Finding an SEO Who Speaks Sneaker
The Sole Supplier came to us with a deceptively difficult brief: find someone capable of taking ownership of the entire SEO strategy and delivery for one of the UK’s leading footwear and streetwear platforms.
This was to be the very first SEO hire into the business.
They needed a genuinely well-rounded SEO, a strong stakeholder manager and someone capable of managing and challenging their external agency.
But there was another part of the brief that made the search considerably harder.
The Sole Supplier has built an incredible internal culture around people who genuinely love the product and industry they work in.
They didn’t just need a great SEO. They wanted someone who was genuinely into sneakers and streetwear too.
- eCommerce
The Client
- eCommerce
The Sole Supplier is one of the UK’s leading footwear and streetwear platforms, helping sneaker fans discover the latest releases, news and trends from some of the biggest brands in the world.
The business has grown significantly, building a highly engaged audience alongside a team with a genuine passion for the space.
That culture was particularly important to them.
This isn’t a business where people simply happen to work in footwear and streetwear. The team genuinely lives and breathes the product outside of work, and preserving that as the company grows is a major priority.
SEO was already an important acquisition channel and The Sole Supplier had an external agency supporting its activity. The next step was to bring somebody senior enough in-house to take proper ownership of the channel.
The Challenge
The brief was to find a well-rounded SEO capable of owning the entire strategy and delivery.
They didn’t need someone to personally execute every element of SEO, but they did need someone who understood the complete picture across technical and onsite SEO, content strategy and off-page.
The preference was for somebody who leaned particularly strongly towards technical and onsite SEO, while having enough breadth to set the direction across everything else.
This person would also become the key point of contact for their external SEO agency. They needed to understand the channel deeply enough to challenge recommendations, ask the right questions and hold the agency accountable for both delivery and performance.
Stakeholder management was equally important.
SEO touched multiple areas of the business, so the successful person needed experience working cross-functionally and the confidence to communicate and influence at senior level.
And then there was the cultural requirement.
They wanted somebody who genuinely cared about sneakers and streetwear.
Not someone prepared to learn enough about the industry before an interview. Someone who was already part of that world and would naturally fit into the culture The Sole Supplier had worked hard to build.
Finding all of that in one person made the available market considerably smaller.
How We Got to Work
We treated the cultural requirement as part of the search criteria from day one, rather than something to assess at the end of the process.
We mapped SEO talent with the right balance of technical and onsite expertise, broader content and off-page knowledge, strategic ownership and experience managing external agencies.
From there, we dug deeper.
We wanted evidence that candidates had worked cross-functionally, could communicate with senior stakeholders and had actually owned SEO strategy rather than simply being responsible for one part of it.
Then came the sneaker and streetwear piece.
Rather than presenting technically suitable SEOs and hoping one happened to fit the culture, we specifically targeted people with a genuine interest in the space.
That ultimately left us with seven candidates we felt were strong enough to put forward.
Every one was a credible, well-rounded SEO.
And every one was also a genuine sneakerhead or streetwear fan.
The Result
From the seven candidates presented, two progressed all the way through to the final stage.
Both gave The Sole Supplier genuine options who could meet the technical, strategic and stakeholder requirements of the position, while also fitting naturally into the culture of the business.
Ultimately, one talented candidate was selected and offered the role.
The Sole Supplier didn’t have to compromise between finding the strongest SEO and finding somebody who genuinely belonged within the business.
They found both.
Facing a similar hiring challenge?
We specialise in recruitment across SEO & AEO, Paid Media, Digital PR, Growth Marketing, eCommerce and SaaS Marketing.
Results That Speak For Themselves
A selection of successful hires and long-term partnerships across the digital marketing industry.
- Agencies
From the UK to the Gold Coast
Edge Marketing is an Australian marketing agency on the Gold Coast.
Co-founder Rohan Dwyer was looking for a Head of SEO who could take ownership of the agency’s SEO department, shape its SEO proposition and drive the service line forward.
- Agencies
Seven Years. 17 Hires. One Future MD.
Reboot is an independent digital marketing agency specialising in Search, Digital PR and Paid Media.
Our relationship with the agency developed over seven years, meaning we were able to support the business as its hiring requirements evolved.
That included finding specialist practitioners across SEO and Paid Media, commercial Growth hires and, eventually, senior leaders capable of taking significant responsibility for the direction and operation of the agency.
As the business grew, the hires became increasingly strategic.
Two searches in particular would ultimately help shape Reboot’s senior leadership team: Director of Growth and Director of Operations.
- Agencies
Putting a Leader Behind Mediavision’s Growth
Mediavision is an established independent digital agency, working with ambitious brands across Search and digital performance.
Having built a successful agency and strong client base over more than a decade, the business was ready to put greater senior ownership around growth.
Until this point, responsibility for winning new business and growing the agency had been shared across the senior team. The next stage required someone who could take proper ownership of it.
This wasn’t simply about hiring a salesperson.
Mediavision wanted someone who could work across the entire agency, bringing together sales, new business, marketing, positioning and brand visibility into a coherent growth strategy.
- eCommerce
Five Years. One Trusted Partner.
Founded in 1810, Heal’s is one of Britain’s most iconic furniture and interior design brands. For the past five years, we’ve partnered with Head of eCommerce Mark Hammond, supporting the growth of his digital team through specialist hires across eCommerce, performance marketing and design.
- Agencies
Taking the Weight Off the Founder
Tacomi is a specialist Search agency with deep expertise across SEO, technical SEO and the evolving AEO landscape.
We had already been working with founder Chad Conlon and the team when they approached us about one of the most important hires they were about to make to date.
The agency was already operating at a very high technical level, but Chad remained heavily involved in the day-to-day. The next stage of growth required someone senior enough to take genuine ownership from him, without compromising the quality of work that had helped Tacomi build its reputation.
- Agencies
From First Hires to Future Leaders
NOVOS is a specialist eCommerce Search agency, helping ambitious retailers and challenger brands drive organic growth through SEO, Digital PR, content and wider Search.
Its eCommerce focus is fundamental to the business – it’s not a generalist agency with an eCommerce offering. Years of specialisation have created a highly knowledgeable team capable of solving increasingly complex Search challenges across platforms, markets and categories.
That makes NOVOS an exciting place for ambitious Search marketers – and a challenging place to recruit for. But that’s what I do.
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