With the ever-changing world of business and technology, companies find themselves faced with the challenge of establishing a more effective strategy. To be able to stand the test of time, you’ll need a skilled digital marketing consultant to complete the creative work.
What is a digital marketing consultant?
A digital marketing consultant is an outside advisor who works with companies to create and implement marketing strategies. They are tasked to create a detailed marketing plan, determine a business’s marketing message, and identify the best marketing strategy to achieve to effectively reach out to the target market. Most consultants are also involved in implementing the marketing strategy, depending on their skill level. They often help monitor results and tweak campaigns as they go to ensure that companies get the best results from their marketing efforts.
They are also very skilled when it comes to market research and can tap a profitable Internet marketing strategy to help you understand your customers and help your business grow online.
It’s definitely not an easy task as it takes years of hands-on experience to learn the best practices and how to produce return on investment.
But more importantly, certified digital marketing consultants have the skills and expertise you need to bring your business to the next level.
What does a digital marketing consultant do?
Find New Clients
Digital Marketing Consulting Services that specializes in search engine optimization (SEO)is the best option for businesses who are trying to find new clients ands how to market to your target audience, as it requires knowledge in different marketing channels and optimization techniques.
The digital marketing industry is very competitive. Your marketing efforts will not be effective if you fail to identify and communicate with your audience effectively.
Your digital marketing consultant should also be fully-equipped on how to identify and communicate with your target audience. A certified digital marketing consultant will know the best channels to use based on your business goals and target audience.
They will also know how to use each channel to their full potential to reach your target market. A professional digital marketing consultant will know how to optimize the following marketing channels:
- Freelance copywriting
- SEO marketing services
- PPC management services
- Link building services
Understanding each of these channels is necessary for consultants. In fact, many digital marketing consultants cannot fully grasp how to optimize channels for specific industries.
So be sure your digital marketing consultant can clearly explain the benefits of each channel based on your business goals.
Optimize Your Content Strategy
Content strategy is the process where you connect your different marketing channels together. A digital marketing consultant should know how to connect different channels together to reach specific business goals.
While various channels work on their own, your business should operate channels together. Understanding how each piece works as part of the larger machine will help your business reduce cost and optimize revenue.
Your digital marketing consultant should know how to make your digital marketing strategy work to grow your business at each step. They should also be able to explain how different channels work together based on your objectives. Knowing how to use content will help your business increase traffic and conversions.
Competitive Research Analysis
An SEO marketing consultant should know how to perform a competitive analysis of your business. This analysis helps you identify opportunities in the market. It also gives valuable insight on your competition’s marketing strategy.
Competitive Research ensures you produce valuable content for your audience. Your digital marketing consultant will be able to instruct you on the best types of content to produce for your audience once the analysis is complete. This will save you money and time by making your campaigns efforts more efficient and effective.’
Personally, I always place importance on a clients goals and evaluate their current ‘marketing tool box’ as well as their capabilities so that I can better integrate digital to their way of thinking. This helps business owners contextualize and sustain digital marketing efforts after I’ve finished their consultations. Find out more about hiring me as your digital marketing consultant and how we can work together.
How much does a digital marketing consultant make?
The position of a digital marketing consultant is unlike any other, as traditional rates for employees are not the same with consultancy. Most consulting fee rates should double, or in most cases triple, the actual wage of the position being covered. This means the average hourly rate for digital marketing consultants worldwide is $140.29 per hour while the average hourly rate for US-only digital marketing consultants is $161.57. Of course this all varies based on many factors like work hours and state minimum wage.
So if a consultant is able to provide a 10 hour ($1,402.9) strategy that yields new sales and a profit increase of about $12,000, then it’s safe to say that the clients got what they paid for.
How do you become a digital marketing consultant?
The estimated spending of the US digital marketing industry will hit $120 billion by 2021, making digital marketing as one of the most sought after fields. So, if you’re looking for a job that offers a flexible schedule, digital marketing consultancy is not a bad choice. To become a digital marketing consultant, you’ll need to know these points:
Choosing your niche
It’s vital to be well-versed and have a basic knowledge of all skills, however, it’s nearly impossible to be an expert at all of them. The best way to become a jack of all trades is to become an expert on niches that you are comfortable with.
List down all skills that appeal to you the most? Are you more interested in managing or creating content? Or maybe you enjoy the more technical aspects of analytics and optimizations. Whatever you decide, play to your strengths and fully develop yourself within your niche.
If you have more than one strength, search around online and check various job sites to see which skills are most in demand. Then, niche down and focus on that skill set.
Build a website
In the past, if you wanted to showcase your services and validate your company, you would hand a client a business card and a brochure. In the marketing world, a well-established website is about as important as a birth certificate. Without it, you don’t exist.
Luckily today, for those less technologically savvy individuals, there are options like WordPress and WIX with drag and drop plugins. With so many resources at your fingertips, you don’t need months to design a clean, professional website.
Blogging
One of the best ways to solidify yourself as a subject matter expert is to start blogging. Write about your specialty and other areas of online marketing. Share valuable experiences, tips, and tricks to grow readership and establish your expertise. Not only does this attract visitors to your website, it helps enrich relevant content to boost your ranking on search engines.
Start your own digital marketing consulting business.
Now that you are well-equipped with all the tips and tricks on how to become a certified digital marketing consultant, it’s time to take all of those into practice. Preparing to start a digital marketing consulting business is not easy. You have to build your business from the ground up like any other business. You need to make sure that you have the necessary qualifications before you can sign clients. From there, you can expand your client base, get financing, and hire people. There’s a lot of work involved, but it can be a very lucrative career in high demand!
