Any digital/social media marketers here

[Capt. Tuttle]

We are getting ready to hire in house. Down to 2 good candidates. What should I be asking (and what should the answer be) to help me choose.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I'm assuming since this is a new hire and role you're anticipating more of a boots on the ground type than a strategist, yeah? Some questions for you to help me know what questions you should ask:
Are you looking for them more to build awareness or generate leads? (it's ok if your answer is both)

Are you anticipating that they'll be working more on organic or paid? (also ok if the answer is both)

Are you focusing on any particular specialty like social media, SEO, paid search, content is getting associated more frequently in digital, maybe analytics and marketing ops/crm or automation stuff?

Also, is your business b2b or b2c?

Some questions that will always be relevant:

Ask them how they model out their reporting metrics. Major red flag if they can't describe this quickly and concretely. Ask them why each part is relevant to your business. There can be a lot of vanity metrics in digital marketing, so a smart candidate will say "truthfully that one doesn't really matter but people expect to see it, these are the ones to really focus on" and then they'll tell you why. If you're focusing on lead gen, they should be able to take you through the entire funnel even if the things they directly control don't go that far, because close won data should inform decisions they make earlier on. Ask them which metric is the easiest to mess up or misinterpret - their answer should give you a good idea of if they know how to diagnose issues. With that, ask them how they would approach a metric performing wrong and how they would fix it.

Ask them how they identify audiences, and how they know they're getting it right. The specifics of what you're doing as a business will matter here but trust your gut on if their answer sounds legit.

Ask them which digital marketing tactics they believe could work well for your business and why. Ask them if there's a technique they've always wanted to try but they've never been able to, and why they think it would work. Generally, good digital marketers are a little frustrated because they want to experiment more than they're allowed to, so they should have opinions.

On that note, ask them about how they test.

Ask them why they think it makes sense for your business to hire in house instead of having an agency handle things. Listen for them to be able to articulate exactly what they can bring.

Ask them how they handle sales or an executive coming to them with a "great idea." You'll want someone that will listen in case the idea is good but that knows their space well enough and are strong enough to politely hear it out but not get suckered into doing something dumb.

Let me know how you'd answer my questions at the top and I can give you more specific stuff.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I'm assuming since this is a new hire and role you're anticipating more of a boots on the ground type than a strategist, yeah? Some questions for you to help me know what questions you should ask:
Are you looking for them more to build awareness or generate leads? (it's ok if your answer is both)

Are you anticipating that they'll be working more on organic or paid? (also ok if the answer is both)

Are you focusing on any particular specialty like social media, SEO, paid search, content is getting associated more frequently in digital, maybe analytics and marketing ops/crm or automation stuff?

Also, is your business b2b or b2c?

Some questions that will always be relevant:

Ask them how they model out their reporting metrics. Major red flag if they can't describe this quickly and concretely. Ask them why each part is relevant to your business. There can be a lot of vanity metrics in digital marketing, so a smart candidate will say "truthfully that one doesn't really matter but people expect to see it, these are the ones to really focus on" and then they'll tell you why. If you're focusing on lead gen, they should be able to take you through the entire funnel even if the things they directly control don't go that far, because close won data should inform decisions they make earlier on. Ask them which metric is the easiest to mess up or misinterpret - their answer should give you a good idea of if they know how to diagnose issues. With that, ask them how they would approach a metric performing wrong and how they would fix it.

Ask them how they identify audiences, and how they know they're getting it right. The specifics of what you're doing as a business will matter here but trust your gut on if their answer sounds legit.

Ask them which digital marketing tactics they believe could work well for your business and why. Ask them if there's a technique they've always wanted to try but they've never been able to, and why they think it would work. Generally, good digital marketers are a little frustrated because they want to experiment more than they're allowed to, so they should have opinions.

On that note, ask them about how they test.

Ask them why they think it makes sense for your business to hire in house instead of having an agency handle things. Listen for them to be able to articulate exactly what they can bring.

Ask them how they handle sales or an executive coming to them with a "great idea." You'll want someone that will listen in case the idea is good but that knows their space well enough and are strong enough to politely hear it out but not get suckered into doing something dumb.

Let me know how you'd answer my questions at the top and I can give you more specific stuff.

Thanks.
We want them in house to structure and execute a comprehensive strategy, with the go to dominate our market in the social media space.
I really don't want an agency, because we are just one of, instead of the only client. Also, it's important that the employee understand your cultural. An agency really can't get there. We probably have 30+ hours a week once the person is up and running and understands what we need.
I have an estate planning business. Primary marketing is 55+, but we know we can reach them through their adult children as well.
Secondary Marketing is to existing clients for top of mind awareness, to increase referrals.
Tertiary is to business (financial planners, CPA's, nursing homes, etc.) to cultivate referral sources.
Looking to generate leads, mostly organic (videos, blogs, etc.,)
We also have a growing radio presence, so there will be some interplay with that

Hope that helps and thanks for the great input.
In addition there will be in-person marketing and client events as well as educational programs we put on, along with a digital and hard copy newsletter.