How Salts Healthcare made its first digital marketing hire

About Salts Healthcare.

Salts Healthcare is one of the UK's leading medical device manufacturers specialising in stoma care products and patient support services. Founded in Birmingham in 1701, the family-run business works closely with the NHS and healthcare providers across the UK through its manufacturing, prescription delivery and clinical support divisions.

As digital activity became increasingly important across the marketing function, Salts Healthcare needed to make its first dedicated digital marketing hire to support growth across digital channels, campaign performance and online engagement.

We partnered with the business to appoint a Digital Marketing Lead, helping introduce specialist digital capability into the team during a key stage of growth.

Making the first dedicated digital hire for the business.

Salts Healthcare had never made a dedicated digital marketing hire before this engagement. The role was the first of its kind inside the marketing function and would shape how the business approached digital activity for years to come.

First hires of this kind always carry more pressure than they look. There is no internal benchmark for what good looks like, and a wrong appointment can shape how the business views digital for years afterwards.

Beyond the technical capability, Salts Healthcare also needed someone who could settle into a 300-year-old family business and work alongside the existing team. The brief required both proper digital marketing experience and the cultural fit to thrive inside a heritage company.

Salts Healthcare needed a recruitment partner that understood the importance of getting the first digital hire right. The partner needed to identify candidates who could deliver from day one while also fitting the culture of a long-established family business.

Supporting Salts Healthcare's first digital hire.

We worked closely with Salts Healthcare to understand the role and the kind of person who would fit a 300-year-old family business. Because this was a first-of-its-kind hire, defining what success looked like was the most important part of the brief.

Working with the Head of Marketing, we built a clear profile of what the right Digital Marketing Lead would look like. This included the technical skills required, the experience needed and the working style that would translate into the existing marketing team.

Once the brief was agreed, we ran a targeted search across our digital marketing recruitment network. Particular attention was given to Digital Marketing Lead candidates with experience operating as the first or only digital specialist within a wider marketing function inside medtech or comparable industries.

Throughout the process, we managed candidate engagement, interview coordination and feedback while keeping Salts Healthcare in the loop at every stage. For a first hire of this kind, keeping internal stakeholders close to the process mattered as much as the search itself.

Digital Marketing Lead hired in 24 days.

Within 24 days, Salts Healthcare hired its first Digital Marketing Lead to support growth across digital channels and campaign performance.

The successful candidate brought the digital marketing experience required, along with the working style to settle into the existing team. They joined Salts Healthcare ready to deliver from day one and begin building out the digital function across the marketing department.

For a first-of-its-kind hire, getting the right person within 24 days mattered. Salts Healthcare now has dedicated digital capability inside its marketing function for the first time in the company's history.

Key outcomes:

The partnership helped Salts Healthcare make its first dedicated digital marketing hire, adding specialist capability to the team and supporting continued growth across digital channels. Here are the key outcomes:

• Digital Marketing Lead hired in 24 days
• First dedicated digital hire inside the marketing function
• Strengthened the marketing team with specialist digital capability
• Supported continued growth across digital channels
• Delivered through a contingency recruitment partnership

"We'd never made a digital hire before in the marketing team, so we needed Digital Waffle to get this one right. They got the brief straight away. The process moved quickly, they kept us in the loop the whole way through, and the person they brought in has been brilliant. Knew what they were doing from day one, hit the ground running, and a real fit with the team. Couldn't have asked for a better start."

- Head of Marketing, Salts Healthcare

Hiring the first specialist for a new discipline carries pressure most businesses don't see until it goes wrong. By focusing on both the technical brief and the cultural fit, we helped Salts Healthcare appoint its first Digital Marketing Lead in just 24 days.

If you're making a first specialist hire and need a recruitment partner who can get it right, our digital marketing recruitment team can help.

Looking to hire marketing talent? Submit your vacancy and speak to one of our consultants today.