As we’ve tried to return to some sense of normalcy in 2021, the implications of the pandemic have bled into this year — impacting and shaping the future of business and small business marketing as we know it. We’ve faced new and old challenges, pushed hard for innovation, and trudged forward in the face of change and the many lessons learned.

I chatted with some incredible guests on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast over this past year. I wanted to take a look back at the most popular episodes we aired in 2021.

If you enjoyed what you heard here, check out the full line-up of shows.

1. Oliver Burkeman – Making The Most Of Your Time

Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking. For many years, he wrote a popular column on psychology for the Guardian newspaper. He’s the author of a new book called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.

Biggest takeaway:

The average human lifespan is brief. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But often, such techniques often end up making things worse. In this episode, Oliver Burkeman talks about concepts from his book: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. We discuss the many unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time, and how to think and do things differently so that we can show up better in the present moment.

Click here to listen to the episode.

2. Clare Kumar – How To Optimize Your Work Performance

Clare Kumar helps busy professionals optimize their performance. She is a media contributor on productivity, organization, and work-life integration.

Biggest takeaway:

People are busy, and that’s applicable across every and all job roles — entrepreneurs, business professionals, employees, stay-at-home parents, consultants, you name it, we’re busy. Clare Kumar works directly with people and professionals helping them optimize their performance and work-life integration. In this episode, Clare shares how to shift your mindset in a way that will help you build habits that last, boost your productivity, and optimize your work performance.

Click here to listen to the episode.

3. Solo Show – Creating Content For Every Stage Of The Customer Journey

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, and The Ultimate Marketing Engine. He is also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, which trains and licenses independent consultants and agencies to use the Duct Tape Methodology.

Biggest takeaway:

Content can’t and shouldn’t be viewed as a bunch of one-off projects. The creation of it needs to come out of one comprehensive strategy. Because it is such an important piece of the marketing puzzle these days, it needs to be incorporated in every phase of the customer journey. As a person moves through the customer journey, you must hit them with content throughout the process to keep them engaged with your business, and the best way to do this is to match the content you’d like to develop with the various phases of the Marketing Hourglass. In this episode, I share how to create content for every stage of the customer journey.

Click here to listen to the episode.

4. Mike Michalowicz – How To Create Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored

Mike Michalowicz is a speaker and bestselling author, the creator of Profit First – which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. And he’s got a new book today called – Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored!

Biggest takeaway: 

Many business owners are frustrated because they feel invisible in a crowded marketplace. They know they are better than their competitors, but when they focus on that fact, they get little in return. That’s because, to customers, better is not actually better. Different is better. And those who market differently, win. In this episode, Mike talks about his new marketing book, Get Different, where he offers a proven, method to position your business, service, or brand to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales.

Click here to listen to the episode.

5. Ryan Englin – How To Attract The Right Talent

Ryan is the CEO of Core Fit Hiring which helps blue-collar companies fill frontlines with quality technicians and craftworkers.

Biggest takeaway:

Finding the right talent is not an easy task to conquer. In fact, many people waste time hiring the wrong people or have a difficult time retaining the people they worked so hard to attract. In this episode, I talk with the founder of Core Fit Hiring, Ryan Englin, about why people have such a difficult time attracting the right talent today and what you need to do to attract quality frontline workers who align with your company values — and how to get them to stay.

Click here to listen to the episode.

6. Jeffrey Shaw – Making Your Self-Employed Business Sustainably Successful

Jeffrey is an experienced speaker and small-business consultant. He helps self-employed and small-business owners gain control of their business in what otherwise seems like uncontrollable circumstances. He’s also the author of a book called: The Self-Employed Life: Business and Personal Development Strategies That Create Sustainable Success.

Biggest takeaway: 

To be self-employed means more than employing oneself. It’s a choice to challenge yourself to grow personally while building a business. As we develop ourselves, we raise the bar—we’re capable of even more success. What self-employed folks need is both business strategies and personal development to reach and maintain that success. In this episode, Jeffrey Shaw shares his holistic approach for sustainable, self-employed success.

