The Ultimate Marketing Manager Onboarding Plan to Immerse, Inspire, and Teach

Every marketing manager knows their world is dynamic and evolving. So, why should their onboarding process be static? It shouldn't. Period.

Regardless of who you've hired or what your product does, you need to onboard your marketing managers patiently and thoroughly.

This article will share an onboarding checklist specifically designed for marketing managers. The result? A marketing manager who's not just onboarded but empowered, enlightened, and ready to take the world (or at least the marketing world) by storm.

👀 What is the process for onboarding new marketing managers and marketing coordinators?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as you have to build an onboarding process that matches your company's specific needs and culture.

However, some common elements should be included in any effective onboarding plan for new marketing managers or coordinators.

Compliance and paperwork 

Brief your newly hired marketing manager about advertising and promotions regulations and internal company policies. Compliance is essential to avoid legal penalties.

In addition to these external regulations, there are also several internal policies that your marketing manager will need to follow. These include your code of conduct, which outlines the standards of behavior expected of all employees, as well as your policy on the use of social media.

Company and work culture

This includes providing an overview of the company's history, mission, and values. It is also important to introduce the new hire to the company's senior leadership team and their direct supervisor.

Workflows and processes

Train the new marketing manager on the company's processes and procedures. This includes a review of the company's marketing strategy, target markets, and key messaging. 

Give your new hire a tour of the company's marketing tools and, if necessary, share resources and instructions on using them.

Assign the new marketing manager/coordinator to specific projects and tasks. This will help the new hire better understand their role within the company and how their work contributes to the company's overall marketing goals.

Connections

A vital part of the onboarding process is establishing a connection between your new hire and the rest of the team. This can help your new hires feel welcomed and supported, ensuring they have access to the resources they need to be successful in their role. 

There are a few different ways to establish this connection. 

• Assign a buddy or mentor to the new hire who can provide guidance and support throughout the onboarding process. 
• Create opportunities for social interaction, such as scheduling regular lunches or coffee breaks. 
• Encourage existing team members to proactively reach out to the new hire, offering help and advice as needed.

2-Way feedback 

Monitor your new marketing manager/coordinator's progress and provide feedback. This is an integral part of the onboarding process, as it allows the company to ensure that the new hire is meeting expectations and adjusting to their new role.

➡️ Check out our guide on creating rich onboarding experiences for hybrid and remote workers without forgetting about the human touch. You'll find best practices from companies like LinkedIn and Intercom.

➡️ For extra inspiration, check 11 examples of companies with the best employee onboarding experiences and our detailed case study of onboarding at Google.

📝 Free marketing manager onboarding 30-60-90 day plan template

The first 90 days as a marketing manager can be overwhelming. There's so much to learn and do, and knowing where to start is hard.

That's why we've created this 30-60-90-day plan template for marketing managers. This template will help them hit the ground running and ensure you cover all their bases in those first few months.

We segmented the onboarding into three clear phases of immersion, execution, and vision setting so that new hires can progressively build on their achievements. 

This structure makes them productive swiftly and fuels their motivation and inspiration throughout their onboarding journey.

First 30 days: Ensuring immersion and setting the foundations

In the first 30 days, your new marketing manager will be focused on getting to know your company, product(s), and market. 

Start by getting documentation and formalities out of the way: Get final copies of the necessary documentation. Share and answer questions on the company work-from-home policy. 

➡️ If you don't have one to send immediately, our ready-to-use work-from-home policy can help.

Primary goals for this first stage

1. Enabling interdepartmental integration: Engage with Sales, Product, and Customer Support teams for holistic insights.
2. Deep diving into your brand philosophy: Understand the core essence of the brand, its positioning, values, and voice.
3. Building product familiarity: Use the product extensively to understand user experience and value proposition.
4. Starting marketing channels familiarization: Subscribe to all company marketing channels to observe communication strategy.
5. Getting started with the first tasks: Review ongoing marketing campaigns to identify what's working and areas of improvement.

Learning focus: Brand, product, and market landscape

• Engage in product demos and tutorials.
• Immerse yourself into the customer journey, from the homepage to all the touchpoints.
• Attend brand orientation sessions. Understand the product USPs.
• Understand the different audiences behind every marketing channel.
• Analyze competitor marketing strategies.
• Understand the distribution across marketing channels while keeping in line with the budget.
• Become familiar with all vital marketing metrics.
• Understand the markers of success for every department. (For sales, it may be more sign-ups; for marketing, it may be more clicks and conversions from social media marketing).
• (Optional) Engage in advanced training on marketing tools and platforms.

➡️ Discover 15 best practices for training new employees.

Connection focus: Team integration

• Schedule informal 'coffee chats' with team members for rapport building.
• Attend departmental huddles to understand team dynamics and ongoing projects.
• Speak to a customer success manager or listen to customer calls to identify pain points or problems with customer experiences.

Key success metrics for this stage

1. Onboarding completion rate: Percentage of onboarding tasks and training modules completed.
2. Product knowledge score: Results from quizzes or tests related to product knowledge and current marketing strategies.
3. Integration with team: Number of scheduled meetings with key team members and stakeholders attended.

➡️ Adapt our goal tracking template for keeping an eye on employee progress during onboarding.

