Build a 🤩 Marketing Team: A Head of Marketing’s Guide to Hiring
The good news: You are a head of marketing for a super cool company, tasked with building out your marketing team from scratch.
The hard news: You can build your awesome marketing team a thousand different ways, and it’s really important to get things right!
“The wrong hire doesn’t just fail—they take others down with them.”
Gulp!
Hiring a marketing team is a bit like completing a puzzle. Each piece matters, and the way you fit them together can make or break your company’s trajectory. As someone who’s been in that enviable Head of Marketing seat and has hired and built out marketing teams from scratch, I’ve learned a lot about how to approach this critical task.
Here’s my take on the philosophy of building a marketing dream team—who to hire, in what order, and how to find the right people.
Where do you begin
4 factors to consider when making your first hire
Not that I advocate for anyone losing sleep over digital marketing (I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing as a marketing emergency), but one of the biggest stressors for early-stage CEOs and heads of marketing is getting that first marketing hire right.
Who should be the first marketer that you hire?
This question keeps company leaders up at night because there are so many different directions that the hire could go. Not only must you figure out the right skillset for this hire, but you have to consider seniority, experience, and the skills you want in-house and what you want to outsource to an agency partner.
If you are a head of marketing, looking to build your team with your first direct report, what role do you start with?
Your decision should include these factors:
Marketing skillset
Seniority in the role
Relevant experience
Product-Hire Fit (a phrase I made up)
Typically, you’re going to choose between the three main skillsets of marketing: brand marketing (“who you are” as a company), product marketing (“what you sell”), and growth marketing (“how you sell it.”)
We’ll get to the big debate about marketing skillset in a minute.
Next, seniority is an important factor that will dictate how much managing you need to do and how much autonomy this hire will have. The seniority spectrum typically runs from one end—a Director-level hire who has previous experience managing people—to the other end—a more junior marketer who is an individual contributor.
With seniority, you need to think about:
How fast will I be hiring more people? The faster you hire, the sooner you should start bringing on Director-level folks.
How much of a self-starter do I need? More senior folks tend to hit the ground running and own their area quicker than someone who needs more coaching and guidance from you.
How much budget do I have? Senior people are more expensive, according to Captain Obvious. :)
Relevant experience is another important consideration because you need to assess candidates according to their match with your specific company. With experience, you should consider:
Have they worked at this stage of business before (or the stage you anticipate next)? Examples: seed stage, Series A, Series B, pre-revenue, etc.
Have they worked in your industry before? Examples: HR tech, consumer-packaged goods, real estate, AI
Have they worked in your go-to-market motion? Examples: Product-Led Growth, sales-led, B2B, B2C, DTC
And then, importantly, you’ll want to consider how well this hire fits within the context of your product and your company. In this case, you’ll want to assess things like your core audience and what they care about, your most important growth channels today (and tomorrow), the attitudes of your CEO and C-suite, and—the most important factor of all maybe—what skills you personally bring to the table.
Your first hire should complement you, not replicate you.
Now, let’s get into the specifics of the biggest hiring debate out there: which roles to hire first.
Conventional wisdom says, “Hire product marketing first.”
Until now, the most common answer to the hiring question has gone like this:
Hire product marketing first
Outsource your growth marketing to an agency
Save brand marketing for a later stage once you’re well past product-market fit
The reasoning goes like this: Product marketers are great at crafting product positioning and making sales assets for your team and website. They are also quite collaborative and cross-functional, working with your product team and your sellers (especially at B2B businesses). Growth marketing, early on, very often takes the form of digital advertising like search ads, which is a channel that can be managed quite effectively by outsiders; you may choose to bring it in-house once your growth mix gets more complex or you want to focus on better spend and efficiency.
Brand eats last, which happens because brand work is discounted as too top-of-funnel to matter right now, or because the founding team doesn’t value brand, or because they’ve already paid to have a logo, colors, and website (which is all brand is, right???).
Having seen this team-building philosophy first-hand across several in-house roles, I have a slightly different take on things now.
Today, the market screams, “Hire brand marketing first!”
Yes, I am aware this is exactly backwards from how it usually happens today.
But hear me out:
Brand has never been more important than it is today
In a noisy, homogenized world companies competing for attention, the single most effective strategy for standing out is to tell an authentic, compelling story through a consistent, memorable brand
Brand foundations are accelerants to everything else you do with your marketing
Brand makes everything better 👆 — your marketing, your sales, your fundraising, your customer experience
Product marketing is uber-important, but you can’t truly begin effective positioning work without knowing why your business exists in the first place. I have spoken with countless founders who want to reverse-engineer the brand story after the product finds traction; it’s just not as effective that way.
