| Category | Trainee | ⭐️ | ⭐️⭐️ | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Marketing Knowledge | Understands the fundamental tools of digital marketing (CPC, inbound, etc) and how they interact. Has a sense for what messages would resonate with specific audiences. Understands marketing metrics like ROAS and CPA. | Understands the marketing landscape and can suggest new or different tools for Cantilever to reach new audiences. Can read and understand reports from systems like SEMrush and take proactive steps to change our marketing efforts accordingly. | Can design the marketing mix for Cantilever drawing on established principles and recent trends. Monitors and recognizes industry trends and changes and proactively implements them for Cantilever. | Gives Cantilever more visibility the digital marketing field through leadership, writing and speaking. Is known as a thought leader on digital marketing. |
Content Authoring | Can write a simple blog post or make a video regarding a Cantilever core value/topic. Can manage simple ongoing social media posting (ex. new project announcements, new team members). Understands how Twitter and other platforms work and what kinds of content does well on them. | Can manage our social media with minimal guidance, adhering to a regular calendar and posting cadence. Interacts with our audience and proactively creates new ideas. Researches other company’s social media approaches and can dissect them to understand our approach better.Can direct a larger content initiative around Cantilever core topics (ex. Remote Work 5k, or an interview series for our blog). | Can speak at a conference and network on behalf of the company. Can create complex content like landing pages, working in conjunction with the dev team. | Can write volumes about Cantilever’s philosophies. Can execute and coordinate a schedule of content creation mapping to sales and marketing activity. |
Advertising Knowledge | Can create basic text or image ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google Ads. Can analyze ad reporting and summarize for the team. | Can build, execute, and track a full digital ad campaign on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google Ads, with minimal assistance. Can commission the creation of effective, on-brand creative with our design team and partners. | Can monitor and tweak our ad campaigns in response to results and intuition. Understands advertising theory and how to maximize value with keyword analysis. Can work in GTM to ensure that conversions are being measured properly and can coordinate with developers to make site-side changes. | Can identify and pursue new ad platform opportunities. Can write and coordinate extremely effective ads which require less experimentation. |
Management | – | Can work with colleagues effectively to lead marketing initiatives. Can manage an intern effectively. | Can coordinate and run any marketing initiative with a team of Cantilever staff. Can rally the team together to take shared responsibility for completing the project on time, on spec and on budget. Adapts nimbly to project or personal problems experienced by members of the team. Is respectful and kind to staff. | Staff ask to work with this person. Networks to find new people who may be good marketing collaborators, and figures out how to bring them into the fold. Manages other managers. Speaks or writes about managing people. |
Leadership | – | Can follow the established marketing playbook. Makes proactive suggestions for making things better. Finds opportunities to show leadership qualities in their work. | Is responsible for rewriting substantial portions of our marketing game plan in collaboration with senior staff. Is accountable to final results. Does not need instructions to perform well. | Takes ultimate responsibility for the final results of our marketing initiatives. Is responsible for establishing and maintaining core content pillar topics in conjunction with executive team. Proactively finds and identifies new marketing opportunities. Proactively ends initiatives that are not delivering. Speaks and writes about the company and our philosophies. Mentors and trains junior staff. |
Technical Knowledge | Understands the basic elements of how sites work. Can add a basic tag to an existing GTM instance. | Can implement a simple GTM tagging setup. Could explain to a new person how HTML, CSS, and Javascript combine to create web pages. Understands how a CMS interacts with frontend code to allow a site to be editable. Understands the basics of performance, SEO and accessibility. | Can implement complicated tagging schemas using GTM. Understands why different frontend methodologies work better for different needs. Understands nuances of why certain CMSes are better for some situations than others. | Can understand and implement novel third party tech using GTM. Understands how code works in the abstract. Can perform basic code exercises on codeacademy/treehouse/et al. Understands the principles behind our development practices. |
Design Expertise | Understands the basic rules of visual design: hierarchy, balance, order, etc. | Understands basic typographic principles and what makes for "good" typography. Understands the core elements of User Experience (UX) and can pick between very good and very bad user experiences on other sites. | Understands industry design trends and how our work embraces or rejects them. Keeps an eye on design publications and galleries to find opportunities to make Cantilever work more well known. Understands current technology and how it influences possibilities for designers. | Can confidently present the design philosophy of Cantilever and connect it with customer value. Can provide feedback to design team as to trends and opportunities for specific kinds of design within the market. |