Hiring Your First Marketing Person: What the Job Actually Needs to Cover

23 September 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: One marketing hire can't realistically be a designer, copywriter, ads specialist and social media manager all at once — those are genuinely different skill sets. Before you write the job ad, decide which one or two of those the role actually needs to cover first, and plan to outsource or hire around the rest. 🚀

There's a very specific kind of job ad that shows up constantly: "Marketing Coordinator — must be skilled in graphic design, copywriting, paid ads, SEO, social media, email marketing and video editing." It reads like a wish list because it usually is one — cobbled together from every marketing task the business owner has personally struggled with, rolled into a single salary. The candidates who apply are either wildly overqualified in one area and hoping nobody checks the rest, or genuinely decent generalists who'll do everything at a mediocre level because nobody has that much depth across five disciplines. Six months later the owner is frustrated the ads aren't performing and the designs look homemade, and the marketing person is burnt out trying to be four specialists at once. Nobody wins, and it wasn't really about the hire — it was about the ad. 💖

What most businesses get wrong

They hire for a department and pay for a person. A genuine in-house marketing department covers strategy, content, design, paid media and analytics — usually across several people, or a mix of staff and outside specialists. Squeezing all of that into one junior-to-mid salary means picking, whether consciously or not, which parts get done well and which get done badly. The fix isn't finding a mythical unicorn; it's deciding upfront what this hire needs to own, and what stays outsourced or off the table for now.

The job-scope worksheet

Before writing the ad, list every marketing task your business currently needs done, then sort each into one of three columns:

Core (this hire must own it): pick no more than 2–3 — usually the tasks that happen weekly and directly touch revenue, e.g. social content and community management, or campaign coordination and reporting.
Supporting (this hire manages it, doesn't necessarily produce it): e.g. briefing a freelance designer, coordinating with an ads agency, using templates for email.
Out of scope (outsource, template, or defer): e.g. brand design, complex paid ad strategy, video production — these go to specialists or wait.

Sample job description skeleton once sorted: Title reflecting the core focus (not "Marketing Manager" for a role that's 80% social content) → 2–3 core responsibilities listed first and in detail → supporting responsibilities listed briefly → tools/software they'll use → what success looks like in 90 days, in specific terms.

A local service business hiring their first marketing role: the original ad asked for social media, website updates, email campaigns, paid ads and design. After the worksheet, the core became "social content and enquiry follow-up," with a freelance designer on retainer for anything visual and a small paid ads budget managed by an outside specialist. The new hire actually delivered on what they were hired for.

A B2B firm with a long sales cycle: they needed nurture content and case studies more than daily social posts, but the ad they'd drafted was a generic "all-rounder" template pulled from a job board. Rewriting the ad around lead nurture and content specifically attracted candidates with actual relevant experience instead of generalists hoping to figure it out on the job.

A retail business expecting one hire to run ads, design promotions and manage socials: they'd budgeted junior-level pay for what was genuinely three roles. Once they saw it laid out on the worksheet, they chose to keep design outsourced and hire specifically for paid ads and promotions — a narrower, more honest role that was actually fillable at their budget.

How to actually write the ad

Start with the core responsibilities in detail — someone genuinely good at paid ads will self-select in or out based on the first few lines, not the twentieth bullet point. List supporting tasks briefly, and be upfront about what's outsourced ("design is handled externally, so this role focuses on briefing and content, not production") — good candidates read that as clarity, not a red flag. Set a 90-day success measure that's specific and achievable within the actual scope, not vague or borrowed from a much bigger role.

💡 A narrower, well-defined role attracts better candidates than a broad one. Specialists avoid vague "does everything" ads because they know what that usually means in practice — being pulled in five directions with no time to do any of it properly. Precision in the ad is a filter working in your favour.

Mistakes to avoid

Writing the ad from every task you personally dislike doing, rather than what the business actually needs
Expecting agency-level output across five disciplines from one junior-to-mid salary
Leaving "and other duties as required" to quietly expand the role after hiring
Setting vague success metrics that make it impossible to know if the hire is working out
Not budgeting anything for the outsourced pieces you've decided to keep outside the role

Frequently asked questions

Should I hire a generalist or a specialist first?

It depends on your core column from the worksheet. If your biggest gap is consistent content and community management, a generalist with strong writing instincts often works well. If your biggest gap is a specific, technical skill like paid ads, a specialist beats a generalist every time — just don't expect that specialist to also be your in-house designer.

Is it realistic to expect one person to cover social media and paid ads?

Sometimes, particularly at a smaller scale where ad spend and posting volume are both modest — but be honest that something will get less attention when the other gets busy. If both need to run well simultaneously at real volume, that's usually two roles or one role plus outside support.

How much should I budget for a first marketing hire?

This varies by role scope and location, so it's worth benchmarking current job board listings for similar-scoped roles rather than relying on a fixed figure — a narrower scope generally comes with a more realistic, fillable budget.

What if the person I hire wants to do more than their core scope?

Great, but let them prove the core first. Scope creep in the first 90 days — even well-intentioned, enthusiastic scope creep — often means the core responsibilities slip while they're off doing something else you didn't actually hire them for.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