Digital marketing is one of the most in-demand skills in the business world. And with data showing that the best marketers increase sales by 50%, it’s no surprise that businesses want to hire a digital marketer.
If you’ve never hired a digital marketer before, or you’re just rusty, this article is for you. We’ll take a deep dive into what a digital marketer does, how much they cost, and where to find them before finishing with a 5-step hiring guide.
Let’s get going!
Quick Links:
- What is a Digital Marketer?
- Are You Ready To Hire a Digital Marketer?
- How Much Does it Cost To Hire a Digital Marketer?
- Where to Organically Find Great Digital Marketers
- Hiring a Digital Marketer: Skills to Look For
- How to Hire a Digital Marketer: 5-Step Guide
What is a Digital Marketer?
Hiring a Digital Marketing Manager can be tricky when you’re unsure of what the role entails. So, let’s clear that up!
A Digital Marketer is a person in charge of growing a company’s online presence through paid and free digital marketing channels. Put simply, it’s all about getting you in front of your target customers.
They drive engagement, generate leads, and increase brand awareness through tactics like Social Media, SEO, email marketing, and content marketing. A digital marketer sets and tracks digital marketing KPIs to measure marketing performance.
While we’ll focus on hiring in-house, Digital Marketers can also work freelance, as consultants, or as part of an external agency.
For many companies, successful marketing is fundamental to growth, success, and profitability. Given digital marketing is about ensuring customers find and engage with your brand, getting the right marketers on board is super important.
Are You Ready To Hire a Digital Marketer?
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably wondering whether it’s the right time to hire a digital marketer. Especially if it’s your first marketing hire, you need to balance the cost vs the value they deliver.
If you’re on the fence on whether to hire a marketer, first ask yourself these questions:
- Do you need to build high exposure for the launch of your business/product/service?
- Have you already got a solid sales process in place which needs more leads?
- Do you already have established marketing channels that are becoming hard to manage?
If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, the chances are you’re ready to hire a dedicated digital marketer.
The next key question to answer is ‘what type of Digital Marketer do I need?‘
Depending on your digital marketing setup, you’ll need to decide on a ‘jack of all trades’ or a specialist – such as SEO or Social Media Manager. Generally, organizations start with a marketer who can do it all and then hire specialists for each discipline as the team grows.
We’d recommend reading this article to get more in-depth knowledge on exactly when to hire a marketer!
How Much Does it Cost To Hire a Digital Marketer?
Salaries for a Digital Marketer vary depending on two things: speciality and experience.
For consistency, let’s look at the average salaries in the US, UK, and Australia for a general Digital Marketing Manager.
Average Digital Marketer Salary – US (Source: BuiltIn)
- Junior Salary – $45,000
- Mid-Weight Salary – $85,000
- Senior Salary – $170,000
Average Digital Marketer Salary – UK (Source: TotalJobs)
- Junior Salary – £27,000
- Mid-Weight Salary – £37,500
- Senior Salary – £52,500
Average Digital Marketer Salary – Australia (Source: Talent)
- Junior Salary – A$70,000
- Mid-Weight Salary – A$85,000
- Senior Salary – A$120,000
If you’re looking for a specialist marketing hire (e.g. Social Media Manager) it’s worth doing dedicated research into average salaries.
And, especially for roles such as an Ad Manager, consider incorporating performance-related bonuses based on sales targets.
Where to Organically Find Great Digital Marketers
In general, Digital Marketers are social animals and do a great job at building their reputation online. While we’ll take you through a full hiring guide later on, there are many ways to find great marketers.
If you want to build a network of great digital marketers outside of the job boards, try socializing in these places:
- LinkedIn – The B2B social media platform is where many of the best marketers shine. Chances are you’ll naturally come across personal posts from great marketers who combine great storytelling with actionable value to drive the best engagement. LinkedIn also has a number of great marketing groups where you’ll be able to find great people.
- Marketing Events – Marketers love creating awesome marketing events. Whether you’re looking for your next hire or just interested in the latest trends, we’d recommend checking them out. One of our favorites is run by the ‘State of Demand Gen‘ team.
- Facebook Groups – Much like LinkedIn, Facebook is another great place to seek out some kickass marketers. With a focus on B2C strategies, whether you find a marketer organically or join a group, Facebook is a great place to build a solid marketeer network.
- Marketing Forums – Marketers tend to hang out in dedicated marketing forums away from the traditional social media channels. if you want to find the best people talking about the latest marketing trends, check out this article for the best marketing forums in 2022.
How to Hire a Digital Marketer: Skills to Look For
As we’ve discussed, marketers are typically “jack-of-all-trades” types. You may come across the term “T-shaped marketer.” This describes someone who is a generalist but also has some deeper knowledge in one particular area.
Depending on the kind of role you’re hiring for, you’ll need to look out for some or all of these skills when evaluating candidates.