Click here to listen to the episode.

7. Jacqueline Lieberman – Making Brands More Human

Jacqueline Lieberman is the former Managing Partner and the Head of Strategy Story Worldwide and the current founder of BrandCrudo.

Biggest takeaway:

Brands are people’s introduction to businesses and their way to interact with companies. The more human a brand is, the better that interaction is going to be. All of the beloved brands that are out there are the ones that behave like human beings. They have a conscience, a point of view, a soul, and a personality. In this episode, Jacqueline Lieberman discusses the work that she does with her clients and the ways in which she has helped many brands become more human.

Click here to listen to the episode.

8. Sophia Godkin – The Simple Truths About Happiness

Sophia Godkin is a Health Psychologist, Happyologist, and Happiness, Relationship & Transformational Coach. She’s also the author of The 5-Minute Gratitude Journal: Give Thanks, Practice Positivity, Find Joy.

Biggest takeaway:

During her Ph.D. journey, Dr. Sophia Godkin found herself under an incredible amount of stress that led her to an internal realization that life could be lived in a more harmonious internal state. There is so much truth in the statement: “All you have to do is decide to be happy.” But how many people actually have the tools, resources, and mental mindset to be able to decide to be happy? There are many things that actually prevent us from the decision to be happy. In this episode, Dr. Sophia Godkin dives into the simple truths about finding happiness.

Click here to listen to the episode.

9. Tripp Lanier – Reach Your Potential by Living Dangerously

Tripp Lanier is a professional coach, author of This Book Will Make You Dangerous, and host of The New Man Podcast: Beyond the Macho Jerk and the New Age Wimp which — for over a decade — has been downloaded millions of times. We’re discussing his book called This Book Will Make You Dangerous – a guide for the rare, few men who refuse to sleepwalk through life.

Biggest takeaway:

Tripp Lanier has spent thousands of hours coaching forward-thinking men all around the world on how to not sleep through life and how to see opportunities instead of walls. In this episode, Tripp Lanier focuses on mindset and shares how to challenge your fears, align your life with meaning, and find clarity and direction in your life.

Click here to listen to the episode.

10. Allan Dib – Is the 1-Page Marketing Plan Right for Your Business?

Allan Dib is a serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer, and #1 bestselling author. Allan Dib wrote The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From the Crowd.

Biggest takeaway:

To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done. In this episode, Allan Dib talks about his 1-Page Marketing Plan – which is a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Is your favorite episode on the list? If not, we’d love to hear which one you enjoyed listening to the most!

For our podcast audience, we can’t thank you enough for your support over the years! If you like the show, click on over and subscribe and if you love the show give us a review on iTunes, please!

Word of mouth marketing is considered by many to be the most desired form of marketing. The trust, referrals, and overall brand-building buzz that’s garnered by customers spreading the good word to prospects are worth its weight in gold. Some products, services, and experiences naturally produce chatter, but there are certain things that any company can do to stimulate word of mouth and cash in on the buzz.

Here are six ways to get your customers talking about you and your organization:

1) Ask them – The best word of mouth starts with “word of listen.” Call your customers up and ask them why they buy, why they stick around, and why they tell their friends about you. You might be a bit surprised by their answers. Hint: it’s usually not the stuff you have in your new marketing brochure. You stand a far greater chance of attracting the right customers and the right buzz if you really understand what your current customers value about doing business with you. This goes for online and social media listening as well – what are they saying in Slack channels, blog comments, on LinkedIn, or Twitter?

2) Teach them – Sometimes great word of mouth just happens, but sometimes you’ve got to help it along. One way to do this is to make sure you are teaching your customers how to spot an ideal client, what a prospect in need might say when looking for your products, and how to properly and concisely describe how your company is different. Of course, in today’s hyper-social media world you should also be teaching your happiest customers how to write reviews on Yelp, Google My Business, Facebook Ratings and Reviews, Insider Pages, and CitySearch-type rating sites.