Days 30-60 - Strategy formulation & execution

New goals for this stage

1. Analyze marketing data: Dive deep into analytics tools to extract actionable insights.
2. Strategic planning: Draft a preliminary marketing strategy based on insights from the first month.
3. Campaign initiation: Launch a small campaign or improve an existing one, observing its impact.
4. Feedback loop creation: Establish a system to regularly gather team feedback on marketing initiatives.‍
5. Optimize marketing mix: Conduct channel reporting and budgeting for paid search and social channels. Based on analytics, adjust the marketing channels for maximum impact. Consider available budgets and ROI of each channel. 

Key activities for this phase

• Regularly check in with mentors or buddies to track progress against the onboarding plan.
• Organize brainstorming sessions for campaign ideas.
• Check on previous goals and revisit them if incomplete.

Key success metrics for this stage

1. Campaign launch rate: Number of marketing campaigns initiated or managed.
2. SEO effectiveness: Change in keyword rankings or organic website traffic.
3. Paid search & social performance: Monitor click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
4. Customer journey feedback: Number of actionable insights or feedback points provided about the customer journey.

The end of the first 60 days would be the perfect time for a mid-probation review.

➡️ Download our free mid-probation review template, your shortcut to new hire success. 

Days 60-90: Refinement & vision setting

In the final 30 days, you'll continue to fine-tune your approach and start to think about the long term. You'll also start to take on more responsibilities and focus on strategic initiatives.

Goals for this period

1. Data-driven decision-making: Use analytics tools proficiently to guide marketing choices.
2. Establish long-term vision: Set a roadmap for the next quarter/year based on insights gathered.
3. Team collaboration: Begin mentoring or guiding team members on best practices.
4. Brand storytelling: Initiate content strategies that resonate with the company's brand voice and values. 
5. Increase brand visibility: Gradually increase editorial presence in the target audience's country through content marketing.
6. 360-feedback: Participate in the first 360 feedback cycle. Your task will be to write a self-evaluation and (optional) nominate peers. 
7. Start looking ahead: Set objectives and KPIs for the next quarter, ensuring alignment with company goals.

Key success metrics for this stage

1. Budget management: Percentage of budget utilized effectively vs. overspends or underspends.
2. Editorial presence growth: Increase in content outputs and their respective engagement metrics (views, shares, comments).
3. Analytical mastery: Depth and frequency of insights generated using platforms like Hubspot, Google Analytics, and Salesforce for website analytics or backlink analysis with SEMRush.
4. Peer and team feedback: Collect qualitative and quantitative feedback from peers, team members, and stakeholders on the new hire's performance and collaboration.

HR tasks: Onboarding completion & continuous development

• Organize a celebratory milestone meeting acknowledging the new hire's achievements during onboarding.
• Facilitate a probation period review.
• Facilitate a feedback session on the onboarding process, capturing areas of enhancement.
• Define action items to improve your onboarding process based on feedback.

➡️ Is your marketing department growing at the speed of light?

Check out onboarding plans for growth marketers,  market research analysts, and CMOS. 

⚙️ Why you need to automate your marketing onboarding process

Marketing is a critical component of any business. Still, keeping track of all the moving parts can be challenging. A stop-and-go onboarding process will only further confuse your hire.

‍Streamline your onboarding process with automation and enjoy the following benefits. 

Save time

Automating onboarding means that new hires can complete onboarding paperwork and tasks online without meeting with a human resources representative in person. This can help to speed up the process and make it more efficient. 

With our employee-centric platform, you can schedule your onboarding events with one click. Try out our event scheduler now!

Offer consistent information

Automating onboarding can help to ensure that all new hires have the same information and that nothing is missed. 

For example, if an online form needs to be completed, all new hires will be able to see it and complete it the same way. This can help to create a more standardized onboarding experience for all marketing employees.

Boost productivity 

Here's a practical example of how automation can boost productivity. 

With automation, you can use an online portal to collect and store employee information, as well as create automated tasks and reminders for onboarding activities. This can free up time for your HR team to focus on other important duties while your new employees process the latest information.

Create better experiences 

Automating your onboarding process can provide valuable data that can be used to improve future onboarding experiences. You can identify areas where the process can be streamlined or enhanced by tracking which employees complete onboarding tasks on time and which require additional assistance.

With time, you will ace your process, which means your new hires will be likelier to stick around and be engaged with your company.

You can also easily start onboarding before day 1 

When manually onboarding new marketing team members, you might not have time to send them preboarding materials. Automating your onboarding process can ensure that everyone receives preboarding materials and has the information they need before their first day.

➡️ Download our preboarding template and customize it to your needs.

➡️ Set up your marketing department's new hires for success with Zavvy

Our onboarding software allows you to customize each new hire's experience without adding to your manual workload.

You won't have to respond to constant messages about missing links or lagging Google Sheets, either. 

With Zavvy, you can:

• Build unique journeys that are repeatable for critical job roles.
• Assign tasks automatically based on completion. 
• Integrate messaging platforms you're already familiar with, like Slack and Teams.
• Track new hire progress so you can jump in with encouragement or help.

Zavvy has already partnered with many fantastic growing businesses to unlock their people potential. Here are some key wins they've achieved with the help of our suite of tools: 

• Remote-first company Awesomic now achieves an average of 95.5% completion rates due to our designer onboarding program.
• Storyblok has saved 15 hours weekly during orientation, plus 1.5-2 hours during preboarding. 
• Alasco has slashed time-to-productivity rates by 50% thanks to a fun, structured onboarding plan.
• Taktile's HR team saves 8 hours weekly by automating feedback and performance review cycles. Their new hires get automatically added to probation period reviews. 

📅 Book a demo so you can join these success stories.