Whenever you hear about a successful eCommerce company, there is often one thing that sets them apart: the people. While you must have heard it many times before, the people behind your company are the ones who make everything work (or not work!). That’s why it makes sense to hire people who will be conducive to your company’s success.
Unfortunately, some eCommerce companies don’t realize just how important it is to have the right staff on board. They consequently miss out on the chance to take their company’s performance to the next level.
So who are the essential people that will help make your eCommerce company thrive? Find out below, where we detail the five people you need in your eCommerce company. We’ll also run through some expert considerations you should make to help you hire the right people for these vital roles.
1. A Social Media Director
A social media director is one of the most pivotal people who will contribute to the success of your eCommerce company. The person you select for this role will make a considerable difference in the strength of your overall social media direction, strategy, and campaigns. They will not only spearhead these efforts, but they will also guide the rest of the social media team on all matters related to your company’s social media.
Customers are increasingly turning to social media to help guide their purchasing decisions. Consider the mind-boggling statistic that 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. With a savvy social media director on your team, your eCommerce company can leverage the power of social media to drive interest and conversions.
As such, you shouldn’t rush the hiring of a social media manager. There is a world of difference between an adequate social media manager and an exceptional one. The former will know the basics that are fine for a small company that isn’t seeking to grow. However, the latter will know all of the intricate tricks of the trade to further your social media presence. They will be constantly developing their skills and will stay on top of the latest social media news and trends and use this knowledge to launch campaigns that effectively engage existing and new customers alike.
2. A Copywriter
A copywriter is without a doubt one of the most important hires an eCommerce company can make. Their ability with words can spark interest in your customers by guiding them to view your products in a way that a simple product image cannot convey.
That’s why every well-known eCommerce company has a team of copywriters charged with bringing everything from product descriptions to a company’s branding to life. As the screenshot below shows, even an eCommerce giant like Amazon relies on strong copywriters to sell their services.
Amazon understands the value of strong copywriting to sell their eCommerce services.
So what qualities should you look for in a copywriter? Business Marketing Engine lists a number of considerations to make when selecting an ideal copywriter to join your eCommerce company. Reliability, the right qualifications, and passion will all be necessary for your copywriter to possess.
And don’t be mistaken in thinking you can ‘get away’ with hiring a writer whose writing is just passable. You need to hire someone who knows how to truly sell the attributes of your product, convey your brand voice, and overall, convince customers why your product—over all others—is worth buying.
Writing strong copy takes a lot more skill and work than it seems. This is a task that you certainly should not attempt to do by yourself! It’s well worth paying a premium to hire someone who knows precisely what they’re doing.
Just look at Copyblogger’s guide to good copywriting and you’ll see all of the considerations that go into writing one line after another of persuasive copy. As they aptly put it, “Writing effective copy is both an art and a science. It’s an art because it requires creativity, a sense of beauty and style — a certain aptitude, mastery and special knowledge...Writing effective copy is also a science, because it exists in the world of tests, trial and failure, improvement, breakthroughs, education and predictability.”
3. A Digital Marketing Director
A competent digital marketing manager is another hire who will make your eCommerce company thrive. Media Bistro summarizes that a digital marketing manager is responsible for “developing, implementing and managing marketing campaigns that promote a company and its products and/or services. He or she plays a major role in enhancing brand awareness within the digital space as well as driving website traffic and acquiring leads/customers.”
Given how expansive a digital marketing manager’s duties are, their potential to drive your company’s online presence, and subsequently, increase your bottom line is considerable. Needless to say, it’s essential that the digital marketing manager you hire should have a proven track record of leading a range of digital marketing campaigns, as well as successfully guiding a digital marketing team to achieve company objectives.
Ideally, the manager should have experience working in an eCommerce company. However, it’s also important to consider the fresh perspectives of managers, who have demonstrated their digital marketing know-how in other industries, can bring to your company.
If you’re wondering which skills you should look for in the next digital marketing of your eCommerce company, consider Ecommerce Training Academy’s advice. They suggest a competent digital marketing director should:
- Be creative.
- Possess exceptional analytical skills.
- Be a natural leader for the digital marketing team to look up to.
- Boast sales skills.
- Be a good storyteller.
- Be able to copy with the fast moving nature of eCommerce.
- Be
- Be a visionary with ambitious goals.
4. Temporary Workers
Temporary workers may not strike you as essential hires, but as you’ll learn below, they are a type of worker you’ll definitely want to have on your payroll. In short, temporary workers provide the ideal solution when you’re short staffed or need an extra pair of hands to adequately cope with the demands of your growing business.
After all, in order to cope with the demands of an expanding business, your company must always have enough staff to address both day-to-day tasks and any that may crop up at the last minute. If one or more staff members are away due to sickness or personal reasons and you don’t replace them, or if you have a problem with being understaffed in general, a number of potential problems could arise.
Namely, as Mitrefinch points out, being understaffed can contribute to such problems as lower quality of work, an increase in employee stress levels, and missed growth opportunities in your company. It will also put you at a competitive disadvantage as you will lack the human resources you need to stay on track with your competitors.
If that wasn’t enough to convince you of the value of temporary workers, another advantage of hiring temporary workers is that you can bring them on using a temp-to-hire arrangement, which gives you the opportunity to see how an employee performs before committing them to a full-time role at your company. In other words, temp-to-hire arrangements act as a screening process to ensure you only employ the most fitting people to your team who have proven their suitability to your company.
5. Interns
Many of the world’s most successful eCommerce companies would not be where they are today without the tireless work of interns. That’s because interns are often the unsung heroes who work on all range of matters small and large. As you can see from the screenshot from Indeed below, there are a number of eCommerce companies who are eager to make use of the skills interns provide.
Take a look at any job search site, and you’ll see no shortage of eCommerce companies eager to hire interns.
While the pervading stereotype of the tasks interns should do are menial ones like fetching coffee and photocopying, you should ensure your company doesn’t follow suit. Assigning these types of tasks will inhibit your intern’s growth and also mean your company misses out on an invaluable opportunity to learn from your intern. Yes—while interns are indeed in your company primarily to learn from you, there’s a lot an intern can teach the employees in your company!
Moreover, there’s an innumerable number of benefits to these hires. As HR Booth highlights, hiring an intern can offer companies the following benefits:
- Talent acquisition
- Increased productivity
- Fresh, new ideas
- Improved retention rates for full-time employees
- A chance to give back to the community
It’s clear that when properly valued, interns can give a company a much-needed boost of energy and new perspectives, as well as support to focus on more pressing tasks.
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