Hire a Remote Digital Marketer

What a remote digital marketer does

BLS describes advertising, promotions and marketing managers as people who plan programmes to generate interest in products or services, and market research analysts as people who study consumer preferences, business conditions and other factors to assess potential sales. A remote digital marketer for a small business does a mix of both on a smaller scale, across the online channels you choose: search engine optimisation, paid search and social advertising, email, social media and content. Those are US descriptions, used here only to define the work.

A brief that says "do marketing" gives you nothing to test a candidate against. Pick the channels, the outcome you want and the budget before you look at candidates.

Generalist or specialist?

BLS says marketing managers typically need a bachelor's degree and work experience in a related occupation. Use that as a reminder to look for evidence of work done, not only a degree.

Skills to test

• Channel knowledge. For each channel you use, ask how they plan it, set it up and judge whether it is working.
• Measurement. Setting up tracking, reading web analytics and explaining what the numbers do and do not show.
• Testing. Designing a simple experiment and reading the result without overclaiming.
• Writing. Clear copy and briefs. Ask for samples and a short exercise.
• Budget thinking. How they would divide a small budget across channels and when they would stop spending.
• Reporting. Can they send a short, regular report that a busy owner can act on?
• Judgement about claims. Marketing copy must not mislead. Ask how they check a claim before it goes out.

How to assess a candidate

1. Review past work. Ask for campaigns they ran, the goal, what they did and what happened. Ask what they would change. Be wary of results with no explanation of how they were achieved.
2. Set a strategy exercise. Describe your real marketing problem and ask for a one-page plan: channels, first tests, what to measure and what they need from you.
3. Do a tool check. Ask for a screen-share in the kinds of advertising, analytics and email tools you use. Candidates who know a different tool can be tested on the same tasks.
4. Run a paid trial. Give one channel or one campaign. Marketing results take time, so judge the quality of the work, the reporting and the reasoning rather than the outcome alone.

Use the remote hiring scorecard to score candidates on the same criteria.

Set goals and measures before you start

Marketing activity is easy to start and hard to judge unless the goal is written down first. For each channel, agree the following with the marketer.

We do not give benchmark figures for conversion rates or advertising returns here. They vary by business and market, and we did not find a published source we could verify. Take your own baseline from the first weeks and compare against that.

Reports you can act on

Ask for a short regular report with the same layout each time: what was done, what happened to the agreed measures, what the marketer thinks it means and what they propose next. A report that lists activity without outcomes, or outcomes without a view, leaves the decision to you without the help you hired for. Ask the marketer to say when a change in a number is too small to read anything into.

Working with outside help

You may combine a remote marketer with freelancers or an agency for design, video or paid media. Keep one person responsible for the plan and for briefing the others, put the same ownership terms in each agreement, and keep the accounts in your name. Our guide to hiring a social media manager and freelancer, agency or dedicated team comparison can help you decide how to split the work.

Content and search work: what to check

If the role includes search optimisation or content, ask to see how the candidate plans and checks it. A good brief names the audience, the question the page answers and the action you want a reader to take. Ask how they find out what readers search for, how they check that a claim on the page is accurate and how they judge whether a page is doing its job. Beware of any plan that promises a particular ranking or a result by a fixed date, since no one controls how search engines or readers respond. For a writer-focused role, see our guide to hiring a content writer and copywriter.

Video content is usually edited by a dedicated specialist; see our guide to hiring a remote video editor.

Email programme checklist

• A clear way for people to join and to leave your list.
• Your business name and postal address in every message.
• A subject line that matches the content.
• A named person who handles complaints and opt-out requests promptly.
• A record of where each address came from.

In the interview, ask the candidate to describe a result that surprised them and what they checked before reporting it. The structured list of interview questions on this page covers the rest. Score every candidate against the same criteria and keep the notes, so the comparison stays fair.

Judging early results

Early numbers move around. A week of good or bad results rarely settles a question, especially on a small budget. Agree in advance how long a test must run and how much data you need before you decide, and ask the marketer to record what was changed and when. That record lets you connect a result to its cause and avoid repeating an expensive mistake.

Accounts, access and ownership

• Create the advertising, analytics and email accounts in your company's name and keep administrator rights yourself. Give the marketer only the access the work needs.
• Keep the payment methods on your side, and set spending limits.
• Store creative files, audience lists and reports in a shared location that you own.
• Put ownership of the work product in the written agreement, and ask a qualified adviser to check it for the country concerned.
• Remove access on the day the person leaves.

Marketing law basics

Your marketer will send emails and may work with creators, so make sure they know the rules that apply to you. The FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the law covers commercial email and lists requirements including no false or misleading header information, no deceptive subject lines, identifying the message as an ad, telling recipients where you are located, telling them how to opt out, and honouring opt-out requests within 10 business days. It also says that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you cannot contract away your legal responsibility. The FTC's Disclosures 101 for social media influencers says a "material connection" with a brand, including payment or free products, should be disclosed when someone endorses a product.

These are US rules. Other countries have their own, so ask a qualified adviser what applies to the markets you sell into.

Where to hire and how to engage

Choose by the language of your market, the overlap in working hours and the evidence in the candidate's work, not by a ranking. Read our best countries for digital marketing page and the country guides for India, the Philippines and Pakistan. Use the time zone overlap tool to see the hours you share. For narrower roles, see our guides to hiring a social media manager or a content writer and copywriter. Marketers can work as employees through an employer of record or as contractors, and the freelancer versus remote employee comparison helps you choose.

Pay and cost

The Salary Range box at the top of this page gives the pay figure for this role, with the source and date the box states. Marketing roles span channels and levels, so use the salary benchmark explorer to compare like with like. The Remote Hiring Cost Calculator shows what employing someone costs in total.

Remember that your advertising budget is separate from what you pay the marketer, and that agency fees work differently again. See hourly versus project versus retainer pricing if you are weighing a freelancer or agency.

The first weeks

• Begin with an audit of what exists: accounts, tracking, past results and current spend.
• Agree two or three goals and the measures that show progress, and write them down.
• Hold a short regular review and ask for plain-language reports.
• Change one thing at a time where you can, so you know what caused a result.

Mistakes to avoid

• Writing the brief as "do marketing" with no channels or goals.
• Accepting past results with no explanation of how they were achieved.
• Letting the marketer own the accounts, so that you lose access if they leave.
• Judging a trial on outcome alone when the sample is small.
• Forgetting that you stay responsible for emails and endorsements that go out in your name.

Search optimisation work is covered in our guide to SEO outsourcing to India.

Sources

• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Market Research Analysts
• FTC, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
• FTC, Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers

References checked on 13 October 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.