Tag: Consulting

Amazon Marketing Consulting

Amazon’s so big that it has become an entire marketing channel.

You could build your entire business on just Amazon.

Many entrepreneurs do. It’s crazy how many 7-figure businesses are running on Amazon right now.

The downside?

Lots of folks know about the Amazon opportunity.

There are 353 million other products on Amazon already.

Granted, you don’t have to compete for all of them. But that’s still an insane number of products.

No matter how obscure your niche, you’ll have top-tier competition.

How do you stand out in such a highly-competitive marketplace?

Find an Amazon marketing consultant.

3 Ways an Amazon Marketing Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

Most Amazon consultants focus on one goal: getting you more customers.

That is, after all, why most businesses get on Amazon.

They want access to Amazon’s customers.

Here are the main ways that a consultant can help.

1. Store Setup and Product Listings

Some sellers on Amazon set themselves up for failure from day one. 

And they do this with poor store setup and product listings. 

If you, a seller on Amazon, get the foundational areas like excellent store setup and product listings wrong, other efforts to grow your store will fall flat. 

No doubt, signing up for an Amazon Seller account takes only a few minutes.

But it takes a lot of work to get Amazon’s algorithms to know what category you should be in and when to show your products higher than others. 

An Amazon marketing consultant will properly set up your store and build your product listings to get you more customers. Not only will your products get more views, the product descriptions will also help you convert more of those prospects into customers.

The best Amazon consultants will help you: 

  • Choose the right seller account type for your store. 
  • Make your product descriptions as enticing as possible. 
  • Ensure that Amazon knows exactly which categories and terms you should be in.
  • Get the back-end set up properly so it’s as easy to manage as possible. 

They’ll also help you avoid these mistakes: 

  • Don’t accidentally get featured in the wrong categories which could hurt your store. 
  • Make sure all products comply with every Amazon guideline. 
  • Your listings avoid common mistakes that annoy customers, which could increase the number of negative reviews if you don’t catch them early. 

Get the foundation of your store done right. Then everything else gets a lot easier. 

2. Product SEO in Amazon

It’s one thing to have your store properly set up and your products accurately listed. 

But it’s another ball game to have them actually appear on Amazon. 

According to a study by Feedvisor, about 74% of ecommerce shoppers go to Amazon first for any purchase they want to make. 

Do you know what that means?

Amazon has become a search engine for products. Amazon SEO is now a real thing. And it’s just as important as Google SEO. For ecommerce businesses that are on Amazon, it’s probably MORE important. 

Amazon even developed its own SEO algorithm called A9. 

You could try to learn all the ranking optimization tricks on your own.

Or you can partner with an Amazon marketing consultant to help you save time, money, and make the most of your scarce resources. 

They’ll help you: 

  • Find the best categories and keywords to focus on.
  • Optimize your products for rankings.
  • Get the reviews you need to compete.
  • Break down your competition so you can learn what’s working today. 

3. Amazon PPC Management

Amazon turned on the firehose of PPC.

Not only is it making them a ton of money. It can also make you a ton of money.

For the first time, you can pay a small fee to get in front of the most valuable customers in your entire market: customers ready to make a purchase right now.

With the right product, you can easily take $1 and turn it into $2 with Amazon paid ads.

However, paid media on Amazon is also complicated.

Like any PPC platform, it requires a ton of specific know-how and tons of work to keep it optimized.

You could try to manage all this on your own.

Or you could get an Amazon consultant to do it for you.

PPC campaigns are a great type of marketing task to outsource. The work is repetitive and usually the same workflow across businesses. Consultants can easily take this off your plate and give you a nice ROI at the same time.

Even if you could do this yourself, I recommend finding a consultant to help. Your time is better used elsewhere.

Most consultants get really good at bid management and ad optimization. Use them for these areas.   

How to Get Started With An Amazon Marketing Consultant

First, what should you have before engaging an Amazon marketing consultant? 

  • An Amazon store or a store that’s about to go live. 
  • Products you want to sell and sourcing or manufacturing are sorted out. 
  • Key competitors and search terms for your market.
  • Budget set aside. 

An Amazon consultant can help with setting up your store and getting you customers. You’ll need to sort out everything outside of Amazon.

Basically, they’ll help you develop and implement marketing strategies to drive sales and revenue. 

When you visit the website of a top Amazon marketing company, you’ll usually find a contact form to schedule an initial call.

Even if you’re not sure if you need help yet, I recommend getting a call done. You’ll have a much better idea with how consultants can help you once you’ve done a few calls.