Growth marketing is hugely valuable as you scale, but its ROI will be suppressed if you’re not consistent with your story. It’s way more than just making ads that look good and sound good; you want to advertise with a story that is meaningful and real—because today’s customers are too savvy and will spot a fraud.
Q: But isn’t brand marketing a luxury at such an early stage of team growth?
If you were hiring a brand marketer whose only contribution would be brand strategy, then yes, that’d be a little too specific. But many brand marketers are creative powerhouses who take brand foundations and turn them into wildly successful campaigns, content, and engagement. Find yourself one of these folks!
(We have a bunch in our Bonfire network, if you need one.)
It’s likely that your brand marketer will be talented with coming up with your foundational strategy and then they may also specialize in one of these early-stage-critical areas:
PR & Comms
Social media and promotion
Audience development
Market research and customer care
And the list of skills goes on and on. Brand marketing is one of the most diffuse departments in all of marketing. Brand marketers can do a lot.
Q: But what if you’re already pretty good with story?
Brand strategy is a specific discipline that benefits greatly from a subject matter expert running the show. Yes, your CEO might make a compelling pitch to their investors, but do they understand the nuance of brand identity and personality? Unlikely.
The most helpful way to navigate a situation like this is to step back and take stock of everyone’s skillsets. The most common paths look like this:
If you are a Head of Marketing whose background is in brand, then your first hire can be someone with a product marketing or growth marketing skillset
Otherwise if you do not have a brand marketing background, then your first hire should be a brand marketer
Note that in neither scenario is the CEO the brand marketer. Although they may be tempted to be!
Q: But what if we really, really, seriously aren’t going to hire brand marketing first? I mean, come on.
If all else fails and you cannot make a brand marketer your first hire—if your CEO won’t allow it or your board of directors can’t stomach the idea—then at the very least hire a brand marketing agency to build your foundations before you get too far ahead with all your other marketing.
I’m biased (since I run a brand marketing agency), but the initial investment in foundations will do wonders to all your marketing efforts that come afterward. Find yourself a wonderful agency partner who can give you what you need: purpose, mission, values; brand identity and personality; brand narratives; visual identity even. These building blocks will enable whoever your first marketing hire will be—whether they’re a brand specialist or not.
Your first marketing hire should be someone who can help you define and articulate your brand. Why? Because your brand will influence every marketing activity that follows. If you start running ads or building campaigns without a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for, you’re likely to waste time and money. Therefore …
Hire #1: The Brand Builder
Your first hire should be someone who is part storyteller, part strategist—a brand marketer with a strong creative streak. This person will lay the groundwork for your marketing efforts by defining your messaging, tone, and visual identity.
Traits to Look For:
Strategic thinker with a deep understanding of positioning and differentiation
Exceptional storytelling and communication skills
Creative but data-informed, able to translate customer insights into a compelling brand narrative
A generalist who can span both strategy and tactics and can contribute to multiple brand channels as an executor and manager
Experience to Prioritize:
Previous experience building or evolving a brand at a startup
Strong portfolio of work that showcases their ability to craft messaging and campaigns
Where to Look:
Alumni of well-regarded startups known for strong branding—start with anyone who was early at Notion, Miro, Figma, or Mailchimp
Creative agencies specializing in brand development. Agency folks make amazing early-stage hires because they know how to deliver quickly.
LinkedIn and industry events focused on early-stage marketing
Hire #2: The Demand Generator
Once your brand is in place, it’s time to get customers. Your second hire should focus on demand generation. This person will take the brand foundation and turn it into scalable, measurable customer acquisition efforts. They should excel at setting up systems for lead generation and know how to create campaigns that drive growth.
Traits to Look For:
Results-driven with a love for metrics and optimization
Skilled at balancing short-term wins (e.g., paid ads) with long-term growth strategies (e.g., SEO)
Strong cross-functional collaborator, able to work with sales, product, and other teams
Experience to Prioritize:
Experience with owning a user acquisition goal at a startup or small business. Super important: DID THEY OWN THE GOAL? I don’t mean to shout, but it’s really critical that they know how to take full responsibility for delivering on growth outcomes
Familiarity with tools like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, HubSpot, Salesforce, and/or Marketo
Proven track record of scaling customer acquisition efforts and/or sales pipeline
Where to Look:
Startups in your industry or adjacent industries
Growth marketing communities and Slack groups
Referrals from your professional network
Hire #3: The Product Marketer
With your brand foundation solid and demand generation engine running, it's time to strengthen your product's positioning and go-to-market strategy. A product marketer will help you articulate your product's value proposition, create compelling sales enablement materials, and ensure your messaging resonates with specific customer segments.
