"Walt, what exactly did you do for that company and why didn't they just hire you?" A great question in response to my post yesterday about the consultation gig.
First off I held multiple discussions with the owner, top executives and the sales team. I needed to know their goals and objectives for the next 1, 2 and 5 years. You can't put together a creative marketing team without understanding what the business objectives are.
I audited their current marketing & content strategy situation. Social, OOH, Print, Advertising, Trade Shows/Live Events, Collateral, Branding, White Papers, Quick Start and Instructional Info, and Business Presence. How did all of this stack up against the business objectives for the next five years? What were their shortcomings and headwinds for growing their brand presence, audience and ultimately conversions?
I also audited their external spend for creative and marketing support.
Next step was to formulate and present a 'napkin sketch' of their creative marketing needs. Personnel, infrastructure, spend and anticipated creative marketing output. Nothing very detailed, just a very high level overview to start the discussion for next steps. If you go into too much detail at this stage, you can waste a lot of time and effort for something the company may not want.
The basic proposal was 5 immediate in-house creative hires. Creative Director, Graphic Designer (Art), Graphic Designer (Motion), Social Media Manager, Video Producer/Content Creator along with a regular slate of freelance writers. Plus a roadmap for future hires depending on needs.
Once the concept was approved, the first move was to interview and hire the Creative Director. As the leader of the team, it would be vital to have them participate in the interview process for the rest of the team.
Once she was in place, the rest of the hires came pretty quickly. My interview process only consists of two interviews, one with me, one with the CD. It doesn't take more than 2 interviews to decide if the person is the right fit. We quickly identified the 4 additional hires.
Concurrently, the IT dept. and I were putting together the initial infrastructure.
I worked with, and continue to consult with the CD, Marketing and Sales on their content strategy
This entire process spanned about 3 months from initial contact with me until all 5 folks were hired and infrastructure was in place.
Currently the company is on track to spend 35-40% less over the first year. They have that additional overhead to use on select freelancers vs. hiring entire agencies. Eventually, the in-house output will exceed that of the external sources.
Now why didn't they just hire me to lead the team? To be honest, I'm out of their current budget. :)
I do love setting companies up for success and with any luck, the next call will be for a full-time position so I can be part of the growth.
