“The top 10 things to look for in a startup marketer”
1. Do they favor efficient channels? - Do they rely on the most efficient channels like SEO, email marketing and business development? The best candidates will recognize that channels can be ranked by effectiveness and they will always start with the most efficient channels and work their way down the rankings.
2. Are they aware of best-practice metrics? - Look to Dave McClure for best-practice startup metrics. It is always a challenge to establish and track the right metrics. Dave has an awesome presentation on this on his site at: http://500hats.typepad.com/
3. Do they follow best-practice lead generation? - The best lead generation talent comes with a direct marketing or interactive marketing background. There is no better way to learn lead generation than to try hundreds of campaigns and see what people respond to (it is not what you might think!). For more information on lead generation see my site at: http://www.chaistartup.com/
4. Do they practice customer development? - Customer development means soliciting ongoing feedback from the marketplace to define the product and the positioning. There is a movement out west on this subject. Steve Blank first wrote about this concept in his book “4 Steps to the Epiphany.” Sean Ellis also has a blog on the subject: http://startup-marketing.com/
5. Do they understand new segmentation techniques that include behavioral segmentation - In the old days you would segment by demographics like title, company size, location etc. Now you can segment in much more exciting ways like who visited what web page, who clicked where, and who downloaded what and when. This way you can have a real 2-way communication versus a broadcast relationship.
6. Do they understand marketing automation (for b2b)? - Marketing automation provides a ton of benefits like a. Sophisticated lead scoring to get the right leads to the sales team at the right time b. Lead nurturing with automated campaigns vs. one-off campaigns c. A repository for the history of interactions vs. no memory of past interactions. Vendors in this space include Eloqua, Marketo and Silverpop.
7. Can they aggressively manage third-party vendors? - If you know their business you will get more out of them.
8. Are they systematic bold and creative? - The methodology needs to be systematic and at the same time the offers and incentives need to be creative because the same-old same-old will not perform well (because there is a psychological element to response).
9.Have they done it before? - People that have worked with venture funded startup companies or startup companies in general will have a better feel for building out capabilities that are more efficient. Large company marketers often rely on expensive tools and vendors because they tend to have less of a feel for what will result from a given activity.
10. Do they pass tests you throw at them?- Let them present their plan. Then if you hire them you already know what they will work on!
