By now, you probably know that there are many advantages to hiring freelancers for a variety of departments and their processes. When it comes to marketing, of course, hiring freelancers has its pros and cons. If we start with the former, there is no denying that freelancers are more cost-effective, they come with a ton of experience (provided that you’re not looking for cheap labor), and you get access to a global talent pool. Basically, you can hire a world-renowned freelancer right now no matter where they are, and that is an amazing perk for your business.
As for the cons, there is a certain degree of risk involved. There tends to be a lot of trial and error involved in finding the right person, there is a dose of uncertainty and you’re never really sure if you can count on them, and you will have to work extra hard to earn their trust and loyalty. Naturally, you can mitigate all of these risks with some smart and proactive management. Here’s what you should do to hire and manage the best freelance marketers.
Have a clear hiring strategy in place
Every good hiring decision should be based on a sound and well-thought-out strategy. Well, if you’ve been in the manager’s seat for any amount of time, you know that careful planning pays off. When it comes to hiring freelance marketers, you need to cover all of your bases, and create a thorough screening and hiring process that will eliminate doubt, minimize risk, and allow you to make the best possible decision.
To build such a strategy focusing on hiring freelancers, be sure to:
- Define your marketing requirements and goals.
- List all the positions you need according to the amount and type of marketing work required.
- Educate yourself on the various marketing processes to better set your expectations.
- Define the places in the online and offline worlds where you should look for your marketers.
- Create your employee persona based on the type of marketing services you need. This will allow you to create an employee background that will help them do the job right.
- Note your own responsibilities in the hiring process. How can you make the experience more rewarding for them and for you?
- Prepare a set of interviews with predefined parameters and goals.
Onboard new marketers with the buddy system
There are many ways you can onboard new employees, and almost all of them will get the job done. After all, everything is better than simply giving the access to your project management tool and throwing them into the fire. The way you structure your onboarding process will greatly affect your marketers and your business down the road, so think of it as an important investment into the future.
One of the best ways to onboard freelance marketers and integrate them into the team quickly is to use the buddy system. Simply pair a newcomer with a more experienced colleague and incentivize them to communicate and collaborate continuously. This way, you new employee will become a productive member of your organization in no time.
Manage your employees from a digital dashboard
Managing and optimizing your employee resources can be difficult enough without freelancers, but when you have people contributing to your company from all over the world, the task can seem insurmountable. Well, it can seem impossible if you’re trying to do it manually or if you stick to email and chat communication.
No, in order to manage this digital workforce, you need to use dedicated software that will allow you to create the perfect employee roster for every project and task while giving you a comprehensive overview of your entire operation. You need to use an intuitive tool that allows you to monitor your employees, track time and progress, and plan ahead. Organizing your employee resources in advance will not only benefit your business, but it will create a happier freelance workforce.
Enable remote collaboration with the right tools
Speaking of tools, you should also use a dedicated project management tool to facilitate communication and collaboration in real time. If you set your expectations based on email communication and Google Docs, you’re going to get pretty disappointed pretty soon.
Marketing projects are elaborate and complex, and they require a feature-rich tool that allows everyone to collaborate and contribute to every project and task on a centralized platform. It doesn’t matter where people are working from, what matters is that they can all work together in the same online location.
Facilitate feedback and listen to your marketers
Finally, always remember to listen to your freelancers. Just because they are not working in-house doesn’t mean that they don’t have something important to say, and if you treat them like external assets only, it will hurt your company in the long term.
Listening to your employees allows you to identify and resolve problems quickly, set up better processes and make better managerial decisions, and it also allows you to build a better company culture. All of this will ensure that your freelancers feel like a part of the team, and it will create a productive work environment that will deliver results.
Wrapping up
Marketing is such an essential part of business success that many managers and executives are apprehensive when it comes to freelancers. However, if you approach this task with the right tips and tactics, you should have no problem hiring, onboarding, and managing a winning team of freelance marketing experts.
