One thing that most people don’t know is that companies don’t have to worry about loosing a specialized Marketing person, a CMO or even VP of Marketing. The thing is that there are Consultants out there like me that have done all of that for companies, we have done it well and since we have experience in all or most forms of Marketing and in multiple verticals, we can also act as an interim Manager, Director, VP or CMO.
However, although there are some Consultants like me who can actually drive and deliver results without distrupting the channel, can jump right in and not only keep your campaigns going but also improve upon them, there are even more interim Consultants that actually have had the experience, have been able to do the work in the past, can pretend to know what they are doing but in reality, their skills have faded and faltered. At one point they may have been able to do the Marketing but because the Internet changes and so do the ways people interact with the internet, their skills become useless or what I see even more often and why companies normally hate consultants is that they not only pretend like they know what they are talking about, but then they pretend they can execute on it and in reality they cannot and they end up destroying your company.
I run into this all the time and it is why most companies end up not trusting Consultants. The issue I have after coming in though is that while I am working, everyone tries to get involved and because they got burned in the past, they interfere with my work and actually end up hurting their companies and detroying the chances for success that they would have had. Now, I don’t blame companies for being scared and nervous with Consultants, but in reality, if you find a legit one, they are your gold mine. Unfortunately the real ones or ones whose skills are actually up to par are so rare and hard to find that it sometimes seems hopeless.
Anyways, I wanted to give you a few pointers on finding Consultants that can actually do the work, get it done and grow your business or keep it steady while you are searching for the new person for your company.
(On a quick side note, I am going to only list a few examples on different types of Marketing, I will not list everything because then my competitors could easily start to tie that into their pitch.)
PPC:
Make the Consultant build out campaigns. Make them define why the keywords are in the ad groups, make them go over at least 3 different advanced techniques, question them on advanced matching and make them talk you through the benefits and risks associated with second and third tier networks.
Affiliate:
Make them walk you through at a minimum 5 adware applications and how it can effect your program. Make them show you recommendations made publicly by Affiliates on forums and make them show you what you are doing wrong with your own internal program. We can all see what mistakes exist without ever having to have to log in to your Account and if the Consultant says they need access to make even basic recommendations, move on.
SEO:
Look up new algorithms and ask for a bullet list (not details) on at least 5 things they could do to improve your rankings or maintain your sites authority.
Email:
Send them a sample of maybe 5 emails and have them rip them apart and make recommendations. Then create an email testing their recommendations and see if they were able to help improve performance. There is a lot they should be able to help with instantly and they should be testing even without you knowing.
CSEs:
Ask them to make a sample feed or at least check to see where you are at and how you can improve. Again, there is a lot of room to look for ways to help improve the Client’s performance without ever having to have had to log in.
Userability and User Friendliness:
Ask them for a list of 5 to ten points on how you can better improve the end user experience of your website. (Now, I would never go into detail or send the writing to you, you would have to get on the phone with me and I am going to go over them fast because this is info that you will have to pay for if you want to really work on it and during the interviewing process with a Client, you will never get the info on how to execute or test and analyize the user experience tests. If we gave you this for free then you wouldn’t need us and we would be out of a job).
Anyways, if you are looking for someone in the interim between hiring a new Marketing Executive or need a Consultant to handle your Online Marketing, make them show you how they are going to grow your business, protect your from theft and adware, fix your current issues, how they can not only strategize but also execute on all channels and most importantly, keep your business going until you can find someone to work in house. If you are interested in having me help you with the interim or want my services or just have questions in general, write me at adamr (at) adamriemer (dot) me. I’m always happy to go over your current Marketing efforts and make recommendations on how to improve and grow it.