You can also ask them loads of questions like:

  • What budget would you recommend?
  • What are the key trends that you see in your most successful clients?
  • What should I do ahead of time to set this project up for success?
  • What would make us a bad fit to work together?

Yes, the consultant will treat the call like a sales call. It’s their chance to close you on a proposal. But it’s also a chance for you to learn a lot more about the space from a real expert. And the best consultants will happily teach you as much as they can. That’s how they prove their expertise.

After you’ve done a few of these calls, move forward with the one that you think is the best fit. Since this project should generate real revenue for your business, I’d go with the one that has the best chance of succeeding, even if they’re a bit more expensive than others. The good consultants will easily pay for themselves.

Measuring the ROI of Amazon Marketing Consulting Services

The ultimate measure for any marketing service is how much demand and sales it drives. For Amazon consulting, this same rule applies. 

Specifically, you should track: 

  • Views for your store and products
  • The number of new products sold
  • Conversion rate of impressions to sales
  • Total revenue
  • Average order value

I recommend that you track your totals, not just revenue and purchases from specific campaigns.

Marketing channels and campaigns often bleed into each other. For example, an increase in Amazon PPC budget will often lead to an increase in your organic Amazon sales. Trying to get perfect attribution is super difficult.

So get a good baseline before the consultant starts. Then compare the overall performance of your store afterwards.

Let’s go deeper on each metric.

Conversion Rate

This is a measure of how many impressions you’re getting for your store and products compared to how many of those impressions led to sales. 

For any consultant working on your product listings, it’s probably the most important metric to watch.

When optimizing products, you should see it go up.

And when working on product rankings, you want to see your conversion rate stay stable. If it drops while your impressions go up, it’s a sign that you’re getting less-qualified traffic. It’s possible that the extra traffic is still worth it, you’ll need to dig in. 

Product impressions

Any Amazon consultant should be able to get your products more impressions.

It’s always nice to get a conversion win right away but the real money is getting your products in front of more people. 

This is what separates great Amazon consultants from the ones that are just average. Great consultants will have a plan to double, triple, and quadruple your impressions over time. They’ll also be able to execute on that plan.

This can take a lot of time and money.

But within the first few months, you should be able to see at least some signals that things are going in the right direction.

Total revenue

At the end of the day, marketing is about increasing revenue.

The ROI needs to be there.

After a few months, check your total monthly revenue and compare it to your baseline before you started working with the consultant.

Is it moving in the right direction? Have you generated enough profit to pay for the consultant fees?

You might not be generating enough extra revenue yet but there should be a path to a positive ROI.

The great consultants will have set expectations with you at the beginning. Things should be playing out like they planned. 

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Amazon Marketing Consultant

Below are six things to check when finding the right Amazon marketing consultant to help drive growth for your store. 

1. Thought Leadership on Amazon Marketing

Since most of what an Amazon marketing consultant would do is help you to drive sales for your store, it’s essential you find one with practical knowledge on how to do it.

Every marketer knows the power of thought leadership.

For the best Amazon consultants, I’d expect to see some of their content already published.

It’s a great way to get a feel for how they build Amazon stores, their favorite tactics, and how they’d fit with your own company. 

For example, I have a guide, detailing persuasion tactics to upsell products on Amazon and a full course on how to drive more sales on Amazon: 

2. Real Amazon Marketing Expertise

Many marketing consultants who didn’t offer services specific to Amazon stores have jumped on the bandwagon, seeing how much the marketplace is growing. 

The result?

They apply the same generic marketing practices, thinking it will automatically work on Amazon. 

If you don’t want to fall for this and waste your money, ensure that the consultant has true expertise with Amazon marketing. They should plenty of:

  • Deep answers to all of your tactical Amazon marketing questions 
  • Case studies with Amazon marketing
  • Clients and testimonials from Amazon marketing projects

3. Expertise on How Amazon Impacts Other Channels

If you have an ecommerce business that focuses 100% on Amazon, feel free to ignore this criteria.

But most businesses go after multiple channels.

Especially ecommerce businesses. They usually have Amazon product listings and their own ecommerce story.

Great consultants will get your different channels to help each other.

That’s right, you can can get each channel to make your other marketing channels stronger.

Here’s a few examples:

  • Using discounts and promos to get Amazon customers to sign up for subscription deliveries on your website.
  • Getting your biggest fans to help with Amazon reviews.
  • Tapping into your audiences to kick-start new products on Amazon.