3) Star them – Letting a customer testimonial or success story go uncaptured or untold is downright criminal in WOM circles. Today you can easily record customer testimonials on an iPhone or Android or you can start doing video interviews over Zoom to record their success stories. These “real life” bits of content are gold and turn your featured customers into talking referral billboards for your brand. Want to take this idea up a notch? Hold a customer party and film a dozen or so at one time in a great atmosphere – this alone will get your customers talking.

4) Include them – People like to be asked what they think, it’s just human nature, but it’s also a great way to get some sound advice. Create a round table discussion group made up of select customers and charge them with advising you once a quarter or so on new marketing and business initiatives. (Reward them for this in some way as well.) This can include advising on everything from a product extension to the look and feel of your website redesign. Members of your marketing round table will become natural ambassadors for the brand. (You can do this with simple video chat meetings – Zoom or GoogleMeet)

5) Video them – People are more likely to respond t0 a personalized video over a generic one any day. People’s email inboxes and newsfeeds are flooded with businesses trying to sell to them so much so that it’s hard to stand out in all of the noise today. One-to-one video is a highly effective way to stand out in the crowd. You can use a tool like Loom to send a prospect a quick personalized message about something you saw on their website, invite a lead to sign up for an event you’re having that you think would be valuable to them, or follow up with a potential client with a personalized video instead of an email.

6) Surprise them – I like to think I saved the best for last – few things get people talking faster than surprising them. This can include doing something that was out of the blue and much appreciated to just giving them more than they bargained for. I remember a PR firm that was pitching me some business and the account rep showed up to meet with an apple pie (I’m still talking about it.) I once worked with a financial planner that hired a mobile auto detail firm to detail his customer’s cars during their annual review – that created some buzz.

The bottom line of course is that you’ve got to do good work, do something that somebody appreciates, and create an experience worth talking about, but then, prime the pump and leverage all that greatness.

2020 was an unpredictably eye-opening year that brought forth swift change, lots of uncertainty, and a shift in perspective for many. Even though 2020 immediately conjures words like “challenge,” “hardship” and “crisis,” there are many lessons learned that will impact and shape the future of business and small business marketing moving forward.

I chatted with some incredible guests on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. I wanted to take a look back at the most popular episodes we aired in 2020.

If you enjoyed what you heard here, check out the full line-up of shows.

Tim Staples – Creating Shareable Content for Your Busines

Tim Staples is the CEO of Shareability and co-author of Break Through the Noise: The 9 Rules to Capture Global Attention. Staples has developed a reputation in the marketing industry for being a creator of viral content. In the past few years, several of his video campaigns have amassed more than five billion views, and 35 of them have landed on the first page of YouTube.

Biggest takeaway: Today everybody has a megaphone. But now that everybody has a megaphone, they’re shouting into it all day long, every day, to the point where most people have tuned almost all of it out. You’ll hear from Staples on the five positive emotions that are the most effective in content to get people to lean forward and share: happiness, awe, curiosity, empathy, and surprise.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Michael Margolis – Storytelling Around Disruption and Innovation

Michael Margolis is the CEO and founder of Storied. Storytelling has become a business buzzword of late, but there’s a lot of complexity behind the term. Margolis’ focus is specifically on storytelling as it relates to disruption and innovation. It’s often hard to tell stories about change—audiences grow wary or defensive—but Margolis helps leaders in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of innovation make that change feel exciting and achievable.

