Re:Hiring the first head of marketing at a startup
by PragmaticPulp on Saturday September 12, 2020 @09:13AM
(#24452176)
The linked article has a great suggestion to start by hiring marketing ICs instead of marketing managers. Skipping straight to hiring a CMO who intends to build out a full marketing team to get the work done is a recipe for massive spending and long delays before results are seen.
In my experience, the key is to hire someone who understands your market first, not just the art of marketing in general. If their first step after hiring is to do market research to begin to understand the customers, you’re probably too late. You need to get a head start with someone who already knows the industry and the market so they can skip straight to spending marketing budgets where they are known to work well. In parallel they can research additional avenues that could compliment the startup’s unique position.
In my experience, the key is to hire someone who understands your market first, not just the art of marketing in general. If their first step after hiring is to do market research to begin to understand the customers, you’re probably too late. You need to get a head start with someone who already knows the industry and the market so they can skip straight to spending marketing budgets where they are known to work well. In parallel they can research additional avenues that could compliment the startup’s unique position.