How to find an internet marketer or digital marketing director. mission Impossible

Even taking into account the fact that advertising is the best way to increase sales of an online store, many still think about the effective organization of this process. The whole problem is the lack of professionals in the online technology market. Of course, I only analyzed the market in the field of web technologies in Krasnodar, but I think in other cities the situation is not much better, well, maybe with the exception of Moscow. But it is necessary to improve the quality of advertising. One solution is to transfer marketing functions to an individual employee or department, rather than having the business manager handle this activity.

There are several ways to organize work with .

1. The person who is the manager of the store and performs all functions

This case is typical for small online stores, since the manager cannot afford to hire a separate marketing specialist.

The manager’s responsibilities are very wide, from developing a general marketing strategy plan to Internet marketing itself. With such a huge number of responsibilities, there is no time to devote the necessary attention to each area. Therefore, it is necessary to set priorities, which has a detrimental effect on the level of Internet marketing.

All routine work is transferred to freelancers, advertising agency employees, etc. The manager himself is engaged in analytics and media planning. Among other things, he is obliged to create a clear list of tasks for the performers, maintain contact with them and control every stage of the task of promoting his business online.

Theoretically, all of the above responsibilities need to be performed, but lack of time does not allow you to keep everything under control. This scheme can only be used with low marketing activity or at the initial stage of promoting an online store.

Advantages– low costs and quick start.

2. Assistant manager who deals only with Internet marketing

Most often you can find them in stores, the manager of which has already realized that he cannot cope on his own and has started looking for a specialist for the position of Internet marketer.

All responsibilities listed in the first paragraph are assumed by an individual. His position is called internet marketer. He has plenty of time to complete all tasks. But you will need to find a specialist with a high level of competence, otherwise, over time, such an Internet marketer will be faced with a limitation in the form of a lack of the necessary competence. Most experts know only the superficial structure of online advertising. He will not be able to properly optimize and promote the site, set up advertising campaigns, track their effectiveness, analyze user behavior, increase the conversion from site visitors to company clients, etc.

Of course, you can find such a specialist, but there are very few of them. They will be a person with extensive experience in Internet marketing or with a narrow specialization in the direction of your store. The main thing is to choose a truly valuable personnel from the general stream of applicants. Therefore, it is very important to write a very high-quality job description. Personally, I have seen a lot of poorly written job descriptions for the position of Internet marketer on the Internet. And other marketers in the city agreed with me. You can read the description of some errors.

And then competition begins with the companies presented in point No. 3.

Advantages– a specialist is always at hand, there is a possibility of creating an Internet marketing department.

3. Having an Internet marketer with several subordinates

As online business develops, there is more and more work in the field of marketing. For greater reliability and cost savings, there is the option of hiring specialists on staff.

An Internet marketer has several subordinates at his disposal, who make up the department. He has sufficient competence and receives quite a decent salary. Sometimes you have to look for outside contractors to complete a complex task, but in most cases everything is done through the efforts of the department.

Working according to this scheme is quite convenient. But it is not without its shortcomings.

First of all, this concerns the workload of specialists. It's uneven. Some specialists may not have work at some stages, but they will receive a salary like everyone else. This leads to unnecessary financial costs.

Second point- “blurring of the eyes.” A person has a very hard time working on one project for a long time.

And the last negative point. Sooner or later, your employees will realize that they can work completely independently and open their own advertising agency. This happens periodically.

Advantages– convenience of organizing the work process, the presence of employees nearby throughout the working day, and in some cases even financial benefits.

Which model is optimal?

Every online store manager strives to have his own with an experienced team. However, he does not want to spend a lot of money on it.

There are two possible solutions:

With full confidence that full-time specialists will be busy throughout the working day, it makes sense to assemble a team. The first thing you need to do is hire an internet marketer. When interviewing, you should pay attention to experience in your segment. After that, instruct him to select his team.
Find an advertising agency that will handle online marketing remotely. This option is somewhere between hiring your own internet marketer and working with an agency. The result of this approach is the presence of a well-coordinated team of specialists and lower financial costs.

This work model will be most suitable if there is a small amount of work or if there is no desire to create your own department. Another advantage of this approach to Internet marketing is that a remote Internet marketer works on several projects simultaneously. Thanks to this, he can introduce successful experiences from others into your project.

But this technique is not suitable for everyone. Such a model can only work effectively if there is widespread demand for the products offered or high industry competition. Competitive industries include online stores and mass services, for example, medical, car service, installation of metal-plastic windows, etc.

If your online store does not meet these criteria, then it will be enough to hire one specialist. His efforts will be enough to get the desired result from advertising.

» Vladimir Davydov wrote a column for the “Cases” column about how to organize a search for Internet marketers and digital leaders in practice: where to look, what questions to ask, what to pay attention to and what salary to pay.

Finding an Internet marketer and head of digital marketing is a headache for many companies. Where to look for such professionals? How to evaluate their skills? It is difficult to answer these questions even when hiring more specialized workers - contextual advertising specialists, SEO optimizers, email marketers or web developers.

Let's say you need to find an SEO specialist. Search options: contact a recruiting service, a recruitment agency, or search on your own. The search method is posting a vacancy, and its description will most likely be taken from the text of another vacancy or a new one will be created by compilation.

However, neither you yourself, nor the HR manager, nor the agency will select a qualified person, because no one knows how to evaluate such a specialist. At the interview, HR will ask: “Do you know search engine algorithms?” How can an honest applicant respond to this? If he had known, he would have been vacationing in the Bahamas instead of going on interviews. While HR listens to 10 such candidates and schedules an interview with the customer, the best of them will go to another employer. As a result, a company that does not know the criteria for evaluating a specialist will choose someone who has sold himself well, at an exorbitant price, but not someone who has the necessary knowledge and can really help.

