5 Essential Questions To Ask When Hiring an Inbound Marketer

Challenges shape you. They shape you so you can build your business. More than that, they form the foundation that you can grow your brand on top of. 

But why put up with unnecessary challenges? Why create a struggle when you could have business leads out the wazoo and a team who always knows the direction in which they are going? 

Sounds nice, huh? 

Well, the simple fact is that an inbound marketer can take away the challenges that come with your inbound marketing strategy. And we can take away the challenges that come with finding an inbound marketer in the first place. 

What is an Inbound Marketer?

Okay, okay, wait just a minute. What is this elusive inbound marketer? Who are they? What are they made of? What is this inbound marketing we speak of? 

First things first. Inbound marketing is the way you help potential customers find your brand and learn what you have to offer them. 

There are certain things you have to do to bring top-of-mind awareness to your inbound leads. You want them to pick your business above all others. Think of it as an early intervention on the behalf of your ideal buyers. You have to resort to many different kinds of marketing, however, to pull effective inbound traffic and end with a closed sale. 

That’s where your inbound marketer comes in. They either fly solo or work with a team of like-minded professionals. They often come from lead generation companies that provide lead generation services. 

Your inbound marketer will create and publish your inbound marketing campaigns. They work with the goal of generating new local leads and leads in general. Then, they continue their efforts to retain your existing customers with the initiatives they put out. 

But we are going to talk about what they do in more depth right now. 

What Does an Inbound Marketer Do?

An inbound marketer does a lot. But we were able to narrow it down into the following six categories so you can understand just how important it is to have one. 

Above all else, though, keep in mind that an inbound marketing specialist does it all with commitment, a sense of urgency, and dedication. This means they have to be excellent multitaskers and communicators. 

Now, let’s jump right in. 

Manages Your Inbound Marketing Campaigns

Remember how we just said your inbound marketer has to be an excellent multitasker? Yeah. That’s because your holistic marketing strategy falls into their realm of responsibility. 

Here are some of the big-ticket items they have to manage for your marketing campaigns: 

• 90-day campaigns 
• Weekly deliverables 
• Constant SEO
• Communicating with the rest of your and their team

They also often have to talk with your clients to nurture them through the whole process. So first, they put out the campaign that will allow your leads to enter your inbound marketing funnel. Then, they hop on the initial meeting with your new client to get the ball rolling. 

Your inbound marketer will get to know your client to understand how to best serve them and your future leads and paying customers. 

This is one of the many reasons you want to outsource your inbound marketing efforts. If you do not, you will find yourself with way too much on your plate to keep up with in-house. 

Builds the Ideal Buyer Personas You Need

Another reason you want to look for an external inbound marketer? They will have a ton of expertise on how to build your personas. And you need personas to figure out who your ideal buyers are and what would attract them to your business model. 

Your ideal buyer persona document should pinpoint potential buyers’ interests. It should also showcase their pain points and how you can overcome those pain points with them. 

They are not a one-stop shop for your benefit. They have to be detailed and organized. And you have to be able to go back to them time and again to get quality results every time. 

Researches and Analyzes Keywords

So with your inbound marketer’s help, you will know what catches your ideal buyer’s attention. But what are they searching for on their search engine? What are the specific keywords they use to find solutions to their problems? 

Your inbound marketing specialist will help you there too. They will research what keywords you should use in your content to appeal to the appropriate masses. This will help you to rank higher in Google search results. Then, you can put your content into the search engines of your key customers and turn them into sales that keep coming back. 

After you use those keywords in your campaigns, your inbound marketer will analyze the results. What is not effective they can throw out the window and what is they can hold onto for future reference. 

Conducts Content Analysis

There is no point in putting out a bunch of content that doesn’t end up performing well among your audience. But there is no need to worry about that with the right marketing specialist. They will conduct content analysis to see if everything is up to speed from your campaign. 

What is working? How can they make it even better? What is not working? Is what’s not working worth developing or should they get rid of it altogether? 

Those are all questions your marketer will address. 

Performs A/B Testing

With A/B testing, your marketer can make small adjustments for big benefits to your company. This is a great approach. A lot of the time, other companies will make a lot of changes when they find that something isn’t working well. 

And yeah, that’s better than doing nothing just because part of your campaign is thriving. But it still wastes time and, thus, money. 

Needless to say, an A-plus inbound marketer knows how to perform A/B testing to get you the results you need. 

Evaluates and Recommends

We just said that there is no point in putting out content if your audience does not receive it well, or if you do not reach any intended goals with it. 

Similarly, your inbound marketing expert should evaluate all your previous efforts to see if they work together. You want to move your leads down your funnel. 

Your marketer should then present the evaluation to you to analyze matters like that. Then, they can recommend the right action plan. The two of you, and your team, can collaborate to decide the best course of action. 

Key Questions to Ask When Hiring an Inbound Marketing Professional

We know that the idea of hiring an inbound marketing professional sounds like the perfect choice for you and your business. But you may be wondering what to look for when you start your search to take one on. 

Again, we are here to help you on your journey to professional growth and success. This is why we compiled the following list of questions to ask your candidates to see if they are up to the task. 

We mean, come on: You put a lot of work into growing your business to where it is now. Why give up all your hard work now? 

Are You Doing an Integrated Online Marketing Campaign?

Ask your potential hire for previous work samples. The best way to see if their tactics will work in your business model is to see how it has worked before, in real-time. 

From that work, you can tell if and to what extent they integrated their prior online marketing campaigns. In other words, you have to understand what marketing mix they used in their strategy and how well they were able to streamline their efforts. 

How did they do it? How often did they do it? What data do they have on hand to show their work? 

Do You Have Experience in Marketing Automation Platforms?

You know that you need automation tools for all aspects of your company. And if you have one already in place within your marketing department, you want a marketing pro who has experience with it. 

If they are not familiar with the one you use, what is their overarching experience like with digital marketing tools? It’s fine if they have not used your preferred platform before, but if not they have to learn how to adapt to it fast. 

Do You Understand the Inbound Methodology?

The inbound methodology is the holistic approach that brings together all your digital assets. It allows you to: 

• Drive more traffic to your pages 
• Turn that traffic into quality leads 
• Convert your quality leads into paying customers 
• Nurture your paying customers for retention and brand promotion 

The inbound marketing specialist you hire should know the inbound methodology inside and out. 

What Certifications Do You Have?

There are great online certification programs for inbound marketing. There are also great training and continuing education programs available to those who want to be top of the class in inbound marketing. 

Does your candidate have the proper certifications? Since it is so easy, at a bare minimum you want a marketer who has them. 

Conclusion

We said it before, but we will ask again: Why give up all your hard work now? There is no need to settle when you are looking for solutions for selling within your business. 

Selling solutions, selling evolutions; you’ve heard it all. But have you heard of Selling Revolution? When you come to us for your business growth and sure success, you never have to worry about settling again. 

Check out our blog for the latest in industry news and more pro-business hacks that will work for you. 

But for the real magic to happen, you need to book a call with Selling Revolution today. You will enjoy better leads, higher conversion rates, top talent recruitment, and the best sales training out there.