Biggest takeaway: We are taught to lead with data and conclusions. But if you lead with data, the story is dead on arrival. Margolis shares his three-step narrative framework that will help you capture your audience’s imagination, attention, and relate to your story about what you’re selling.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Alison Levine – How to Treat an Opportunity Like Your One Big Break

Alison Levine is a leadership expert, polar explorer, and mountaineer who is no stranger to extreme environments. She has survived sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, sudden avalanches, and a career on Wall Street. She is one of the most in-demand keynote speakers, delivering resounding leadership messages that transcend her extreme climbing expeditions and remain relevant in today’s fast-paced business environments. She is able to draw relevant, authentic parallels between mountaineering and business because she has experienced both first hand—on multiple mountains, in multiple organizations, and in multiple industries.

Biggest takeaway: Alison Levine shares her story of starting her journey at 30. Levine shares how progress happens when you get uncomfortable, and how to treat an opportunity like it’s your one big break.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Steven M.R. Covey – Timeless Habits for Cultivating Success

Steven M. R. Covey is the former CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, where he helped his father, Stephen R. Covey, launch his classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He is also a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author himself. His book, The Speed of Trust, is designed to help leaders build a collaborative team and environment on the basis of trust.

Biggest takeaway: Steven M.R. Covey shares his insights on why it’s so important for people to feel understood, how a paradigm shift can change your reality, why spirituality doesn’t need to be religious, and how it can help you in challenging times.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Ben Shapiro – Uncovering New Possibilities in the World of Marketing

Ben Shapiro got his start at eBay, where he served as their manager of business development and SEO. He then went on to found his own business and run marketing for a number of early-stage startups. In more recent years, he transitioned into marketing strategy consulting and now runs several popular podcasts, including the MarTech Podcast and Voices of Search. 

Biggest takeaway: Shapiro shares why companies should consider getting into a content business. what really matters when it comes to creating a successful podcast (or great content in any format), and how to approach going independent whether that’s the next big step in your career, or you’re doing it for the time being.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Seth Godin – Tips of the Trade with Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker. In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, he has written 19 best-selling books, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and What To Do When It’s Your Turn (And It’s Always Your Turn). His most recent book, This is Marketing, was an instant bestseller in countries around the world.

Biggest takeaway: You’ll get insights from best-selling author, teacher, and entrepreneur Seth Godin about what it takes to create a successful podcast and produce one at that, the difference between the homemade and the professional approach to media production, and where conferences will stand on being relevant in today’s world.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Kara Goldin – How to Find Inspiration in Doubt

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of Hint Water, a flavored water brand founded in 2005. She is also the author of Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters. Kara is an active speaker, writer, and host of the podcast Unstoppable with Kara Goldin where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other disruptors across various industries.

Biggest takeaway: Don’t let anyone crush your dreams! Kara Goldin shares her story about the incredible risks she took and how she overcame huge challenges in founding Hint amidst all of the doubt from herself and others.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Solo Show – Google Analytics Simplified for Small Business

Closing the loop on your marketing investment, on your channels, on your customer engagement, are important. This allows you to focus, spend less money, and invest in what really works. I work with a lot of small business consultants and small business clients and this is one of the biggest challenges to get them excited about. It’s a lot like telling people they need to like math. Especially when you go to this tool, one that I believe is one of the best tools on the planet, and it’s free, but it’s really easy to get lost. In this podcast, I’m going to spend some time trying to simplify this.

Biggest takeaway: You’ll learn why you should care about Google Analytics, how to set it up, and what goals you should have when you set it up.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Todd Henry – How Motivation Can Drive You to Produce Your Best Work

Todd Henry is the founder of Accidental Creative, and author of The Accidental Creative as well as Die Empty. Todd Henry’s latest book he wrote with Rod Penner, Todd W. Hall, Ph.D., and Joshua Miller, Ph.D. – The Motivation Code: Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work.

