I was having a look yesterday through some marketing job ads on Australia’s recruitment site Seek. Not because I’m looking for a job, but to see what potential contracts are out there for my business to target. I do it as part of the sales strategy for MarketingHQ.
Reading through the ads, nearly every job ad is looking for someone with specific industry experience. It just reinforced my view that marketing recruiters don’t get marketing. Why would you look for a marketer that has pre-conceived ideas of an industry and do the same thing that everyone else is doing? The concept of differentiation appears lost on them.
If it was me, I would be looking for a marketer from outside your industry to give a fresh perspective and inject some new ideas. A seemingly foreign concept if the job ads are anything to go by.
This issue also reminds me of why Richard Branson and his Virgin empire is so successful. When looking at an industry to start a business, Virgin look at how everyone else is doing it and flip it 360 degrees. The reason they are successful is because they don’t do it the same as everyone else. They seek to differentiate in every market they choose to target. Think about this and take a leaf out of Virgin’s book when you are recruiting for marketing staff…
