How to Find a Skilled Digital Marketing Consultant – and Fast!

In today’s digitally focused-world, digital marketing is pivotal to an organization’s success. But having the staff to move the needle in your digital marketing efforts can often present a challenge.

This is where a highly skilled digital marketing consultant can help.

But first, what is a digital marketing consultant? A digital marketing consultant is an expert who provides guidance to businesses on how to create and execute promotional and advertising campaigns for digital platforms.

Depending on your company’s needs, a digital marketing consultant could be a resource in a variety of ways from marketing strategy and branding to content planning, search engine optimization, and analytics.

Here are a few tips to consider as you begin your search for a digital marketing consultant:

CAREFULLY EVALUATE YOUR FIRM’S UNIQUE NEEDS AND OBJECTIVES

Before you launch your search for a digital marketing consultant, first determine how this person will best help you elevate your organization’s digital marketing efforts.

You might turn to a digital marketing consultant to develop and oversee big-picture digital marketing strategy, provide hands-on support with a specific aspect of a larger campaign, or fill a temporary skills gap on your team. Likewise, you might also need a digital marketing consultant to help improve upon your existing efforts – especially if you’re struggling to expand your reach or connect with new target audiences.

Below are just some of the things a digital marketing consultant might do for an organization:

• Identify digital marketing opportunities and craft highly tailored strategies to meet those goals (for example, grow site traffic, generate more leads, or increase conversion rates)
• Conduct brand research and analysis to assess how a firm’s digital presence and impact measures up against competitors
• Develop and maintain a content calendar for digital platforms, including company blog posts and social media channels
• Monitoring and reporting of digital campaign analytics
• Create and launch email marketing campaigns
• Manage SEO/SEM initiatives to increase organic and paid search traffic
• Set the strategy for the months ahead based on gathered data and analytics to position the organization in a favorable direction

LOOK FOR A DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT WITH RELEVANT EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

There are many people out there today promoting themselves as digital marketing experts, but it is important to carefully review the background and expertise level of each digital marketing consultant candidate.

You’ll want to find a digital marketing consultant whose skills and experience match your industry and business needs. And you want to look for consultants who understand your target audience, are keenly aware of emerging industry trends, and have well-formed ideas on how to best promote products and increase brand awareness. The consultant’s ability to convey previous successes by quantifying their positive impact on ROI is also key.

Further, if you know you need help with a certain area of digital marketing, it’s helpful to seek consultants who are well-versed in that specialty. For example, if you know you need help developing content to increase organic search, you’ll want to look for metrics-minded digital marketing consultant candidates who have a strong SEO background.

REVIEW CANDIDATES' DIGITAL MARKETING PORTFOLIO

A great way to get a feel for the kind of work a digital marketing consultant can do is by reviewing their online portfolio. A portfolio should provide insight into the range of the person’s capabilities, the work they’re most proud of, and their most recent projects.  

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO ASK A DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT

Once you have narrowed your search down to a few highly skilled digital marketing consultants, it’s time to get to know each candidate better and learn more about their experience and working style.

Here are a few examples of the interview questions you might want to ask each digital marketing consultant candidate:

• How do you measure your success?
• What digital marketing tools do you have experience working with and which are your favorite?
• How do you handle competing deadlines?
• How do you stay up-to-date with industry changes and trends in digital marketing?
• What is your experience building full-funnel strategies for clients?
• Tell us about a time a client was not happy with the outcome of a project. What steps did you take to resolve the issue?
• Describe a digital marketing campaign that you are proud of. What was your role in the project and what contributed to its success?

Adding additional interview questions that pertain to your industry and organization is also beneficial, as you’ll be able to determine which digital marketing consultant best understands your specific needs.

HOW SIMPLICITY CAN STREAMLINE YOUR SEARCH

If you’re in need of a digital marketing consultant but can’t find the right candidates or don’t have the time to dedicate to finding a great fit, partner with Simplicity and let us help you streamline your search. 

Our team is connected to a vast network of talented digital marketing consultants of all types who can help you move the needle for your business.

When you partner with us, we will work with you through every step of the process. First, we’ll meet to discuss your organization’s specific objectives and draft a project outline together. From there we’ll create a shortlist of digital marketing consultant candidates and you select those that you want to set up working sessions with, which our team will coordinate. And then we help you select the best candidate to meet your goals.

Once you select a digital marketing consultant, you’ll be paired with one of our dedicated success managers to ensure satisfaction from kickoff to the project’s completion. Connect with us today to position your organization for continued digital-focused growth.