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6 Skills You May Not Know Your Marketing Freelancers Need

This article is more than 7 years old.

Businesses are increasingly realizing the value of outsourcing certain functions to freelancers. Online marketing is one of those functions, with freelancers bringing in years of experience for an affordable hourly or monthly fee.

However, the search for the right online marketing professional can bring challenges, with businesses often looking to standard marketing job descriptions for inspiration. Not to mention the 54 plus million freelancers, it's hard to know which one to choose.

If you’re bringing in a contractor to help with your company’s web presence or online reputation, it’s important that you first define exactly what you need. This will help talent specialists find the perfect fit for your organization, and it will also give you the information you need to create a list of interview questions as you vet candidates.

“As with all freelance engagements, expectation and goal setting is paramount,” says Michael Solomon co-founder of the 10x, Management, a talent agency for tech freelancers that I use. “When we bring on freelance marketing support, we spend a great deal of time and energy working with the consultant to make sure that we are speaking the same language and moving in the same direction. So often these engagements go awry from the start because there are no clear deliverables and goals.”

Here are six skills to add to your standard requirements as you search for a freelance marketing consultant.

Flexibility to Adapt to New Technologies

Online marketing is constantly changing, along with the tools professionals use to manage successful campaigns. It’s important to find a freelancer who can not only use any tools your business has available, but also knows of additional tools that can power their efforts. Include interview questions that can give you a good idea of how proficient each potential freelancer is in various types of software or social media platforms, as well as the candidate’s past success in managing campaigns.

Discipline

Talent and skill are useless if your employees miss deadlines or go days without accomplishing anything. Use interview questions and reference checking that identify a candidate’s work ethic, looking for answers that will demonstrate a strong commitment to meeting expectations.

While this won’t guarantee you’ll get a highly disciplined worker, you’ll at least be able to get insights that might help you weed out the blatantly undisciplined candidates.

Strong Writing Ability

Even if your business has a team of writers, your marketing freelancer needs well-developed writing skills. Marketing consultants often determine the type of online content posted, then maintain quality control on everything being created. Additionally, marketing freelancers will need to be able to craft an effective email, create a winning PowerPoint presentation, and write compelling social media updates.

Overall, your marketers will be much more productive if they have the writing talent to be able to do things on their own, rather than commissioning writers to do everything. Require portfolio samples that demonstrate writing aptitude.

Creativity

Creativity is an important skill for any professional to have. However, a marketer with creative ability can take your business’s campaigns to the next level. By finding unique ways to approach each new project, your marketer will give your business an edge in a market that can often be overloaded with similar marketing strategies. Creative people also enjoy the work associated with coming up with a new campaign and tweaking it in relation to the response it gets.

Culture Fit

Whether your freelancer will be in the office all day, every day, or working remotely, culture fit is extremely important. Marketing consultants need to be able to work cooperatively with existing employees and contractors to avoid a negative impact to morale. Make sure you’re familiar with the type of person who would fit well with your culture and ask interview questions that determine each candidate’s work style and preferences.

Industry-Specific Understanding

When it comes to marketing for a business, there is no one size fits all. It’s important to find a marketing freelancer who has at least a basic understanding of your industry, with the ability to create campaigns that speak to your audience. They don’t have to have twenty years of marketing experience for brands just like yours, but they need to demonstrate a full understanding of your goals and your customer base. If they don’t know the fine details of what your business does, they should express a willingness to learn if chosen.

Before you hire your next marketing freelancer, take time to identify what skills the person needs to have. You can then include those skills in your search criteria and create interview questions that determine whether each person is the right fit. The end result will be a marketer who has your brand’s best interests in mind and can help you achieve your goals.