Your first marketing hire is a critical investment. 

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This person won’t just “do marketing”—they’ll drive demand, build your brand, and align closely with sales to fuel your growth. 

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At The Scale Up Collective, we’re marketers hiring marketers. Having built marketing teams in-house at Starling Bank and Yolt, and worked with countless tech startups to hire their first marketing teams, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative the right hire can be. 

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But finding the right person is just the first step. Actually setting them up for success is critical too. Here are some of the things you can do to make sure your first marketing hire is the right one, and has everything they need to make an impact from day one:

👉 First things first, hire the right person

Your first marketing hire often needs to wear many hats—strategist, storyteller, and operator. When you’re assessing candidates, prioritise these skills:

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• Strategic mindset: Ability to align their work with business goals and set clear priorities.
• Data-driven decision-making: Proficiency in using analytics tools like GA4 to understand behaviour and optimise their work.
• Experimentation mindset: A tendency to want to test things before committing to them (messaging, creative, formats, channels). 
• Content & digital execution: Skilled in crafting high-impact content and the know-how to manage core digital channels to drive demand.

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Look for someone who can thrive in a fast-paced environment, juggling strategy and execution without losing focus.

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👉 Clearly align their work with your business goals 

With a small (marketing) team, it’s more important than ever to make sure they’re focused on the right things. And ideally you want to give them some strategic and creative freedom to bring their skills and experience to life. 

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The first step? Tie the marketing objectives to measurable business outcomes. 

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For instance, if your goal is to increase annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 30%, your marketer’s focus should be building demand in order to support both inbound and outbound efforts to find qualified opportunities that convert into revenue.

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Set clear OKRs (objectives and key results) such as:

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• Generating a specific number of sales-ready leads
• Reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Improving customer lifetime value (CLV)

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This alignment ensures every marketing effort directly contributes to growth.

👉 Make cross-functional collaboration a priority

Startups thrive when teams work together seamlessly, so make sure you encourage this across the business to allow marketing to become a hub for collaboration:

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• Sales alignment: Work closely to define the ideal customer profile (ICP), refine messaging, and optimise lead handoffs.
• Product integration: Use customer insights from marketing campaigns to influence product development.
• Customer success synergy: Highlight client success stories and identify recurring pain points to enhance retention.

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For example, your marketer might collaborate with Product on messaging that highlights a new feature while working with Sales on a campaign targeting the right decision-makers in your ICP.

👉 Allow them to deliver value at every stage of the customer journey

Your marketing hire’s work will span the full funnel. Here’s how they can create impact at each stage:

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• Top of funnel (awareness): Build visibility through SEO, targeted ads, and thought leadership content.
• Middle of funnel (consideration): Use lead-nurturing campaigns, webinars, and case studies to build trust and engage prospects.
• Bottom of funnel (decision and retention): Create compelling calls to action, support sales enablement with tailored content, and drive loyalty programs to retain and grow customers.

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Every touchpoint should reinforce why your product solves critical problems for your customers.

👉 Give them the right tools, budget, and support to succeed

Even the most skilled marketer needs resources to draw on. As a minimum, here’s what you need to provide:

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1. Martech stack: Tools like HubSpot (CRM), Ahrefs (SEO), Canva or Figma (design), and a powerful AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude (for research and content creation) are non-negotiable for efficiency.
2. Budget: Allocate funds for essential growth activities such as PPC campaigns, LinkedIn ads, or hiring freelance specialists. Agree a ‘BAU budget’ for channels you know work, and a ‘testing’ budget for finding new opportunities. 
3. External support: Bring in agencies or freelancers for specialised needs like brand development or PR campaigns. Don’t expect one person to be able to do it all!

👉 Building the foundation for growth

Your first marketing hire is the bridge between your product and the market. With the right alignment, tools, and collaborative mindset, they’ll position your brand as a leader while driving measurable business results.

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Remember: success in B2B marketing isn’t about flashy campaigns—it’s about building scalable systems that consistently deliver growth. Empower your marketer with the resources they need, and they’ll deliver results that accelerate your startup’s journey to scale.

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If you're thinking about your first marketing hire, your next marketing hire, or whether a fractional approach might make more sense, we'd love to chat.