How to choose a marketing consultant

5 replies
With the internet and social media marketing along came a huge line of new marketing consultants. Unfortunately a big chunk still live in their mother's basement and never made a penny online. Even worse, they have no business experience. Getting advice from these people can cause you a lot of headaches and take your business down.

Here are several tips for securing talent that will save your project time, mistakes and money when choosing a Marketing Consultant:

- Meet 1 on 1

- Look at their work product, PR, past strategies, designs

- Ask about the products they have launched themselves

- Check the Alexa Rank and Page rank of their websites.

- Check their presence online.

- Ask about their revenue models online and check examples given.

- Have they won or been nominated for industry awards?

- References are nice, but really, who gives bad references?

- What specific, off-the-cuff strategies does the consultant propose?

- Do the strategies proposed seem cogent, offer fresh perspective?

- Check if what he/she is offering are real strategies or just a bunch of tactics you could learn from a book.

- Do they have hands on experience in business?

- Don't price shop. Good consultants are not cheap. Here the saying "you get what you pay for" really applies.

- Listen to your guts.


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I have got the email above this morning in my inbox. This certainly discourages me a bit.

Being a new marketing consultant who is trying to not just provide services like web design and SEO but also whole marketing strategy, sometimes I just don't have the self belief as I have no previous experience at all in marketing.

Would certainly appreciate your advices and input here.

Thank you.

Graham
#choose #consultant #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author sajans
    Can you advise how much a good consultant asks for his service?
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    • Profile picture of the author Matt Briggs
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author seabro
        Originally Posted by kartin View Post

        A good consultant usually charges USD 1000 - USD 5000 in that range.
        per hour, day, month?
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  • Profile picture of the author Colm Whelan
    I woudn't let this discourage me. I'm at the same stage as you - just started building an offline marketing business. I have no formal background in marketing but I know more about it that the vast majority of people in my target market. That's not to say that I don't get discouraged or scared or lack confidence - I do. But it won't stop me. The list you've posted here was very obviously written by someone who's touting for business and feels that they fit all the criteria outlined. Well big swingin' (rooster)! This guy is writing this because he's losing business to people like you. If he wasn't hurting you'd never see this list. Just make sure you give your customers 100% on every job and don't give up until the job is done and done right. You'll get all the advice and help you need here.

    The wonderful thing about marketing the offline biz online is that there's a reasonably clear cut path to success where the website is still the hub but it has many spokes like the Mobile Site, GP entry, FB page, TW feed, press releases, blog, email list etc. Despite Panda scares, Google still loves fresh, focussed, RELEVANT content and in the local markets this is a rarity making it still relatively easy to rank.

    So start now, while you have little competition. Get one or two under your belt for confidence. Others will disagree, but if you have a friend or relative in business do them a "no money down" on the understanding that they pay you for any extra business you bring in. Remember that in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king!
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    that list is pants, I suggest you unsubscribe sharpish.
    Signature

    Mike

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  • Profile picture of the author SubUrbanHype
    I've always heard the best way to hire a consultant is to ask them what 2+2 equals, and if they say anything other than "what do you want it to be" don't hire em.
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