Onboarding Kit: Marketing Coordinator
0. At a Glance
This kit takes an early-career Marketing Coordinator from their first day to independently running the email newsletter and social calendar by Day 90. It uses tight structure early on: daily check-ins, side-by-side work and clear checklists. Support then tapers on purpose, so "no daily check-ins" by Day 90 is a planned outcome. Because the marketing team is just two people, the new hire also builds relationships with Sales, Customer Service and Production. Those teams hold the product knowledge that good content depends on. Trade show prep is introduced in Week 1 and built up steadily, so the new hire knows the basics before the late-June show.
| Phase | Theme | Main outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-start | Prepare | Desk, laptop and all tool access ready. Week 1 is on the calendar, a buddy is chosen and the team knows who is starting. |
| Week 1 (Mon Apr 7 – Fri Apr 11) | Settle in | Knows the company, products, tools and people, and has shipped one small, real task. |
| Days 1-30 | Learn | Shadows and co-creates newsletters, schedules approved social posts, publishes blog posts with review, and understands the trade show plan. |
| Days 31-60 | Contribute | Drafts full newsletters and runs the social calendar with a weekly review. Owns defined pieces of trade show prep. |
| Days 61-90 | Own | Sends the newsletter end to end and manages the social calendar with weekly 1:1s only. Supports the late-June trade show and its follow-up. |
How we addressed your notes
- Lots of structure: Every phase has a specific checklist, a named deliverable and a fixed feedback rhythm.
- Lots of feedback: Daily 15-minute check-ins in Weeks 1-2. Three per week in Weeks 3-4. A weekly 1:1 plus content reviews after that. Written feedback is given on every draft until Day 60.
- Day 90 independence: Support steps down in clear stages (shadow → co-create → draft with review → own), so the new hire reaches independence gradually.
- Trade show readiness: Trade show tasks appear in every phase, starting with an overview in Week 1.
Assumptions (edit these to match your business)
- The start date of Monday, April 7 is used for Week 1 dates. Day 30, 60 and 90 reviews are given as approximate timing (early May, early June, early July).
- Newsletters go out roughly every two weeks, so the new hire will work on about 6 issues in 90 days. There is already a newsletter template in Mailchimp.
- The audience is B2B: restaurant operators, dealers, distributors and similar buyers of commercial kitchen equipment.
- Social posts are scheduled with each platform's native tools (LinkedIn page scheduling and Meta Business Suite for Instagram) or with a tool you already use. Swap in your actual method.
- The new hire writes content and the Marketing Manager approves it until independence is agreed.
- There may or may not be a written brand or style guide. If none exists, creating a simple one is built in as a Days 1-30 deliverable.
- The late-June trade show's booth booking and budget are already handled by the Marketing Manager. The new hire supports promotion, materials, logistics tracking and lead follow-up.
- IT is handled by an office admin or an outside provider. HR is handled by an office manager, the owner or an HR provider.
- The office has a production or shop floor, and a supervised tour is possible within your site safety rules.
- The buddy comes from outside marketing (for example Sales or Customer Service), since marketing has only two people.
1. Before Day 1: Manager Prep Checklist
2 weeks before (by about Mon Mar 24)
- Confirm the start date, start time (8:30am) and where to arrive. Send the welcome message from Section 6. — Manager
- Order or assign a laptop and any peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset). — IT/Admin
- Choose a buddy from Sales or Customer Service and confirm they can spend about 30 min/day in Week 1. Share the Buddy Guide (Section 4) with them. — Manager
- Complete your required new-hire paperwork and payroll setup per your HR provider or local requirements. — HR
- Decide the content approval process the new hire will follow (who approves newsletters, social posts and blog posts, and how fast). — Manager
- Book 30-minute intro meetings for Week 1 with key people (see the Key People table in Section 6). — Manager
1 week before (by about Mon Mar 31)
- Create a Google Workspace account (email, Calendar, Drive) and add it to the relevant shared drives and folders. — IT/Admin
- Create a Slack account and add it to marketing, general and sales/product channels. — IT/Admin
- Add the new hire as a user in Mailchimp with a role that lets them build campaigns. Decide whether they can send at first or only draft. — Manager
- Create a WordPress account with Author or Editor role (start with the lowest role that lets them do the job). — Manager / IT/Admin
- Add them to the Canva team so they can use brand templates, logos and fonts. — Manager
- Give role-based access to the LinkedIn company page and to Instagram through Meta Business Suite (or your scheduling tool). Avoid sharing personal passwords. — Manager
- Gather a "read me" folder in Google Drive: the last 4-6 newsletters, the content calendar, brand assets, the product catalog, past trade show photos and materials, and key website pages. — Manager
- Prepare the first starter task for Day 3-4: 2-3 pre-approved social posts with copy and images ready to build in Canva and schedule, plus one finished blog post ready to format in WordPress. — Manager
- Send calendar invites for Week 1: daily check-ins, tool walkthroughs, intro meetings, lunch and the Friday wrap-up. — Manager
1-2 days before (Thu Apr 3 – Fri Apr 4)
- Set up the desk: chair, monitor, power, a notebook and any welcome items. — IT/Admin