When Should You Hire a Marketing Professional or Full Time Director?

What factors you should consider to decide to hire or continue going it alone.

When should you hire a marketing professional. Image source: Canva

Welcome back to my blog where I share all things small business, branding and marketing.

I wanted to answer a question I’m asked quite a lot about, ironically it’s usually before they know I provide branding and marketing consulting. It’s, “When should you consider hiring a marketing professional– either on staff or a consultant, vs. continuing to do it yourself?”  While this can be a very personal decision, deciding when to bring in a marketing professional can depend on various factors.

What is the Tipping Point to Make a Marketing Hire?

Here are three scenarios that could prompt you to hire a marketing consultant or a FT marketing director. I’ve also shared when I think you should continue to go solo:  

Time and Workload:

Have you run out of time to manage the things you love about owning your own business, let alone the marketing? Are your missing deadlines or plans to post or promote your product, service or business?  Even if you have some marketing knowledge, It’s time. This is more about delegating to focus on your strengths. Plus, who doesn’t want someone to help share the load or get to focus on what they love to do?

Expertise & Creativity:

If marketing isn't your strength and it’s taking you hours vs. minutes to get posts, emails or ads out;  what you’re posting feels repetitive or stale; or your engagement and frequency is dropping off because you’re having to focus elsewhere, hire.

A marketing consultant can bring years of marketing expertise, knowledge of your industry and quite simply a fresh perspective that you might not have considered. Since consultants and new hires haven’t been as intimately close to your business, they can infuse it with new ideas or renewed attention. They can also implement a strategy and tactics that could help to reconnect with your prospects and customers or uncover a customer insight that you may have missed.  

Business Growth:

If your business is expanding rapidly, a marketing manager/consultant can focus on scaling your marketing efforts and find the right placements for the long-term vs. short, where you may have been focused.  With growth comes more income. Overall investing in talented professionals will yield better ROI in the long run. Most savvy businesses owners have a marketing person on staff or retainer. A missed marketing or PR opportunity they may have caught and handled, could me a missed opportunity or sale.

Do one or more of these resonate with you? Then it may be time to hire.

Go it Alone

If none of these spoke to you or your situation. Here’s when I would say to continue going it alone (or consider the interim help of a virtual assistant if there are small jobs to delegate.)

Stay solo if you’re still running your business on a shoe-string budget, are happy with the volume of business you’re doing, and enjoy creating (and can keep up with) all of your marketing. I say good for you. Continue to be your own boss and solopreneur.  It’s really OK to continue flying solo if that’s what works.  Remember it’s all about you finding your comfort zone and find the right balance for you and your business.

So, what’s the verdict? Are you pulling the trigger this year and bringing someone on board? OR is your brand all about being solo for now? Let me know if these scenarios were helpful in the comments.