How to hire f**king exceptional marketers 💎

"We need someone like Tom" is the wrong strategy...

“We need someone like you to run our marketing, Tom!”

This is the #1 message I get from founders. I understand their desire for viral magic, but there’s a fundamental problem:

The “hire an amazing marketer” approach is broken for most startups in 2025. Top marketers (including me) simply have too many options these days. I’m not trying to brag - just being honest about talent scarcity.

Here’s the good news, though 👇

You don’t really need a “unicorn” hire to get amazing marketing results.

I won’t waste your time with fluffy advice about writing exciting job posts or offering more equity, because the solution isn’t finding unicorns - it’s building systems that don’t even require them. 💎

Why top marketers won’t join your startup 🔍

When founders try to hire top marketing talent, they hit these walls:

• 💰 Money talks → Senior marketers make $200-500K+ at bigger companies with real budgets

• 🌀 “Only marketer” roles are risky → Experienced marketers know being the lone marketer means impossible expectations, tiny budgets, and taking blame when miracles don’t happen

• 🍂 Been there, done that - Many have already tried the startup “do everything” role and got burned out

• 🍃 Freedom tastes better - Top marketers have newsletters, consulting gigs, or side projects that pay more with less hassle

I’ve seen this painful cycle play out dozens of times:

You’re looking for someone with an IMPOSSIBLE mix of skills: strategic thinking, creative ideas, technical know-how, data analysis, hands-on execution, and leadership experience - all while accepting startup pay.

These people exist, but they have much better options than joining your startup as the only marketer.

Why the usual hiring advice doesn't work 🚫

The standard playbook for hiring marketers is broken:

• ❌ “Write an exciting job description!”
  (Reality: Great marketers care about your team, industry, product, and resources - not your clever job post)

• ❌ “Offer generous equity!”
  (Reality: Experienced marketers have seen too many worthless equity packages and know cash pays bills)

• ❌ “Run a creative marketing challenge!”
  (Reality: Top marketers might crush your challenge for fun, but that doesn’t mean they’ll join you)

• ❌ “Find unemployed marketers with personal brands!”
  (Reality: These people already know they can make more money working for themselves)

The game has changed. What worked even a few years ago doesn’t cut it anymore.

What actually works instead 💡

In my work with dozens of startups, I’ve found a clear pattern: winning companies build smart marketing orgs that don’t require hiring celebrities full-time.

Here’s exactly how:

1. Split the role: Architect + Builder 🏗️

Break the impossible “unicorn” role into two parts:

1️⃣ The Architect (5-10 hours/month) - a senior marketing brain who creates your strategy, dreams up campaign ideas, reviews results, and provides high-level guidance.

2️⃣ The Builder (full-time) - a hungry execution-focused doer who implements what the Architect designs, runs day-to-day operations, tracks metrics, and grows into a bigger role over time.

This fixes the money problem: The Architect gets paid well for a few hours of strategic input, while the Builder handles the implementation at a reasonable cost.

And it solves the leadership trap too: Many founders tell me “We need someone who can tell us what to do”, and that’s exactly what the Architect provides - expert guidance without the full-time executive price tag.

👨‍🔧 Finding your Architect:

• Direct outreach to senior marketers on LinkedIn: Be super clear: limited time (5-10 hours/month) and fair pay ($1-3K/month or meaningful equity).

• Target people creating content: Marketers with newsletters or active social accounts are more likely to consider advisory roles.

• Ask for warm intros: Get your investors or network to connect you with marketing leaders they know.

• Look for marketers between jobs: Senior people who recently left positions are probably open to advisory work while planning their next move.

👷‍♀️ Finding your Builder:

• Hire for growth potential (NOT experience): Look for someone early in their career who’s on a steep upward trajectory.

• Look beyond marketing titles: Former SDRs, customer success people, and community managers often make great marketing builders.

• Value hunger over fancy degrees: The right builder should be obsessed with learning and growing.

• Find side-hustlers: Someone who’s built their own small audience or project shows initiative and creativity.

Here are some out-of-the-box questions to ask your “Builder” candidate:

My favorite job interview questions 💯

2. Create a marketing advisory group 🧠

Another great approach is to create a marketing advisory group:

Gather 3-5 experienced marketers who meet bi-weekly. Pay each one $1-2K/month or equivalent equity. Start a Whatsapp/Slack group with them all. Have a junior marketer (Builder) or founder implement their ideas.

This gives you multiple senior marketing perspectives without paying for a single full-time executive. I participate in such groups for several startups, and it’s a wonderful experience that delivers exceptional value for the founders.

3. Build a specialist network 🕸️

Instead of hiring full-timers for everything, many successful startups create a network of specialized freelancers through Upwork or Fiverr. This might include a part-time content writer + a fractional ads specialist + a project-based designer + a monthly SEO consultant + a video producer who works on specific campaigns.

⚠️ One warning: This approach requires someone (usually a founder) to manage these relationships. The upside is flexibility and really good expertise. The downside is your time.

4. Create a power user marketing council 💎

This works as a perfect addition to the Architect + Builder setup:

Pick 5-10 super-fans who truly understand your product. Create a paid program ($200-500/month or gifts) for their input. Meet monthly to gather ideas and feedback on marketing initiatives. Give them early access to new features and connect them directly with your Builder for case studies.

Marketing shouldn’t depend on any one person 🏢

Whatever approach you choose, always build a marketing org that doesn’t depend on any one person early on:

📝 Document everything: Create simple playbooks for repeatable marketing tasks – content creation steps, social media posting processes, email templates, and campaign measurement. This reduces dependency on any single person and makes it easier to train new team members.

📈 Build assets (instead of campaigns): Focus on marketing assets that grow in value over time – email lists, social media audience, content libraries, customer stories, original research, etc. Unlike one-time stunts, these assets compound in value and keep working for you.

🏆 Spread marketing across your company: Get your whole company involved in marketing. For example: Have engineers help with technical content, get customer success teams sharing user stories, bring product teams into feature marketing, and train sales on consistent messaging.

Here’s exactly how to do it:

The employee-led content playbook that actually works 🔋

What really creates viral campaigns 🎉

Those amazing marketing campaigns that make you want to “hire someone like that” aren’t actually created by lone geniuses.

In my experience running hundreds of viral campaigns, the reality looks more like this:

1. 🤝 A team of people with different skills working together

2. 📉 Lots of failed attempts before the winner

3. 💸 Decent budgets to distribute and amplify content

4. 💌 Existing audiences that help things spread

5. 🌈 Good timing and luck (which nobody likes to admit)

Great marketing doesn’t come from one brilliant hire. It comes from building systems that let you run lots of experiments, quickly spot what’s working, and double down on winners. The Architect + Builder approach gives you exactly that.

See you next week ✌️

Tom

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