Marketer: Responsibilities and Required Skills. Job description of a marketer. Marketing or management - what to choose? Real life example: amateur vs professional

Everyone has long known such specialties as a marketer or manager. There are a lot of such "professionals" now. Almost every university has specialties in this area. However, not everyone knows what is included in the main responsibilities of a marketer. Today our task is to explain to you absolutely all the functions of a marketer, his personal qualities and show the job description of this specialty by example.

Job Responsibilities of a Marketer

A marketer is a rather laborious profession that requires a strategic mindset and no small mental stamina. Let's say right away that if a marketer works in a large company, his job responsibilities may differ from those of a marketer working in a medium-sized enterprise. The fact is that in large companies there are special marketing subdivisions, each of which deals with its own tasks. For example, there are marketing departments that deal exclusively with the study of the market price of goods. Next, we will describe everything in order job responsibilities of a marketer both in a large company and in a small enterprise. For each function, we will try to give illustrative examples.

Market analysis

Trends are constantly changing in absolutely any market. And this must be followed. This is one of the main functions of a marketer - to follow the movement of the market. It is worth noting here that the more inert the market, the more difficult it becomes to adapt to it and accept new conditions.

What can happen if you didn't see the general trend of the market and didn't analyze everything correctly? It's simple, the company can easily fly out of the market. It is also worth considering that market analysis must be carried out on time. If it is too late, no analysis will save you.

Example: imagine a huge factory that is engaged in the smelting of iron products. The marketing department analyzed the market and realized that it was urgent to change machines and upgrade production facilities. The fact is that this task cannot be completed so quickly, since it is a very laborious work (it is necessary to remove old machines, install new ones, train staff how to work with new equipment). For this reason, the analysis of any market must be carried out on time and smoothly.

The main tools of this function of a marketer include: tracking periodicals, analysis of market competitors, social surveys. In fact, there are a lot of tools for this duty.

Cooperation with clients

Yes, the most important thing is not to “work”, but to “cooperate” with clients. You might think that only the manager should have a relationship with customers, but this is not so. The manager must be able to communicate with clients, and the marketer must understand what exactly each client needs. The analysis of each client will open many doors for you.

You need to understand the main difference between your company and competitors. Here it is necessary to have an objective assessment. That is, to understand how you differ from others in the eyes of the client himself, and not what you yourself invented there.

Example: a person can go to the same cafe all the time. Cafe employees may begin to think that a client comes to them because of the friendly staff, delicious food, or something else. In fact, this person just came because of the free wi-fi.

Analysis of the competitive environment

Another primary responsibility of a marketer is to analyze the company's competitors. Of course, you need to communicate with customers, but you need to devote even more time to the competitive environment, since this is your main rival. It is necessary to understand exactly what is the pricing policy of a particular company that works with you in the same segment. Why are they better than you?

There are a lot of tools for analyzing competitors: company press releases, customer reviews of their products, mystery shoppers, news, and more.

Finding new ways to attract customers

The responsibility of a marketer in an enterprise is to look for new customers, and the more the better. What does this mean? You can look for new niches where your company can show itself. There are simply no limits in this area.

Do not forget that one of the most effective ways to attract new customers is an advertising campaign. If you are a marketer, then you must understand good advertising and be able to do it. Analyze the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and develop strategies for conducting promotional activities.

Cash analysis

And the last duty of a marketer is to work with cash flows. A really good marketer will be able to calculate the turnover of the company, as well as the turnover of competitors and the market as a whole.

In this case, we want to advise you to always carefully follow the following points:

• Market dynamics (busts and booms)
• Growth dynamics of competitors
• Company profit by different segments
• Profit per unit of production
• The response of competitors to your manipulations with product prices

It must be clearly understood that your main goal is NOT financial analytics, this is the task of other departments. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use them. The marketer's job is to keep track of the company's successes and failures.

Personal qualities of a marketer

We have already said about the most important duties of the job responsibilities of a marketer. Now we should move on to the personal qualities of a person who can work in this specialty. Perhaps most importantly, a marketer must have a mathematical mindset. Such a person simply must easily use the methods of induction and deduction.

The whole difficulty lies in the fact that a marketer must be able to think, both logically and creatively. Oh yes, this profession implies creative skills, because you will have to come up with new approaches to achieve a particular goal (for example, to conduct a bright advertising campaign).

No one said that this type of profession is very easy work. Just imagine, in one day you may have to come up with a creative advertisement, including all your creativity, and on the same day make clear calculations on the effectiveness of this idea.

