RECRUITMENT GUIDE
How To Hire a Digital Marketing Specialist
Digital marketing specialists are responsible for promoting a person and their talents or skills, or a business, and the goods and services that are sold onto online platforms. Their role entails gathering data, and liaising with other departments within the organization to create content that will draw attention to the business, and ultimately result in a higher percentage of sales and profit for the company.
A digital marketing specialist oversees and creates marketing content, identifies the target market, executes initiatives to increase reach, and builds the intended brand image. Increasing brand awareness is the main objective of anyone in this role, as if potential customers are not aware of the company and what they can offer, the business will never grow. They must be able to clearly identify their target market’s needs and wants, and translate this into effective marketing campaigns.
As a role that directly impacts the success of the business, it’s important that a digital marketing specialist is both technically competent and able to adapt and respond to customer and business needs.
Day-to-day tasks of this role:
- Create and post marketing content to digital platforms.
- Applying marketing principles when posting content online to maximise search engine optimization.
- Liaise with other departments to maximise effectiveness of marketing efforts.
- Analyse past campaign data to identify trends in content that customers engage with.
- Create and follow a social media posting schedule.
Recruitment Process
UNDERSTAND THE ROLE
Skills profile for a Digital Marketing Specialist
Each business may require different qualifications from candidates for this position, however in most cases no formal qualifications are required. A degree or certificate in business, or marketing can be an advantage, and relevant industry experience is favourable. There are some common skills required for this position.
An essential skill for a digital marketing specialist is the ability to implement SEO techniques. They must be competent in all areas of SEO marketing, and understand the impact SEO can have on potential customers finding an organisation. They must be able to measure the success of SEO, and make adjustments over time if necessary.
Digital marketing specialists must also be able to manage many relationships at any one time. They must confidently manage relationships with clients to ensure customer loyalty, and satisfaction, thus leading to repeat business. They must also be able to listen to customer requirements and demands, and provide expert opinion to achieve this, to once again ensure customer satisfaction, as well as provide professional services to both internal and external customers.
Being strategic is another skill any digital marketing specialist must have. They must have a strategic mindset when it comes to digital media, ensuring that each action has a meaningful purpose. They must also be forward thinking when planning for content and campaigns, be able to analyse results and make necessary adjustments, and analyse data from past campaigns to identify content and techniques that were successful, and content and techniques that were not so successful.
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position.
SOURCE APPLICANTS
Digital Marketing Specialist Job Description
Summary:
- Why is this role being filled?
- How does this role fit into the organization and the team?
- What makes your company unique?
- What would it be like to work for you?
Requirements:
- What technical skills are needed for this role?
- Which soft skills are applicable?
- What are the nice-to-have experiences of your ideal candidate?
- Include availability preferences in this section
Responsibilities:
- What are the key deliverables for this role?
- What does the day-to-day of this role look like?
Benefits:
- Compensation & bonuses
- Employee benefits & perks
- Ongoing training benefits
PRO TIP #1
As this role requires the successful candidate to be creating content and posting campaigns on all different online platforms and social media outlets, it is important to include any particular technical competencies this role requires. This might include listing the social media platforms, online softwares or websites that the digital marketing specialist needs to be able to work with.
PRO TIP #2
Ensure that the entire recruitment process from job description to assessment to interview reiterates your company vision and values. This will help you identify the right people for the role, and applicants will know whether your company is the right fit for them.
SKILL ASSESSMENT
Sample skills assessment
Question 1
SEO
Question Type: Document
Describe your approach to keyword search. Please list this in the document below.
Question 2
Relationship Management
Question Type: Text
How do you build genuine lasting professional relationships with your customers?
Question 3
Strategy
Question Type: Video
Tell me about a time where you had to adjust a strategy because it wasn’t returning the results you anticipated.
INTERVIEW
Interview guide for a Digital Marketing Specialist
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The PDF interview guide contains structured questions against each of the competencies for this role.
This interview guide is intended to be used in conjunction with the Vervoe skills assessment. Where a candidate has scored Low – Medium on a skill, focus on asking more questions from that skill to gain deeper insight into their level of competency.
PDF INTERVIEW GUIDE
Get your copy of the interview guide to complete the hiring process. Includes questions against each of the skill competencies for the role.
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