But you have a “guarantee” of results. If a person leaves after a month or turns out to be professionally unsuitable, then HR will find a similar “specialist” and fill the empty desk with a monitor in your office. What can we say about generalists after this?

The problem of the personnel market: there are many Internet marketing specialists, but general practitioners are rare

An Internet marketer and digital director must understand the technical side of projects, master several marketing tools (manually work with and configure them) and be able to manage a team. But in the labor market there are most often two types of applicants for these vacancies:

Specialists of one tool who are trying to become internet marketers (SEO specialists, contextual specialists, web developers, designers and others).
Managers from areas related to Internet marketing (sales, classic marketing, brand management) who are trying to become digital directors.

Separately, I would like to note a case that occurs much less frequently and is often clinical: a specialist of one tool immediately targets the digital director (by skipping steps). It is not recommended to waste time on such a candidate. If suddenly a person is ready to learn, then the plan can be proposed as follows: after 2-3 years of persistent practice, he will be able to grow to an Internet marketer and after another similar period to a digital director, subject to practice in managing a team.

Career path of an Internet marketing specialist to a digital director

To become a qualified internet marketer and digital director, you need to gain practical work experience, which cannot be replaced by specialized training in courses.

To become an Internet marketer, a specialist must master one or two tools and be able to manage two to four specialists, freelancers or contractors. The head of a digital department or direction grows out of an Internet marketer who manages a department of seven to ten people or a range of contractors. Please note that a one-tool specialist is not an internet marketer. He may be a talented and thoughtful professional who knows everything about contextual advertising, or SEO, or layout, or website creation, or design. But without knowledge of all the tools (at least superficially), an employee cannot perform the functions of an Internet marketer.

Only an Internet marketer with at least two to three years of experience can become the head of a digital department or direction. A brand manager or marketer who has completed several courses on Internet marketing will not cope with the responsibilities of a digital leader. Unfortunately, even courses designed to train such leaders will not provide the necessary experience. It can only be purchased while working on projects.

In my opinion, only a general who was a soldier himself can lead a team. I know what goes on in a specialist’s head: when he needs success, and when he can point out weaknesses. I can explain in a minute how to do what you need.

Artemy Lebedev

Harvard Business Review

Real life example: amateur vs professional

How do you understand the difference between a professional manager or marketer and a non-professional? Notice how they strategize and set goals for the team.

Here’s what you can hear from an amateur: “It’s important for us to get more organic traffic. I looked at competitors - it turned out that traffic could grow six times. SEO guys, hey! Come here. We need to achieve the same, it will increase sales. Work, show me the results."

Compare with the comment of a competent head of the digital department or internet marketer:

The difference in approaches is obvious. If a business owner sets a task in the format “Give us a million sales,” then the team expects a step-by-step strategy from the manager: what needs to be done in order to get a million sales, and how to measure them. Therefore, in the field of online advertising and marketing, a manager must understand the processes at a technical and operational level.

The end-to-end marketing line comes from the owner. If the first person does not understand the demand, the company is stuck and there is no point in working any further.

Timur Garyaev,

“Branded goods, or the product is the head of everything”

Of course, the head of a digital department or an internet marketer may not know exactly how to perform absolutely all the actions listed above. But they must understand the processes at a high enough level to:

create a step-by-step action plan;
discuss it with the team;
help colleagues with technical questions;
monitor the implementation of the project;
get a controlled and measurable result.

If a digital director engages one or more agencies or contractors, sets general tasks for them and communicates in the format of monthly reports and conversations like “good or bad SEO positions”, “good or bad intrusion”, “high or low ROI”, such a manager can be replaced with a Telegram bot or a regular parrot.

How to look for an internet marketer

The Internet Marketer You Need:

Salary:

from 70 to 100 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Less than 70 thousand are the salaries of specialists. More than 100 thousand is growth for an Internet marketer based on KPIs or a transition to the position of head of the digital Internet department.

Basic requirements:

Website development experience. Theory, leading a website development project in a team, experience creating a website from scratch.
Knowledge of search engine optimization principles and ability to work with contextual advertising. This is the base on which most internet marketing strategies are built.
Ability to work with video advertising, email marketing, display advertising and retargeting.
Deep knowledge of web analytics. Proficiency in Google Analytics: planning analytics and performance metrics, uploading and processing data, making business decisions based on web analytics.
Knowledge of classical marketing, marketing analysis, the basics of building a business and economics.
Ability to analyze competitors: from the point of view of both business aspects and Internet marketing.
Web programming at a basic level (knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS, PHP).
Knowledge of design and usability at least at the “Management” level. The candidate must follow the latest developments in the field of website development, landing pages and interfaces.
Broad outlook in the professional field: monitoring new products in the field of advertising services, analytics and related tools.
Ability to communicate with people, make presentations and defend all your ideas together with account managers.

It will be a plus for the candidate:

No confusion when mentioning the concepts “CRM”, “telephone analytics”, “personalized multi-channel web analytics”.
Experience in developing an Internet marketing strategy and detailed control of its implementation in a team of marketers, telephone operators, CRM integrators, SEO specialists, copywriters, layout designers, programmers, designers.
Advanced knowledge of Excel.
Knowledge of mathematics at the level of a humanitarian university.
Knowledge of economics and statistics.
Experience working on both the client and agency side.

We have collected a minimum number of topics on which it is worth asking questions to a future Internet marketer:

ability to work with Excel, Google Docs;
ability to work with databases at the query language level;
ability to program (in any language);
website development from scratch;
landing page development from scratch;
setting up web analytics based on Google Analytics;
development of an intranet system;
participation in projects where web analytics by user_id was linked with systems;
search marketing (organic search);
product aggregators such as Yandex.Market;
partnership programs;
Google Display Network;
contextual media network "Yandex";
classic media buying;
programmatic (via RTB);
content marketing;
content and advertising on social media;
email marketing;
CPA networks;
retargeting and remarketing;
video advertising;
promotion of mobile applications;
certificates, courses and seminars relevant to the vacancy;
titles and authors of the last five books read that are relevant to the vacancy;
the number of projects or clients that the candidate managed in parallel;
the average budget the candidate worked with;
Experience in personal meetings with clients, conducting presentations;
links to presentations or reports prepared by the candidate;
recommendations from management or clients;
the best project, its results and problems.