As a result, to become an excellent marketer, you will need knowledge in many areas of different directions. If you are promoting a product, this does not mean at all that you will not need mathematical calculations.

Example job description for a marketer

Below we give a sample of an example of a job description for a marketer at one of the companies (We took a sample instruction from one of the large retail chains). And so, a person working as a marketer is obliged to fulfill the following points:

• The marketer should conduct research on the main factors that may in one way or another affect the dynamics of the consumer dispute on the company's product.
• Based on the research, the marketer must develop an overall marketing strategy for the company.
• Calculate the budget of the marketing plan and manage the allocated funds.
• Do a categorization. Identify groups of potential consumers.
• Assess the prospects of the market in which the company operates. Assess the company's future prospects for entering new markets.
• Establish a pricing policy and determine the required range of goods.
• Make new proposals for the individualization of goods for further transmission of information to manufacturers.
• Establish various distribution channels. Be able to develop dealer and distribution networks.
• Organize the collection of information from potential customers about the quality of goods, complaints, suggestions. Come up with ways to eliminate the shortcomings of the product.
• Develop strategies for all types of promotional activities.
• Develop client incentive strategies (active and passive measures).
• Be able to prepare proposals for the design of a new style of the company and products.
• Summarize the effectiveness of the activities carried out.

Experts' words about the responsibilities of a marketer

Zingfin founder Balaji Vishwanathan on marketers:

A marketer is that person who answers the questions “who is the client?”, “What does he want?”. A marketer develops a pricing policy, and creates a so-called "bridge to the client."

The companies have never sold services or products. They always sell profit. The main responsibility of the marketer will be to determine the difference between the sale of the product and the benefits that the consumer can receive with the help of it.

Another main function of a marketer is the ability to distinguish a company's product from the crowd. And in order to make your product stand out from the rest, you need to make the buying process convenient, sell at the right time, and work on the product so that it differs from all competitors.

And the last thing worth mentioning is branding. This is the marketer's most powerful weapon. Agree, as soon as you hear the phrase “Just Do it”, you immediately remember high-quality sportswear and Nike. This is a tool that directly connects the product with the consumer.

The most obvious example, perhaps, would be the eternal rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Companies sell sugary sodas that are very similar to each other. As a result, each company makes a profit through the development of a brand management strategy.

Bernd Harzog on Qoura about marketing goals

About 99 percent of people who claim to understand marketing know little to nothing about it. Each of them understands perfectly well that the main task of marketing is to bring to a common denominator the benefits provided by the company's product or service. At the same time, each of these people misses a few very important things.

• Customers who buy a company's product now may NOT buy it in the future.
• Not the fact that in the future the company will solve the same problem as now.
• There are no such products that could overnight adapt to changing tastes of the audience.
• It is necessary to be able to focus in time both on current tasks and on future prospects.
• The task of a marketer is to simultaneously support products, study market conditions and plan strategic development.

The most important thing for beginner marketers is to be able to communicate with customers and understand what they want. After all, the profit growth of the company in which you work depends on them.

• In no case do not gently prove to the management that your position occupies a very important position in the company. Show your abilities in practice.
• It is very common for many new marketers to complain that the sales manager's opinion is more important than his opinion.

Probably the most common mistake new marketers make is trying to change something. About 90 percent of newly-minted marketers, when they come to work in a company, immediately want to improve something, do a strategy, while management bombards them with simple tactical tasks that, according to the marketer himself, he is not supposed to do.

This is wrong thinking. It seems that before your arrival the company was simply falling apart, and you came here and know how to save it. This is not true. A company is a system that could have worked perfectly for many years before you. It is necessary to soberly assess the situation, and not simply rush into a working adventure that can only lead to bad consequences.

If you do not see what you expected, this does not mean at all that the company's management is incompetent in your work. You are far from the best versed in the life of the company here. A lot of people have worked here before you. Let's say you have found some element in the company that definitely needs to be fixed. Now think about it, do you really think that only you noticed this error? Maybe in fact, this element is made incorrectly on purpose.

Despite all this, a marketer who is well aware of his responsibilities can definitely come in handy for a company. The main thing at the initial stages is not to climb ahead of everyone. It is necessary to carefully analyze everything and become part of the company in order to perfectly understand how it lives and breathes.

What are the responsibilities of a marketer?

