Five Traits to Look for in Top Marketing Talent

If you’re hiring marketing professionals, you already recognize the value marketing brings to your organization. Like sales, marketing is a department that will generally pay for itself. But to realize that return on your investment, it’s critical you hire the right marketing professionals.

Naturally, you want a candidate who is creative, persuasive and highly motivated. Marketing professionals need to be comfortable working alone and as part of a team. They will be able to come up with great ideas, communicate them well and get team members to buy into their ideas. After all, if they can’t “sell” their idea to their internal team, will it be effective on their target audience? Here are five additional traits to look for in your next marketing hire.

Foundation in Marketing Traditions

Many smart marketing processes and campaigns are based on yesterday’s success stories. The best candidates will have the committed the 4 Ps of marketing to memory and understand the history and principles of marketing. Although innovation is part of marketing, a solid foundation is essential.

Up-to-Date Market Knowledge

Candidates should have a strong understanding of pop culture, social media and how to leverage both to your company’s advantage. Marketing professionals should be proficient with digital innovations in marketing. Look for answers that indicate knowledge of best practices in search engine optimization, PPC advertising, social engagement and how to track success of online campaigns.

Customer Focus

The best marketing professionals put themselves directly into the shoes of their audience. They know the goal of marketing is to answer the customer question, “What’s in it for me?” It’s possible to have a lot of fun in marketing and be creative, but the message must be targeted toward your customer. Don’t hire a candidate who appears to prioritize art over message.

Bold Vision

By the same token, they should not be afraid to challenge internal and client decision makers and shake up the status quo. While it can be a mistake to go avant-garde in this market, what is the point of hiring a new employee with old ideas?

Ability to Bounce Back

Marketing often fails. Can the candidate step back to analyze where they went wrong figure out how to fix it? Can they take into account the many influences that can determine success and failure? When you ask about prior failures do they take personal responsibility for their mistakes or do they make excuses? Are they able to articulate what they would do differently next time?

It takes a specialist to find the top marketing professionals who understand the agriculture industry and marketing best practices. For help in making your next marketing hire contact Morris Bixby today.

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