Sample questions

Ask the candidate to solve a case. Abstract questions like: “Tell me, have you worked with this tool? What results have you achieved? - this is the road to nowhere.

We have selected several questions on the topics listed above that will help you assess the qualifications of applicants.

1. Questions on one instrument (with a technological focus).

A plant in Moscow produces chairs, but does not sell them. Sales are carried out by dealers throughout Russia. The plant has a business card website. How to attract the maximum amount of search traffic from all regions to sell chairs from this manufacturer?

2. A trick question - a test of intelligence.

There are two advertisements in Yandex.Direct. One has a conversion rate of 0.5%, and the other has a conversion rate of 0.9%. What questions do you have after hearing the problem?

3. Question on general knowledge of marketing.

How to increase the effectiveness of an ad in contextual advertising, regardless of systems? Describe the plan point by point. What factors influence this?

4. Complex questions on knowledge of several instruments.

We are planning online marketing for a company with a long sales cycle. Recruitment takes place via the Internet. After some time, we segmented requests by industry and decided to show clients thematic advertising - products from their industry. How to do it? List all available methods.

There is a website with Yandex.Direct and Google Analytics. How to set up a ROI report only in the Google Analytics interface?

5. General strategic questions about marketing and knowledge of tool bundles

You have been assigned to sell a product online and have set a sales plan. You anticipate that there will be problems with demand (there is little of it). Answer the following questions:

How to check whether there will be problems with demand?
How do you know that the amount of demand you saw is enough to fulfill your online sales plan?
What do you recommend to a client in such a situation? Sketch out a quick strategy.

This is only a rough list of interview tasks; Each company develops cases to suit its own needs. For example, we have created about 25 questions that we always ask applicants for the position of Internet marketer.

Important points

Certificates are a prerequisite, but not an indicator of qualifications. If a person has received the minimum required package of certificates (Yandex.Direct, Google.AdWords, Google Analytics IQ) - this is a plus. But answering test questions and solving real cases are two different things. We regularly interview certified professionals, and often they cannot answer practical questions.
Find out which tools an internet marketer knows best. Ask questions about them, create tasks to know all the nuances.
Having your own online store is a serious plus for an internet marketer. It is worth communicating with such specialists as a priority.
Telephone interviews save time on face-to-face meetings. Select candidates that match your resume and ask a few of the questions listed above. Usually, 60% of applicants are eliminated by the second or third question. Based on the results of all questions, out of the remaining 40%, you can call 3-5 people for an interview (sample: 200 responses to a vacancy posted on the website hh.ru).
The resume is a great misconception. It is good to use a resume as a primary filter: to weed out non-core specialists and candidates with insufficient experience. The remaining applicants for the vacancy should be interviewed on the issues listed above, without attaching importance to the resume.

How to look for a digital director

The Digital Leader You Need:

Salary:

From 120 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Anything more than 100 thousand rubles (at least 30% of this part) should be accrued according to KPI.

Basic requirements:

Proficiency in at least one Internet marketing tool with an A plus. This could be anything: web analytics, development, contextual advertising, RTB, and so on.
Experience in leading a team of seven to ten specialists (minimum required set): internet marketer, SEO specialist, layout designer, programmer, web analyst, web designer, IP telephony specialist, 1C specialist.
Experience. The path covered in 5-6 years from a specialist to an Internet marketer, and then to a manager.
Ability to manage projects and teams with a full understanding of the technological process (how everything works) and the ability to engage in project management based on deadlines and risks (assessment based on hours, deadlines, results, risks of non-fulfillment).
Desire to test new tools and mechanics. A professional digital leader is ready to spend at least 4-6 hours a week on this.

What to talk about at an interview

When interviewing a digital leader, applied tasks on tools should be combined with questions about project and people management. Thus, each question consists of three parts: tools, management, results. Also, don't forget to ask for references.

Sample questions

We have outlined questions that can be asked to a future digital director. But each company can (and should) adapt them to a specific candidate.

1. Your resume says that you built end-to-end analytics before sales.

Tell us about your team. What specialists worked in it? What tasks did you perform at the application level?
How long did it take you to create the system?
Which CRM did you choose and why?
Which phone system did you choose and why?
Which web analytics system did you choose and why?
How was the connection to the warehouse completed?
Name at least 5 technical problems that you solved during the integration process.
How did you manage to motivate the sales department to work with such a system?
Is the system working? How can I check this?

2. You write that you have tripled your online sales.

How were sales measured? How did you track them?
What tools and channels did you use?
Which specialists worked to increase sales?
How did you calculate that sales increased exactly 3 times? Have you already set up analytics before?
What are your functions on the project? What tools did you use?
Who can I call and check this?

How did you cluster the requests, how many were there, what services did you use?
How did you automate contextual advertising - services, scripts, something else?
How was performance measured before sales? What systems have been integrated?
What strategies were used in the context at the top level?
How did you deal with competitive requests?
Have you used context for content marketing?
What have you achieved for your business using context?

4. Search engine marketing and SEO.

What was your SEO strategy: regions, queries, snippets, texts, internal optimization? How did you get external links?
What results did you get in terms of organic traffic and sales from it, the growth of query clusters?
What mechanics have you come up with for SEO?

