How to Select a Digital Marketing Consultant

Finding a digital marketing consultant is important for any business. But as a business owner or a non-profit manager, you already have a lot on your plate. It’s all too easy for your digital marketing strategy to take a back seat in your business.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. With a digital marketing consultant on your team, you can not only create a digital marketing strategy for your business but also execute it. In this post, we’ll talk about when to hire a digital marketing consultant and share tips to help you select the best digital marketing consultant for you.

When Should You Hire a Digital Marketing Consultant?

First, let’s talk about when you should hire a digital marketing consultant. There are several telltale signs that it’s time to hand off your digital marketing to an expert.

If You’re Doing it Yourself

As mentioned earlier, if you’re a business owner or a non-profit manager, you already have a lot on your plate. Outsourcing your digital marketing to a consultant frees up your time so you can focus on other areas of your business.

You Have an Unreliable Marketing Partner

If you have an unreliable marketing partner, your marketing efforts might not be giving you the results you want. What’s worse, your marketing campaigns might not even be going out regularly.

You Don’t Know What Your Marketing Person is Doing

Similarly, if your marketing partner is unreliable, you might not even know what they’re doing. At best, your marketing is stagnant or not going out often enough. At worst, your fans and followers might be getting a completely different impression of your brand.

You Want More Leads, Sales, Visitors or Donations

You might have been doing all your marketing by yourself and you’ve seen some results from it. But, you know you could be doing better and you could generate more sales, leads, visitors, and donations with a proper marketing strategy in place. Hiring a digital marketing consultant is a great way to make that happen.

You Have a Marketing Budget

Lastly, if you have a marketing budget, hiring a digital marketing consultant is a smart choice. If you’re just getting started, that might not be the case. But if you’ve been in business for a while, it’s a good idea to start setting aside money for your marketing budget.

Understand Their Process & Range of Services

Now that you know when it’s a good time to hire a digital marketing consultant, the first thing you need to do is understand their process and the range of marketing services they offer.

By understanding their process, you’ll know exactly what it’s like to work with them and what to expect during every step of the way. A good digital marketing agency will be able to tell what is expected of you during each stage as well as what materials and information they need from you.

As far as services go, you need to know if they offer marketing services that will fit your needs and your goals. A typical range of services includes:

• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising — includes setting up and managing paid advertising campaigns
• Google Ads / Adwords — involves setting up, managing Google Ads campaigns, and optimizing them for conversion
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — optimizing your website and content for search engines
• Review Funnel — helping you get more online reviews so you can get customers from your competitors
• Email Marketing — engaging your past customers and potential customers with regular emails
• Social Media Marketing — managing your social media to help you drive brand awareness, website traffic, and more sales

Review Their Work

Once you know what services they offer, be sure to review their work. This will show you the type of marketing campaigns they’re able to execute and have experience with. It will show what types of projects they’ve worked on as well as give you an in-depth look into their process and methods.

With this information, you’ll be able to know if they can handle the type of digital marketing campaign that you had in mind.

Read Digital Marketing Consultant Reviews

The next thing you should do once you’re familiar with their process and past work is to read independent reviews. While testimonials are a great indicator of how happy their clients are, it’s also a good idea to check for reviews from Google My Business or their Facebook page.

Make sure that the reviews mention aspects of the service you’re interested in rather than generic and broad reviews. For example, here are a few of the reviews from our Google Business Profile about our digital marketing services:

Ask for References

You can also ask for references. You don’t need too many — about five references should give you a clear picture of how satisfied their customers are and what you can expect from working with them. A few things you should ask about include:

• How quickly they delivered the service
• How responsive they are
• General workflow

Email the customers they’ve mentioned and pay attention to glowing reviews. If you don’t get replies or the reviews are not that glowing, dig deeper. Follow up and ask for clarifications or ask for additional references. Then repeat the process — email them and ask for their honest opinion and what their experience was like.

Know Your Goals

It’s also helpful if you know your marketing goals and what you hope to accomplish. The better you understand your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them. For example, your goals could include:

• Increasing your website traffic
• Getting more signups for your email list
• Generating more leads

Remember that your goals should be S.M.A.R.T — Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely. An example of a S.M.A.R.T goal would be:

• Increasing your website traffic from Facebook by 20% by July 15th

Have a Couple of Calls with Them

Once you’re clear on your goals, you’ve familiarized yourself with their process, and you’ve read their reviews, it’s time to schedule a free consultation call. Most reputable agencies will have the ability to schedule a time to talk with them so take advantage of that opportunity.

During the call, be sure to ask for clarifications about anything that you still need information on. Ask about their process, what will they expect from you, how often you need to be available for feedback. Don’t forget to ask about their contract as well as how payment works. Some agencies will require a deposit and some will have payment plans you can take advantage of.

Consider Paid Discovery with a Digital Marketing Consultant

All of the above should give you a good idea of whether or not you’ve found the right digital marketing consultant for your business or non-profit organization. But what if you’re still not sure even after all your research?

Ask them about doing 2-3 paid discovery sessions where they will consult with you to achieve certain things for a set price. This is a great low risk way to further define the goals, outcomes, and make some initial progress without breaking the bank. If you like working with them and can see the progress, then you’ll feel better about a bigger engagement.

Need Help?

Need help with your digital marketing? Want more leads, sales, visitors or donations? Contact us today for a free quote and let’s talk about how we can help you create a digital marketing strategy for your business.