There are three primary marketing functions:
Strategy -- Formulating the G2M plan in partnership with founders & the head of sales. Then developing the marketing strategy to support.
Planning -- Taking the strategy and determining the marketing mix and tactical plan to execute. This role also sets and measures metrics and keeps the trains running on time.
Execution — Running and measuring individual campaigns / programs
Founders often confused these roles, hire the wrong person for their needs, then wind up frustrated because they’ve now lost time and money. Worse yet, sometimes these founders conclude “marketing doesn’t work for my business.”
Since a vanishingly small number of marketers are great at all three functions, it’s critical that you determine what’s most important for your company right now. Most great marketers are truly great at one and pretty good at a second.
Hire for the function that’s most important to your organization in the near term. Make a secondary priority of figuring out how good they are are the other things you need. Then figure out, with the candidate, how to compensate for the areas he/she isn’t ideal for.
Like all humans, they may not be self-aware enough to know which functions they’re great at versus just ok. In the interview and reference process, it’s your job to suss this out.
As a side note, founders generally underestimate the value of someone who is great at marketing strategy -- until it’s too late. Unless you feel like you’ve nailed product and G2M fit, err on the side of getting a great strategist.