While it's not rocket science to create a company that delivers excellent results, you require the right people.
If you're planning to build an all-star digital marketing and designing team, finding out the most talented individuals, convincing them to be a part of your team, and onboarding them is what differentiates you from others.
Once you have the right talent onboard, it boils down to retaining and keeping them happy.
But is it this simple?
If hiring the right talent was this simple, every startup would be on the cusp of becoming the next unicorn in their field.
Gone are those days when the concept of jack-of-all-trades master of none worked well, but today you require a specialist who thoroughly understands what needs to be done.
If you want to find and hire the best digital marketers and designers, we have you covered. In this article, we provide you with 12 tips for hiring the best digital marketers and designers.
Use these tips to hire people who impact your bottom line.
1. Define your goals when choosing a designer and marketer
First and foremost, why you're hiring graphics designers should be clear to you. Having a clear requirement of what you require and want to accomplish is essential for hiring the right people.
You may require a designer to design your website or create graphics for your blogs or social media posts. Or maybe you want to share memes to grow your brand.
Being prepared helps you ask the right graphic design interview questions regardless of the reason you're hiring.
Asking questions related to your requirements helps you understand what each candidate brings.
2. Set your expectations by creating a job post
After knowing your business requirements, the next thing to do is get your head in the right place or set some expectations for the designers and marketers. Never mistake your graphic designer for a web developer. While they design your website's look, feel, and layout, they cannot code.
Similarly, never consider your digital marketer a full-stack marketer because the best digital marketers help you increase your online visibility by running campaigns. They are not search engine optimization (SEO) specialists.
When hiring for these two roles, keep in mind both designers and marketers have an area of expertise. So, don't assume a world-class logo designer will also be a stellar illustrator.
To keep confusion at bay, ensure to write a detailed job description and post it on a free job posting site.
You can also use ChatGPT for job descriptions if you need guidance in writing accurate and concise descriptions. This AI-powered tool offers inspiring ideas to help you craft the perfect job posting.
3. Look beyond the resume
While a candidate may have stellar experience and desired qualifications, they may not fit the picture of your ideal candidate.
So, what's the solution?
Rather than getting impressed with their resume, try to know the person behind it.
While their experience conveys what they're capable of achieving, look for candidates with a genuine and vested interest in marketing or graphic designing.
During the interview, swing the conversation between a successful and unsuccessful project to understand how they handle failures.
Based on the answers, assess which candidates are passionate about their job while ensuring they are not affected by potential OIG Exclusions, which could disqualify them from participation in federally-funded health care programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, thereby safeguarding your organization from potential liabilities.
4. Review their portfolio
The beauty of graphic design and digital marketing is its visuals. Before hiring for either position, ensure to review their portfolio.
Request graphic designers to share logos or images and digital marketers to share marketing campaigns they created and their impact.
Reviewing their portfolio helps you understand the following:
- Whether their design style and thought procedure matches your requirement?
- Are the examples high-quality?
- Do they understand brand consistency, and do the designs look cohesive?
- Is the marketing campaign in-line with the company's core values and branding guidelines?
- Have they completed projects similar to what you require?
5. Don't make salary your prime consideration
While the price you pay for hiring digital marketers and designers matters because of financial reasons, don't make it your only consideration.
Focusing on your price sabotages your hiring efforts because it helps prevent them from hiring talent that makes a difference to your business.
Also, avoid falling prey to marketers and designers who are real bottom feeders. They charge high fees for their services but fail to deliver as expected.
Always remember price is not necessarily an indication of quality. Alternatively, designers and marketers who charge below-market rates may cut corners elsewhere by doing less work or using outdated marketing and designing strategies.
Such candidates will likely cost more in the long run because they take longer to deliver to work.
6. Check their social media accounts
Whether candidates like it or not, hiring managers scan their social media profiles like LinkedIn to vet profiles of suitable candidates.
Knowing what your potential employees are posting gives you insights into their personalities, thought process, and work ethics. Often, many people use social media platforms to vent their frustration about their previous employer or work.
Candidates with good work ethics know better than anyone what they post online. When candidates post against employers or bosses, they put themselves in situations where employers may take legal action.
It shows employers that such candidates are not worthwhile because they may share critical work-related information publicly, damaging the company’s reputation.
7. Things to look out for
When you find an excellent designer or marketer, you will be eager to get the ball rolling in your favor and start working together.
But don’t let your eagerness ruin your efforts. Avoid turning a blind eye to any potential red flags. Some red flags to notice are:
- Marketers and designers ask for the entire project fees before working on any project
- Refuses to provide any references or samples
- Takes more than one day to respond to every email you send
That’s probably not the designer or marketers you had hoped to work with. Any red flags you notice before the start of your agreement are likely to escalate or get worse with time. If something is off from the beginning, it’s likely to be off.
Do yourself some favor and hire someone who is professional and qualified.
8. Target your competitors
Every company has its competitors.
Search for top candidates on LinkedIn. Find the ones that are doing well within your industry.
While these candidates may be passive, offering them growth potential and incentives help attract them to your job.
Search for similar titles and roles on LinkedIn.
9. Get referrals
Did you know your current employees are your ambassadors who can advocate why working in your company is beneficial?
When potential candidates read company reviews on sites such as Indeed or Glassdoor, it instils trust in them. They feel motivated and excited when existing and previous employees share good reviews about the company’s work culture and growth.
Getting referrals based on reviews your employees leave is a great way to hire top talent.
10. Tap online communities and LinkedIn groups
If you want to engage top talent for your design and marketing team, you must visit places where people spend most of their time.
For example, when searching for a designer role, look to design communities and search for top candidates based on ratings of these groups and communities.
Often, you may come across witty yet talented marketers who positively impact your work experience.
This is a great way to connect with experienced and potential candidates.
11. Use targeted paid advertisements
While paid advertisements do not reach passive candidates, they reach people on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Use the targeting feature of Facebook’s ad platforms to ensure your job posts show in the feed of people searching for jobs. Customers with the right skill set, interest, and region see the target ad, increasing your chances of reaching qualified people.
It’s an excellent way to establish what it’s like working in the company.
You never know when your targeted paid ads will connect you with potential and qualified candidates.
12. Hire for paid internships
Paid internships are always helpful in hiring qualified candidates. As college pass outs are full of energy and enthusiasm, hiring them brings great excitement to your company.
Hiring someone hungry for work and impressionable takes your company to another level.
You can benefit from hiring marketing students from MBA colleges or designers from institutes offering design courses. Offering a paid internship before graduation is a great way to work with raw talent and mold them according to your company’s requirements.
Hire to grow your company
As businesses ramp up and desire to grow, hiring the best digital marketers and designers with specialized skills is imperative.
The key to finding the right talent is leaving no stone turned and investing largely in your company’s culture to attract qualified professionals.
While these methods are just the tip of the iceberg, they are likely to lend a helping hand when sourcing at a global level. The more strategies you use to hire candidates, the higher your chances of hiring a loyal employee with the right skill set.
Author’s bio
Priya Jain has been copywriting professionally for over eight years. She has attained an engineering degree and an MBA. She teaches math, spends her time running behind her toddler, and tries new recipes when she isn't writing. You can find her on LinkedIn.