3.8 (76.67%) 12 votes

“Greetings, site reader. Today I happened to hear a phrase about the differences between a marketer and a manager. I won’t write verbatim where it was dug up, I don’t know either, but its essence is this: “Marketers should create and sell a product, and managers should manage processes and personnel.” And then, as in the song: "Well, everything is clear, but what exactly." Here on this topic I propose to discuss in the comments. In the meantime, my view of things.

To begin with, I decided to see what they write on the Internet about the differences between a marketer and a manager ... I managed to read a lot of funny However, the truth was found with great difficulty. Yes, and is it true?

First, let's look at the definitions

I took all the definitions on the World Wide Web, so please do not criticize too much.

Marketer (English market - market or trade; Greek logos - teaching or science) - in other words - studying the market or trade.

Manager (eng. manage - manage, manage) - i.e. supervisor.

By definition, everything is simple and even almost understandable. However, the meaning of many definitions is often forgotten, translation and interpretation are lame, and the result is a completely different picture of the world. Our marketer does everything, including drawing up layouts and ordering stationery for the office (read the duties of a marketer, which I previously published on the blog). Anyone can be called a manager (an office manager, for example, but one of the duties here is only to bring coffee to customers).

Yes, modern realities have already changed a lot and all concepts are confused. We cannot change the world, but I suggest at least on the pages of this blog to put everything in its place. Add comments - it will be interesting.

What is the difference between a manager and a marketer?

The field of activity of the marketer is the standard 4P marketing mix.

The area of ​​activity of the manager (manager of the organization as a whole) is the company, its development and directions.

I wrote more than once what a marketer does. The manager should only define goals and set tasks. If you like, the manager says WHAT TO DO, and the marketer says HOW TO DO IT and launches a mechanism to implement the plan.

Naturally, when implementing a plan, a marketing specialist will have to interact with people, manage a team, think through the nuances and features, i.e. perform managerial duties. But how else? Launching a marketing campaign or the process of laying out goods on store shelves, determining the direction of the company's assortment, and much more - all this will require certain personnel. Everywhere there are people who need to be managed.

At the same time, any process must be supervised. Discuss the nuances, follow the little things, clearly understand how everything should work. Who does all this? Manager? No, of course, he should think about the global, for example, about the company's development strategy. All this falls on the shoulders of the marketer. The marketer must know and control about all, absolutely all body movements in the company.

Where are the differences? And they are not. It's all about hierarchy. Any action the marketer must coordinate and receive approval. With whom and from whom? With the manager and with him. And then full carte blanche. Actually, that's why I was hooked by the phrase voiced at the very beginning, since far from always a marketing specialist is only responsible for a product (service). Very often, both processes and personnel management fall on his shoulders. And it is right. Otherwise, the marketer turns into an office manager ordering business cards 2 times a year. Do you agree?

Searching for an Internet marketer and head of digital (digital marketing) is a headache for many companies. Where to look for such professionals? How to evaluate their skills? Answering these questions is difficult even when hiring employees of a narrower profile - contextual advertising specialists, SEO optimizers, email marketers or web developers.

The problem is confirmed by the technical director of "Completo" Mikhail Fedorov:

“Let’s say you need to find an SEO specialist. Search options: contact the recruitment service, a recruitment agency or search on your own. The search method is the placement of a vacancy, and its description will most likely be taken from the text of another vacancy or a new one will be created by compilation. However, neither you, nor the HR manager, nor the agency will select a qualified person, because no one knows how to evaluate such a specialist. At the interview, HR will ask: “Do you know search engine algorithms?” What can an honest applicant say to that? If he knew, he would have vacationed in the Bahamas, and not gone to interviews. While HR listens to 10 such candidates and schedules an interview with the customer, the best of them will go to another employer. As a result, a company that does not know the criteria for evaluating a specialist will choose someone who has sold himself well, also at exorbitant prices, but not someone who has the necessary knowledge and can really help. But you have a "guarantee" of the result. If a person leaves in a month or turns out to be professionally unsuitable, then HR will find a similar “specialist” and fill an empty table with a monitor in your office with them. After that, what can we say about generalists ... "

The problem of the personnel market: there are many specialists in Internet marketing, but general practitioners are rare

An Internet marketer and a digital leader must understand the technical side of projects, be proficient in several marketing tools (manually work with them and set them up) and be able to manage a team. But in the labor market, 2 types of applicants for these vacancies are most often found:

1. One Tool Specialists who are trying to become Internet marketers (SEOs, context specialists, web developers, designers, etc.).
2. Managers from areas related to Internet marketing(sales, classic marketing, brand management) who are trying to become digital directors.

