How not to lose $9000 and 3 months when hiring a marketer for the early-stage startup

The first time I hired a marketer for my early-stage startup, I had no clue how the marketing processes worked, how and what needed to be measured, and how to monitor process outcomes.

I lost $9000 and 3 months of time, and after another 3 months, I've close it.

After that, I successfully hired 2 CMOs and crystalize 3 steps to follow right from the job description to the end of the trial period to not fail again.

1. Job description
Here you need to outline your expectations and current situation.

• You don't have a product-market fit. Mention this. It means you need to do a lot of experiments with potential traffic sources with a low budget. The candidate should be ready for this.

• B2B or B2C. Marketing for these two groups is entirely different. B2B requires setting up an outbound and email campaign and sales calls. In B2C, you need to drive as much traffic as possible.

• Not a to-do-everything person. It can scare off a potentially good candidate. Mention that experience with ADs, influencers, SEO, and referrals can be a plus but not required until it's not the primary skill.

• Ask to prepare the short plan overview before the interview. This will help you quickly weed out people who are not interested enough.

2. Interview

You fill up your calendar with upcoming interviews, but you must also prepare for them.

Here is what you can ask:

• Ask to explain the sort plan, if it was prepared;
• Ask them to outline the most important numbers they think you should focus on and make decisions based on;
• Ask to clearly define what success and failure in numbers will look like;
• Clearly define your budget;
• Based on previous answers, ask what steps they will take in the first week, month, and three months.

3. Trial period

The first three months are uncommonly cause its hard to get consistent traction at this time, but at the same, you need to be sure that you are on track.

Here is what you can do about this:

• Ask to build a clear marketing plan with the channels you will use.
• Set up number-based OKRs for each channel and weekly moves.
• Set up a weekly report with all important numbers you need to track and make decisions based on them.

To do this, you can use MicroGoals.

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And if you need any help setting up your marketing operational processes, my DMs are always open.