5. Development.

Have you created personal accounts, closed areas of the site, Internet services? Why, for whom?
Have you developed websites or landing pages from scratch? How much development did you go through - in hours and specific projects?
How did you manage the development? What methods and programs did you use? What kind of reporting did the specialists have? How did you change the work plan if deadlines were missed or risks arose?
How did you detail the tasks, what methods did you use? Were you included in the forecast according to the timing?
How did you work with freelancers and outsourcers?

Important points

Carefully review your work experience. If there is nothing there about internet tools, web analytics, internet strategy, managing a team of internet specialists, don’t waste your time on this candidate. Profile experience in managing an Internet team must be at least 4 years, and preferably 6 years.
You don't need a classic marketer. It can be calculated by phrases and words in a resume (when there is nothing else besides these skills): management of marketing activities, BTL, booklets, packaging, strategies, corporate identity, sales funnel analysis, reporting verification, analysis of the structure and level of demand fluctuations (ABC, XYZ and combined analyses), portfolio analysis, strategic and operational product analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, segmentation and positioning, consumer potential analysis, surveys. Such a candidate may be an excellent manager and classic marketer, but not a digital director.
When assessing managerial experience, do not take into account work with contractors (agencies). It is important. Working with agencies does not count towards the experience of a digital director: such interaction in fact only reduces qualifications. And it is promoted by its own team, which needs to be managed (yes, agencies can work in parallel - this is not a problem). Therefore, always check whether the candidate did everything indicated in the resume himself with a team or, as they like to say, “managed agencies.”
Work with people who love testing new tools and mechanics. You should not continue the interview if the applicant answers questions about tools, channels and mechanics: “Well, I’m a manager, and these are the tasks of specialists, I will manage and give tasks, and they are the result for me.” A good digital director always wants to learn new tools and mechanics, even if there is not enough time. This distinguishes a professional from just another “general manager.”

An Internet marketer and digital leader must not only be found, but also retained

Getting a good specialist on staff is a difficult task, especially on the client side. If a marketing agency clearly understands what criteria to evaluate candidates and how to develop a professional, then this can be problematic for the client. For example, for an employee to perform the functions of a digital director, the marketing department must employ at least seven to ten people.

The manager gradually builds a mini-agency within the company and manages it. In Russia there are few such cases; usually the marketing department here consists of two or three specialists and the opportunities for growth are limited.

Internet marketers and digital directors are general professionals who have gained serious work experience, are well versed in all processes and want to constantly grow and learn. Consider these facts to find and attract truly qualified specialists to your project.

If you plan to build work with agencies (which is often much better than many years of hard work building a department internally), check the candidates using a checklist. This way you will immediately recognize a quality agency by weeding out streaming and mass options.

Finding an Internet marketer and head of digital marketing is a headache for many companies. Where to look for such professionals? How to evaluate their skills? It is difficult to answer these questions even when hiring employees of a more narrow profile - contextual advertising specialists, SEO optimizers, email marketers or web developers.

The problem is confirmed by Completo technical director Mikhail Fedorov:

“Let's say you need to find an SEO specialist. Search options: contact a recruiting service, a recruitment agency, or search on your own. The search method is to post a vacancy, and its description will most likely be taken from the text of another vacancy or a new one will be created by compilation. However, neither you yourself, nor the HR manager, nor the agency will select a qualified person, because no one knows how to evaluate such a specialist. At the interview, HR will ask: “Do you know search engine algorithms?” How can an honest applicant respond to this? If he had known, he would have vacationed in the Bahamas and not gone on interviews. While HR listens to 10 such candidates and schedules an interview with the customer, the best of them will go to another employer. As a result, a company that does not know the criteria for evaluating a specialist will choose someone who has sold himself well, at an exorbitant price, but not someone who has the necessary knowledge and can really help. But you have a “guarantee” of results. If a person leaves after a month or turns out to be professionally unsuitable, then HR will find a similar “specialist” and fill the empty desk with a monitor in your office. After this, what can we say about generalists..."

The problem of the personnel market: there are many Internet marketing specialists, but general practitioners are rare

One tool specialists who are trying to become internet marketers (SEO specialists, context specialists, web developers, designers, etc.).
Managers from areas related to Internet marketing(sales, classic marketing, brand management) who are trying to become digital directors.

Separately, I would like to note a case that occurs much less frequently and is often clinical: a specialist of one tool immediately targets the digital director (by skipping steps). It is not recommended to waste time on such a candidate. If suddenly a person is ready to learn, then the plan can be proposed as follows: after 2-3 years of persistent practice, he will be able to grow to a digital marketer and after the same period to a digital director, subject to practice in managing a team.

Career path of an Internet marketing specialist to a digital director

To become a qualified internet marketer and digital director, you need to gain practical work experience, which cannot be replaced by specialized training in courses.

Please note that a single tool specialist is not an internet marketer. He may be a talented and thoughtful professional who knows everything about contextual advertising, or SEO, or layout, or website creation, or design. But without knowledge of all the tools (at least superficially), an employee cannot perform the functions of a digital marketer.

“In my opinion, only a general who was a soldier himself can lead a team. I know what goes on in a specialist’s head: when he needs success, and when he can point out weaknesses. I can explain in a minute how to do what you need.”

Artemy Lebedev, Harvard Business Review

Real life example: amateur vs professional

How do you understand the difference between a professional manager or marketer and a non-professional? Notice how they strategize and set goals for the team.

Here's what you can hear from amateur:

“It’s important for us to get more organic traffic. I looked at competitors - it turned out that traffic could grow 6 times. SEO guys, hey! Come here. We need to achieve the same, it will increase sales. Work, show me the results."

Compare with comment a competent head of the digital department or internet marketer:

“We need to understand the direction of development, so I:

Analyzed downloads of contextual advertising and web analytics on the site;
- looked at conversions and sales;
- identified priority audience segments and regions;
- analyzed competitors’ traffic;
- downloaded data from the company’s financial system and compared online sales with offline sales.