With a little creativity, you can hit goals a lot faster by using assets you already have.

The best consultants look for these opportunities and take advantage of them.

4. A Proven Process for Execution

The really great consultants have a formula for rolling out their Amazon marketing campaigns. It’s how they deliver results over and over again, for every client.

Less experienced consultants may depend on the brilliance and wit of a single person.

That can work great as long as that person focuses on your marketing. But what happens when they move to another client?

Campaign performance usually suffers.

Look for a consultant that has a team behind them that can reliably execute on your project month in and month out.

The odds of accomplishing your goals goes way up.

During your initial discovery calls, dig into their process, how they manage deliverables, and train new team members. You should be shocked on how thorough it all is.

Start With an Amazon SEO Consultant

Don’t know where to focus?

Get help with your  Amazon SEO first. One project could get you more impressions, more sales, and more revenue on an ongoing basis.

The ROI of that single project can be massive.

So if you’re not sure what you really want, start there.

The post Amazon Marketing Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Ecommerce Consulting

In 2019, ecommerce sales were $3.53 trillion worldwide. 

According to Statista, that number is projected to grow to $6.54 trillion by 2023. Online shopping was a popular past time before the pandemic, but ecommerce has grown by 20 percent in 2020 alone. 

Are you ready? 

With the right preparation, ecommerce retailers can achieve double-digit conversion rates and consistent, year-over-year growth. Not sure how to achieve these results on your own? An ecommerce consultant can provide you with the step-by-step support you need to achieve these amazing results. 

3 Ways an Ecommerce Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

The pandemic hasn’t been good for everyone. 

CB Insights found that the retail apocalypse that started in 2015 actually accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Small, local businesses that neglected ecommerce suffered the most. Large companies with well-known ecommerce stores filed for bankruptcy in 2020. 

These are brands you’d probably recognize. 

Brooks Brothers, GNC, Neiman Marcus, Hertz, J. Crew — these companies were all leaders in their market at one point or another. But now, 30+ of these companies are on life support. 

Online customers are pessimistic and highly skeptical. They’re choosing to work with established companies like Amazon who are willing to offer free two-day shipping. 

How’s a consultant supposed to help you survive that? 

Here are three ways ecommerce consultants can help retailers address the problems they’re facing. 

1. Precise customer targeting

In many cases, 80 to 90 percent of your marketing work is done here. This is also the most difficult part to sell to you, the client. The response is typically along the lines of: “Oh, we know that already.” A good ecommerce client knows how to test that claim. 

They do it by asking questions.

Who’s your customer; how familiar are you with their desires, goals, fears, frustrations, and problems? What are their demographics and psychographics? Do you have the answer initially, as most sellers do, or consistently?

Customers change. 

What’s okay today won’t be tomorrow. 

Here’s why that’s important. Everything your ecommerce consultant does, the effort they invest to help your business grow, it all depends on this step. You can’t create a persuasive product offer or shopper incentive if you don’t know your customers as well as you think you do. 

Your ecommerce consultant will refine your audience. 

They’ll help you find the people who are willing to spend more money with your business over time. 

2. Creating profitable offers with features and benefits

CBInsights shared a list of the most common reasons for startup failure. They listed more than a dozen categories, but most of them weren’t all that important. Don’t get me wrong; they were important, just not the most important. Here’s what was the most important thing. 

No market need. 

Forty-two percent of startups failed because they created a product with features and benefits no one wanted. Those are startups, though; things are different with ecommerce stores. 

Only they’re not. 

Research shows 90 percent of ecommerce startups fail in the first 120 days; of the remaining businesses:

  • 36 percent fail in year two
  • 44 percent fail in year three
  • 50 percent fail in year four

The biggest reason? 

Ecommerce stores focus their attention on the wrong product. Customers refuse to buy those products, so eventually, the business fails. An ecommerce consultant helps you create the right product. If they’ve enabled you to do the upfront work needed to target your customers, you should have a pretty good idea of the products customers actually want. 

3. Use Customer Pessimism to Increase Sales and Average Order Values

You’re going to have two types of customers. Optimists and pessimists. Optimists are easy to sell to but harder to keep. Pessimists, on the other hand, are harder to sell to but easier to hold.  

A meta-analysis by Bart S. Vanneste shows how this works. 

  1. Trustors (your customers) start a relationship with trustees (you). 
  2. Trustors use what scientists call “perceived trustworthiness.” That’s the fuel or spark you need to take a risk. 
  3. Afterward, trustors change their impression of you to match reality.

