What do you want from marketing? Why your answer should come before you hire.

Many businesses instinctively recognise the need for marketing. They feel the pressure to build brand awareness, strengthen their reputation, and drive sales. So, they rush to hire their first marketer or expand the team without answering the most important question: What do you actually want marketing to achieve for your business?

It sounds simple, but this single decision shapes everything: who you hire, what skills they need, how senior they must be, and whether your investment delivers real commercial impact.

Creativity or commercial results? Define what marketing means to you

Before recruiting, clarify the primary purpose of your marketing function. Are you looking for:

• Creative excellence: Striking visuals, memorable campaigns, engaging content, and a refreshed brand identity that elevates your presence.

• Commercial impact: More leads, higher conversions, measurable ROI, strategic direction, and marketing that directly fuels business growth.

Both are valid goals, but you can’t hire one person to master both at the same level. Clarity here prevents mismatched expectations and costly mistakes.

Execution vs. Strategy: Who do you really need?

This is where many businesses go wrong. Before you hire, decide whether you need:

• The executor: A hands-on marketer who manages campaigns, updates the website, runs social media, creates content, and keeps everything moving. Ideal for businesses that need marketing to be done.

• The strategist: A senior marketer who works with leadership, shapes the brand narrative, designs long-term marketing plans, and aligns marketing with commercial goals. Ideal for businesses that need direction.

These roles require different skillsets, different levels of experience, and completely different mindsets. Hiring the wrong one is like handing someone a map when what you needed was a compass.

Why a clear marketing brief Is essential

Your recruitment strategy can only succeed when you first define what marketing success looks like for your business.

A clear marketing brief helps you:

• Define the right responsibilities

• Set appropriate seniority levels

• Avoid unrealistic expectations

• Build a function that delivers measurable value

Without this clarity, you risk:

• Hiring someone talented, but wrong for your needs

• Expecting junior marketers to deliver senior-level strategy

• Bringing someone in to “do marketing” with no direction, no priorities, and no path to success

Marketing isn't one-size-fits-all. The clearer your brief, the better your hire and the stronger your marketing function becomes.

When marketing aligns with strategy, growth follows

When your marketing capabilities match your commercial goals, everything changes:

• No more reactive marketing

• Clearer brand direction

• Stronger business outcomes

• Consistent, strategic growth

But it all starts with the first, crucial question: What do you really want marketing to do for your business?

Answer that, and every decision that follows becomes smarter, clearer, and far more effective.