Has your content marketing reached its full potential? If you can’t answer that question, you need to take a step back and evaluate. You can do this by hiring an experienced content marketer.
Content marketing is a competitive industry. You need to hire someone who is as passionate as you to drive your brand. But hiring a content marketer isn’t as easy as it sounds.
You need to make sure you’re hiring the right person for the job, and this takes time and effort. I’ve got some tips to help you through the process.
1. Make Sure They Understand Your Audience
Content marketing is all about creating content that solves your audience’s problems. That’s why it’s so important to hire someone who understands your audience.
Ask potential candidates how they would approach creating content for your target market. If they can’t answer that question, they’re not the right fit for your business.
A good content marketer will take the time to understand your audience and create content that speaks directly to them.
2. Look for Candidates With a Proven Track Record
It’s always a good idea to look for candidates with a proven track record of success in their field. However, this can be especially important when hiring content marketers.
Look for candidates who have worked on successful campaigns in the past, and ask them to provide examples of their work. You can also check their LinkedIn profiles to see if they have any recommendations from previous employers or clients.
Hiring candidates with a proven track record of success will give you more confidence that they can deliver results for your business.
3. Look for a Candidate With a Strong Social Media Presence
In the world of content marketing, your online reputation is everything. That’s why it’s so important to look for candidates who have a strong social media presence.
A candidate who is active on social media and has a large following is more likely to have a good reputation in the industry. This can be a huge asset to your company, as it can help you to build trust and credibility with your audience.
On the other hand, if a candidate has a poor social media presence or no presence at all, it could be a red flag. It may indicate that they are not well-respected in the industry, or that they don’t take their online reputation seriously.
4. Ask the Right Interview Questions
Once you’ve identified a few promising candidates, it’s time to schedule some interviews. You’ll want to make sure you have a list of questions prepared in advance.
During the interview, you should be looking for candidates who are not only knowledgeable about content marketing but also passionate about it. You’ll also want to make sure they have a good understanding of your business and industry.
Here are a few questions you might want to ask:
• What do you think are the most important skills for a content marketer to have?
• What are your favorite blogs or websites to follow and why?
• How do you measure the success of your content marketing efforts?
• Can you tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult client or stakeholder?
• What are some examples of successful content marketing campaigns you’ve worked on?
• What are the first three things you would do if you were hired for this role?
• What would you say are the biggest challenges facing content marketers today?
• How do you stay organized and manage your time effectively?
• Can you tell me about a time when you had to pivot your content strategy and how you handled it?
5. Look for Someone Who’s a Quick Study
Your content marketing team should be made up of people who are quick studies. This means they can easily learn new topics and industries.
If you’re hiring a content marketer to work at an agency, they’ll likely be working with a wide variety of clients. This means they’ll need to be able to learn about new industries and topics quickly.
If you’re hiring an in-house content marketer, they should be able to learn about your industry and business quickly. You can test this by having them research your business and industry as part of the interview process and have them present a list of content topics. For example, if your audience is home service industry business owners, relevant topics would include how to start a business, how to market your home services, a free estimate template, top field service apps, etc.
6. Look for Someone Who’s Passionate About Your Industry
When you’re looking to hire a content marketer, it’s important to find someone who’s passionate about your industry. After all, it’s hard to write great content about something you’re not interested in.
If you’re a software company, you’ll want to find a content marketer who’s passionate about technology. If you’re a fashion brand, you’ll want to find someone who loves keeping up with the latest trends. If your product is a go-to-market platform, you’ll want to find someone who excels at research and product marketing.
One way to gauge a candidate’s interest in your industry is to take a look at their previous work. If they’ve written a lot of content in your industry, it’s a good sign they’re passionate about it.
7. Look for Someone Who’s a Team Player
Content marketing requires a lot of collaboration. If you hire a content marketer who isn’t a team player, it will be difficult for them to work with other teams and accomplish your goals.
For example, if your content marketer isn’t a team player, they might not be willing to take feedback from other teams or work with your sales team to create content that helps them close deals.
During the interview process, ask candidates about their experience working on a team and how they handle feedback. You can also ask for examples of times when they had to work with other teams to accomplish a goal.
8. Look for Someone Who’s Creative
Content marketing is a creative field, so it’s important to look for candidates who are, well, creative. Look for someone who has a strong portfolio of creative work, whether that’s in the form of blog posts, social media content, videos, or something else.
Content marketing is also a field that’s always changing, so look for candidates who are creative in their approach to learning and growing in their career. Ask candidates about how they stay up to date on the latest content marketing trends and what they do to continue developing their skills.
9. Look for Someone Who’s Data-Driven
Data is the foundation of any good marketing strategy. So, it’s important to find a content marketer who knows how to collect and analyze data.
Look for candidates who have experience working with tools like Google Analytics (or Google Analytics 4), SEMrush, and Ahrefs. Ask them how they use data to inform their content strategy and how they measure the success of their content.
It’s important that your content marketer knows how to employ different data collection methods and make decisions based on data-driven insights. The more data-driven your content marketing strategy is, the more likely you are to see results.
Conclusion
Some businesses hire content marketers as full-time employees, while others bring them on a freelance basis. Which option is best for you depends on your budget, your current content strategy, and the role you see content playing in your business moving forward.
If you’re just starting with content marketing, you might want to hire a freelance content marketer to help you get off the ground. Once you have a solid strategy in place, you might consider bringing a full-time content marketer on board to manage your strategy and create all of your content.
If you’re a small business and don’t have the budget for a full-time content marketing hire, you might consider hiring a freelance content marketer on a retainer to help you create content on a regular basis.
If you’re a larger business with a mature content strategy, you might need to hire a full team of content marketers to keep up with your content needs.
Before you start the hiring process, think about what makes the most sense for your business moving forward and what type of hire you can afford. Also, explore using the best affiliate apps to enhance your marketing efforts.
