The world of digital marketing changes all the time. Every five minutes there seems to be a new trend. And, unfortunately, working out what you should pursue isn’t easy. In fact, it’s downright confusing.
That’s where digital marketing consulting comes in handy. Marketing consultants let you separate the wheat from the chaff, showing what is important, and what isn’t. Successful digital marketing consulting lets you upgrade your online presence and beat out your rivals.
What are the benefits of using a digital marketing consultant?
Digital marketing consultants help you grow your business through planning and strategy. Companies that use them are 356 percent more likely to report success in their marketing and advertising campaigns.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how a digital marketing consultancy can help you.
Facilitate Omnichannel Growth
Customers approach your brand via multiple online channels before converting. Therefore, it is critical to adopt a multichannel approach to digital marketing. Reaching out across a range of platforms is essential.
Knowing which funnels to focus your resources on, though, isn’t always clear. You might have a hunch that one is more important than the other, but without professional data analysis in place, it’s hard to know.
They can help you put together a solid SEO strategy for your small business that will benefit organic search rankings for your website. Google Ads (paid ads) is also a very lucrative channel that can help businesses establish traffic and leads quickly. A professional digital marketing consultant will help you put together a winning PPC management strategy.
That’s where digital marketing consulting services come in handy. These produce a detailed digital marketing strategy for you, showing you where you need to focus your efforts. They can create omni channel campaigns, build email lists, and discover the channels that offer the greatest opportunities.
Give You Fresh Ideas
Another perk of using digital marketing consulting services is that they give you fresh ideas on the direction to take your company, digital strategy, website, blog, brand, and SEO package. They stay up to date on the latest trends in your industry and target the people most likely to buy from you, driving sales.
For instance, they could help with programmatic online marketing, an advanced advertising technique that helps to reduce the cost of paid ads. They might also support the shift to interactive content, something digital marketers have been harping on about for years. They could even introduce your business to visual search, something that is becoming increasingly popular among search engine users.
Improve Your Analytics
A digital marketing consultancy can also improve your analytics. Agents develop marketing plans with KPIs to track how well you are driving traffic to your website and engaging your target audience on various digital channels.
In doing so, digital marketing consultants make your firm more data-driven, no matter which marketing strategies you are using, whether content marketing, email marketing, Google Ads, case studies, or anything else.
They can also direct you to the data that is most important to your industry. They may even recommend particular software for keeping tabs on important metrics, critical for successful digital marketing.
Once you establish the KPIs you need to follow, you can test whether your digital marketing strategy is working. If you notice sales going down or fewer website visits, you can tweak your approach.
Create A Sales Funnel That Converts
Getting customers to convert is notoriously difficult, particularly in the online space. However, with a digital marketing consultancy on your side, it becomes a lot easier.
Most businesses know about Google Ads, a platform that generates an impressive $2 in revenue (on average) for every $1 spent. However, Google isn’t the only online marketing channel available: there are many others.
A digital marketing agency can help you discover which platforms offer you the highest ROI. SEO is one option, but content marketing, improved web design, social media advertising, and video ads might actually give you more bang for your buck.
A paid digital marketing consultant can also show you what great sales funnels look like. Their input can provide direction on how much you should spend, the keywords you should use, and how to segment your target audience. They give you a bird’s eye view of your campaigns while also supporting you in the nitty-gritty detail (which can sometimes be quite technical).
Improve Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital marketing consulting also tweaks your marketing strategy. Agents dive deep into your current processes and target audience and then look for weaknesses in your approach.
Most start with a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. This puts your online marketing in context and gives you a sense of where you stand versus your rivals.
Digital marketing consultants then begin researching your buyer personas in more detail, segmenting them when necessary. This way, they can get a better sense of who you are selling to and their preferred channels.
Once consultants contextualize your brand’s online posture, they can then put digital marketing strategies in place that benefit your team and company. For instance, they might decide to deploy a content strategy that focuses on generating long-term leads via your blog. Or they could determine that it is better to target clients via social media advertising using industry data.
Improve Your Website
A digital marketing consultant can help you improve your website, too. They provide you with the best technologies to appeal to your target audience and encourage them to spend. They can also give you SEO tips to make your site more search engine-friendly. This way, it will be easier for customers to find your business online. A website that doesn’t drive traffic nor converts incoming traffic into customers or leads is worthless. Full service website design and management for small businesses can and often should be outsourced.
Benefit From Tech Tools
The number of marketing services available to average businesses (beyond regular Google Analytics), is astonishing. Automation software can help you cut the long-term costs of marketing campaigns by reducing or eliminating the need for human labor.
A digital marketing consultant may introduce you to:
- HubSpot Marketing Automation – a tool that lets you build email lists, integrate live chat, improve your website experience, and so on, automating workflows to reduce the burden on your team
- Moosend – software that lets you easily track website visitors, create email campaigns for specific buyer personas, and collect customer data
- Omnisend – a tool that lets you add multiple communication channels in a single dashboard, including SMS, Facebook Messenger, email, and so on.
- Engagebay – software that lets you build drag-and-drop landing pages and marketing emails, while also making A/B testing a breeze
- ActiveCampaign – a tool that lets you integrate your marketing with your small business CRM.
How To Get Started With Digital Marketing Consultants
If you are planning to work with a digital marketing consultant, it pays to prepare. Here’s what you need to do:
Tell The Digital Marketing Consultancy What You Expect
You should start the interaction with the digital marketing consultancy by telling them what you expect. During the initial consultation, outline everything you want them to help you achieve.
For instance, tell them how often you expect them to interact with your firm. Talk to them about how payment will work (whether you will pay by the hour, result, project, or a combination of all three). And discuss timelines.
Get them to outline exactly what they can deliver. For instance, you might ask them to commit to increasing website traffic by 30 percent after three months, or increase conversion rate by 10 percent after six two-hour sessions.
Share Your Digital Assets With Them
Modern digital marketing consultancy is evolving. Consultants don’t just write a document telling you what to do: they also complete tasks for you.
Because of this, it is a good idea to provide consultants with access to all the digital tools they need to do their job.
For instance, give them access to your Google Analytics dashboard and social media accounts. Also provide them with permissions on your CRM if you have one, and website admin tools.
If you have any company documentation, such as a brand guide, give that to them too so that they can really understand where you are coming from. A copy of your mission statement can also be helpful.
Of course, you’ll want to refrain from divulging too much access, particularly if you operate in a sensitive industry. However, the more you share, the more consultants can help.
How To Measure ROI From Working With A Digital Marketing Consultancy
ROI means “return on investment” and it shows you the benefits that working with a digital marketing consultant can bring.
Quality digital marketing consultants will provide this information for you. However, if you need to work it out, you can do so by following a simple formula from HubSpot:
[((number of leads x lead-to-customer rate x average sales price) – cost or ad spend) ÷ cost or ad spend] x 100.
The lead-to-customer rate describes the rate at which leads become customers. For instance, if 50 out of 100 leads become customers, then the lead-to-customer rate is 0.5.
The average sale price is simply the average price you charge for your products.
Therefore, the numerator in the equation is just your net income, and the denominator is your cost. Dividing one by the other and multiplying by 100 gives you your percentage rate of return.
Conclusion
The bottom line is this: using a digital marketing consultancy amps up your online marketing tremendously. Marketing consultants can provide a higher level of expertise than is available in-house and at a fraction of the cost of hiring an employee, fostering sales, growth, and higher profitability. Contact CAE Marketing & Consulting, the digital marketing consulting agency that will help your small business grow.
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