At Hanapin Marketing, the parent company of both PPC Hero and SEO Boy, we’re all thrilled with the opportunity our blogs have given us to interact with other internet marketers and business owners looking to learn more about marketing themselves. That opportunity has grown out of a dedication to provide valuable, up-to-date industry knowledge to others- but what’s the secret of actually delivering on that dedication? Excellent people! We’ve been lucky as an agency to have a group of talented, dedicated marketers who share experiences, successes and cautions, and new knowledge freely. It’s allowed us to build a larger base of expertise for our selves, our clients, and our blog readers. Finding these awesome individuals has been a journey and a learning experience, and it’s not an accident that so many good people have wound up in one room together.

This week on both of Hanapin’s blogs we’ll feature a series of articles about the techniques we’ve used to locate and evaluate new team members, some lessons we’ve learned by trial and error, and give some tips for making sure the team you assemble encompasses both the personal and professional characteristics you need to fully leverage your internet marketing team’s potential. Our hiring process has always been a bit more detailed than most, and the characteristics on which we evaluate potential employees are somewhat unconventional. That’s a great thing because gathering the right amount (and kind) of data is essential in making decisions that will create the best possible marketing team, and our unconventional process has allowed us to gather some valuable, but often overlooked, information about applicants.

Since we’re talking about the hiring processes we’ve used to create a team of integrated marketing professionals- everyone here does both PPC and SEO – our series this week will span both of our blogs! On Tuesday, Jessica C will lead off with an overview of our job announcement process, as well as the initial questions we use to evaluate applicants on SEO Boy. On Wednesday, Steve will discuss our team-based phone interviewing method on PPC Hero. On Thursday we’re back to SEO Boy with Amy when she explains one of the most-talked about elements of our hiring process, the “meet and greet”, as well as how we select final candidates and conduct final interviews. Finally we’re back to both PPC Hero and SEO Boy on Friday with Abby’s wrap up summary of the process and the value we think it’s provided to Hanapin as an agency. Check back on both PPC Hero and SEO Boy to follow the series progression- each day’s post represents a step in our hiring process, and will reveal why we’ve determined that it’s valuable in discovering specific types of information about our candidates and helping us to assemble an awesome team!