100. Series 3 | Episode 15. When Should B2B Tech Startups Hire Their First Marketer? With Emma Westley, VP of Marketing at Delegate CX

When should you hire your first marketer? 

It’s a question a lot of B2B tech start-ups struggle with and, unfortunately, tend to get wrong. 

But making the right decision, not just about when to hire, but also which type of marketer to hire first, can have an enormous impact on your start-up’s growth. 

In this episode, Emma Westley guides us through the question of when B2B tech start-ups should hire their first marketer. She also provides plenty of helpful advice for determining what kind of marketing professional to hire, and using your newly established marketing function to drive business growth. 

We cover: 

• What hiring conditions we're seeing in the B2B tech market in early 2024
• When should a B2B tech startup hire its first marketer?
• What should you get your first marketing hire to focus on?
• What signals should founders look out for to know that marketing isn't working?
• Common mistakes startups make when hiring their first marketer
• What are the alternatives if you can't afford a full-time hire?

And so much more..

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

2023 has thrown a bunch of tough challenges at B2B tech marketing leaders, making it one of the trickiest years in a while, maybe even in the last couple of decades. The constant pressure to do more with less can squash creativity, test the relationship between marketing and sales teams, and even make even the most confident marketers second-guess themselves. So, what's the way out of this?

No single solution fits everyone, but I had a chat with Pavey Purewal, who used to be a CMO and is now an Executive Coach. And we dove into some practical tips that marketing leaders can put into action during these challenging times.
 
We cover:

• What's the sentiment amongst B2B tech marketing leaders now
• Why now isn't the time to play it safe - 'small m versus big M thinking'
• How to approach the relationship with sales when the pressure is on
• Given the instability, what should leaders be investing in to improve their performance and resilience?
• What it takes to be a successful B2B tech marketing leader today

And so much more..

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

With the current correction in the B2B technology market, finding the right balance between creativity and efficiency is crucial for success. This is especially true for B2B content marketers, who are seeking innovative ways to engage their target audience while optimising their resources.

One tool that has revolutionised this field is artificial intelligence (AI), which offers immense potential for driving both creativity and efficiency in B2B content marketing strategies.

In this podcast, we’re joined by Giuseppe Caltabiano, who is VP of Marketing at Rock Content. Giuseppe has over 20 years of experience spearheading B2B and B2C operations and has produced world-class content and digital marketing strategies for companies like Schneider Electric, Google, Capgemini, and Virgin Media. 

We cover: 

1. Why do B2B content marketers need to leverage AI safely?
2. How AI can, or cannot, be used during each stage of creating content
3. Can you tell if copy has been created by AI?
4. AI tools that Giuseppe recommends 
5. What skills and attributes Giuseppe looks for when hiring B2B content marketers 

And so much more..

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

In competitive markets, how can you use expertise-based positioning to help you create content that engages your audience? 

In this podcast, we catch up with Rin Hamburgh, a former journalist and experienced copywriter, to discuss research that her agency has conducted into what the C-suite reads. 

So, if you’re someone who has to engage the C-suite, or you want to create a marketing strategy that can help you differentiate your business, then tune in because we cover everything you need to know.

We cover:

• What does it mean when someone is an expert?
• The research that Rin's agency has produced on C-suite reading habits
• How to approach expertise-based positioning
• What type of content should you produce? 
• What type of content to avoid producing
• Tips for content distribution
• How should you think about ROI with this type of content? 
• What Rin looks for when hiring B2B content marketers 

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Marketers play a crucial role in generating leads, raising brand awareness, and ultimately fueling the sales engine. One often overlooked resource that marketers can leverage to maximise their pipeline is the use of sales development representatives (SDRs). And in today’s podcast, we will explore what SDRs are and how marketers can effectively utilise them to drive pipeline growth.

And there's no better person to talk to about this than Catarina Hoch, VP of Global Marketing at Operatix. 

Not only has Catarina been an SDR previously, but Operatix provide outsourced SDR teams for B2B Tech companies, so she has a wealth of knowledge about what works and what doesn't.

We cover:

• What does a Sales Development Representative (SDR) do?
• How do they fit into a typical sales team?
• How marketers can best work with SDR's to increase pipeline.
• The best metrics to track.
• Outsource or hire the SDR function?
• What are the best tools for SDR's to use?

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

In today's global marketplace, the concept of localised marketing has become increasingly important for B2B tech companies. But what exactly is localised marketing? And how can it help companies succeed in a highly competitive industry? 

In this podcast, I explore the benefits of localised marketing, discuss when companies should consider implementing it and a whole lot more with Lisa Vecchio, Global Vice President, Integrated Marketing at Aircall. 

We cover:

• What is integrated marketing and how does it relate to localisation?
• What are the benefits of having a localised marketing strategy?
• At what point does a company need to think about localisation?
• How Lisa approached localisation when working for a Startup.
• When do you need to hire marketers in country?
• Having run integrated marketing teams for global technology businesses, what Lisa recommends doing to set those teams up for success.
• What skills and attributes Lisa looks for when hiring into her marketing team. 

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

A short update from us here at Market Recruitment. 

In the digital age, data is king. And for B2B marketers, this treasure trove of information holds the key to unlocking new opportunities and driving demand.

But how exactly can data be used to achieve these goals?

In this podcast, I talk to John Webb, Founder and CEO of Get2Growth, about the power of data in the B2B market and provide actionable insights on how to leverage it effectively.

We cover:

• What the opportunities are for B2B companies that sit on a lot of data right now
• Why aren’t B2B companies able to utilise their data?
• What could B2B companies be doing to capture more data in the first place?
• How would you suggest they turn that data from unknown to a known audience?
• What companies need to be aware of from a legislation point of view
• How should companies start to build a demand generation engine?
• How did John and the Spiceworks team utilise the data they had, and how did that influence their revenue?
• The skills and attributes that John believes makes someone good at demand generation

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

In today's digital age where buyers are more informed, a well-designed and optimised website can be a powerful tool to attract and convert potential customers for your B2B tech business. 

But where do you start? 

In this podcast, I talk to Sam Dunning, Co-Owner at Web Choice about the key steps to creating a B2B website that not only looks great but also drives leads and delivers results. 

We cover:

• The single biggest mistake B2B companies make when building a new website
• What a lead generating website needs to have
• Does the CMS it's built on really matter?
• Pricing page - yes or no?
• How to do SEO properly and rank for keywords quickly
• The reality of how long SEO takes
• Tactics Sam is executing to drive leads into his business (which you can steal)

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

In today's fast-paced world, attention spans are shrinking, and the demand for quick and easily consumable content is on the rise. As a result, many companies are turning their long-form content into short-form content to cater to these changing preferences. 

But how?

So in this podcast, I talk to Anthony Leung, the Founder of Mean Write Hook about how to do it.

And as someone who's worked in social media and content marketing for B2C companies like Pret a Manger, Just Eat, and Simba Sleep, as well as B2B brands like Rackspace and Rentokil Initial, he's worth listening to. 

We cover:

• Why companies should be thinking about turning long-form content into short-form gold
• Why some companies struggle with this
• Where people should start with something like this
• How people should distribute short-form content
• Recommended tools to create this type of content
• What metrics to measure and why

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.