The action plan will be like this:

We create subdomains, unique phone numbers and addresses for regions;
We cluster search queries as follows:

geo-dependent/geo-independent;
commercial/non-commercial.

So that search queries do not interfere with each other’s progress, we arrange them according to the structure:

blog;
forum;
independent content site.

We check the uniqueness of content on all sites. It can be done:

manually;
using a synonym generator;
through crowdsourcing copywriting.

Add a site to Yandex.Directory, Google My Business, set up regionality in Yandex.Webmaster and place it in specialized directories;
We are starting to use the sites of partners and dealers to attract traffic. To do this you need:

specify requirements for sites;
bring them into uniformity.

We set up cross-domain analytics on all sites to view organic traffic in a single Google Analytics panel;
We pull up key queries from Yandex.Metrica into Google Analytics so that all transitions based on keywords are visible and not displayed (not set).

We build reports like this:

Positions by query clusters;
Organic traffic by region;
Sales from this traffic according to the product matrix.”

“The end-to-end marketing line comes from the owner. If the top person doesn’t understand the demand, the company is stuck and there’s no point in working any further.”

— create a step-by-step action plan
- discuss it with the team
— help colleagues with technical questions
— monitor the implementation of the project
- get a controlled and measurable result

If the Internet marketing director attracts one or more agencies or contractors, sets common goals for them and communicates in the format of monthly reports and conversations like “good/bad SEO positions”, “good/bad promotion”, “high/low ROI”, such a manager can be replaced with a Telegram bot or a regular parrot.

How to look for an internet marketer?

The Internet Marketer You Need

— This is a specialist in a group of tools that necessarily include web analytics
— He can find specialists in any marketing tools, organize their work and get a predictable result
— Able to manage a team of up to 5 people (in the office or remotely).

Search time

Approximately 1-1.5 months from the date of publication of the vacancy.

Where to look

— HH.ru (great job description is a must)
— Facebook (paid posts and targeting)

Salary

From 70,000 to 100,000 rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Less than 70,000 is the salary of specialists. More than 100,000 is growth for an Internet marketer based on KPIs or a transition to the position of head of the digital/Internet department.

Basic requirements

— Experience in website development. Theory, leading a website development project in a team, experience creating a website from scratch.
— Knowledge of the principles of search engine optimization and the ability to work with contextual advertising. This is the base on which most internet marketing strategies are built.
— Ability to work with video advertising, e-mail marketing, display advertising and retargeting.
— Deep knowledge of web analytics. Proficiency in Google Analytics: planning analytics and performance metrics, uploading and processing data, making business decisions based on web analytics.
— Knowledge of classical marketing, marketing analysis, the basics of building a business and economics.
— Ability to analyze competitors: from the point of view of both business aspects and Internet marketing.
— Web programming at a basic level (knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS, PHP).
— Knowledge of design and usability at least at the “Management” level. The candidate must follow the latest developments in the field of website development, landing pages and interfaces.
— Broad outlook in the professional field: tracking new products in the field of advertising services, analytics and related tools.
— Ability to communicate with people, make presentations and defend all your ideas together with account managers.

Will be a plus for the candidate

— No confusion when mentioning the concepts “CRM”, “telephone analytics”, “personalized multi-channel web analytics”.
— Experience in developing an Internet marketing strategy and detailed control of its implementation in a team of marketers, telephone operators, CRM integrators, SEO specialists, copywriters, layout designers, programmers, designers.
- Advanced knowledge of Excel.
— Knowledge of mathematics at the level of a humanitarian university.
— Knowledge of economics and statistics.
— Experience working on the side of both the client and the agency.

We have collected the minimum number of topics that a marketer should know during an interview:

— ability to work with Excel, Google Docs;
— ability to work with databases at the query language level;
— ability to program (in any language);
— ;
— landing page development from scratch;
— setting up web analytics based on Google Analytics;
— development of an intranet system;
— participation in projects where web analytics by user_id was linked with systems;
— search engine marketing (organic search);
— product aggregators such as Yandex.Market;
- partnership programs;
— Google advertising network;
— Yandex context media network;
— classic media purchases;
— programmatic (via RTB);
— ;
— content and advertising in social media;
— email marketing;
— CPA networks;
— retargeting/remarketing;
— video advertising;
— promotion of mobile applications;
— certificates, courses and seminars related to the vacancy;
- titles and authors of the last five books read that are relevant to the vacancy;
— the number of projects/clients that the candidate managed in parallel;
— the average size of the budget with which the candidate worked;
— experience in personal meetings with clients, conducting presentations;
— links to presentations or reports prepared by the candidate;
— recommendations from management or clients;
- the best project, its results and problems.

Sample questions

Ask the candidate to solve a case. Abstract questions like: “Tell me, have you worked with this tool? What results have you achieved? - this is the road to nowhere.

We have selected several questions on the topics listed above that will help you assess the qualifications of applicants.

1. Questions on one tool (with a technological bias)

— You are launching display advertising in Google Display Network. How can you ensure that people who saw your banners online but did not click on them are counted in site conversions in Google Analytics like those who saw the banner?
— A plant in Moscow produces chairs, but does not sell them. Sales are carried out by dealers throughout Russia. The plant has a business card website. How to attract the maximum amount of search traffic from all regions to sell chairs from this manufacturer?

Trick question - test of intelligence

— There are two advertisements in Yandex.Direct. One has a conversion rate of 0.5%, and the other has a conversion rate of 0.9%. What questions do you have after hearing the problem?

Question on general knowledge of marketing

— How to increase the effectiveness of an ad in contextual advertising, regardless of systems? Describe the plan point by point. What factors influence this?

Complex questions on knowledge of several instruments

— We are planning Internet marketing for a company with a long sales cycle. Recruitment takes place via the Internet. After some time, we segmented requests by industry and decided to show clients thematic advertising of products from their industry. How to do it? List all available methods.