Biggest takeaway: Todd Henry has created a new framework for understanding what motivates us and why. Henry shares tips on how you can use your motivation to produce your best work.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Shaina Weisinger – Repurposed Content Can Increase Your Traffic 300%

Shaina Weisinger is the CEO of Repurpose House. Shaina Weisinger is an expert in social media marketing, specifically optimizing content through repurposing. Repurpose House takes all of the content your business produces and adds the social media bells and whistles. They trim video and audio, create text motion videos of blog highlights, add headlines, captions, size them for all platforms, and more.

Biggest takeaway: You’ve spent effort and time creating content, you should get the most out of it. Shaina Weisinger shares how you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, and you can use repurposed content to increase your traffic significantly.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Is your favorite episode on the list? If not, we’d love to hear which one you enjoyed listening to the most!

For our podcast audience, we can’t thank you enough for your support over the years! If you like the show, click on over and subscribe and if you love the show give us a review on iTunes, please!

Far too often businesses of all sizes leave the official job of marketing to, well, the marketing department, which is frequently known as the owner of the business or top salesperson turned into the marketing person. 

But, here’s a little newsflash – marketing is everybody’s job. Anyone associated with your business that comes into contact with a prospect or customer is performing a marketing function. It’s not just the people with marketing in their titles. So the question is – are these people prepared to carry out that function well?

Marketing isn’t just a new ad campaign, an email series, or this month’s current promotion. It is so much deeper than that. Marketing needs to permeate every aspect of your business and be a part of every person’s job description, from the admin department to the managing partners and so on. That’s why internal marketing and official marketing training is so important. 

What’s internal marketing?

If you think that the people outside of your marketing department understand what the marketing team does and why it matters to your business, you’re wrong. 

Internal marketing is essentially promoting your company’s goals, vision, products, and services to your own employees. Customers’ feelings and attitudes toward a company are based on far more than just the products or services you offer, but the overall experience they have with your business. And your entire organization is included in that experience.

The ultimate goal of internal marketing is to ensure that your employees can provide value to prospects or customers because they understand and believe in your company’s brand, goals and vision. And perhaps, you can teach them what they can do to help.

I believe that one of the smartest things any business can do is create and perform official marketing training for everyone in the business. Again, this goes for delivery people, administrative people, and finance-related people (especially finance-related people).

I’ve outlined an example of what should be included in an internal marketing training program that you can use for your own company.

Guide your internal marketing training program with this outline

Once a quarter at a minimum (and with every new hire that joins the company) conduct an all-hands brand meeting.

This internal seminar can and should include training and examples on things like:

• Why you named your company what we did – attach this to your personal story
• What colors, images, fonts are official and why – create a simple style manual of standards to share with everyone
• Your core marketing message and why – help everyone connect their position to the message
• The way you want the brand to be thought of in the market – your goal, your one word of association
• Benefits of your products and services – demo them and present them just like you would to a customer
• Description of your ideal customer – use photos and success stories of real customers
• Your current lead generation activities – show off ads, landing pages, run radio spots – sell them on the campaign
• Your lead conversion process – everyone should know the next step when a prospect calls
• Key marketing metrics – sales generated, leads generated, referrals generated, PR generated, social media growth
• Your marketing calendar – show everyone you have a plan for the future

In addition, I would help everyone write or rewrite some aspect of their position to include a direct relationship to the marketing function they perform. 

For example, an administrative person who primarily answers the phone might have the directive to answer the phone and route calls to the proper person, but in a marketing world, that person’s directive is to answer the phone and act as the very first impression and representation of the brand. Now, could that change that person’s role in a powerful way, I’ve seen it happen.

Then take it up a notch and create marketing scorecards for everyone. Simply list all the marketing-related ways that every position in your organization can score marketing points throughout the day and turn it into a game. ie – asking for and getting a referral, turning a customer complaint into a win, writing a blog post, participating in a social network, sending a hand-written thank you note, giving a referral, making a contact at a Chamber event. Challenge everyone to score X amount of marketing points each week and create an award program as part of your marketing workshops.

