Consultants for Online Advertising - How to Find a Good Online Advertising Consultant
Business → Marketing & Advertising
- Author Scott Metcalfe
- Published October 8, 2010
- Word count 793
For many business owners figuring out which of the many online advertising consultants to hire to help you increase your profits can be a difficult and time consuming process.
Here are some critical parameters to consider that will help you make your choice a little less difficult.
What Size and Types of Businesses Do The Consultants Serve?
Determining just how much experience a consultant should have with businesses like yours can be a tough call. While the mechanics of online advertising are similar for all businesses, there can be differences, so it makes sense to hire a company that has experience with businesses like yours … but only to a point.
You see, too narrow a focus can be problematic as well. Be wary of companies that serve only a very narrow niche because their approach may be "run of the mill" and fail to capture the unique aspects of your business.
You do not want to look exactly like your competition does. Do you?
Too narrow of focus can also lead to being removed from broader marketing trends and this can lead to dated, sub-optimal approaches.
PPC or SEO?
Of course there are many types of online marketing other than PPC and organic search marketing but they are the two largest, most well proven online advertising tactics and consultants usually focus in one or the other.
While both can work if executed correctly, there have been several recent studies indicating that local consumers are ignoring PPC advertisements even while PPC prices skyrocket. Therefore you will served best by choosing an advertising consultant who has expertise leveraging the more trusted organic side of search as the back bone of your online marketing and advertising strategy.
Get the Job Done or Get Advice?
You are probably already wearing plenty of hats in your business. Right? So the last thing you need is an online advertising consultant that gives you even more to do!
Yet unless you are careful you may get an additional role to play when you bring the wrong online marketing consultant on board. Here’s why. Many "consultants" are great at (and prefer) showing you "what to do" but not so great at actually getting things done.
When conducting interviews with your potential candidates ask them how their team goes about creating content, how much work you will be doing, how much of your precious time and energy they will need and how much of the project they will do without you (or your staff) needing to be involved.
You should strongly consider only those firms that have a system in place that keeps the amount of effort required of you to an absolute minimum so that you can continue to focus on running your business and taking care of customers.
Depth of Experience
Does the consultant you are considering have a broad level of experience and expertise or a narrow one? Look for a wide experience base in a number of industries, and company sizes and look for depth of experience as well.
If the consultant is limited in experience to just one marketor only one facet of advertising or marketing (e.g. SEO, website design, pay-per-click ) then you would be justified in having a low confidence that this person has the full experience range and resource level necessary to pull together a complete advertising and marketing solution.
If on the other hand the consultant has broad experience in multiple industries and essential core skills such as building sales processes, strategy development and strategic marketing then you can be more confident that handling the special needs of your business or practice will be well within the consultant’s grasp and comfort level.
It only makes sense that the consultant will understand how each piece of marketing or advertising fits into the larger strategy of obtaining more clients and more business.
Tactics or Complete System?
This last point is probably the most critical when choosing an online advertising consultant, so please pay close attention!
A website, PPC advertising, Search Engine Optimization, article marketing, email marketing and social media marketing (the list could go on far longer!) are tactics NOT Complete Marketing systems.
Cobbling a bunch of different tactics together is an easy way to give the appearance of progress while simultaneously burning invested dollars and not likely getting much in the way of results.
I strongly encourage you to have the consultant you are considering show you exactly how their SYSTEM handles these 3 "must have" pieces :
• generating traffic
• converting traffic to customers
• creating nurturing conversations with research oriented potential customers.
Do not settle for anything less than a complete marketing system or you will be putting your online advertising investment at risk and maybe the future growth of your business as well.
It's far easier to prevent mistakes than correct them so you will find this free report really helpful: "10 Things You Must Know About Local Business Marketing Before You Invest Another Dime". You can get it here Online Marketing Report or get access to even more great information here: Blog
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