Growing a startup is no small task. Startups often find themselves working with a small but resourceful team, each person taking on many roles. When a business is growing, there’s usually a need in almost every department for more resources. As the owner or manager, it’s your job to prioritize and allocate the limited resources you have to what is most needed.
We’re here to tell you why budgeting for a marketing manager should be at the top of that list of priorities for any startup. Let’s look at why it’s important to prioritize getting a marketing manager on board in the early stages of growing a business.
What does a marketing manager do exactly?
When you hire a marketing manager, their main job is to promote your business, product, or service. Marketing managers ensure that your company is communicating the right messaging to attract new customers.
Their role might include management of digital marketing initiatives like building your website, setting up and managing social media accounts, as well as traditional “non-digital” marketing efforts, like promotional events.
As a startup, your main goal is to promote your business – this is also the marketing manager’s primary goal. A marketing manager will help to build brand awareness, the first stage in any sales process.
You’re too busy to do it well
Despite your best intentions, the truth is that you are too busy to do everything well. Marketing your startup is critical for growth and it needs to be executed well. You’ll do yourself and your startup a disservice by trying to do it all yourself and spreading yourself too thin.
You might get lucky and excel in some areas when you do it all yourself, but you will also fail dismally in other areas. Startup founders need to hire the right professionals to take control of the areas of the business that aren’t in their skill set or that they don’t have the time to do well.
Having a marketing manager in your startup means that you have a professional you can trust taking care of marketing. It frees you to focus on your core business.
A different perspective
A marketing manager is important to a startup because it offers you an objective perspective. This is especially important if you don’t have a business partner. As the owner or manager, making marketing decisions about your business alone can be challenging. It helps to have someone to bounce creative ideas with.
In addition to this, your point of view can sometimes be affected by personal feelings or beliefs about your business. Having a professional marketing manager to oversee marketing means that you’re bringing a fresh, objective point of view to the party. Your startup can only benefit from having multiple points of view all working on the best course of action.
Start on the right footing
When starting a business, it would give you a huge advantage against the competition if you lock in the right messaging from the beginning. Having an experienced and professional marketing manager on your payroll from the start can help you craft a powerful brand strategy and get your brand messaging out to your target audience effectively.
An experienced digital marketing manager can also help you set up tracking and reporting correctly so that right from the beginning your startup is monitoring its marketing spend and return on investment (ROI). Effective tracking and reporting are imperative for making informed marketing decisions down the line.
Make sure your marketing budget is well spent
The truth is that many startups skimp on marketing spending in the early stages, because they feel that they have bigger needs elsewhere. While there are no hard and fast rules to growing a business, it’s recommended startups set their initial marketing budget to between 12 and 20 percent of gross revenue.
We get it – your marketing budget is precious. Having a professional marketer on board is one way to ensure that your budget is not wasted, but is put to good use. Rather than wasting resources on amateur marketing efforts, consider investing in high-quality marketing that’s considerably more effective.
The truth is that your marketing manager doesn’t need to be full-time at first. If your marketing budget is too small to afford a full-time marketing manager then you should explore some of the innovative outsourcing services available to startups today. One option is to hire a virtual marketing manager, by the hour.
Good marketing will help you grow faster
Whichever way you dissect it, it’s clear to see why a marketing manager should be one of your first hires in any startup. Good marketing – from the beginning – will help your startup grow infinitely faster.
