WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE EX-PUBLISHING PEOPLE, IN ANY INDUSTRY(and especially for your open marketing roles):
1. Folks who have worked at books, mags, newspapers, digital pubs, etc. are used to ambiguity. Many even thrive with it! Over the past 15 years, they've had to deal with the advent of blogs, social media, Amazon, "pivot to video," "pivot to vertical video," and fluctuating resources. They're resilient and learn really fast.2. THEY. CAN. WRITE. And write well. And adapt to any brand voice. And make that brand voice better, probably. It's not just content, either: I have multiple former-editor friends who've written speeches for high-profile tech CEOs. This is a really hard skill to teach in a work setting.
3. They’ve most likely developed deep knowledge within a niche. Because that's part of the job. If they’re in a lifestyle category, they have amazing taste to go along with that knowledge. DTC brands, pay attention to these people.4. They’re hands-on and scrappy. They’re used to doing the actual work themselves. The idea of hiring an agency is at best uncomfortable, and at worst an insult. (Don’t worry, they’ll get used to it. Eventually.)
5. 95% of their skills are transferrable to marketing. They can easily learn the last 5% on the job. I know because I did it. (See point 1.)6. Finally, ex-publishing people know how to tell a story (but you already knew that, right?). They know how to write a hook and make a customer stick around. They know how to make people care.