How to think like a marketer before making your first marketing hire

Your business is growing, you’re seeing the results, you know you’ll need help with marketing at some point but you’re still not quite ready to hire a full-time marketer or agency just yet. The good news? You don’t need to rush that decision, just yet anyway.

However, you will need to start getting into the mindset of a marketer, so that it will give you a core understanding of the task at hand, and to set your business up for growth.

Here’s how to build a marketing mindset that helps you understand how your business can grow before you bring in full time or fractional marketing help.

1. Know your customer inside out

Good marketing strategy starts with a deep understanding of your customer. You’ll need to know what they care about, what’s frustrating them, and what motivates them to act. This is customer insight, and it’s the foundation of every good marketing strategy. 

Get into the marketing mindset now:

• Speak directly to your biggest and also, most recent, customers. Ask what problem they were trying to solve when they found you.

• Identify patterns in who your best customers are. What role are they in? What made them choose you?

• Pay attention to the language they use. Write it down. It’s gold dust for messaging later.

  
  

When you understand your customer better than your competitors do, everything from your website to your sales pitch becomes sharper and more effective. That is because very few people in your position have those conversations and get those real insights into what you really solve for your customer.

Blog: How to effectively define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

2. Be clear about the value you offer

Most businesses talk about what their product or service does. Great marketing talks about what’s in it for the customer. That shift in focus will get you thinking about marketing strategy but it will also get you thinking cross-functionally.

Get into the marketing mindset now:

• Fill in the gaps: “We help [who] solve [what problem] so they can [what outcome].”

• Show it to as many people outside what you do as possible. Do you friends understand? Do your parents? It needs to be immediately identifiable. 

• Identify three reasons someone should choose you over the alternatives. Be specific – not just “better service” or “more flexible”. Also think about the cost of doing nothing as that will be your biggest competitor.

  
  

You need to be absolutely clear on the value you provide and to who. Otherwise it all becomes a messy tangle of additions from across the business. The aim here is to unify a core message for all teams to understand and be part of.

3. Lay the groundwork for a strong brand

I will continue to shout this from the rooftops but Brand isn’t just all about logos and colours. It’s how people feel about your business, how they talk about you when you're not in the room, and how consistent your presence is across every touchpoint. Spoiler: it’s hugely important.

Get into the marketing mindset now:

• Think about how you want to come across as a business – tone of voice, attitude, personality.

• How you can bring in personality across core channels such as your website, and how you come across on LinkedIn. Remember that FLG (Founder Led Growth) works and if you’re on board it makes your marketer’s life 100% easier.

• Start collecting testimonials or quotes from happy customers.

  
  

Brand is always a source of contention when I speak to founders and CEOs as they’ll only think in terms of colours and logo. However, by understanding that brand strategy is essential, you can set yourself up for the long term. Basically, if the messaging is right then the website refresh can wait and any decent strategic marketer will understand that.

5. Know what marketing success looks like when you do make your first marketing hire

By getting into the strategic mindset of a marketer across the first 4 points, you should have a clearer idea of what a proper marketing strategy entails, why the steps are important, and the role that marketing plays within a business. Your first marketing hire is going to be key and you’ll need to map out what you think success looks like and track that back into the seniority and job description - are you looking for a generalist head of marketing or a specialist digital marketer? Having done some of the groundwork already, think what skill set and attributes would matter the most.

Now you’re thinking more like a marketer

You’ll know that you don’t need to be a marketing expert to lay some of the right foundations. But thinking like a marketer now will save you time, money and guesswork later. It will also help you make better decisions across product, sales and customer experience – because all of it is connected.

And when the time does come to hire that expert, you’ll be ready.

But if you need the help now to start thinking more like a marketer and want fractional marketing help, then get in touch to discuss how I can help you get early stage marketing established in your business.