What Do You Want from Marketing? Why Your Answer Should Come Before You Recruit
Many businesses feel instinctively that marketing is a good idea. It’s something they know they should be doing — to raise awareness, build reputation, support sales. But when it comes to actually recruiting for a marketing role — whether it's your first hire or building out a larger team — far too often businesses skip a crucial first step: What do you actually want marketing to do for your business?
It sounds like a simple question, but the answer can vary wildly depending on your goals, your stage of growth, and your internal structure. And unless you're clear on this from the outset, you risk making the wrong hire, or investing time and money into a function that never quite delivers what you were hoping for.
Is it about awareness? Creativity? Or commercial impact?
Some businesses want to see great creative work — striking visuals, compelling campaigns, a refreshed brand. Others are looking for clear commercial impact: increased sales, measurable ROI, or strategic input into long-term growth.
Then there’s the question of execution vs. leadership:
Do you need someone who can do the doing — a capable executor who can manage campaigns, update your website, run social, and keep things moving?
Or are you looking for someone who can partner with senior leadership, help shape your brand narrative, and build a marketing roadmap aligned to your business strategy?
Both approaches are valid. But they require very different skill sets, experience levels, and mindsets.
The brief matters more than you think
Just like marketing itself, your recruitment strategy needs clarity of purpose. When you start by identifying what marketing success looks like for your business, you can tailor the role, the responsibilities, and the seniority level accordingly.
Without that clarity, the risk is high:
You bring in someone incredibly talented — but not aligned to your goals.
You expect strategic thinking from someone hired as a junior marketer.
Or you hire someone to “just do the marketing,” but without any direction, they struggle to deliver real value.
Marketing isn’t one-size-fits-all. The shoe doesn’t fit every business the same way. That’s why your initial brief is so important — not just for attracting the right talent, but for setting your business up for marketing success.
Marketing done right can change your growth trajectory
When a business aligns its marketing capability with its commercial vision, the results can be transformative.
You move from ad hoc activity to strategic consistency.
You connect brand efforts with business outcomes.
And you get a marketing function that adds real, measurable value to your bottom line.
But it all starts with that first question:
What do you really want marketing to do for your business?