Digital marketing has significantly changed how businesses reach their target audiences because traditional marketing tactics, such as TV commercials, are not as effective as they used to be. As a result, marketing teams have had to shift their focus to digital channels such as email, social media, PPC, and search engine optimization (SEO).
This shift has necessitated a skilled workforce to match the new marketing scenes. With new skills come new titles, such as digital marketing directors and managers.
If you intend to hire a digital marketing director or manager but are what they will bring into your business, this guide is a good read.
What’s the Difference between the Two?
There isn’t much difference between a digital marketing manager and a digital marketing director. Organizations often assign different titles, but the responsibilities will be relatively the same.
Also, the size of a company can determine the labels used to refer to top-ranking digital marketing personnel.
For example, a small company may have only one employee managing its digital marketing efforts. Under such circumstances, the employee can go with either title.
On the other hand, larger businesses may have several employees working in the digital marketing department, creating a need for a team leader. This team leader can go by the title of a digital marketing manager. But they could also go by the title of a director if they are involved in active marketing besides managing the team.
What Does a Digital Marketing Manager or Director Do?
A digital marketing manager or director’s role is significantly different from the traditional marketing manager, whose role include other marketing channels such as TV, magazine, or radio in that they only focus on an organization’s digital marketing strategy.
Some of their core functions include planning, executing, and tracking the performance of every marketing campaign.
Planning
Every marketing campaign stands or falls on planning which makes the planning phase of a campaign the most important. A winning plan is based on customer data from previous campaigns, marketing trends, company priorities, and budget.
Also, it must focus on addressing the audience’s pain points and be done in collaboration with team members.
Execution
After planning, the other most crucial role of a digital marketing team leader is executing it. In this phase, the manager or director ensures that the launch occurs without delays, stays within the budget, and promptly addresses any hitches.
Tracking
A campaign’s effectiveness is evidenced by its results, making tracking an essential role for your digital marketing manager. Often this phase involves using analytical tools that help give a clear picture of the performance of a campaign.
Some critical metrics to track in this phase include impressions, click-through rate, engagements, cost per acquisition, conversion rate, and ROI. This phase entails more than watching. It also involves tweaking your campaigns to ensure that they achieve optimum performance.
Hiring a Digital Marketing Director
Now that you know the roles of a marketing director or manager, the next step will be hiring one. But there are a few things you may want to consider before hiring a digital marketing director or manager to ensure that you get the right fit.
Verifiable Skills
Digital marketing has only been a serious career path in the last decade. As a result, not many institutions have been offering training on the same, with most digital marketing experts having more hands-on experience than formal training.
But many organizations have since started offering formal training for digital marketers and managers, so you may want to verify that potential candidates have the prerequisite skills for the job. They do not have to have a degree but should have some form of certification in digital marketing.
Experience
While verifiable skills are great, they can never replace hands-on experience. So you may want to look at their work history and the successes achieved at similar positions. This includes experience in developing and executing digital marketing strategies, managing digital campaigns, and leveraging digital channels to drive business growth.
The ideal candidate should also have experience working with the latest digital marketing technologies and a strong understanding of current trends and future projections.
Soft Skills
Soft skills, also known as common skills, are personal attributes that help an individual interact with others. Some soft skills are innate for some people, but they can also be learned through training and practice.
The most important soft skills include leadership skills, critical thinking, problem-solving, conflict resolution, teamwork, time management, adaptability, and communication skills. Identifying soft skills in a candidate can be a challenge. But you could pick them out when interviewing candidates through several ways, such as by asking open-ended questions and checking skills mentioned by their referrals.
Also, pay attention to their communication during your interaction and ask how they have used soft skills in the past. Their answers can help you get a rough view of how effective their skills compare to other candidates.