Separately, I want to note a case that is much rarer and often clinical: a specialist of one tool aims immediately at a digital director (jumping steps). Wasting time on such a candidate is not recommended. If suddenly a person is ready to learn, then the plan can be proposed as follows: after 2-3 years of hard practice, he will be able to grow to a digital marketer and even after the same period to a digital director, subject to team management practice.

Career path of an Internet marketing specialist to a digital director

To become a qualified Internet marketer and digital director, you need to gain practical work experience, which cannot be replaced by specialized training in courses.

To grow into an Internet marketer, a specialist must be proficient in one or two tools and be able to manage two or four specialists, freelancers or contractors. The head of a department or digital direction grows from an Internet marketer who manages a department of seven to ten people and / or a range of contractors.

Please note that a single tool specialist is not an Internet marketer. He can be a talented and thoughtful professional who knows everything about contextual advertising, or SEO, or layout, or website development, or design. But without knowledge of all the tools (at least superficial), an employee cannot perform the functions of a digital marketer.

Only an Internet marketer with at least two to three years of experience can become the head of a digital department or direction. A brand manager or marketer who has completed several online marketing courses will not be able to cope with the duties of a digital manager. Unfortunately, even courses designed to train such leaders will not provide the necessary experience. It can only be purchased while working on projects.

“In my opinion, only a general who himself was a soldier can lead a team. I know what goes on in a specialist's head: when he needs success, and when he can point out weaknesses. I can explain in a minute how to do what needs to be done.

Artemy Lebedev, Harvard Business Review

Real life example: amateur vs professional

How to understand the difference between a professional leader or marketer and a non-professional? Notice how they strategize and set goals for the team.

Here's what you can hear from amateur:

“It is important for us to get more organic traffic. I looked at the competitors - it turned out that traffic can grow 6 times. SEOs, hey! Come here. We need to achieve the same, it will increase sales. Work, show me the results."

Compare with comment competent head of digital-department or Internet marketer:

“We need to understand the direction of development, so I:

Analyzed the downloads of contextual advertising and web analytics on the site;
- looked at conversions and sales;
- identified priority audience segments and regions;
- analyzed the traffic of competitors;
- uploaded data from the company's financial system and compared online sales with offline sales.

The action plan will be:

1. We create subdomains, unique phone numbers and addresses for regions;
2. Cluster search queries as follows:

• geo-dependent/geo-independent;
• commercial/non-commercial.

1. So that search queries do not interfere with each other to move forward, we arrange them according to the structure:

• blog;
• forum;
• independent content site.

1. We check the uniqueness of content on all sites. It can be done:

• manually;
• using a generator-synonymizer;
• through crowdsourcing copywriting.

1. Add a site to Yandex.Directory, Google My Business, set up regionality in Yandex.Webmaster and place it in profile directories;
2. We are starting to use the sites of partners and dealers to attract traffic. For this you need:

• prescribe requirements for sites;
• bring them into harmony.

1. We set up cross-domain analytics on all sites to see organic traffic in a single Google Analytics panel;
2. We pull up key queries from Yandex.Metrica to Google Analytics so that all clicks on keywords are visible and not displayed (not set).

We build the report like this:

1. Positions by query clusters;
2. Organic traffic by region;
3. Sales from this traffic by product matrix.

The difference in approaches is obvious. If the business owner sets a goal in the format “Give us sales per million”, then the team expects a step-by-step strategy from the manager: what needs to be done in order to get sales per million, and how to measure them. Therefore, in the field of Internet advertising and marketing, the manager must understand the processes at the technical and operational level.

“The end-to-end marketing line comes from the owner. If the first person does not understand the demand, the company is a skiff and there is no point in working further. ”

Of course, the head of the digital department or the Internet marketer may not know exactly how to perform absolutely all the steps listed above. But they must navigate processes at a high enough level to:

- create a step-by-step action plan
- Discuss it with the team
- help colleagues with technical issues
- control the implementation of the project
– get a controlled and measurable result

If the digital marketing director engages one or more agencies or contractors, assigns them common goals and communicates in the format of monthly reports and conversations such as “good / bad SEO positions”, “good / bad engagement”, “high / low ROI”, such a manager can be replaced by a Telegram bot or a regular parrot.

How to look for an internet marketer?

The Internet Marketer You Need

— This is a specialist in a group of tools, which necessarily include web analytics
— He can find specialists in any marketing tools, organize their work and get a predictable result
— Able to manage a team of up to 5 people (in the office or remotely).

