photo credit: lumaxart

Interviewing developers is much easier than interviewing marketers

But still, you do need a marketing team (and a good one of course) and above all you want to be fair in deciding whom to hire.

Questions/conditions for hiring developers are quite straightforward. They either know or they don’t – do they solve problems easily? Do they say the right things? Do they know what they’re doing? Selecting developers is more towards the objective side while hiring marketers is more subjective.

Here are a few tips for hiring that ‘dream marketing team’:

Active on Social Media
Does he have a decent amount of followers on Twitter? Can she get people to become a fan of your startup product/service on Facebook? Is she an active content writer or does he have a separate marketing blog? Yes, ask these questions and make sure they’re ‘virtually active’ before hiring them.

Modesty
A startup operates in an ever-changing environment. Product, expectations, definition of a customer changes almost everyday, and marketing strategies must be invented and reinvented frequently. You need someone who is modest enough to accept what he doesn’t know and be motivated to work on it.

Someone who is detail-oriented
A big NO to someone who thinks they know everything. Willingness to learn and attention to detail is a key characteristic of a marketer.

Analytics/Measurement
Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing effort at an early stage of a startup can be somewhat unreasonable. Don’t hire anyone who thinks like that. Make sure the person believes in measuring efforts (of any kind) and is willing to take responsibility of success or failure.

Mutual Respect with developers
Developers and marketers don’t get along too well – a belief (I disagree though) many have. Make sure that the developers have a sense of respect for what the marketer is doing and they like him/her.
 
For more detail on this topic visit OnStartups