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1. Not defining a true full-time marketing role or mixing the role with other part-time duties like cashier, front desk, or other tasks that destroy the time needed to execute marketing plans effectively.


2. Paying a low hourly wage like $12 or $14 an hour. Or positioning lower pay as an opportunity for “learned experience” while expecting to scale “growth and results”. The average marketer makes $61k in the US, and big box retailers pay between $18 and $21 an hour for non-managers to stock shelves. The demand for good marketers right now is high. Dig deeper.


3. Hiring graduates or candidates that possess little or no real marketing experience, where the internal structure doesn’t have anyone in a role to guide or grow that marketer. Entry level marketers need a lot of guidance. If your organization is relying on them to deliver a strategy, your candidate needs more than their degree.


4. Hiring someone who lacks passion for the business or has a narrow skill set that doesn't align with the business's needs. Be mindful of their business acumen in general. They need to know how to get through to people that will buy what you sell, and care enough about your brand to take it to the next level.


5. Not having a clear strategy or understanding how to allocate your marketing budget across different channels. Entry level candidates struggle with strategic decisions because the experience of measuring results is new to them. Take out the guesswork by using more experienced professionals that can propose a strategy, execute the plan, and know what to do with the results.


6. Not knowing how to set realistic goals / expectations, or focusing too heavily on short-term results rather than long-term growth. Avoid "dipping the toe" into marketing to "see what works". If it feels like you're throwing money away, then your strategy is not well enough defined.


7. Not taking the time to develop the company's brand message, analyzing competitors, or conducting proper market research. You have a lot more competition than you think. And if you can't tell where your website ranks against theirs, or how many social followers they have, or can't recall the topic of their last 2 email blasts, you're not paying enough attention. Start with a S.W.O.T. analysis.


8. Not setting clear KPIs (key performance indicators) or scorecards to track progress and results. Data and analytics lead to making informed marketing decisions. Pay attention to metrics. There's industry benchmarks to weigh against for just about everything these days.


9. Not having a clear understanding of your target audience, buyer personas, customer journey or sales funnel. "Everyone" is not your customer, and they don't love you at first sight. Change your thinking. Get ready to make lots of impressions to win them over.


10. Not investing enough in the marketer or providing adequate resources, training, support, or equipment for creativity. There are so many tools that can speed up and organize marketing development process. We often hear of marketers that were tasked with growth and given almost $0 budget to work with. That is not setting them up for success.


11. Not being open to new ideas or feedback from the marketer. Granted, you know your business better than anyone, and younger professionals are more ambitious to experiment with new ideas and tactics, you may think are silly. However, digital marketing evolves so fast, by the time people really figure out a process so efficiently it feels like it will print money, it no longer works because everyone is now doing it. Trying new things helps stay ahead of the noise so your brand gets noticed.


12. Not having a reasonable timeline for producing quality materials. It's one thing to ride an employee for not hustling quickly enough, but we hear countless stories from marketers with bosses that think graphics and programming grows on trees. Quality marketing takes time, and so does results.


13. Not investing in a mix of marketing channels, like SEO / SEM, social media, email and content marketing. Look, there is NO silver bullet for marketing, or that's what everyone would be shooting. The best methods are to be strategic and visible on all relevant channels that build your network.

If your business has a marketing employee struggling to get the right output, we do offer marketing consulting, and support services to help improve their strategy. Contact us to learn more.