Search time

Approximately 1-1.5 months from the date of publication of the vacancy.

Where to look

— HH.ru (a cool job description is a prerequisite)
— Facebook (paid posts and targeting)

Salary

From 70,000 to 100,000 rubles per month (according to our experience and on average in Moscow). Less than 70,000 are the salaries of specialists. More than 100,000 is a growth for an Internet marketer by KPI or a transition to the position of head of the digital / Internet department.

Basic requirements

- Website development experience. Theory, conducting a project to develop a site in a team, experience in creating a site from scratch.
— Knowledge of the principles of search engine optimization and the ability to work with contextual advertising. It is the base on which most internet marketing strategies are built.
— Ability to work with video advertising, e-mail marketing, media advertising and retargeting.
- Deep knowledge of web analytics. Knowledge of Google Analytics: planning analytics and performance metrics, uploading and processing data, making business decisions based on web analytics.
— Knowledge of classical marketing, marketing analysis, the basics of building a business and economics.
— Ability to analyze competitors: from the point of view of both business aspects and Internet marketing.
— Web programming at a basic level (knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS, PHP).
- Knowledge of design and usability, at least at the level of "Guidance". The candidate must keep up with the latest in the development of sites, landing pages and interfaces.
— A broad outlook in the professional field: tracking novelties in the field of advertising services, analytics and related tools.
— Ability to communicate with people, make presentations and defend all your ideas together with account managers.

Will be a plus for the candidate

— No stupor at the mention of the concepts of "CRM", "telephone analytics", "personalized multi-channel web analytics".
— Experience in developing an Internet marketing strategy and detailed control of its implementation in a team of marketers, telephonists, CRM integrators, SEO specialists, copywriters, layout designers, programmers, designers.
- Advanced knowledge of Excel.
— Knowledge of mathematics at the level of a liberal arts university.
- Knowledge of economics, statistics.
— Experience on the side of both the client and the agency.

We have collected the minimum number of topics that a marketer should know in an interview:

— ability to work with Excel, Google Docs;
— ability to work with databases at the level of the query language;
— ability to program (in any language);
— ;
- development of a landing page from scratch;
- setting up web analytics based on Google Analytics;
— development of an intranet system;
— participation in projects where there was a bunch of web analytics by user_id with systems;
— search marketing (organic search);
— commodity aggregators like Yandex.Market;
- partnership programs;
— Google advertising network;
— Yandex Display Network;
— classic media purchases;
- programmatic (via RTB);
— ;
— content and advertising in social media;
— email marketing;
— CPA networks;
— retargeting/remarketing;
- video advertising;
— promotion of mobile applications;
– certificates, courses and seminars related to the vacancy;
- titles and authors of the last five books read related to the vacancy;
- the number of projects / clients that the candidate led in parallel;
- the average size of the budget with which the candidate worked;
- experience of personal meetings with clients, presentations;
— links to presentations or reports prepared by the candidate;
— recommendations from management or clients;
- the best project, its results and problems.

Sample Questions

Ask the candidate to solve the case. Abstract questions like: “Tell me, have you worked with this tool? What results have been achieved? is a road to nowhere.

We have selected several questions on the topics listed above, with which you can assess the qualifications of applicants.

1. 1. Questions on one instrument (with a technological bias)

— You run display ads on the Google Display Network. How do you get people who see your banners online but don't click on them to be counted as conversions on your site in Google Analytics like those who saw the banner?
— A plant in Moscow produces chairs, but does not sell them. Sales are carried out by dealers throughout Russia. The plant has a business card website. How to attract the maximum amount of search traffic from all regions to sell chairs from this manufacturer?

1. Trick question - intelligence test

— There are two ads in Yandex.Direct. One has a conversion of 0.5%, and the other has 0.9%. What questions do you have after hearing the problem?

1. General marketing knowledge question

— How to increase the effectiveness of an ad in contextual advertising, regardless of systems? Describe the plan point by point. What factors affect this?

1. Complex questions on knowledge of several tools

— We are planning internet marketing for a company with a long sales cycle. The attraction goes through the Internet. After some time, we segmented messages by industry and decided to show customers thematic ads - products from their industry. How to do it? List all available options.

— There is a website with Yandex.Direct and Google Analytics. How to set up a report to ROI only in the Google Analytics interface?

