Onboarding a digital marketer the right way

So you’re about to welcome a new digital marketer to the team. Congrats! Whether they’re a seasoned pro or a new grad, integrating them smoothly into your team is crucial. How do you bring them up to speed quickly and set them up for success?

As a digital marketing manager who’s been onboarded and led onboarding in a remote environment, I understand the challenges as both a new hire and a manager. Here are the top tips we’ve learned for onboarding a digital marketer the right way.

Make the first month count

Ensure they have access to all tools necessary

This may seem obvious but ensure that your digital marketer has accounts and access to all the tools in your tech stack. Not having access can slow down learning and their ability to contribute. Getting a chance to hop in, look at performance, look at how things are set up or even how your team utilizes certain platforms gives them tons of context. They can learn about the org and even highlight potential optimizations or features from their previous experiences which your team could be leveraging. If there’s a tool that they are less familiar with, they can start poking around and learning it. While it can take a while to get IT and tech set up, ideally in the first week or two we suggest having access resolved.

We’ve developed a checklist and Jira task templates over time that list everything a new hire will need access to. A good old-fashioned checklist is the way to go.

Set expectations and clarify what ramp up can look like

First, communicate what the onboarding period will look like and how long it will take. Outline goals where possible. For example, maybe the first two weeks involve team introductions and lots of shadowing so that by the end of month one they feel confident in understanding roles and team dynamics. Maybe there are specific trainings that need to be formally completed in month one, like security training.

Ensure you also set clear expectations for the role. While that should’ve been done via the job posting and interview process, it’s good to realign. What are the key responsibilities, what are the success metrics and how is personal performance going to be measured? We always share our career track information which clearly outline the expectations for each role and how performance will be measured.

Encourage socializing

Encourage new hires to set up 1:1 meetings with coworkers and green-light this as a good use of time during the onboarding phase. This helps them build personal connections, making them feel a part of the team and potentially more comfortable and quicker to share their ideas. It’s also a great way to fill their calendar during the first week—removing some of that pressure to be immediately productive and helping them get a feel for the company culture and their teammates.

We suggest this as an optional but highly encouraged approach. At Stryve, new hires decide when they want to schedule meetings and with who. Then, Stryvers can opt-in based on their availability. If you’re onboarding remotely, this can have a massive impact on relationship-building and sense of belonging.

What’s not optional is our welcome-to-the-team virtual lunch that happens during their first week. For this, each Stryver is given $30 to purchase lunch and everyone gets together on a video call to meet the new team member. It’s a great introduction to our culture as well—since bonding over food is a key Stryve activity.

Set them up with a hub: pre-boarding

It takes time for new team members to learn your company’s processes—where the brand guidelines are, who approves social posts, or who manages ad budgets. They may also be joining some projects midway through and could use some extra context. While they’ll eventually know who to go to and where to find everything, you can speed this up by providing a centralized hub.

We use a Miro board that contains everything a new Stryver needs: client info, team roles, communication channels, and quick links to essential resources. They won’t need it forever, but in those first few weeks, it saves time and helps them get up to speed faster. Before their first day, we ensure our team has set this up as a resource. If you don’t have Miro, maybe your version can be an onboarding deck or, SharePoint page. The key is that you can hand off one item that feels like a centralized reference point for their role.

Empower them with a low-risk task

The best way to learn is to dive in! Assign your new hire a task to own from start to finish. Trusting them with responsibility builds confidence and helps them feel empowered. Plus, it keeps them busy and eases new-job jitters.

We start our new team members by having them write a blog for our content hub. At Stryve, everyone contributes to blogging. For our digital marketers, this is a great way to learn the brand voice. Writing content and getting feedback from senior team members helps them understand company values and positioning in a low-pressure way. Tasks that aren’t time-sensitive, on the back-burner, or are quick-wins are usually good ones for early onboarding. Do an inventory of work and speak to your team ahead of onboarding to try and identify some low-risk tasks.

Lay the groundwork for long-term growth

Create a culture of mentorship

You can assign a single mentor to your new hire, or encourage the whole team to mentor them. Whoever previously managed the tasks now assigned to the new hire should act as a mentor and reviewer for the first few months. This ensures work maintains the same standards and provides the new hire with regular feedback and a chance to learn the team’s processes.

Be available

Onboarding requires an investment of both time and money, and during the first few months—especially with entry-level hires—you may be busier than before. You’ll need to vet questions, guide problem-solving, and provide task instructions. Be prepared to be available, whether it’s through unstructured Slack or email exchanges or more formal weekly check-ins. You can also delegate tasks, assigning multiple team members to help guide the new hire through projects.

However you manage this, don’t leave them hanging. It will slow the momentum and stunt their confidence. How much availability or guidance someone requires and in what ways they require that may depend on level of seniority but regardless, processes, the industry or your products may be new to them so availability is key.

Provide constructive feedback and praise—and do it often

The first 6 months in a new role are crucial to a person’s success. It’s important to provide intentional feedback that helps them grow. At Stryve, we hold bi-annual career conversations and a 3-month check-in for new hires, using feedback collected through Lattice. Prioritizing constructive feedback and clear communication on improvement areas helps new team members develop their skills and advance within the company.

It’s important to celebrate your new hire’s wins. Acknowledge their good work, and if they go above and beyond, share it with the team. A confidence boost early on will have a lasting impact. While Lattice is great for collecting private feedback, it also shares public praise with the whole company—an excellent option for remote teams.

Help your team start off on the right foot

With the toolkit we’ve developed over the years, our onboarding process has gotten smoother. We focus on easing new hires in without delaying their progress, encouraging them to connect with the team and culture. Our approach helps them quickly get up to speed on projects and keeps everything on track—while also making them feel part of the team already. The key to creating a great onboarding experience is iterating—we continuously adjust as work environments shift and new technologies emerge. We ask our hires about their experiences once they’ve settled in, so that it can be even better for the next new hire.