1. They’re Highly Analytical
The biggest part of a digital marketer’s job is telling a story from the numbers. A digital marketer (or a digital marketing agency) should be good at finding the right numbers, interpreting them, and making strategies to improve their KPIs. It helps to be an Excel whizz too, because they will need to work with sheets, regardless of their specialty.
2. They’re Great Writers
Even if their primary job is not writing copy, every digital marketer needs to have a talent for the written word. From writing social media captions to long-form SEO-optimized content for your blog, your digital marketer needs to be a great writer to do their job.
3. They Know Their SEO
Even if they’re not an SEO specialist, every digital marketer should have some knowledge of SEO basics. Some examples include how to do basic keyword research, keyword optimization, on-page ranking signals, white-hat vs black-hat SEO, and more.
Also, it’s good to have the knowledge of at least one major SEO tool such as Moz, Screaming Frog, or Ahrefs / SEMrush.
4. They Write Emails You Actually Open
Your marketer needs to write great emails but also they must know how to make those emails perform. They need a solid grasp of email marketing metrics, as well as knowledge of how to improve them.
5. They’re Superb Communicators
A digital marketer is the face of your company. They interact with your customers through the content they create and they must be comfortable communicating through different mediums.
Moreover, they need to be comfortable making partnerships with other marketers, business owners, contractors, website editors, and anyone else that can help them and the business perform better.
How to Hire a Digital Marketer: 5-Step Guide
In this 5-guide, we’re assuming you’ve got a bunch of candidates and you need to whittle them down to find the perfect hire. We’d recommend checking out our creative sourcing strategies blog, if you need some advice on finding great candidates.
1. Screen Candidates With a Skills Test
There’s no better way to start shortlisting candidates than by putting their skills to the test. It’s quick, easy, and will instantly help you identify top-tier talent within your shortlist.
At Toggl Hire, our Smart Tests are as easy as 2-clicks. Simply select the Digital Marketing role to create your own unique test from our database of 10,000+ questions with each candidate receiving a unique set of questions to eliminate cheating.
Like the sound of that? Check out the video below to see how it works!
As an example, a Digital Marketing Smart Test may ask the candidate to do any of the following:
- Create a caption for an image for social media,
- Calculate the conversion rate of a web page
- Correctly answer a technical question about SEO
- Suggest keywords for a particular Google Ads campaign.
- Update a piece of website copy to irradicate errors
If you’re a hiring manager without a technical marketing background, there’s no need to worry! All of our questions are submitted by experts and peer-reviewed so you know they’re of the highest quality!
2. Google Them
A good online marketer will have a great online track record. This could come in the form of publishing guest posts, social media updates, their own website or blog and, industry-recognized qualifications.
Dive deeper into your shortlisted bunch of marketing candidates by googling their name and seeing what comes up. It will help you get a feel for their past work and experience. You can use this alongside their skills test results to determine whether you’ll take them through to interview!
3. Seek Out Their Social Media Presence
Most digital marketing experts maintain a great presence on social media platforms.
Check out their LinkedIn, Twitter, and perhaps even Facebook profiles to get a feeling of their personal brand. This could come through in the kind of content they post, how active they are, what kind of communities they’ve built, and what kind of engagement they get.
Also, see who they are connected with. Is their LinkedIn network filled with people they/you can learn from? If you have mutual connections, you can ask them for honest feedback about the marketer’s work. This brings us to our next point…
4. Ask for Testimonials
Testimonials, reviews, and recommendations from past clients are powerful validators when hiring digital marketers. Check out what people have said about working with your candidates on their LinkedIn profile.
You can always reach out to the original poster of the LinkedIn review and ask directly for more detailed info on their performance. The more specific the recommendation, the better.
5. Conduct a Few, High-Value Interviews
Once they’ve completed a skills test, you now have all the info you need to schedule a meeting and conduct a great interview. You can discuss the results of a candidate’s tests in the interview alongside getting to know them as a person.
Ask about past experiences and what they learned from them, their leadership style, situational judgment, and career ambitions. This is a great way to find out how your candidate thinks, and whether they’ll slot into your company culture.
Wrapping up
Even though digital marketers are so crucial for businesses, knowing how to hire one isn’t too hard once you do your homework.
Take some time to learn if you’re ready to hire a marketer, what they’ll do for your business, and how much you want to pay, and you’ll have no problems finding the right person for the job.
When it comes to hiring, we always believe the foundation should be more testing and fewer resumes. Skills testing with Toggl Hire is a great way to put a candidate’s skills to the test to ensure you get the best Digital Marketer for the job!
James Elliott is a Strategy Manager and Writer from London, UK. When not working on the day job, James writes on a variety of business and project management topics with a focus on content that enables readers to take action and improve their ways of working. You can check out James’ work on his website or by connecting on LinkedIn.