Traits to Look For:
Strong analytical mindset with excellent communication skills
Ability to translate complex product features into clear customer benefits
Natural collaborator who can work effectively with product, sales, and customer success teams
Research-oriented with a knack for understanding market dynamics and competitor positioning
Experience to Prioritize:
Previous experience in product marketing at a similar stage company or in your industry
Track record of developing successful product launches and go-to-market strategies
Experience creating and maintaining sales enablement materials that actually get used
Demonstrated ability to conduct customer research and competitive analysis
Familiarity with product-led growth principles, especially if that's part of your strategy
Where to Look:
Companies with strong product marketing teams like Slack, HubSpot, or Atlassian
Product-led growth companies if that matches your motion
Product marketing communities on LinkedIn and specialized Slack groups like Product Marketing Alliance
Former consultants from tech-focused firms (they often make great product marketers due to their analytical and strategic skills)
Hire #4: The Content Strategist
With people in the roles for each of the main three marketing disciplines, the next piece of the puzzle is content. Content drives everything—from SEO and social media to email marketing and customer education. A strong content strategist will help you create materials that attract, inform, and convert your target audience.
Traits to Look For:
Creative and resourceful, able to generate ideas that resonate with your audience
Strong writing and editing skills with an eye for detail
Data-driven, able to track content performance and adjust strategies accordingly
Experience to Prioritize:
Experience creating content for startups or B2B/B2C audiences
A portfolio that showcases a variety of content types, such as blogs, whitepapers, and videos
Familiarity with SEO best practices and content management systems
Where to Look:
Freelance marketplaces like Upwork (great for testing before hiring full-time)
Content marketing communities and forums—Superpath is a great one
Industry blogs and publications—look for contributors who fit your needs
Putting it all together: The early hiring flowchart
The above are recommendations on where to start with your marketing hiring.
But remember one of the most important factors to consider: Hire for fit with your product and your company, including the skills that you, the Head of Marketing, already bring to the table. For instance, if you are an exceptional brand marketer with product chops, your first hire should not be another exceptional brand marketer; it should be a growth person.
With this in mind, here’s a handy flowchart for deciding who to hire first as you build your amazing marketing team.
Scaling the Team
Specialists vs. Generalists
After your first hires, your next steps will depend on your growth stage and specific needs. Early on, you’ll likely benefit from generalists—people who can wear multiple hats and adapt as priorities shift. But as you grow, you’ll want to bring in specialists for areas like:
Partnerships and PR: To expand your reach through strategic collaborations
Design: This may be a department in your product org or an agency partner at first, but consider having a dedicated resource on your marketing team in order to maintain quality, creativity, and pace
Email / Lifecycle Marketing: To nurture leads and drive retention
Social Media Marketing: To build a community and amplify your brand online
Traits That Matter Across the Board
“Hire for attitude, train for skill.”
While the specific roles will vary, there are some universal traits to look for in your marketing hires. I’ve had a ton of success looking for people with the following traits:
Adaptability: Startups are unpredictable. Look for people who thrive in ambiguity and can pivot quickly.
Curiosity: The best marketers are always learning—about your product, your customers, and new marketing trends.
Empathy: Marketing is about understanding your audience. Hire people who genuinely care about solving customer problems.
Collaboration: Marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Team players who can work across departments are invaluable.
Job descriptions to get you started
Here are some real-world job descriptions for some of the roles mentioned in this article. Keep in mind that you’ll want to adapt these to fit your unique circumstances and context. And feel free to pepper in with lots of the traits that you want to optimize for with your hires.
Brand marketing
Brand marketing
Product marketing
Growth marketing
Content
Social media
Closing Thoughts
Building a marketing team is one of the most exciting parts of growing a startup. It’s also one of the most difficult!
Hopefully this overview gives you some good food for thought on getting started.
When done right, your team becomes a powerful engine for growth, innovation, and customer connection. Start with a strong foundation—brand first—and add layers thoughtfully. Hire people who are not just skilled but also aligned with your company’s vision and values and way of working.
Expect to get things wrong a time or two! But here’s hoping that this outline at least gives you a chance at improving your success rate with your early team-building.
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