The online world is constantly evolving. You may be
thinking about outsourcing your Web promotion to an expert who
is immersed in this world as their fulltime occupation, rather
than trying to acquire this knowledge yourself, and cope with
the pace of change in-house.
So, what should you look for in a consultant, and what
guarantees can you expect?
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, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant
and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23
ideas to promote your Website:
http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be
reached at (831) 465-0317.
.gif)
