How expert freelancers help businesses navigate the challenges of marketing

I’m Sebastian Friedrich, Group Manager at Carter Murray – supporting businesses and marketing professionals across Germany. My role is to connect employers with talented interim marketing candidates.

More demand for freelancers in Germany

A 2023 study by Freelancer reveals Germany as a top-ten country globally when it comes to freelancing. This is partly because the younger workforce prefers independence and flexibility over traditional offices and working hours. It’s no surprise that SIA predicts over 50% of the world’s employees will be freelancers by 2027.

It’s a major challenge for businesses in Germany to keep up with rapid development across all key areas of marketing – including digitisation, communication and sales. The rise in virtual channels, marketing innovation and evolving customer expectations all place pressure on these companies to adapt quickly. This can often be supported and resolved by interim marketing professionals.

We offer the perfect recruitment solution by connecting these interim experts with the right business, supporting their marketing strategies and gaining an advantage over competitors.

How does Carter Murray help businesses find and recruit interim marketing professionals?

Interim contracts are appealing for both businesses and professionals for many reasons. For employers, interim contracts can support their marketing objectives and strategies quickly and effectively. They also provide:

• Expertise and knowledge: marketing freelancers can offer specialised skills that might not exist on the company’s marketing team. Some skills are only required for certain projects, so a freelancer can save the company any time and money involved in upskilling that team with skills they won’t necessarily need.
• Productivity: Freelancers are incredibly productive according to Freelancer’s survey, where respondents said they spend 82% of their time on productive tasks. Interim professionals can support a team by covering an employee’s temporary leave, filling that space to avoid progress bottlenecks
• Reduced costs: freelancers are employed on a short-term contract which can range from weeks to months or even years, but they rarely cost the same as permanent employees. For example, they don’t necessarily receive the same benefits or bonuses and they might not need office space. According to Freelancer, just 3% prefer to work in the office full time while 64% prefer to work remotely and 33% like a hybrid model
• More time: finding and recruiting a permanent team member can be time-consuming when considering notice periods, processes and other factors. Interim professionals are able to fill that gap while an employer can take the necessary amount of time to find the right permanent employee

How do professionals benefit from interim jobs?

For marketing professionals, there are many tempting elements to interim work. According to Freelancer, the vast majority (73%) of interim professionals like their independence – closely followed by better compensation (52%) and flexibility (51%).

We know from our candidate base that appealing factors include:

• Flexibility and independence: interim marketers enjoy having the autonomy to decide which projects they accept and reject. Freelancer says 77% will reject a project if they don’t believe they’re being offered what they’re worth. Their hours can also be adjusted according to their demand
• Development of skills, knowledge and experience: many interim professionals prefer to go from contract to contract, which helps them absorb different skills in each role. They frequently meet new people and gain adaptability by quickly familiarising themselves with different projects and topics
• Compensation: according to Freelancer’s survey, a significant majority (73%) of respondents are satisfied with their compensation. Interim salaries can be very attractive. As the market’s demand for their speed and skills increases, they can negotiate based on their value and worth to the company

How can Carter Murray help businesses and interim professionals?

As a recruitment agency, we have unique insight into the marketing, digital and sales market in Germany, which helps us understand the requirements of our customers – whether they’re employers or professionals. We can communicate at eye-level by appreciating what you do and what you need:

• Our recruitment team proactively builds our candidate network and often interviews freelancers before a candidate enquiry. This enables us to find out exactly what the freelancers are looking for, where their core competencies lie and what’s important to them for a project
• We consistently observe the changes, trends and issues in the market and discuss these regularly with the reputable experts. This enables us to help businesses navigate short and long-term challenges across marketing, digital and sales
• Our professional advice helps businesses prioritise what’s necessary to successfully deliver their projects
• We can also offer administrative handling of freelancers to relieve employers and allow them to focus on their priorities
• Our network of exciting businesses and exceptional talent is always growing. This helps us deliver a fast response when filling vacancies quickly with the right candidates for the job

For us every freelancer is a client, too. They are just as important to us as the companies that mandate us. We can support these professionals with advice and guidance around their career progression, such as interview preparation, CV support and company insights.

To discuss your interim hiring needs or career, please get in touch with me directly at sebastianfriedrich@cartermurray.com or complete our form below: