Inbound Marketing Insights

Finding candidates to fit the niche marketing roles that require expertise in inbound marketing can be very challenging. Traditional marketing and advertising techniques are taught globally in colleges and universities. However, unfortunately, inbound marketing is still not a discipline that graduates know when they enter the professional workforce. After graduation, individuals are typically not ready to jump into inbound marketing roles that require extra training to get fully on board and learn how it integrates into an overall marketing strategy. The scarcity of digital marketing training, specifically inbound marketing training, can make it all the more difficult to find that perfect inbound marketer for your team. We see this issue repeatedly while working with organizations that want to practice inbound marketing. Still, they either don’t have the talent on their team to support the initiative or don’t have the budget or desire to work with an external inbound marketing agency.  

When crafting your inbound marketing job description and interviewing candidates for your job, there are four questions to ask. These questions will help you find the right talent to ensure the candidates have the skills or the motivation to learn the required skills quickly. Remember, just because someone has a marketing or communications background doesn't mean they can adequately perform in an inbound marketing role. Be sure to ask the tough questions before making an offer for your next inbound marketing hire. 

1. Do they have an inbound marketing certification? HubSpot has created a free inbound marketing certification that is available to individuals around the globe to learn the concept of inbound marketing entirely online. While HubSpot teaches this certification, the candidate does not need an active HubSpot account to access it. This certification immerses individuals in all things inbound marketing. It provides training, resources, and a global community of like-minded inbound marketers. If you’re hiring an inbound marketing professional who doesn’t have this certification, I would consider other candidates. Given that the cost is free and over 60,000 people are certified around the globe, you should make this a top priority in your hiring requirements.

2. Can they concisely describe the inbound methodology? The inbound methodology, or inbound marketing pillars, should be memorized by every inbound marketer (even if they are trying to break into the inbound marketing space). The inbound methodology is the holistic view of leveraging all your digital assets to get found online, convert traffic to leads, convert those leads to customers, and ultimately nurture your customers to be brand promoters. Any inbound marketer should understand that strategy and each fundamental tactic under these pillars of inbound marketing.

3. Have they implemented an integrated online marketing campaign? Always ask for examples and samples of prior work. This will help you evaluate how your inbound marketing candidates have integrated their online marketing campaigns in the past. For example, did they develop an eBook at a previous company and build a landing page, form, email, automation campaign, social strategy, and web conversion strategy behind it? These are critical pieces to every part of an integrated online marketing campaign. It’s essential to have them articulate exactly HOW they integrated all these aspects into a holistic campaign. Suppose they don’t have experience with that. In that case, they may not fully understand the scope of inbound marketing, and you may lose valuable time if you’re looking to start ramping up your inbound marketing initiatives quickly and efficiently.

4. What experience do they have with marketing automation platforms? Depending on the automation tool you are using, your future inbound marketer on your team should ideally have experience with that tool or be so well-versed in digital marketing that they can quickly learn a new marketing automation tool. If they say they have “heard of the tool” or “know what it does,” I would dig deeper before moving forward in the hiring process. Marketing automation cannot be picked up in just a week or two. It’s essential to keep that in mind when you’re interviewing inbound marketing candidates.

We have often seen individuals go entirely through the interview process for a job offer simply because they used the term “inbound marketing” on their resume or LinkedIn profile. However, they often don’t fully understand the complexity of inbound marketing and how to make it work for their new employer. This is a disservice to you as the employer and the candidate because they are potentially taking on a role where their success may be unrealistic. This mistake can set you back weeks, months, or sadly, even years if the knowledge isn’t there in the beginning. You run the risk that everyone on the team is on entirely different levels with their knowledge and skill set.

Since we have seen this problem often happen when hiring inbound marketers, we have started an advisory service to help you interview inbound marketing candidates to find the best individuals and give a third-party, technical, and strategic perspective. If you want to learn more, you can schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss the job and hiring opportunities for your next inbound marketer.