1. General strategic questions about marketing and knowledge of bundles of tools

You have been tasked with selling a product online and have set a sales plan. You foresee that there will be problems with demand (there is not enough of it). Answer the following questions:

• How to check if there will be demand problems?
• How to understand that the amount of demand that you saw is enough to fulfill the sales plan through the Internet?
• What would you recommend to a client in such a situation? Sketch an express strategy.

This is only a rough list of tasks for the interview; each company develops cases for its needs. For example, we created about 25 questions that we always ask applicants for the position of an Internet marketer.

Important Points

— Certificates are a necessary condition, but not an indicator of qualification. If a person has received the minimum required package of certificates (Yandex.Direct, Google.AdWords, Google Analytics IQ) - this is a plus. But answering test questions and solving real cases are two different things. We regularly conduct interviews with certified specialists, and often they cannot answer practical questions.

- Find out what tools an Internet marketer knows best. Ask questions about them, make tasks for knowing all the nuances.

— Your own online store is a serious plus for an online marketer. It is worth communicating with such specialists as a priority.

— Telephone interview allows you to save time on face-to-face meetings. Select candidates that match your resume and ask a few questions from the ones listed above. Usually, 60% of applicants are eliminated on the second or third question. Based on the results of all questions, out of the remaining 40%, 3-5 people can be called for an interview (sample: 200 responses to a vacancy posted on the hh.ru website).

- Summary - a great delusion. Resumes are good to use for the primary filter: weed out non-core specialists, candidates with insufficient experience. The remaining applicants for the vacancy should be interviewed on the issues listed above, without attaching importance to the resume.

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How to find a digital leader

The digital leader you need

— Former Internet marketer with good self-organization and developed systems thinking.
- A manager who can manage internet marketers.
- Possesses the main value of the profession - work experience, which has turned into the ability to think strategically.
– A practitioner who not only performs managerial functions, but also knows the entire production process.
- Ready to delegate some of their operational functions, but enjoys working in one or two aspects of Internet marketing.
- Can create a detailed internet marketing strategy.

Search time

Approximately 2-3 months from the date of publication of the vacancy. Our record is 5 months.

Where to look

- Growing within the company (priority, but not always possible).
- Recruit from other companies (need to keep a close eye on the industry).
— Facebook (paid posts and targeting. You will have to search long and hard).
- HH.ru (you will have to search long and hard, extending the vacancy every month).

Salary

From 120,000 rubles per month (according to our experience and on average in Moscow). Everything that is more than 100,000 rubles (at least 30% of this part) should be charged according to KPI.

Basic requirements

- Possession of at least one Internet marketing tool for five plus. It can be anything: web analytics, development, contextual advertising, RTB.
— Experience in managing a team of seven to ten specialists (the minimum required set): Internet marketer, SEO specialist, coder, programmer, web analyst, web designer, IP telephony specialist, 1C specialist.
- Experience. The path covered in 5-6 years from a specialist to an Internet marketer, and then to a manager.
— The ability to manage projects and teams with a complete understanding of the technological process (how everything works) and the ability to engage in project management by terms and risks (evaluation by hours, deadlines, results, risks of non-fulfillment).
— Desire to test new tools and mechanics. A professional digital manager is ready to spend at least 4-6 hours a week on this.

What to talk about in an interview

When interviewing a digital manager, applied tasks on tools need to be combined with questions about project and people management. Thus, each question consists of three parts: tools, management, results. Also, don't forget to ask for recommendations.

Sample Questions

We have outlined the questions that you can ask the future director of online marketing. But each company can (and should) tailor them for a specific candidate.

1. The summary says that you built end-to-end analytics before sales.

— Tell us about your team. What specialists worked in it? What tasks did you perform at the application layer?
— How long did you create the system?
— What CRM did you choose and why?
— What telephony system did you choose and why?
— What web analytics system did you choose and why?
- How was the docking with the warehouse?
— Name at least 5 technical problems that you solved during the integration process.
— How did you manage to motivate the sales department to work with such a system?
- Is the system working? How can I check it?

1. You write that you have tripled your online sales.

How were sales measured? How did you track them?
What tools and channels did you use?
- What specialists worked to increase sales?
- How did you calculate that sales increased exactly 3 times? Have you already set up analytics before you?
— What are your functions on the project? What tools did you use exactly?
Who can I call and check it out?

1. Experience in contextual advertising.

— How did you cluster requests, how many were there, what services did you use?
- How did you automate contextual advertising - services, scripts, something else?
How was performance measured before sales? What systems are integrated?
— What strategies were used in the context at the top level?
— How did you work with competitive requests?
Did you use context for content marketing?
— What have you achieved for business with the help of context?