— There is a website with Yandex.Direct and Google Analytics. How to set up a ROI report only in the Google Analytics interface?

General strategic questions about marketing and knowledge of tool bundles

— You have been assigned to sell a product via the Internet and have set a sales plan. You anticipate that there will be problems with demand (there is little of it). Answer the following questions:

How to check whether there will be problems with demand?
How do you know that the amount of demand you saw is enough to fulfill your online sales plan?
What do you recommend to a client in such a situation? Sketch out a quick strategy.

Important points

— Certificates are a necessary condition, but not an indicator of qualifications. If a person has received the minimum required package of certificates (Yandex.Direct, Google.AdWords, Google Analytics IQ) - this is a plus. But answering test questions and solving real cases are two different things. We regularly interview certified professionals, and often they cannot answer practical questions.

— Find out which tools an internet marketer is best equipped with. Ask questions about them, create tasks to know all the nuances.

— Having your own online store is a serious plus for an online marketer. It is worth communicating with such specialists as a priority.

— A telephone interview allows you to save time on face-to-face meetings. Select candidates that match your resume and ask a few of the questions listed above. Usually, 60% of applicants are eliminated by the second or third question. Based on the results of all questions, out of the remaining 40%, you can call 3-5 people for an interview (sample: 200 responses to a vacancy posted on the website hh.ru).

— A resume is a great misconception. It is good to use a resume as a primary filter: to weed out non-core specialists and candidates with insufficient experience. The remaining applicants for the vacancy should be interviewed on the issues listed above, without attaching importance to the resume.

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How to look for a digital director

The digital leader you need

— A former internet marketer with good self-organization and developed systems thinking.
— A manager who can manage internet marketers.
- Has the main value of the profession - work experience, which has turned into the ability to think strategically.
— A practitioner who not only performs managerial functions, but also knows the entire production process.
— Willing to delegate some of his operational functions, but enjoys working in one or two aspects of Internet marketing.
- Can create a detailed Internet marketing strategy.

Search time

Approximately 2-3 months from the date of publication of the vacancy. Our record is 5 months.

Where to look

— Grow within the company (a priority, but not always a possible option).
— Recruit from other companies (you need to closely monitor the industry).
— Facebook (paid posts and targets. You will have to search long and hard).
— HH.ru (you will have to search long and hard, renewing the vacancy every month).

Salary

From 120,000 rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Everything that is more than 100,000 rubles (at least 30% of this part) must be accrued according to KPI.

Basic requirements

— Proficiency in at least one Internet marketing tool with an A plus. It could be anything: web analytics, development, contextual advertising, RTB.
— Experience in leading a team of seven to ten specialists (minimum required set): internet marketer, SEO specialist, layout designer, programmer, web analyst, web designer, IP telephony specialist, 1C specialist.
- Experience. The path covered in 5-6 years from a specialist to an Internet marketer, and then to a manager.
— Ability to manage projects and teams with a full understanding of the technological process (how everything works) and the ability to engage in project management based on deadlines and risks (assessment based on hours, deadlines, results, risks of non-fulfillment).
— Desire to test new tools and mechanics. A professional digital leader is ready to spend at least 4-6 hours a week on this.

What to talk about at an interview

Sample questions

We've outlined questions to ask a future online marketing director. But each company can (and should) adapt them to a specific candidate.

Your resume says that you built end-to-end analytics before sales.

— Tell us about your team. What specialists worked in it? What tasks did you perform at the application level?
— How long did it take you to create the system?
— Which CRM did you choose and why?
— Which telephone system did you choose and why?
— Which web analytics system did you choose and why?
— How was the connection to the warehouse completed?
— Name at least 5 technical problems that you solved during the integration process.
— How did you manage to motivate the sales department to work with such a system?
— Does the system work? How can I check this?

You write that you have tripled your online sales.

— How were sales measured? How did you track them?
— What tools and channels did you use?
— Which specialists worked to increase sales?
— How did you calculate that sales increased exactly 3 times? Have you already set up analytics before?
— What are your functions on the project? What tools did you use?
-Who can I call and check this?

Experience in contextual advertising.

— How did you cluster the requests, how many were there, what services did you use?
— How did you automate contextual advertising - services, scripts, something else?
— How did you measure effectiveness before sales? What systems have been integrated?
— What strategies were used in the context at the top level?
— How did you work with competitive requests?
— Have you used context for content marketing?
— What have you achieved for your business using context?

Search engine marketing and SEO.

— What was the SEO strategy: regions, queries, snippets, texts, internal optimization? How did you get external links?
— What results did you get in terms of organic traffic and sales from it, the growth of query clusters?
— What mechanics have you come up with for SEO?

Development.

— Have you created personal accounts, closed areas of the site, Internet services? Why, for whom?
— Have you developed websites or landing pages from scratch? How much development did you go through - in hours and specific projects?
— How did you manage the development? What methods and programs did you use? What kind of reporting did the specialists have? How did you change the work plan if deadlines were missed or risks arose?
— How did you detail the tasks, what methods did you use? Were you included in the forecast according to the timing?
— How did you structure your work with freelancers and outsourcers?

Important points

- Carefully study your work experience. If there is nothing there about internet tools, web analytics, internet strategy, managing a team of internet specialists, don’t waste your time on this candidate. Profile experience in managing an Internet team must be at least 4 years, and preferably 6 years.

— You don’t need a classic marketer. It can be calculated by phrases and words in a resume (when there is nothing else besides these skills): management of marketing activities, BTL, booklets, packaging, strategies, corporate identity, sales funnel analysis, reporting verification, analysis of the structure and level of demand fluctuations (ABC, XYZ and combined analyses), portfolio analysis, strategic and operational product analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, segmentation and positioning, consumer potential analysis, surveys. Such a candidate may be an excellent manager and classic marketer, but not a digital director.

