By Catherine Lund, Toronto Marketing Recruiter
Hiring is not always about finding a full-time or permanent solution for your organization, especially in fast-paced and ever-evolving industries like marketing. With technology, tactics and strategies evolving at a rapid pace, it’s important for companies to have flexibility, and this has an impact on their approach to hiring. Sometimes, it’s better to hire a consultant, contract worker, or freelancer for a marketing campaign rather than go the traditional route and hire a full-time marketer.
The following explores some of the pros and cons to both approaches to hiring a marketer:
Why You Should Consider Hiring a Full-Time Marketer
Many companies choose to hire marketers full time because this is what they have always done. There are some advantages to hiring people full time:
- Stability: You (hopefully) won’t have to worry about hiring a replacement, and you can save time and effort associated with ramping up new team members.
- Long term solution: You will have a long term person in place who could potentially move up in the company over time.
- Consistency: You will have someone who can offer a consistent marketing voice and will be familiar with your organization’s marketing strategies, what has been tried, and what direction to take things in the future.
Why You Should Consider Hiring a Freelance Marketer
Depending on the type of marketer you need to hire, you can often find a professional who can work on a part-time, freelance or contract basis. This provides your company with a number of advantages:
- Flexibility: You have flexibility in terms of how you use the professional. You can use them for a project, as a sub-contractor, or on an as-needed basis.
- Specialization: You can hire a marketer who addresses your specific needs. For example, if you are in need of someone who specializes in social media, you can hire a social media marketer.
- Lower cost: Perhaps the biggest benefit to companies is that freelancers cost less than full-time employees. They tend to be more efficient because they are paid based on the work that is completed, so you theoretically get more bang for your buck.
However, many companies are concerned that hiring a contractor or freelancer can be a risk. What if they don’t have the capabilities they say they have? Even full time marketers can fall short of your expectations. This is why you need to be thorough when hiring – be it a full-time employee or freelancer.
At the end of the day, there are advantages and disadvantages to each hiring approach. You need to assess what your company needs and which approach is the most advantageous for your organization.
To hire better, check out these recent blog posts about marketing:
Outlining the Ever Changing Landscape of Marketing Careers
The 3 BIGGEST Challenges Marketers Face In Today’s Marketplace
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IQ PARTNERS is an Executive Search & Recruitment firm with offices in Toronto and Vancouver. We help companies hire better, hire less & retain more. We have specialist teams of recruiters in Financial Services & Insurance, Marketing Communications & Media, Emerging Tech & Telecom, Consumer Goods & Retail, B2B & Industrial, Technology, Accounting & Finance, HR & Operations and Mining & Engineering. IQ PARTNERS has its head office in Toronto and operates internationally via Aravati Global Search Network. Click here to view current job openings and to register with us.
