Hiring a great growth marketer for your team is not impossible, even in today’s tight job market. So how come so many young founders are struggling to find growth marketers to scale their budding ventures or make them work out longer term? The answer is simple: because most founders don’t have adequate experience in recruiting professional teams.
As someone who helps startups hire growth marketers on a daily basis, I want to share some of the mistakes we see companies make when looking for coveted growth talent, so you can avoid making them in your hiring process.
1. Not defining the role clearly
Many startups hastily jump into the hiring process for a growth marketer without giving proper thought to the role they are hiring for. Some don’t even fully understand what the role actually means.
This is why it’s commonplace to see boilerplate language and vague objectives and expectations for the role in a job description. Being generic is a sure way to attract the wrong kind of candidates.
Here are some of the questions you want to ask yourself before you commence the search to better define the role and the candidate persona:
- What outcomes do I want the growth marketer to achieve and in what timeframe?
- What does my ideal growth marketer look like in terms of industry expertise and experience with specific growth channels?
- What values does the growth marketer need to have in order to fit in with my existing team?
2. Giving the role a fuzzy job title
Looking for a Growth Hustler, Growth Maven, or a Growth Wizard? No serious growth professional would consider a role like that.
Be descriptive and clear. Depending on what the role entails and where the candidate needs to be on the marketing/coding/product development spectrum, you may want to use Growth Marketer, Growth Engineer, Growth PM, Head of Growth or a similar job title.
Morgan Brown, a thought leader in growth and co-author of Hacking Growth, believes that even the term Growth Hacker has become so abused and diluted, that it shouldn’t be used to describe the role.
In fact, I tell most people on the growth side not to take a job with a company advertising a role as a growth hacker because that company clearly has no idea what they need to actually grow.
3. Not selling the opportunity
Whether you are posting a job ad or reaching out directly, your pitch needs to compel top growth hacking talent to take an interest in the role you are offering.
You only have one chance to get their attention, yet so many startups fail at this by providing a bland description of their company and the role. To make sure that your offer resonates with the right candidates, you should convey your passion and give reasons why the growth marketer should consider your opportunity.
Are you working on something innovative, exciting, and mission-driven? Awesome, share your vision. Is the candidate expected to champion your growth journey? Perfect, let the candidate size the professional growth opportunity.
Does your culture make your company an awesome place to work? Fantastic, prove it by including links to slide decks or videos, like this one.
Also, be specific about non-financial benefits you are offering. Emphasize things that are meaningful to the top candidates you are looking for, such as unlimited vacation time, flexible working hours, and development and training opportunities.
4. Combining several jobs in one
This is a pet peeve of ours. We see unrealistic job descriptions containing several jobs in one all the time.
If you are looking for a growth marketer to implement a high tempo testing across different user acquisition channels, write content, and conduct business development outreach, I have to disappoint you: that person does not exist.
There are only so many hours in a day and only so many things that even the most versatile growth marketer can focus on and do well. Identifying your must-have requirements makes your search more effective and helps the candidate better gauge whether the role is in line with their skillset and abilities.
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5. Relying on job boards
Job boards stopped working a long time ago. Sure, you may find some diamonds in the rough there, but by and large, the real talent will not surface because the best growth marketers are not active job seekers.
Your number one source for growth hacking talent should be referrals. Companies rely on referrals in the initial stages, but as they grow, they make the mistake of not fully leveraging this recruiting channel.
Referral recruiting is not as simple as saying, “Hey, do you know someone?” You need to set up a systematic approach to proactively mine your employee networks for best possible people.
If you can’t find the right candidate through referrals, use the next best alternative – a talent sourcing partner with a dedicated expertise in hiring growth marketers.
6. Creating poor candidate experience
Many startups mishandle the hiring process, creating poor experience for the candidates and hurting their employer brand.
When you don’t promptly respond to candidates, delay scheduled interviews, and leave the candidates hanging without a feedback, you are treating them with disrespect. The startup community is small, and with sites like Glassdoor, word spreads quickly.
According to a recent study, organizations that invest in a strong candidate experience improve their quality of hires by 70%. The takeaway is that you need to provide positive experience for the candidates at each step of your hiring process, regardless of whether you hire the person or not.
FotografieLink / Pixabay
7. Hiring without a trial
Even if the growth marketer that you want to hire is among the best, it doesn’t mean they are the best for your team. To quote Lex Sisney, author of Organizational Physics:
Consistently great teams don’t scout and hire for talent. They scout and hire for talent that is a supreme fit for their system.
How do you know if the candidate is a fit? A trial or a contract gives you an opportunity to see how well the candidate works with your team.
What’s more, by getting them to do real work, you are making sure the growth marketer you are hiring can actually produce the required level of output and has the skills needed for the role.
Trial is a win-win solution for everyone involved, since the candidate also gets a chance to test the waters with you.
Trial can be as short as a day and as long as a few weeks. It can take the form of a full-time engagement or a small side project. Whatever the format you choose, the point is that you should not skip this step in your hiring process.
Final thoughts
After reaching product/market fit, the most impactful thing for a startup is hiring growth talent. The truth is there are always talented growth marketers out there who can be excited by your opportunity and be a great fit with your team. If you want to attract them, you need to invest in creating a high-quality hiring process and avoid mistakes that can torpedo it.