— When assessing managerial experience, do not take into account work with contractors (agencies). It is important. Working with agencies does not count towards the experience of a digital director: such interaction in fact only reduces qualifications. And it is promoted by its own team, which needs to be managed (yes, agencies can work in parallel - this is not a problem). Therefore, always check whether the candidate did everything indicated in the resume himself with a team or, as they like to say, “managed agencies.”

— Work with people who love testing new tools and mechanics. You should not continue the interview if the applicant answers questions about tools, channels and mechanics: “Well, I’m a manager, and these are the tasks of specialists, I will manage and give tasks, and they are the result for me.” A good digital director always wants to learn new tools and mechanics, even if there is not enough time. This distinguishes a professional from just another “general manager.”

An Internet marketer and digital leader must not only be found, but also retained

For example, for an employee to perform the functions of a digital director, the marketing department must employ at least seven to ten people. The manager gradually builds a mini-agency within the company and manages it. In Russia there are few such cases; usually the marketing department here consists of two or three specialists and the opportunities for growth are limited.

Internet marketer and digital director are general professionals who have gained serious work experience, are well versed in all processes and want to constantly grow and learn. Consider these facts to find and attract truly qualified specialists to your project.

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The problem of the personnel market: there are many Internet marketing specialists, but general practitioners are rare

Specialists of one tool who are trying to become internet marketers (SEO specialists, contextual specialists, web developers, designers and others).
Managers from areas related to Internet marketing (sales, classic marketing, brand management) who are trying to become digital directors.

Career path of an Internet marketing specialist to a digital director

To become a qualified internet marketer and digital director, you need to gain practical work experience, which cannot be replaced by specialized training in courses.

In my opinion, only a general who was a soldier himself can lead a team. I know what goes on in a specialist’s head: when he needs success, and when he can point out weaknesses. I can explain in a minute how to do what you need.

Artemy Lebedev

Harvard Business Review

Real life example: amateur vs professional

How do you understand the difference between a professional manager or marketer and a non-professional? Notice how they strategize and set goals for the team.

Compare with the comment of a competent head of the digital department or internet marketer:

The end-to-end marketing line comes from the owner. If the first person does not understand the demand, the company is stuck and there is no point in working any further.

Timur Garyaev,

“Branded goods, or the product is the head of everything”

create a step-by-step action plan;
discuss it with the team;
help colleagues with technical questions;
monitor the implementation of the project;
get a controlled and measurable result.

How to look for an internet marketer

The Internet Marketer You Need:

Salary:

from 70 to 100 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Less than 70 thousand are the salaries of specialists. More than 100 thousand is growth for an Internet marketer based on KPIs or a transition to the position of head of the digital Internet department.

Basic requirements:

Website development experience. Theory, leading a website development project in a team, experience creating a website from scratch.
Knowledge of search engine optimization principles and ability to work with contextual advertising. This is the base on which most internet marketing strategies are built.
Ability to work with video advertising, email marketing, display advertising and retargeting.
Deep knowledge of web analytics. Proficiency in Google Analytics: planning analytics and performance metrics, uploading and processing data, making business decisions based on web analytics.
Knowledge of classical marketing, marketing analysis, the basics of building a business and economics.
Ability to analyze competitors: from the point of view of both business aspects and Internet marketing.
Web programming at a basic level (knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS, PHP).
Knowledge of design and usability at least at the “Management” level. The candidate must follow the latest developments in the field of website development, landing pages and interfaces.
Broad outlook in the professional field: monitoring new products in the field of advertising services, analytics and related tools.
Ability to communicate with people, make presentations and defend all your ideas together with account managers.

It will be a plus for the candidate:

No confusion when mentioning the concepts “CRM”, “telephone analytics”, “personalized multi-channel web analytics”.
Experience in developing an Internet marketing strategy and detailed control of its implementation in a team of marketers, telephone operators, CRM integrators, SEO specialists, copywriters, layout designers, programmers, designers.
Advanced knowledge of Excel.
Knowledge of mathematics at the level of a humanitarian university.
Knowledge of economics and statistics.
Experience working on both the client and agency side.

We have collected a minimum number of topics on which it is worth asking questions to a future Internet marketer:

ability to work with Excel, Google Docs;
ability to work with databases at the query language level;
ability to program (in any language);
website development from scratch;
landing page development from scratch;
setting up web analytics based on Google Analytics;
development of an intranet system;
participation in projects where web analytics by user_id was linked with systems;
search marketing (organic search);
product aggregators such as Yandex.Market;
partnership programs;
Google Display Network;
contextual media network "Yandex";
classic media buying;
programmatic (via RTB);
content marketing;
content and advertising on social media;
email marketing;
CPA networks;
retargeting and remarketing;
video advertising;
promotion of mobile applications;
certificates, courses and seminars relevant to the vacancy;
titles and authors of the last five books read that are relevant to the vacancy;
the number of projects or clients that the candidate managed in parallel;
the average budget the candidate worked with;
Experience in personal meetings with clients, conducting presentations;
links to presentations or reports prepared by the candidate;
recommendations from management or clients;
the best project, its results and problems.

Sample questions

Ask the candidate to solve a case. Abstract questions like: “Tell me, have you worked with this tool? What results have you achieved? - this is the road to nowhere.

We have selected several questions on the topics listed above that will help you assess the qualifications of applicants.

1. Questions on one instrument (with a technological focus).

2. A trick question - a test of intelligence.

There are two advertisements in Yandex.Direct. One has a conversion rate of 0.5%, and the other has a conversion rate of 0.9%. What questions do you have after hearing the problem?

3. Question on general knowledge of marketing.

How to increase the effectiveness of an ad in contextual advertising, regardless of systems? Describe the plan point by point. What factors influence this?