1. Search marketing and SEO.

— What was your SEO strategy: regions, queries, snippets, texts, internal optimization? How did you get external links?
- What results did you get in terms of organic traffic and sales from it, the growth of query clusters?
What mechanics have you come up with for SEO?

1. Development.

- Have you created personal accounts, closed areas of the site, Internet services? Why, for whom?
Have you developed websites or landing pages from scratch? How much development did you pass through yourself - in hours and specific projects?
How did you manage development? What methods and programs did you use? What reports did the experts have? How did you change the work plan if deadlines were missed or risks were triggered?
— How did you detail the tasks, what methods did you use? Were you included in the timing forecast?
— How did you work with freelancers and outsourcers?

Important Points

- Carefully study work experience. If there is nothing about internet tools, web analytics, internet strategy, managing a team of internet specialists, don't waste your time on this candidate. The core experience of managing an Internet team should be at least 4 years, and preferably 6 years.

You don't need a classic marketer. It can be calculated from phrases and words in the resume (when there is nothing else besides these skills): marketing management, BTL, booklets, packaging, strategies, corporate identity, sales funnel analysis, reporting check, analysis of the structure and level of demand fluctuation (ABC, XYZ and combined analyses), portfolio analysis, strategic and operational product analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, segmentation and positioning, consumer potential analysis, surveys. Such a candidate can be an excellent manager and a classic marketer, but not a digital director.

- When evaluating managerial experience, do not take into account work with contractors (agencies). It is important. Working with agencies does not count towards the experience of a digital director: in fact, such interaction only reduces qualifications. And it is raised by its own team, which needs to be managed (yes, agencies can work in parallel - this is not a problem). Therefore, always clarify whether the candidate did everything indicated in the resume himself with the team or, as they like to say, "managed agencies."

— Work with those who like to test new tools and mechanics. You should not continue the interview if the applicant answers questions about tools, channels and mechanics: “So I’m a leader, and these are the tasks of specialists, I will manage and give tasks, and they are the result for me.” A good digital director always wants to learn new tools and mechanics, even if there is not enough time for this. This separates the professional from just another "general manager."

An Internet marketer and a digital manager must not only be found, but also retained

Getting a good specialist on the staff is a difficult task, especially on the client side. If a marketing agency clearly understands by what criteria to evaluate candidates and how to grow a professional, then this can be problematic for a client.

For example, in order for an employee to perform the functions of a digital director, at least seven to ten people must work in the marketing department. The leader gradually builds a mini-agency within the company and manages it. In Russia, there are few such cases, usually the marketing department here consists of two or three specialists and the opportunities for growth in it are limited.

The Internet marketer and digital director are general professionals who have gained serious work experience, are well versed in all processes and want to constantly grow and learn. Consider these facts to find and attract truly qualified people to your project.

If you plan to build work with agencies (which is often much better than many years of hard building a department inside), check the candidates against the checklist. This way you will immediately recognize a quality agency, filtering out streaming, mass options.

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I remember, as a child, we often argued who was stronger: the terminator or the robocop? If a predator fought an alien, who would win? (Then no one could have imagined that such a film would be made).
Time has passed, but such questions still torment the minds of already adults in appearance, but children by nature.

So what more important to the company? Management or marketing? Of course, the question is ridiculous and stupid - a company cannot work effectively without management and marketing at the same time - any student of the business faculty will rap out. And in general, it will be right. But we forget that in a real situation there are never enough resources. We present that 1 place is vacant. Or allocate money to take one super-cool specialist. Who is better to take? manager? Or a marketer? Only one is enough to pay...

In order to understand who we choose, we must first clearly distribute who is responsible for what. If everything is more or less clear with marketing (see here:), then with management everything is much more complicated.

It is difficult for me to name now at least one university in Odessa that would not produce managers. It comes to the point of absurdity that the same Hydromet or Polytechnic graduates managers ... The question is - managers of WHAT? Weather? Or a computer manager? It’s hard to understand the students who go there… But on the other hand, it’s okay for them, they don’t know. But how to understand the leadership of such a university, which opens the specialty of management in a non-core institute?

