When Hiring A Marketing Person Look For These 6 Characteristics

I had a column open on TweetDeck yesterday for a search term and the following Tweet came up (I'm paraphrasing) "Let me teach you marketing and make money from Twitter. Just set it and forget it! Click here." Guys like these give Twitter, and more injuriously, Marketing a bad name. There is simply no such thing as "set it and forget it" marketing

Many small business owners who feel uncomfortable with marketing, or who don't have the time to devote to marketing their business, often look to hire an employee or retain a marketing consulting firm to help them. There is frequently a concern on the part of the business owner that the marketing person is not getting the needed results fast enough.

You may wonder and ask about putting all the marketing eggs in one basket: If email marketing is working, why don't we quit attending events and just send out more email? If we aren't getting any leads from direct mail, why don't we quit mailing and spend that money on SEO? Or, yes, our direct mail is working, but do we have to send it out every month? Could we go every 6 weeks?

You may also feel a little discomfort when the marketing person suggests something different from what you've done in the past. They might be recommending a dramatically different look and feel to the campaigns. They may write edgier copy than what you've used in the past.

Business owners, you are going to have to learn to trust your marketing people. I believe that if they are displaying the 6 characteristics below, you can relax. In fact, you can celebrate.

Curious - Good marketing people are curious. They love to delve into the contextual aspect of where and how your products and services fit. They want to know more about everything - the products, the services, the customers, the nature of the customer's business, how the customer is using the product and services for better results, what makes a good customer, how can we find more of those. Their brains are always clicking on these things. When you hear them talk about these things, it's a very good sign.

Good marketing people are consistent. They know that the challenge of making your brand top of mind with your target market requires a regular and strategic outreach. They understand the difference between spamming and reasonable frequency. Consistent doesn't mean uniform - so they'll be looking for ways to keep the message and tactics fresh for optimum results.

Results Driven - Marketing people love metrics! From raw leads and number of hits to adds to the pipeline to average revenue per customer. Marketing people are watching analytics daily. How many hits to the website? How many leads have qualified? Conversely, when a campaign didn't work, or didn't draw as much as a previous campaign, they examined the possible reasons why.

Experimental - Good marketers are willing to experiment with new marketing channels, or to restore marketing efforts that previously had become tired. For example, maybe your company dabbled with webinars and didn't see good results. When there is time to revisit and re-evaluate, good marketers like to take a fresh look at an old effort. Perhaps the content was less than compelling. Perhaps the title was unattractive - or failed to address what the attendee was looking to learn or solve. Good marketers are keeping tabs on things like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and how B2B are employing those platforms.

Good marketers look for ways to make marketing fun for the recipient. Some of the most successful B2C and B2B campaigns have been those that invite the prospect to have a little bit of fun with the marketing piece or message. Sometimes the fun factor can cause a marketing campaign to go viral and enjoy an unexpected reach when recipients share with their networks.

Open - Good marketing people are open to discussing how the plan is working. They welcome the chance to answer the business owner's questions. If they don't know the answer to the questions, they are open to researching, and testing if necessary, to get the answer. The point is good marketers are willing to advise but also revise - they too want to know if there is a better mousetrap.

Want to find out more about marketing, then visit Dawn Westerberg's site on how to choose the best marketing plan for your needs.