4. Complex questions on knowledge of several instruments.

There is a website with Yandex.Direct and Google Analytics. How to set up a ROI report only in the Google Analytics interface?

5. General strategic questions about marketing and knowledge of tool bundles

You have been assigned to sell a product online and have set a sales plan. You anticipate that there will be problems with demand (there is little of it). Answer the following questions:

How to check whether there will be problems with demand?
How do you know that the amount of demand you saw is enough to fulfill your online sales plan?
What do you recommend to a client in such a situation? Sketch out a quick strategy.

Important points

Certificates are a prerequisite, but not an indicator of qualifications. If a person has received the minimum required package of certificates (Yandex.Direct, Google.AdWords, Google Analytics IQ) - this is a plus. But answering test questions and solving real cases are two different things. We regularly interview certified professionals, and often they cannot answer practical questions.
Find out which tools an internet marketer knows best. Ask questions about them, create tasks to know all the nuances.
Having your own online store is a serious plus for an internet marketer. It is worth communicating with such specialists as a priority.
Telephone interviews save time on face-to-face meetings. Select candidates that match your resume and ask a few of the questions listed above. Usually, 60% of applicants are eliminated by the second or third question. Based on the results of all questions, out of the remaining 40%, you can call 3-5 people for an interview (sample: 200 responses to a vacancy posted on the website hh.ru).
The resume is a great misconception. It is good to use a resume as a primary filter: to weed out non-core specialists and candidates with insufficient experience. The remaining applicants for the vacancy should be interviewed on the issues listed above, without attaching importance to the resume.

How to look for a digital director

The Digital Leader You Need:

Salary:

From 120 thousand rubles per month (according to our experience and the average in Moscow). Anything more than 100 thousand rubles (at least 30% of this part) should be accrued according to KPI.

Basic requirements:

Proficiency in at least one Internet marketing tool with an A plus. This could be anything: web analytics, development, contextual advertising, RTB, and so on.
Experience in leading a team of seven to ten specialists (minimum required set): internet marketer, SEO specialist, layout designer, programmer, web analyst, web designer, IP telephony specialist, 1C specialist.
Experience. The path covered in 5-6 years from a specialist to an Internet marketer, and then to a manager.
Ability to manage projects and teams with a full understanding of the technological process (how everything works) and the ability to engage in project management based on deadlines and risks (assessment based on hours, deadlines, results, risks of non-fulfillment).
Desire to test new tools and mechanics. A professional digital leader is ready to spend at least 4-6 hours a week on this.

What to talk about at an interview

Sample questions

We have outlined questions that can be asked to a future digital director. But each company can (and should) adapt them to a specific candidate.

1. Your resume says that you built end-to-end analytics before sales.

Tell us about your team. What specialists worked in it? What tasks did you perform at the application level?
How long did it take you to create the system?
Which CRM did you choose and why?
Which phone system did you choose and why?
Which web analytics system did you choose and why?
How was the connection to the warehouse completed?
Name at least 5 technical problems that you solved during the integration process.
How did you manage to motivate the sales department to work with such a system?
Is the system working? How can I check this?

2. You write that you have tripled your online sales.

How were sales measured? How did you track them?
What tools and channels did you use?
Which specialists worked to increase sales?
How did you calculate that sales increased exactly 3 times? Have you already set up analytics before?
What are your functions on the project? What tools did you use?
Who can I call and check this?

How did you cluster the requests, how many were there, what services did you use?
How did you automate contextual advertising - services, scripts, something else?
How was performance measured before sales? What systems have been integrated?
What strategies were used in the context at the top level?
How did you deal with competitive requests?
Have you used context for content marketing?
What have you achieved for your business using context?

4. Search engine marketing and SEO.

What was your SEO strategy: regions, queries, snippets, texts, internal optimization? How did you get external links?
What results did you get in terms of organic traffic and sales from it, the growth of query clusters?
What mechanics have you come up with for SEO?

5. Development.

Have you created personal accounts, closed areas of the site, Internet services? Why, for whom?
Have you developed websites or landing pages from scratch? How much development did you go through - in hours and specific projects?
How did you manage the development? What methods and programs did you use? What kind of reporting did the specialists have? How did you change the work plan if deadlines were missed or risks arose?
How did you detail the tasks, what methods did you use? Were you included in the forecast according to the timing?
How did you work with freelancers and outsourcers?

Important points

Carefully review your work experience. If there is nothing there about internet tools, web analytics, internet strategy, managing a team of internet specialists, don’t waste your time on this candidate. Profile experience in managing an Internet team must be at least 4 years, and preferably 6 years.
You don't need a classic marketer. It can be calculated by phrases and words in a resume (when there is nothing else besides these skills): management of marketing activities, BTL, booklets, packaging, strategies, corporate identity, sales funnel analysis, reporting verification, analysis of the structure and level of demand fluctuations (ABC, XYZ and combined analyses), portfolio analysis, strategic and operational product analysis, SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, segmentation and positioning, consumer potential analysis, surveys. Such a candidate may be an excellent manager and classic marketer, but not a digital director.
When assessing managerial experience, do not take into account work with contractors (agencies). It is important. Working with agencies does not count towards the experience of a digital director: such interaction in fact only reduces qualifications. And it is promoted by its own team, which needs to be managed (yes, agencies can work in parallel - this is not a problem). Therefore, always check whether the candidate did everything indicated in the resume himself with a team or, as they like to say, “managed agencies.”
Work with people who love testing new tools and mechanics. You should not continue the interview if the applicant answers questions about tools, channels and mechanics: “Well, I’m a manager, and these are the tasks of specialists, I will manage and give tasks, and they are the result for me.” A good digital director always wants to learn new tools and mechanics, even if there is not enough time. This distinguishes a professional from just another “general manager.”