Freelance marketers > FTEs

Neither supply nor demand is working in favour of traditional organisations when it comes to hiring at the moment.

Demand has dramatically increased because:

• more digitally enabled companies than ever who market in digitally-led ways, which require digital marketing expertise
• increased complexity of reaching customers meaning demand for technical specialists at all time high

All the while, supply is constrained because now more than ever skilled experts are opting for the greater personal autonomy, better pay and more fulfilling work - which freelancing can provide. On the latter point, a recent chat with one of our specialists added some depth to our understanding of the issue. As Helena got promoted, they were asked to spend less time doing the thing that was getting them promoted - i.e. their technical expertise - and more time doing things they didn’t like doing; i.e managing, business development and admin. (Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone, there are lots of great technical experts who are also talented managers)

A more flexible approach to talent actually affords greater precision. Rather than hiring someone with relatively vague ideas about what they’ll one day contribute to the business, you can hire a person to deliver on specific business deliverables. Once they’re done, move onto the next deliverable and the next specialist.

In sum, we think that there are three main reasons for opting for flexible access to talent rather full-time hires.

First, it enables companies to access the very best talent. The best marketers are increasingly opting to work independently due to benefits such as greater personal autonomy, better pay and more fulfilling work, to name a few. As such, companies are short-changing themselves by only participating in the full-time talent market. By their own admission, the companies using Passionfruit simply wouldn’t be able to hire the calibre of talent that they do through us, if it was through a standard recruitment process and on a full-time basis. Increasingly, the best people are only available on a flexible basis. However, this is a good thing for companies too. It means that you can work with technical experts with a track record of driving results at companies’ like yours more flexibly and cost-effectively than ever before.

Second, it gives you flexibility. Things change fast in startup land, so it’s important that your company can move quickly. At Passionfruit, we can go from project creation to kick off in as little as 7 days. The benefit is compounded by the fact that they are technical experts who have seen and successfully tackled the problems your company needs help with and crucially, are experts who are used to ‘parachuting’ in and making impact quickly. Once, they’ve done their job (whether that’s in 3 weeks or 3 months), the project ends and you can collaborate with a new specialist who has exactly the right skills for your next challenge. By doing this, you are equipped with precisely the right talent at the right time, rather than a long term cost commitment.

Third, it allows companies to de-risk big hires. This is particularly important for early stage companies, whose ability to attract and retain top talent is the leading KPI (investors routinely cite it as the more important investment decision criteria). So, the traditional preference for full time hires, particularly in key roles is understandable. However, the other side coin is that the most commonly cited reason for startup failure is inability to hire the right people or hiring the wrong people. A bad hire, particularly in a key role, can set a company back months. On the inexorably shrinking runway that a startup’s capital provides, this can be fatal for the business. At Passionfruit, many projects increase in scope and more than a few have resulted in full-time hires. In every case, both the company and the specialist feel confident and willing in their decision. This recently played out for an incredibly fast growing B2B SaaS company that uses Passionfruit and resulted in a new full-time CMO hire. An incredibly important hire de-risked over a few months. We think this way preferable to the gambles often taken when it comes to full-time hires.

Passionfruit makes it easier than ever to collaborate with marketing specialists who can grow your business. Whether you need a specialist to help with growth strategy, SEO, product marketing, you can rely on us to match you with the best. By using Passionfruit, you can turn the relative hostility of today’s job market for traditional organisations into a competitive advantage for yours.