Hire your first marketer by choosing the one channel that already works for you or could, writing a role around that channel, testing finalists with a short paid work sample and posting where marketers browse. A generalist who owns one growth channel beats a "head of marketing" with no budget or team.
One channel, one number
Founders often write a job that mixes brand, content, paid, email, events and analytics. Nobody is good at all of it, and the post attracts people who say yes to everything. Pick the channel closest to revenue today.
- Customers find you by searching, so hire an SEO or content marketer. Our page on how to hire a remote SEO specialist covers that role.
- You already have a list or trial users, so hire an email and lifecycle marketer.
- You have a repeatable offer and budget, so hire a paid media marketer.
- You sell to other companies and need positioning and launches, so hire a product marketer.
Name the number the person owns, such as qualified signups per month, and say what it is now.
Match seniority to your support
A senior specialist expects a budget, tools and someone to coordinate with. A strong generalist at a mid level will set things up and do the work with their own hands. If you have no marketing budget and no one to review the work, hire the generalist. If you have a channel working and want to scale it, hire the specialist.
| Situation | Better first hire | Why |
|---|---|---|
| No channel works yet | Hands-on generalist | Needs to test several cheap channels quickly |
| One channel works | Specialist in that channel | Scaling needs depth |
| Founder still writes all copy | Content or copywriting marketer | Frees founder time with visible output |
| Sales team needs better materials | Product marketer | Positioning and sales enablement |
-
No channel works yet
- Better first hire
- Hands-on generalist
- Why
- Needs to test several cheap channels quickly
-
One channel works
- Better first hire
- Specialist in that channel
- Why
- Scaling needs depth
-
Founder still writes all copy
- Better first hire
- Content or copywriting marketer
- Why
- Frees founder time with visible output
-
Sales team needs better materials
- Better first hire
- Product marketer
- Why
- Positioning and sales enablement
Start with the commitment you can reverse
A contract or part time start lowers risk when you are unsure which channel to bet on. Move to full time once the person has shipped something that moved the number. Say in the post which one you are offering and how many hours a week, because candidates filter for it.
Pay for a few hours of real work
Resumes list tools, not judgment. Give two or three finalists a small piece of your real problem and pay them for it.
1. Keep it to two to four hours.
2. Use your actual product, not a made up case.
3. Ask for the plan and the reasoning, not a finished campaign.
4. Score every submission with the same three questions: did they find the real problem, is the first step cheap, how will they know it worked.
A good answer starts from what to stop doing as often as from what to start.
Reach people who search for marketing work
For a remote hire, post on a marketing focused board and on one remote first board, and keep your careers page current. Prices, per channel, are in our guide on where to post marketing jobs. On RemoteMarketer a role starts at $299 a month with no fee per hire, listed on its specialty page and in job alerts. See hire remote marketers for how it works.
What to include
State the salary range, the exact regions you can employ in, the time zone overlap you need, the number of interview steps and whether the work sample is paid. Name the outcome in six months. The job advertisement template has a copy and paste structure.
If you would rather have someone else shortlist candidates for you, a service such as a marketer matched to your goals is the alternative to running the search yourself.
When should a startup hire its first marketer?
Hire once you have a product people pay for and a clear sense of who buys it. Before that, the founder usually learns more by talking to customers than a hire could by guessing at channels.
Should a startup hire a marketer or an agency first?
An in-house marketer builds knowledge of your product over time and costs a salary. An agency delivers faster on one defined task but needs a clear brief. If you cannot yet say what the task is, hire the person first.
What should a first marketing hire do in 90 days?
They should audit what already brings customers, pick one channel to improve, ship the first changes in the first month and report one number. Agree this plan before day one and write it in the job post.
Can I hire a remote marketer for a startup?
Yes. Many startups hire remote marketers because marketing output is easy to review in writing and shared tools. Be clear about time zone overlap and set weekly check-ins from the start.