Getting marketing understanding and buy-in from your entire team makes them feel more empowered to act on behalf of the brand and better ambassadors wherever they encounter prospects and customers. Think about it – if you have two marketers out of a ten-person company, what would you rather: two people or an entire team of ten promoting your company’s work to the rest of the world?

One of the ways to create goodwill, positive buzz, and happy customers is to exceed expectations. Responding proactively to problems is, in my opinion, one of the easiest ways to exceed the expectations available.

Problems happen, that’s a fact. You can choose to respond to customer challenges, problems, let downs, screw-ups, and mistakes in one of two ways. You can ignore them and create the kind of friction that drags your trust into the ground or you can respond in such an over-the-top, out of control, nobody does that kind of way that can turn problems into gold mines. If you want to exceed expectations, choose the latter!

For the longest time, Nordstrom had a policy that granted refunds with no receipt, no time limit, no questions asked. A variation of that policy still remains today. This policy is often an example given whenever someone talks about customer service. But it’s really a signature response to a customer problem, and it’s become something that creates incredible word of mouth for them.

Creating what I call your signature response to problem-solving takes a little thought, planning, implementation, and even training, but it can become a very valuable tool for your organization. I’ve mapped out four things you can do to quickly, proactively, and creatively address customer problems with a signature response of your own. 

1. Invite and reward customer feedback

The first step to making problem-solving a core marketing system is to encourage your customers to tell you when something’s not right. This may sound like a simple thing, but there is plenty of research that suggests somewhere near 90% of your customers experiencing an issue will simply go away quietly unhappy.

You should clearly state in all your marketing copy that you welcome feedback and won’t rest until your customer is thrilled. Spell out guarantees, return policies, and make it very obvious how to get in touch with you via phone, mail, live chat, web, or email. You should also build satisfaction surveys, results reviews, and even random phone follow-ups into your standard operating procedures.

Of course, it’s not enough to just ask for feedback and then send it down a black hole; you’ve got to respond.

2. Create a response

In order to get the full impact with this idea, you need to design the manner in which you will automatically respond in order to solve a customer problem. Some of this can and should be handled through clearly spelled out, no strings attached, guarantees, and return policies, but you need to add some flair as well. Adding some creativity in this step is how you turn a response into a signature response. For example, does the CEO show-up with a bouquet of flowers, does the customer immediately receive a month of service free and a dedicated service rep to help guide them through the challenge, do you do whatever it takes to make it right?

The key here is to do something that gets the customer the result they are after but also offers a little ‘wow’ that they can’t help but notice because it was unexpected.

Occasionally, we receive notes from customers who have purchased one of our products but feel it isn’t what they thought it would and want to return it. We cheerfully refund their purchase price, but instead of asking them to return it, we ask that they make it a gift to another business owner. It’s a pretty simple thing on our part, but it really creates a warm response each time we offer it.

3. Act quickly

Speed matters in problem-solving – especially in a technology-filled world that caters to and sustains our desires of instant gratification. You need to act quickly. A fast response time makes customers feel that their concerns are important. In a study by CMO Council, the most important attribute of a good customer experience, according to the customers themselves, is a fast response time.

Zappos is well known for its incredible customer support. They have live chat, email, phone, and social support available 24/7. Customers expect their problems to be solved and fast – it’s another prime example of a signature response they designed for themselves.

4. Empower your team to fix the problem

Another really important piece of the problem-solving puzzle is blame. When you make a mistake, admit it, and move to fix it. When your customer makes a mistake, well, move to fix it. There’s no gain in getting the customer to admit they were wrong, even when they are. One of my favorite business expressions said to my staff in my best dad voice is: Fix the problem, not the blame.

The way to make sure that your signature response to problems is actually delivered as designed is to empower your staff to fix the problem, not the blame!

