This is part two of a four part blog post that discusses the four choices you have when marketing your business online.  You can find part one which describes how to get internet marketing training and manage your own web presence by clicking here.

Below are the four options that business owners have in all activities they undertake:

1. Learn How To Do It Yourself
2. Hire Someone In House
3. Outsource It
4. Don’t Do It At All

In this section we will be discussing what to consider when hiring someone in-house to do your online marketing.

Hiring an Online Marketer (In House)

When hiring someone in-house you need to consider the following:

Will you need to train this employee?

There is a world of difference in those that you hire for online marketing in terms of experience.  There is no substitute for having actually executed on online marketing tactics and techniques.  It is fairly simple to synthesize and regurgitate the principles of online marketing during an interview.

Beware.

If the potential employee cannot show you work that has been completed by them, you could be looking at someone that will have a significant learning curve before they can execute.  You will need to consider whether you have time for them to ramp up their ACTUAL EXPERIENCE and bring it in line with the amount of theory they understand.

Many small businesses find that they can accept the learning curve in exchange for a lower salary for the employee.  However, you should get this employee professional online marketing training from a third party source.  If you plan to let them learn through “trial by error” you could do irreversible damage to your website and your online reputation and waste a tremendous amount of time and money.

Interviewing Employees For An Online Marketing Job

When you are interviewing someone for an online marketing position you should consider the following:

1.  Ask the interviewees to review your web properties and bring to the interview, a plan of action to boost your web presence.

2.  Follow up on this plan of action with questions that will determine whether they have actually executed this on other web properties or if this is just theory that they have come to understand from reading online marketing blogs and listening to podcasts.

3.  Ask the interviewee to provide you with the actual domains that have been worked on by the potential employee in the past.

If the prospective employee is only showing theoretical understanding of online marketing but you feel they have the potential to learn and the technical background to execute, you can hire this employee for a lower salary and get them some training.

If the prospective employee is able to show you actual work they have accomplished and provide you with some idea of the results, you will surely be looking at a higher salary or hourly wage for that hire.

For further reading on hiring an online marketer, read this post from Marios Alexandrou.

Related Tiny Business Marketing Posts:

1. Four Options With Your Online Marketing – Part 3 – Outsourcing Your Online Marketing ...
2. Four Options With Your Online Marketing – Part I – Internet Marketing Training ...
3. Four Options With Your Online Marketing – Part 4 – Don’t Do It At All ...
4. What is Content Marketing And How To Use It To Market Your Small Business? ...
5. Content Marketing: A Real World Example ...