Not every business believes in digital marketing and generating buzz at all costs. Not if it means faking reviews from bots and masquerading followers on platforms so that engagement is automatically high with more likes, shares, and subscriptions. But is that not what every business wants at both local and global levels?
For authentic customer or user engagement, you’ll need an expert behind the scenes. When you’ve established business goals and objectives, you’ll need to find an expert who is aligned with your organization.
Expert network platforms like CleverX can help you find world-class talent from across the globe. But you still need to avoid expensive mistakes in market research before you launch your next project.
Read on for the top five questions to ask yourself before you hire a digital marketing consultant for your e-commerce business.
Hiring a Digital Marketing Consultant for your Ecommerce Business
1. Are they qualified?
Here’s where you gauge how competent and knowledgeable the consultant is. You may want to look into projects that are along the lines of the work you need. Vetting out consultants would need you to look beyond the educational merits.
2. How would to track and measure goals?
Another crucial question to ask before you hire a consultant is how to track your progress to. Communicate with them and see how they prefer to work, document reports, and confirm the frequency at which they would offer advice.
If you are looking for non-strategic, performance-based work, you’ll need to set clear expectations there as well.
3. What are their commercials?
Gig-workers may charge by the hour, by the ROI, or by the project. Many digital marketing experts charge a percentage of your marketing spends. You should know their payment preferences and see if that works for you before you decide to hire them.
4. Are you aligned?
While you are negotiating terms, it is important to find out which topics, decisions, or areas of advice they do not hold fiscal standards to. You can ask the consultant to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. It may also help if you ask your advisor for a reference if you have not already approached them through one. You can talk to the references yourself for a better understanding.
5. Do they have the secret ingredient?
Transparency is the secret ingredient. It is important to be able to express things that matter to you and receive simple advice without jargon. You will need to have these negotiated terms signed in black and white and easily verifiable.
Transparency breeds social trust, two foundational experiences for a healthy working relationship with your consultant.
Before you sign up, remember to knock these things off your checklist.
Ask yourself if the consultant is making you feel like your problem is too complex to be managed by yourself.
The ideal expert would give you the flexibility and agility to take back your business challenges into your own hands. Even though, that external point of view will bring immense value to whatever you’re working on.