Let them know that while you have a set of policies designed to make their life simple and your business profitable, they can do what it takes to make the customer happy. Now, if that makes you more than a little nervous that you will be taken advantage of then perhaps you need to refine whom you are attracting as customers. There will always be people who try to take advantage of your willingness to please, but the key lies in setting the proper expectations upfront in all of your marketing messages.

Saving a deal gone bad by reacting in a way that is generally unexpected is how you create positive buzz and customers for life.

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When you first start your business, you’re wearing every hat—you’re overseeing every single aspect of the company:

Accounting, check. 

Sales outreach, add it to your to-do list.

Administrative work, it’s not going to do itself.

And let’s not forget, you’re the full-time Marketing director, too.

Your list of roles and responsibilities goes on. And these things add up quickly. Most entrepreneurs suffer from the belief that they can do it all. But eventually, there will come a time when you’ll have to admit that doing everything yourself is no longer effective. 

So that’s why we’ve created the last guide you’ll ever need to help you find and hire someone you can trust to take some work off of your plate.

Signs that it’s time to hire someone to help you

1. When you just can’t seem to find enough time 

When you’re spread too thin tending to every other aspect of your business, your days start to get longer and longer. Your to-do list becomes more than just a list—it becomes pages. And things start to get put on the back burner—like your marketing efforts.

2. When you’re constantly fixing mistakes and putting out fires

When you’re strapped for time and in a hurry, the quality of your work suffers. Mistakes happen—and you’re busy fixing things instead of creating. 

Marketing mistakes can cost your business a lot of lost revenue. When this happens, it’s time to take a step back and look for additional help.

3. When you find yourself doing repetitive tasks

As the business owner, your attention should be focused on leading, pitching your products/services, and managing your big picture operations. 

If you’re finding yourself working on a laundry list of repetitive tasks like social media scheduling, managing clients, or preparing marketing reports, it’s time to bring in help to allow you to focus on the big picture.

4. When you lack consistency in your marketing efforts

If you want your campaigns to produce results, your marketing needs constant attention and consistent effort. Writing a random blog post every couple of months, sending a one-off email promoting a new product, or following a content calendar sometimes—isn’t going to cut it. 

You can’t expect the garden to grow if you don’t water it.

If you can relate to any of these telltale signs, it’s time to bring in someone who can tend to marketing your business, regularly—like a Marketing Manager. The job is too important to do in your spare time.

What a Marketing Manager does

A Marketing Manager helps with daily marketing activities and initiatives of a company. 

They work on building brand awareness, managing social media, planning and implementing marketing campaigns, creating content for SEO and traffic growth, tracking and analyzing performance data, and the list goes on. 

To be sure you’re hiring the right person for the job, you need to know what to look for in a Marketing Manager. 

What a typical day looks like for a Marketing Manager

Each day can be different, but some of the most common activities you can delegate to a Manager are things like

• Creating content for publishing on your blog
• Managing and engaging with social media accounts
• Writing newsletters to send out to your list
• Designing collateral and assets for social media
• Writing landing page copy to support promotional campaign

These are a few things that may take up the day for a Marketing Manager. They often wear many different hats and usually have a long list of responsibilities. 

The skills to look for when you’re hiring a Marketing Manager

These are the 6 core skills you should look for when you’re hiring someone in-house to help with marketing. 

1. Creativity—they’re creative. They use out-of-the-box thinking to ideate and develop strategies on how to drive growth for your business.

2. Writing—they’ll be responsible for creating a lot of content. It’s imperative they understand how to write for audiences in a way that captures their attention and connects with them on a deeper level.

3. Research—they’re investigators. They need solid research skills to keep up with new trends in the industry as it relates to your business’ target audience.

4. Omni-channel and social savvy—they’re a versatile marketer. They understand that the customer journey isn’t linear. They should know how to implement marketing tactics and strategies across all marketing channels: email, social, paid, SEO, and content.

5. Critical thinking—they’re inquisitive and analytical. They should be able to understand and leverage data to guide marketing decisions and the overall strategy.

