In 2022, the internet and social media dominate marketing and advertising. 93% of all online interactions begin with the use of a search engine. Internet searches can be a powerful tool for marketing your business, but only if you know how to use them effectively.
A digital marketing consultant can help you navigate all of the tricky and complex areas required to keep up with today’s fast-paced modern advertising world. But not all digital marketing companies are created equal. So it’s even more important than ever to choose the right one to fit your business needs.
How can you know which digital marketing service is the right one? You need to know what to look for and which areas are the top priorities of focus.
In this guide, we’ll give you 10 tips you can use to find the best digital marketing consultant. Want to know more? Then keep reading below to discover further information on this topic.
1. Determine Your Ideal Budget
First thing’s first, you can’t begin the process of hiring a digital marketing consultant until you have some idea of a budget. It doesn’t have to be a perfect figure; you may have to do some adding or subtracting here and there, but you should at least have a rough estimate. As many as 74% of businesses spend their budgets on digital marketing for social media alone.
The first question any reputable digital marketing service will ask you is “What kind of budget are you looking to spend?” It will all depend on the size of your business and your average annual revenue or what you expect to make back in profit (ROI) from your digital marketing campaign.
The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends around 7-8% of your budget should go towards marketing for a small business, but again, each situation is different.
2. Find Experience to Match Your Needs
As with anything in life, trusting experienced individuals is key. Your business’s digital marketing needs are no different. You want to go with a digital marketing company that can meet you, in person or virtually, whenever you need and walk you through the process with ease.
A digital marketing consultant should make your job easier, not harder. They’ll take the stress off of you and handle your digital marketing needs with care and expertise. This will free you up to get back to doing what you do best, while also managing all the other areas required for running your business.
Look for a digital marketing company that has skills and expertise in all aspects of digital marketing and advertising. You want a digital marketing service with know-how and professionalism, not some fly-by-night operation or a freelancer who only focuses on one particular service.
A quality digital marketing company will give you peace of mind, knowing your digital marketing concerns are under control.
3. Identify Your Business Goals
Another good area to examine when choosing a potential digital marketing consultant is to narrow down and identify your prime business goals. What exactly do you hope to achieve with your digital marketing campaign and efforts?
For example, are you looking to generate more leads or create more conversions? Do you want to increase sales or boost the number of views to a blog with video content on your website? Do you just want to drive more traffic to your website or do you have a more concrete goal in mind?
The better you’re able to define your overall business goals and digital marketing plans, the better your digital marketing consultant will be able to help you formulate the perfect plan of action and effectively put it into place. However, professional digital marketing agencies can also guide you and recommend goals, when you just don’t know what to do or how to start or get there.
4. Choose a Digital Marketing Service You Trust With Your Vision
An expert digital marketing company has the difficult job of listening to the vision you want to create, while also providing quality feedback and recommendations, that may not always aline with what you want to do or how you want to get there. Remember, YOU are hiring the expert and YOU must trust their opinions and guidance. A good digital marketing consultant knows how to balance this line when ideas don’t always match. If you aren’t able to trust them, then maybe they aren’t the right choice if your business’s digital marketing vision gets lost in translation. The customer and digital marketing service shouldn’t walk all over each other, as that isn’t teamwork. A good digital marketing agency and its customers must be unified working towards the same goal, at TEAMWORK is key.
The right digital marketing consultant will take the time to listen to each area of your digital marketing plan. You’re hiring them to offer suggestions and guidance and they will make certain that the vision for your business’s digital marketing design is achievable. They will understand what your end goals are and will want your feedback during the process.
A good digital marketing consultant’s relationship with their client is one where the client and consultant have transparent communication at all times.
5. Opt for a Digital Marketing Company That Offers Real and Achievable Results
As much as you may want to be wooed by your dream digital marketing consultant, you’ll want to avoid any place that promises you the moon and stars. You need to be practical and avoid getting sucked in by a too-good-to-be-true offer because it probably is.
