pitfalls
Everything in life is about planning, so trying to forecast what your resource needs are going to be a long way in advance is going to stand you in good stead.
This way you will be able to identify options as to how you are going to be able to resource your marketing efforts, put a plan together and implement it in the least stressful way possible.
Have some flexibility when it comes to bringing new people into your business, otherwise it may be a difficult process, especially if you are in a very specialised field.
If you can think outside the box and allow your recruits some leeway - given the adaptability that is part of the DNA of most marketers - you may be able to plug the recruitment gap a bit more easily and quickly than you might expect.
And be realistic when it comes to salary and benefits - if you want to hire someone who will make an impactful contribution to your business, offer them the best salary you can afford, with some decent perks and benefits - it will be a great investment and your retention rates will skyrocket.
In many cases in this climate, many businesses are struggling to hire the right marketer at the right time for the right price - and this trend looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.
So if you're struggling to hire, outsourcing your marketing is another option, either short-term or longer-term, and you can do this easily by speaking with us at MOT, or any other provider of external marketing services!