6. Project management—they’re a project management pro. They should know how to juggle and manage multiple projects and initiatives at once.

What a job description for a Marketing Manager position should include

The job itself varies based on the needs of your company. Here’s an example job description including the core responsibilities and qualifications you should include in your Marketing Manager job post:

Responsibilities:

• Research and analyze customers’ behavior and insights, consumer trends, market analysis, and marketing best practices to build successful strategies
• Plan, create, and implement strategic marketing campaigns that align with company goals
• Organize promotional assets and campaigns for new products/services launches
• Set up and maintain tracking systems for online marketing activities
• Write content for campaigns across various channels such as social media, email, and blog
• Manage all online channels of production, including website, social media pages, email campaigns, and responses
• Create, maintain and strengthen the organization’s overall brand through all media avenues
• Create and distribute content on key channels to reach new audiences

Requirements:

• Proven work experience in digital marketing and knowledge of content management, creative writing, advertising concepts and vendor negotiations
• Demonstrable experience with social media marketing, email marketing, advertising campaigns, marketing databases and analytics, and SEO/SEM
• Knowledge of traditional marketing tools
• Critical thinker with strong problem-solving and research proficiencies
• Solid knowledge of website and marketing analytics tools
• Highly creative with experience in identifying target audiences and planning digital campaigns that engage, inform, and motivate
• Knowledge of various Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Solid organizational skills and detail oriented
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Superb written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to simplify complex information into a user-friendly format

Find world-class marketing candidates by looking in these places

Luckily, there are many places where marketers hang out. Social media, networking sites, job boards—since most marketers have an online presence, there are a lot of places you can look to find talent. Here’s a few places to start:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great place to start. You can post your job there as well as source for candidates based on their title.

Freelancer sites

Upwork and Fiverr are sites that are dedicated to hiring talent and finding jobs. You can browse profiles and reach out to folks to invite them to apply for your open job. People can also find your job posting and apply on their own.

Facebook groups

There are many Facebook groups that are made up of people with specific skill sets (e.g. Content Marketers, The Copywriter Club, Remote Marketing Jobs). People often add posts about jobs to groups, and these kinds of posts typically get a ton of engagement.

Job boards

Larger job boards like Indeed, CareerBuilder, or Monster have a plethora of candidates with all levels of experience. There are also marketing job boards you can check out like VentureBeat, CrunchBoard, or Mashable.

Interview questions to ask marketing job candidates

You should ask questions that give the candidate an opportunity to show how they think about and work on problems. 

What’s an example of a lead-generating campaign you’d be excited to work on here?

This question gives the candidate an opportunity for on-the-spot brainstorming. It highlights what they know about your company and if they did any interview prep prior.

Share an example of a challenge you faced at one of your previous employers.

How a person responds when the going gets tough or when they’re caught in a difficult situation is important. This question hones in on how they handle those situations. 

Quickly onboard your new Marketing Manager with these 3 steps

If you want to get your Marketing Manager productive quickly, here are a few things you can do to set them up for success:

1. Give them access to your marketing tech stack—you want to be able to manage the tasks and projects your Manager is working on. Giving them access to the programs and tools your team uses is important for transparency and accountability.
2. Integrate them with your team—most people work best where they feel ‘part of the team’. They’ll communicate better with you and your team. This is especially important for marketing roles where collaboration is key.
3. Get them to interview a few of your best customers—a quick way for your new team member to learn about your business quickly is to learn directly from your audience and have them interview your customers.

Two things are almost always in short supply for small business owners: time and money. Is it worth it to spend money on a Marketing Manager if it frees up your time and contributes to the growth of your business? 

The answer is most likely yes. By hiring a Marketing Manager, you get to take some things off of your plate and focus on the big picture. Not only do you get some of your time back, but now you have someone whose job’s main purpose is to focus on efforts that will grow your business. Pick the right one, and your return on investment should outweigh the initial cost.