06Jun

With the new year comes an exciting expansion for the Marketing and Sales (formerly Marketing Technology) practice area at Green Key Resources. The team will serve clients of all sizes on a national level in their hunt for talented sales and marketing professionals. We sat down with Ryan Calpin, Director of the Marketing and Sales recruiting team, to talk about their new direction.

What are the main areas that Marketing & Sales will be hiring for in 2023?

We are really looking to branch out in 2023, specifically on the sales side of marketing. Sales and marketing are two departments that are always tied together and there are a lot of sales positions being hired around software and technology. We’d already started to work on some of these roles in the final quarter of 2022 to launch ourselves into this space. We really hope to highlight the value of sales to our clients.

What types of clients and candidates will the Marketing & Sales team work with in 2023?

Our typical clients won’t change much, as marketing and sales departments work hand in hand. These clients are usually within software technology, specifically those who understand the value of the tools and provide their services.

In terms of candidates, there are so many new job titles on the horizon as we expand to this new team function. These can include Social Media Specialist/Manager, Public Relations Specialist, SEO Specialist, Account Executive, Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, Content Copywriter, Creative Director, e-Commerce Specialist, Product Management, Content Creator, and Graphic Designer. This will add to the roles that we have been focusing on for the past few years in the Demand Generation, Marketing Operations, Marketing Automation, Digital Marketing, and Marketing Executive space.

Geographically, where does the Marketing & Sales team recruit roles?

We’ve always orchestrated business nationally. A lot of our marketing and sales roles can sit remote or heavily hybrid. 80% of them are fully remote. Very few roles need to be on-site all five days of the week.

What specialties do the Marketing & Sales team members bring to the table?

We’ve built a foundation of knowledge and understanding of what the Marketing & Sales space really is. Not a lot of recruiting agencies focus on marketing and sales and we pride ourselves on that. Training on our team consists of understanding all areas of this space. So, when we begin to expand in 2023, we not only have the knowledge, but we’re familiar with the more granular roles within marketing departments. This builds trust in our team both internally and externally. You won’t get recruiters who are stretched too thin trying to learn the space.

Our team members all came in with valuable experience and an eagerness to learn and succeed in Marketing & Sales recruiting. For example, A.J. [Arcaini] came in with a background in HR and Talent Acquisition. He was able to work with a lot of different companies and understand the ins and outs of hiring internally. Carissa [Iacona] had a little bit of sales experience but was new to recruiting. She has since taken a big liking to the tech space, jumping in on podcasts and webinars to educate herself as much as she can. Madison [Foery] worked with product managers for a couple of years prior to coming to Green Key. She has really hit the ground running within the tech space and is always willing to get certified in any free tools available to her.

All of it together, combined with Ryan [Calpin]’s years of background and knowledge, creates a unique team that really knows what they’re doing in the space and can be trusted by their clients and candidates.

What It Will Take for a Marketer to Be Successful This Year

What will it take to be a successful chief marketing officer in 2021? Nothing less than having all or at least most of 26 traits, insists a post on the blog of the digital Australian agency, Core dna.

It’s an ambitious list that begins with traits most of us will agree are not just desirable in any leader, but are fundamental. These include being a team player, having a curious mind, being a “communication maestro” and having the skill to see the big picture while managing the details and daily tasks.

Then, writes Sam Saltis, the founder and CEO of Core dna who runs the global firm from Boston, CMOs must also know what’s on the “cutting edge of marketing innovation.” Discerning what’s a fad and what is a worthwhile investment, he says, keeps the company “moving forward instead of being late to emerging trends.”

Successful CMOs “don’t simply follow the crowd but instead push forward to help the company become an early adopter on the trends and platforms that will be huge into the future.”

That requires taking risks. Not impulsive ones. Rather those risks that are “calculated, data and research-backed,” he says. That requires another trait, bravery, because there may be pushback from “stakeholders and superiors, so a CMO needs to be strong-willed and resilient in the face of skepticism.”