Here’s where it gets tricky. 

  • Optimist trustors overestimate trustworthiness. At first, they give you more than you deserve. As they’re disappointed, their trust in you decreases over time. If they’re not happy with the results, their trust continues to fall. 
  • Optimist trustors overestimate trustworthiness. At first, they give you more than you deserve. As they’re disappointed, their trust in you decreases over time. If they’re not happy with the results, their trust continues to fall. 

A great ecommerce consultant knows how to build trust with skeptical or pessimistic customers. They’re able to use your customer’s natural distrust to increase sales and revenue using helpful tactics like warranties, return policies, guarantees, and promises. 

They’ll show you how to convert this trust to revenue, increasing your sales, upsells, and average order values. 

How to Get Started With an Ecommerce Consultant

Your ecommerce consultant should be a specialist with deep expertise in retail or ecommerce. Think about your needs and the specialty and experience of the consultant. Will you be working with an individual or a team? You are looking for proven knowledge and expertise that has produced successful outcomes for other clients. You want your consulting team to be able to generate the same results for you.

They should also have experience across a broad range of marketing disciplines and channels, including:

  • Analytics
  • Email marketing
  • CRM
  • Content
  • Branding
  • Direct Response
  • Email
  • Marketing automation
  • Market research
  • Mobile
  • Sales
  • SEO
  • PPC
  • Website

Once you’ve decided on the consultant you’d like to work with, ask them to answer these questions:

  • What do you need from me?
  • When do you need it?
  • What’s your role, and what’s my role?
  • Will I have a dedicated rep to contact?
  • What’s your process for communication?
  • How can we ensure a smooth experience?

You’ll want to see that your consultant follows a process. They should provide you with clear answers to each of these questions.

Measuring the ROI of Ecommerce Consulting Services

Measuring the ROI of ecommerce consulting is pretty easy. 

If you’re tracking the right metrics, you’ll be able to measure your ROI. While there are hundreds of metrics you can track, only a few of these metrics are essential. Ask your consultant to start with the essentials, then build from there. 

Here’s a shortlist you can use. 

  • Traffic (unique visitors): The number of qualified prospects who visit your site. If you’re using a tool like Google Analytics, you’ll want to make sure you’re filtering out traffic from bots or spam. Your visits should be focused on generating traffic from qualified traffic sources.
  • Conversion rate: It’s the number of conversions divided by the number of users. You can have several different conversion goals (e.g., leads, ecommerce, likes, etc.).
  • Revenue by traffic source: This shows you which traffic source is most profitable and clarifies where you should spend your marketing and advertising dollars. 
  • Cost per action: This tells you how much it costs to generate a lead, make a sale, or upsell a particular customer. It’s an important part of your breakeven calculation used to determine whether you’re profitable (or not).
  • Ecommerce churn rate: Churn measures the number of customers leaving your business in a particular period. It’s typically a SaaS metric, but it’s now commonly used as a metric for ecommerce. If your churn is going up (i.e., customers are leaving), your revenue is declining.
  • The number of returning customers: The formula is returning customers / by total customers * 100. Returning customers have a conversion rate of 60 to 70 percent. The more repeat customers you have, the greater your revenue. 
  • Average order values: This is a formula, it’s your total revenue divided by the number of orders taken. You can increase average order values using upsells, downsells, and cross-sells. 

Your ecommerce consultant should be able to help you track these metrics. If you’re just starting out, you’ll want to focus your attention on these seven essential metrics. 

7 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Ecommerce Consultant

What should you look for in a consultant? 

If you’re looking for high-quality consultants, what sort of questions should you be asking? Are there specific details you’ll need to focus on to make sure your store attracts the right people? 

Here’s a list of the qualities and characteristics you need to find the right consultant for your business. 