Pick a digital marketing company that instead gives you reasonable and measurable results. The endgame is, more often than not, achieving a bigger customer following. But this process takes time and you need to go through the proper channels first and build slow and steady progress.
Any company that promises you a direct lead to a guaranteed customer base overnight will most likely fall short of these promises. Don’t fall for flashy tactics.
6. Do They Offer a Portfolio of Their Work for Reference?
One of the best ways to tell if a digital marketing consultant service is on the level is through a portfolio of their past work. Reputable and transparent companies have nothing to hide. They will proudly display their work on their website for other clients to browse through and see for themselves.
This way you can see how their work stacks up and if it is in line with the vision you have for your own business’s digital marketing goals. They’re showing you outright what they can do for you and how they can make your digital marketing dreams come to life.
You can feel more confident knowing what to expect from the get-go and see how your own digital marketing results will look.
7. Do They Have a Proven Track Record of Success?
Another question you should ask is if they have a lineup of other clients who have used their digital marketing service successfully. It doesn’t all have to be about big-name clientele either. In fact, a good digital marketing company should be versatile enough to work with businesses of all sizes and digital marketing needs.
If possible, see if there are client reviews of the digital marketing agency you’re thinking of going with. Reviews are a form of honest feedback from real people just like you who will give you a fair and open assessment of their experience working with the company.
Your digital marketing consultancy firm’s reviews, along with its portfolio, should help speak for the company’s track record of success and results.
8. Can They Handle Multiple Aspects of Digital Marketing and Design?
A dedicated SEO blog content company is fine on its own, if that’s all you want to focus on. But if you want a multi-faceted approach to digital marketing, you need a digital marketing company that offers many different services to choose from. This will allow you to have a one-stop shop for all of your business’s digital marketing needs.
A digital marketing consultant who is well-versed in multiple aspects of digital marketing and design can assist in areas like Google Ads, branding, and video marketing. With so much of today’s digital marketing advertising relying on social media and video content, you need to have every advantage at your disposal.
The right digital marketing consultant will know just what areas to pinpoint for the best results. They can also help you with web design to give your website a clean and professional look. A digital marketing service will give you a thorough examination of your business’s digital marketing strengths and weaknesses and assist you as needed.
9. Does the Agency Provide Measurable Reporting and Tracking?
A digital marketing consultant does all of the legwork and heavy lifting required to give your business the best digital marketing results. Their company should be able to back up their claims with data tracking that measures each interaction your business received as a result of their efforts.
Measurable content data may include:
- KPIs
- Unique website visitors
- ROIs
- Pay-per-click conversions
- Increased bookings or sales
Your reporting data may vary based on the results you want to achieve from digital marketing campaigns. But a good digital marketing company should be able to tailor a custom report for your business’s needs in an easy-to-read and understandable format.
They won’t just give you a complicated print-out of data with no explanations as to what these facts and figures actually mean.
10. Pick a Company That Views Your Business as a Partnership
Before you hire a digital marketing consultant, you want to know that your values align with one another. You also want a digital marketing company that doesn’t just view you as another paycheck, but as a real business partnership.
A partnership-style relationship allows for a better connection between your digital marketing company and your business. It will feel less like a sales-based interaction and more like a natural extension of your business. They will genuinely care about your business and work to make it better. As the saying goes “Your success, is their success!”
If anything goes wrong or needs further adaptations made, your digital marketing consultant team will strive to provide you with the best possible results to suit your needs. They will meet and exceed your expectations.
Find the Best Digital Marketing Consultant for Your Business at Wildcat Software Design
Digital marketing can be a confusing area of advertising if you aren’t sure about what you’re doing. You need to put your digital marketing needs into the hands of an experienced and trustworthy digital marketing consultant who understands.
Wildcat Software Design, located in the Tampa, Florida area, can give you the best results for your business. Our full-service digital marketing company can provide a variety of comprehensive advertising and marketing services, from SEO and Google Ads strategy to video marketing and direct mail, as well as branding, social media marketing, and web design services.
Contact us today to get started on your business’s digital marketing project.