As exhaustive a list as it is, there’s little with which to disagree. Open-minded, diplomatic, growth-obsessed, data literate and the others on Saltis’ list all appear in one way or another in other posts and analyses about the transformation of the role of chief marketing officer.

Writing for Deloitte on The Wall Street Journal’s website, Marie Gulin-Merle, global vice president of ads marketing at Google, says the COVID pandemic forced marketers to adapt on the fly to the new challenges and rapid changes.

Already the shortest-tenured of corporate leaders with half on the job fewer than 30 months, CMOs now are expected to be “customer champions, frontline defenders of the brand, stewards of internal morale and culture, and drivers of company growth initiatives.” Yet their main job is growing the business, she says.

Acknowledging marketers “can’t be all things at once,” Gulin-Merle offers Deloitte’s five “archetypes” as a guide:

  1. Customer champion
  2. Growth driver
  3. Innovation catalyst
  4. Capability builder
  5. Chief storyteller

“While CMOs may naturally fit one or two of the archetypes,” she says, “They can learn to prioritize their time and effort across all of the roles depending on the needs of the organization.”

“Most CMOs should focus above all on innovation and growth — on building data and insights-driven marketing organizations that can read customer signals at scale and make them actionable in real time.

“In a dynamic market, that’s where CMOs can help organizations grow and stay resilient.”

Photo by Elio Santos

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Influencer Is the Hottest New Marketing Career

When the pandemic hit and Americans hunkered down, spending on essentials and entertainment, but on little else, brands naturally cut their marketing budgets.

One area that survived was social media influencers. After dipping slightly at the outset of the quarantine, social influencer spending quickly returned to pre-COVID levels. Meanwhile, other advertising, including digital, continued to decline so much that 7-in-10 CMOs have seen an average 19% cut in their marketing budgets.

From an almost accidental niche specialty, influencer marketing has become a big part of digital marketing. Spending on social influence was estimated to hit $9.7 billion this year.

Marketers report that for every $1 they spend on social influence they earn an average media value of $5.78. No surprise then that influencer jobs have become one of the hottest new marketing careers. By virtue of the relationship they’ve established with their audience, social media influencers can introduce their followers to a new brand, or boost an established brand’s sales simply by posting about them.

Until recently, influencers didn’t see what for many began as a hobby as a career. They wrote blogs, posted videos and images to YouTube and Instagram channels and otherwise produced content about what most interested them. As they gained followers, they gained influence and companies noticed.

Kylie Jenner, with 164 million Instagram followers, can drive huge sales for her cosmetics line and for other products she promotes. So effective is her influence that companies pay her hundreds of thousands, even up to a million to post about their products.

Social media influencer google trend.png

More typically, the average established influencer earns $30,000 to $100,000. Increasingly, brands are willing to work with nano-influencers who may only have a few thousand followers, but as authorities in their niche, exert an outsize influence on buying decisions.

The money is what makes a social media influencer career so appealing 54% of Gen Z and millennials say they’d become one given the opportunity. Increasingly, companies are offering those opportunities, opting to grow their own social media influencers.ProjectCasting.com found a job posting to become an influencer for a startup. The three positions reportedly pay $120,000.

That’s still the exception. For obvious reasons, brands want to work with established influencers. When they advertise influencer jobs, what they’re usually looking for are marketers to develop and manage a social media influencer program. These jobs may be described as “Influencer Strategist,” “Social Media Coordinator,” “Social Media and Influencer Manager,” “Brand Influencer” and other titles. These marketers identify, recruit and manage influencers, developing campaigns, often creating the content and always measuring and reporting on results.

If working in influencer marketing sounds interesting take a look at the many digital marketing and online creative positions we have available. Even if the right one for you isn’t there today submit your resume. We’re always looking for talented creative people. When the perfect job for you pops up, you’ll hear from us first.

Photo by dole777 on Unsplash

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