So, now the word management is attributed to almost all specialties: sales manager, account manager, VIP client manager, marketing manager, PR manager, promo manager, production manager, financial management, investment manager, development manager , HR manager… The list can be long and tedious. And is it all management? Or maybe the HR department? Accounting? Production? Sales department? I think this misconception (intentional or not) is primarily due to the wrong essence. Management, as you know, has 4 main functions: planning, organization, motivation and control. And it turns out that EVERY person who plans something, does something, forces himself or others to do it and checks - is he a manager? In the broad sense of the word, the foreman of the movers is also a transportation manager. Fits the function. And even by name. After all, many people translate management as management. But it is not so.

If we turn a little to history, we will find that for the first time the term management was introduced by a certain Joseph Schumpeter (I don’t remember the year, who needs to look, it’s easy to find). So, before that, there were 3 main factors of production: land, capital, labor (well, or instruments of production, means of production and production itself). So, this same Schumpeter introduced the fourth component - the qualified work of management, which makes something integral out of these 3 elements. Management itself has a lot of definitions, but my favorite is something like this: Management is a work with the aim of obtaining a synergy effect in the enterprise. Those. the bottom line is that 1+1=3. A skilled manager organizes production in such a way that the sum of the company as a whole is much higher than each unit would work separately and then add them up.
In my understanding (not necessarily the only correct one), a manager is a leader, and any leader must have management skills - whether it be a shop manager, a foreman, a marketing director or someone else. It's just that each one of the functions is more developed.

But the MOST CHIEF MANAGER should be at the head, who, in fact, personifies the real leader, the captain.

Now, who is more important? After all, the marketing department decides such issues as what to produce, to whom to sell, at what price, in what volume ... in what packaging, how much money to spend on advertising, etc ... I.e. in fact, almost ALL the most important issues go through it (as you can see in the diagram, the marketing department sticks its nose everywhere).
I think that in different periods of a company's life, this emphasis has a different meaning. If we consider the classic product life cycle, then I would place this emphasis as follows:

Implementation(going to market): the main thing is marketing. Without a marketing strategy, knowledge of the market, competitors and consumers, there will be no way out as such at all.

Growth stage (rapid growth): came out great, gaining momentum, demand exceeds supply. Everything is super. Here both management and marketing are equally important. Marketing is needed in order to have a more rapid growth, to better guess the preferences of consumers, the adequacy of prices. Management - to ensure the necessary production, skillfully manage people and financial flows. Most often, at this stage, demand outstrips supply. If you still choose who is more important - then, probably, the manager.

Maturity– I would still bet on the manager. At this stage, the company most often collects profit from this product. Of course, marketing is needed, but not in the same way as skillful management. No special developments, investments, changes ... Marketing here is rather in a "supporting" mode.

recession No matter how high you throw a stone, it will always fall down. Proven by Newton  Although, if you launch at a speed of 9.6 km / s, then the stone will leave the atmosphere and fly around the Earth (I can’t vouch for the numbers, you can double-check, but this is the order). So, sooner or later, in any market there will be a recession. And no matter how sad it is in practice, in theory - the most interesting moment. After all, two diametrically opposite options can happen here: the sale of goods can completely come to naught, or a “second wind” can open up and a new round in development can begin, with implementation. Based on this, priorities are set. For example, a decision was made to close a direction, or sell a part of an enterprise that is in decline ... In this case, a strong-willed decision of a manager to eliminate stocks, dismiss or retrain personnel, change policies, etc. (although in the event of a sale, you may have to turn to marketers to write a beautiful report and plans, along with financiers). If the management believes that the product was “misunderstood by the market” and still has potential, then here the task for marketing is to find a new USP, present it correctly and restart the whole scheme, starting from the introduction (our washing machine is not only excellent cleans, but also a stylish nightstand! Save on furniture!). Or just enter another market.

As a percentage of management and marketing, I see it like this:
Implementation: marketing 80%, management 20%.
Growth: management 60% marketing 40%.
Maturity: management 70%, marketing 30%.
Decline: management 70%, marketing 30% or marketing 70% management 30%, depends on the strategy.

Of course, this is just a general scheme, which has a lot of BUT and limitations. There is seasonality, recessions in the economy, changing company and management policies, new players, changes in the production process, etc. In business, there are no “general rules” at all, there are only recommendations that previously worked or did not work.

In the end, I will say this: at the enterprise it is equally important to have both professional marketers and managers. Moreover, all marketers, as well as other managers, should have good management skills (and managers should know at least the basics of marketing). But in different periods of a company's life, the emphasis on importance between these, in general, inseparable concepts, can be placed in different ways, depending on the specific situation. But neither one nor the other can be neglected!