Choosing The Consultant
The consultant should ask a lot of questions about your business
and your objectives. They need to be very clear about the
specific goals of your site. Do you want as many visitors
as possible (as in: "We get millions of hits on our Web
site"), or are you more interested in attracting qualified
leads? Are you selling products? Are you looking for new customers,
sign-ups for your newsletter or events, media coverage, etc.
It's possible that there could be different markets for each
of your objectives. The consultant should show that they clearly
understand the demographics of the audience you want to attract.
This includes whether your markets are currently online, whether
they are comfortable using e-mail, etc. It's also important
to clarify any restrictions on your marketing - for example,
if you're only targeting specific locations.
The key to effective Web marketing is to have a comprehensive,
integrated plan that focuses on where your markets “hang out”
online. It’s absolutely not enough to concentrate your efforts
on search engines - that’s a passive rather than an active
approach. You want to reach out to your potential visitors,
not wait for them to come to you. And, you want to ensure
that your offline marketing includes your Web site - up to
a third of your traffic can now come from real-world sources.
So, the consultant should propose to you a wide-ranging plan
(assuming that’s appropriate for your goals) that includes:
- Search engine strategies
- Paid (bid for placement) listings
- Review sites and directories
- Linking with other appropriate sites
- Advertising / e-zine sponsorships (depending on your budget)
- Online public relations opportunities
- Integration with your real-world marketing
Effective Web marketing must also include an e-mail strategy.
The consultant should include in their proposal some ideas
for targeted, personalized (and fully opt-in) e-mail that
is compliant with all State and Federal laws. This requires
a contact database that you can use to select out the different
audiences that you might have for these messages. The consultant
should also be able to help you create this, if required.
And finally, the consultant should explain how they propose
to evaluate the success of any marketing campaign against
your goals and objectives. Marketing is an ongoing process,
during which you’ll learn a lot about your site and about
your visitors. This knowledge should be analyzed and used
to tweak your site and refine your business strategies. A
good consultant will be able to work with you to achieve this.
What Guarantees Can You Expect?
Let’s be very clear - there is a distinction, which often
gets blurred, between sales and marketing. The job of a marketing
consultant is to bring qualified traffic to your site (or
in other words, into your storefront). Completing the sale
is then a separate challenge.
Marketing is also a very gray area, in which it’s difficult
to provide cast-iron guarantees of results. This is particularly
true in the area of search engine optimization, since the
search engines are so unpredictable. In my opinion, if a consultant
promises you "top ten placement" you should be very wary -
it's possible that they are using tactics that could be classified
as spam - soon if not now.
And that can really hurt you - I have a colleague who was
banned from Google because he hired "experts" who used this
type of approach.
Obviously you do want to check that the consultant has a
good track record, and that they can provide references from
other clients. I believe that good Web knowledge and proven
online marketing tactics are as important as an in-depth familiarity
with your industry.
In setting your contract with the consultant, it's important
to have a mutual comfort level with your goals, expectations
and budget. There are many opportunities for free promotion
online, but if you're prepared to spend some money, you can
potentially build your traffic faster. Since building awareness
of a site takes time, perhaps a minimum six-month period would
be advisable, but with appropriate get-out clauses for both
parties.
Conclusion
Good Web marketing is a team effort! Hire a consultant who
you feel very comfortable with, who asks lots of questions
to really understand your business and your goals, and who
seems genuinely interested in promoting you. But then be prepared
to work with them - respect and consider their suggestions,
and allow them to be creative in their approach.
© Philippa Gamse, 2003. All rights reserved.
Byline
Philippa Gamse, "CyberSpeakerSM",
is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check
out her free tipsheet for 23 great ideas to promote your Website:
http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html
Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com
