Part 1: 7 Focus Areas Every GREAT Growth Marketing Hire Should Know Inside & Out

Since I started working at 500 Startups the question I get asked most often (aside from, “What’s Dave’s email address?”) is, “Do you know a great Growth Hacker?”

And my always answer is, “No I don’t. If I did I’d hire him myself”

Why? Because since the term “Growth Hacker” (definition here, here and here) was coined, thousands of people have popped up claiming to be a GREAT growth hacker… But few people actually are a GREAT growth hacker.

To make sure you’re hiring someone who’s actually a GREAT, it’s important to make sure they’ve “been there, done that”. Do your due diligence by deep diving into these 7 Focus Areas Every GREAT Growth Marketing Hire Should Know:

1. They know how to get traffic

• What’s your experience with Facebook Ads?
• What’s your experience with Adwords?
• What’s your SEO experience?
• What’s your experience designing and implementing viral loops?

1. They are a tracking pro

• What’s your experience with Google Analytics?
• What’s your experience using Mixpanel, Amplitude, Kissmetrics, or another tracking tool?
• What your experience with Google Tag Manager?
• What’s your experience with Javascript?
• What’s your experience split testing? Do you have a software preference for split testing?

1. They write persuasive copy

• What’s your experience writing ads?
• What’s your experience writing lifecycle emails?
• What’s your experience writing landing page headlines?
• What’s your experience launching and maintaining content marketing initiatives?

1. They convert using UI/UX design

• What’s your experience designing landing pages?
• Have they ever designed a funnel?
• What’s their favorite landing page software?

1. They know how to handle data

• How good are you with numbers?
• Do you know how to use excel?

1. They’re a great communicator

• How clear of a communicator are you?

1. They a stubborn learner

• Do you love to learn?
• Are you persistent?

Your candidate isn’t a great growth marketer if they don’t know these 7 focus areas inside and out. Make sure you deep dive into each of these buckets, so that you don’t make the painful and COSTLY mistake of hiring the wrong person.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week when I help you weed out the “big talkers” who can BS the above focus area questions.

Made in Argentina, Juan Martitegui is the Founder of VirtualiaNet, The Biggest Teleworking School in the Hispanic Market. With more than 11,000 students (and growing rapidly), he and his team teach people how to find and perform in jobs they love without commuting or going into a traditional office. When Juan is not working on his businesses, he is probably finding great startups to invest on as a 500 Startups Venture Partner in the 500 startups fund, reading some strange book on evolutionary psychology and persuasion, trying to improve his Rubik’s cube solving times, or spending time as a father of Pedro and Felipe and husband to Marina. For more from Juan, follow him on Linkedin or Twitter.