For growing businesses and entrepreneurs, hiring even just one new freelance marketer can directly increase visibility and gain the new customers they need to keep their business thriving. And while many business owners realize they need to hire a freelance marketer, many don’t know where to get started or who to hire.
Since there are hundreds of different roles and positions that fall under the category of marketing, it’s important to hire a freelance marketer that will have the most impact and give you the most bang for your buck.
As you start to assess potential freelance marketing hires, you will realize they are often grouped into two categories:
- Marketing Specialists
- Marketing Generalists
While there are both pros and cons to hiring marketing specialists and hiring marketing generalists, I’m here to make the case that when hiring freelance or contract marketers, it’s best to hire specialists. Hiring a freelance marketing specialist will free up more of your time, provide expertise, and bring a new perspective to your business. Keep reading to learn more about these three benefits.
Free Up Time
Oftentimes in small companies, the business owner or CEO performs the jobs of many people. And while this may be sustainable at first, it can be very time consuming and take away from more important parts of the business that need your attention. While a generalist would also be able to take over many tasks, a specialist is able to focus on one aspect of your marketing and without any training, and be able to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently.
For example:
A restaurant owner would benefit from hiring a freelance Social Media Marketing Specialist because customers often use social media to research restaurants before visiting and the restaurant industry as a whole has shown to benefit from the use of social media.
So instead of spending multiple hours a day trying to figure out Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm or responding to customer queries on Twitter, you can have a dedicated person to perform these tasks. And not only will it free up your time, but it will also free up the time of your marketing generalist who is trying to juggle social media while performing 30 other marketing duties at once.
Expert Talent
Another benefit of hiring a freelance marketing specialist is that a specialist has extensive experience working on their skills and a deep understanding of their position. This person can jump right into your business and start making an impact without having to spend a lot of time training or getting caught up to speed.
For example:
An SEO Specialist has experience with proven SEO best practices and strategies that will increase traffic and sales. While generalists may also have experience with SEO, without being immersed in it daily and staying up to date on the latest strategies, it will be easy to fall behind and increase the chance of making a critical mistake.
New Perspective
Many companies choose to hire freelance marketing specialists to supplement marketing generalists or when they need extra help on a special project. Hiring marketing specialists on a temporary or contract basis can help rejuvenate your business and provide a new perspective. When only working with one marketing generalist, your marketing department could become uninspired and have the perspective of only one or two people inside the company. Hiring a freelance marketer not only brings in the perspective of an outsider, but one of an expertise who will challenge your team to think differently.
For example:
You might hire a freelance PR Specialist when promoting the release of a new product. PR Specialists have spent years cultivating relationships with journalists and may be able to introduce your store to a segment of the audience you didn’t think you could reach. Or they might put a creative spin on how they pitch your product that you didn’t know people would be interested in.
Instead of a marketing generalist targeting the same local trade publication or newspaper with a pitch created by the people working for the company, a PR Specialist is able to think outside of the box and target new publications and audiences who would not normally consider buying your product.
As your business grows and you can afford to hire more people, you can begin to hire multiple marketing specialists to supplement your marketing generalists. And hiring these freelancers on a contract basis reduces the risk of turnover and eliminates high salary and training costs. But if you’re just starting out, hiring a freelance marketing specialist will help kick start your marketing efforts and produce the most high-quality results.
