Summary: Onboarding new hires can be expensive and time consuming. Read an insider’s guide to relevant and free training resources.
Hiring well, and doing so consistently, eludes many of us. All too often, you spend six months with a new hire before realizing they are a poor fit. By that time, you’ve spent far more than you may realize on training, which is a sunk cost if the hire doesn’t work out. Even if they do thrive and prosper, you lose productivity during the initial onboarding and training period.
Thankfully, there are a multitude of free online resources that are highly relevant to performance marketing hires.
Here are a few of the best online resources and certification courses to help new hires develop a stronger digital marketing toolset without breaking the bank.
- Be a Better Analyst
If you’re good at Google Sheets, you’ll be good at Excel, numbers, and potentially even database languages like Structured Query Language (SQL). The Collins School of Data offers training courses for users of Google Sheets, and the complimentary Advanced Formulas 30-Day Challenge will surprise even self-considered numbers nerds in its depth. To make the leap from “data” to “database”, try going through SQL Fundamentals from SoloLearn or Learn SQL from Codecademy.
- Certified for Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Google’s Academy for Ads is a center of training and certification for all things related to Google’s advertising platforms. If any skills related to search engine marketing are relevant to the role you’re hiring for, ask applicants whether or not they’re already Google Certified. If you are considering a candidate who appears to be strong, but they aren’t certified, test their dedication by making their job offer contingent on completion of certifications for Fundamentals, Search, and any other ad format specific to your business.
- Learn to Speak Digital
You’ll also have your “people” people; non-technical hires who need to speak the language of digital marketing, so they can sell services or manage client relationships. For them, Google’s Digital Garage contains a number of high quality (and free) training resources. Similarly, HubSpot Academy covers a broad range of trainings, including on topics like Facebook, search engine optimization (SEO), and lead management. While the way you position your sales and service offerings will be unique to your company, giving a candidate a general understanding of the digital landscape before training with your internal materials gives them a huge head start.
Typical hires for affiliate marketing companies will run the gamut. You’ll have sales people, account managers, and hands-on marketers. Regardless of where on the spectrum your new hire falls, proving she or he is a self-starter by making it through some of these programs will lower the time you spend and allow you to learn more quickly, if you’ve made the right decision.
Anna is VP of Operations at Wickfire and loves to see new hires grow professionally. This article appeared in issue 45 of FeedFront Magazine, which was published in January 2019: Visit Here