In recent years we have seen a considerable increase in the figure of marketing consultant, specifically digital marketing or online marketing. But it is not always entirely clear what and how a consultant takes care of your digital strategy.
Because it is important? Because only in Spain there are about 32.8 million internet users . In addition, with new digital tools that allow the internationalization of almost any website, it is possible to reach the 4,450 million users around the world, of which some 1,180 million are English speakers .
A digital marketing consulting service will help you find the perfect strategy to reach your potential customers and convince them of the usefulness and value proposition of your products or services.
We explain step by step the functions, knowledge and scope of this figure of consultant.
Definitions
A consultant is a specialist professional who advises companies on solving problems that have not been resolved internally. In our particular case, we are talking about problems related to digital marketing. This professional helps you manage online projects, create value and achieve the proposed objectives.
It is important to note that when we refer to a problem, it does not have to be something specific that is happening in the company. It could be a lack of qualified staff or simply a lack of time to spend creating a strategy and sticking to it. In any of the cases, the hiring of an external consultant is a quick and effective solution as well as efficient in terms of costs.
In addition, a consultant does not always have to be an independent person, but can be a marketing agency that can provide this service.
Insights from a digital marketing consultant
A consultant will be in charge of devising and implementing the marketing strategy of one or several businesses. Therefore, you will need to have detailed knowledge of all the areas of digital marketing in which you are going to intervene. Most often you know the following:
SEO positioning
Both SEO on-page and SEO off-page, as well as technical SEO. It will make sure that people see what you publish and will make a positioning strategy that allows you to index yourself for the most relevant words. He will know the more than 200 factors that affect SEO, he will know how to review the structure and code of your website, he will look at the meta data and he will make sure that the most important keywords are present on the site.
Email Marketing
It’s about creating the lists and labeling them correctly, knowing how to deliver the message in the mail and when to get it to customers to maximize conversions.
UX and UI
The user experience is becoming more and more important and will continue to be so in the future. A good consultant will advise you and help you design a smooth and targeted user flow to reach your metrics.
Social networks
Networks are constantly changing, so a marketer has to know the main platforms and be able to work with those that are unknown to them. You will know how to follow the tone of voice of your client and write posts that improve the “engagement” of the page . It’s about knowing how to make a social media calendar and stick to it like a professional community manager would.
Performance Marketing and Media Buying
We go into paid marketing, which includes platforms like Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Facebook Ads, and any other type of brand communication and paid communication. A digital marketing consultant will know how to create audiences, messages focused on them and will be able to create a wide variety of ads with different objectives, whether they are “prospecting” or “remarketing” in order to achieve sales and lead objectives.
Duties of an online marketing consultant
A “marketing consultant” works in a very close relationship with his client and develops several functions, all of them focused on seeing the business grow with short, medium and long-term objectives.
business knowledge
We know that a consultant never gets to know the business as intimately as the managers or owners, but they will do their best to know every detail and every trend of the online traffic and user conversion process.
Content planning
It will plan the content that is going to be published from the company’s accounts, always taking into account its objectives and the target audience. You will think about social media, email marketing, blog articles, landing pages and all kinds of content.
Research and benchmarking
It will study the competition and the particularities of your business to know how to attract relevant traffic to your digital channels. It will do so through keyword studies for SEO positioning, market research, studying the publication schedules that work best for your audience and much more.
Analysis of data
You will review and analyze the results of the different strategies, whether they are PPC campaigns, content marketing or any other initiative that has taken place.
Implementation
You’ll work on bringing strategies to life, whether it’s posting on social media, creating Google Ads (or AdWords) ads, or writing content for an email or blog. The limits of what a digital marketing consultant can do for a company are only limited by their knowledge and the time they have.
Information
You will inform the client about the results achieved. The important thing here will be transparency when communicating the data, since without it, an online marketing strategy can be considered useless.
Choosing an agency or a freelance?
So, is it better to hire an online marketing agency or a freelancer to take care of everything? The answer is very easy. An agency has more people, all of them specialized in the different aspects of a digital marketing strategy. This allows the agency to work on every aspect of your plan, regardless of the type of strategy you want to follow. In addition, delivery times will be shorter and you will be able to see the results of the work sooner. If, on the other hand, you want to work on a specific aspect, such as improving your SEO positioning, it may not be necessary and a freelancer can do it for you.
Another advantage of having a marketing agency is the fact that they usually have more resources and more specialized tools to be able to do what you need.
Don’t know what exactly you need? At Arcomm we advise you and help you choose the service that best suits your needs and objectives . Contact one of our experts and start your digital transformation.