  1. A good reputation: You’ll want to look for reviews, references, and testimonials. You’ll want to find a consultant with positive reviews from the majority of their clients. If your consultant doesn’t have an established reputation, you’ll want to look for content that establishes credibility and authority. 
  2. No ethical grey areas: Your consultant shouldn’t have any issues with black hat SEO or questionable tactics. There shouldn’t be a history of unethical behavior, cheating, or suspicious behavior. 
  3. Clear goal setting: Your consultant should be comfortable working with your goals and objectives. They should understand your business well enough to be able to track and manage the key metrics and KPIs you need to grow. The right consultant should be able to help you set goals, objectives, and KPIs. They should be able to help you develop your goals and objectives.
  4. Consistent ROI: Your ecommerce consultant should be able to show you that they achieved consistent results over a three to five year period. Asking for case studies and the references that go along with them is a good start. But you’ll want them to provide you with detailed figures or evidence showing that they’ve either been able to do this for themselves or other clients just like you. 
  5. Experienced ecommerce sellers: You’ll want to focus your attention on consultants who have owned, managed, or grown an ecommerce store successfully. They need to have familiarity or experience with ecommerce. They should be able to show you the store, provide you with case studies, or outline the work they did for the ecommerce brand. 
  6. Focus on customers’ first, search engines second: Consultants should create high-quality content for customers first, search engines second. The emphasis should be on attracting the right customer at the right time, for the right price, whether you’re speaking to a cold audience, subscribers, customers, followers, fans, or a combination. 
  7. Deep ecommerce expertise: Your consultant should have experience in the same industry or space. Look for in-depth knowledge and expertise with your industry, business, product, or service. If they don’t have the expertise you need, they should be able to demonstrate that they have experience with a similar ecommerce topic or niche.

These are details that high-caliber consultants, including agencies like NP Digital, provide. If you’d like your company to grow, choose consultants who meet these criteria. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce sales continue to grow rapidly. 

You can achieve double-digit conversion rates and consistent, year-over-year growth. An ecommerce consultant can provide you with the step-by-step support you need to achieve these results.  

With precise customer targeting, good products, profitable features and benefits, and some customer pessimism, your ecommerce consultant can help you achieve double-digit conversion rates and consistent, year-over-year growth.

The post Ecommerce Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Marketing Automation Consulting

Why aren’t more companies using marketing automation?

A recent survey from Liana Technologies found that 60 percent of respondents said they didn’t know how to use marketing automation. They listed a lack of know-how as the main reason they weren’t adopting marketing automation campaigns.

Half of those surveyed also listed a lack of strategy or personnel as yet another reason they weren’t moving forward with marketing automation. 

As you can see from the research, these companies need marketing automation consulting. 

10 Ways a Marketing Automation Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

Marketing automation is often viewed as a nice-to-have option, something that could be helpful but really isn’t all that necessary for companies looking to grow. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing. 

This isn’t always as clear until you breakdown the benefits that come with marketing automation. 

Here are ten ways a marketing automation consultant can help you grow your business. 

  1. More targeted marketing: Many companies force their customers into the same marketing funnel. They’re not focused on optimizing their funnel based on the buyer’s journey, so most of their prospects fall out of their marketing funnel. A marketing automation consultant helps you segment and target your customers properly. A good consultant will help you identify customers who are ready to buy, leads that need to be nurtured, and leads you can disqualify. 
  2. Improve customer experiences: According to Salesforce, 76 percent of consumers expect you to understand their needs and expectations. Another 84 percent said, “being treated like a person, not a number” is essential to earning their business. Marketing automation helps you achieve this at scale, so you’re able to provide the one-on-one attention and personalization customers expect.   
  3. Increased traffic: Big companies have embraced analytics, but most don’t know how to use their data. Most don’t have a data-driven culture, so it’s difficult for many organizations to have confidence in their marketing decisions. This isn’t just big companies, though; it’s most companies in general. This means it’s harder for companies to identify the traffic sources working well versus those that aren’t. With marketing automation tools like lead scoring and lead nurturing, you can identify your best performing traffic sources.
  4. Higher quality leads: When customers go through the same funnels, without segmentation, lead quality suffers. Your marketing automation consultant should help you outline the buyer’s journey and segment customers based on their place in the funnel. Doing this increases lead quality as customers are pre-qualified before and after they convert. This keeps the quality of the leads sent to sales high. 
  5. More leads: Once you’ve identified the list of marketing automation tools and workflows you need to generate high-quality leads, you can use those same automation tools to scale your lead generation campaigns. Your marketing automation consultant will help you increase lead production, using the lessons learned from your smaller campaigns. You’ll know which traffic sources perform best, how to improve lead quality, 
  6. Increased conversion rates: One of the hidden benefits of marketing automation is that the benefits are cumulative. Your marketing automation consultant will show you how to combine the strategy, tactics, workflows, and tools you’ve put together into a single system. Each component, when optimized, should produce increased conversion rates consistently in your campaigns over time.   
  7. Increased ROI: As your conversion rates increase, your ROI will continue to grow. A great marketing automation consultant will show you how to maintain your ROI as you continue to scale. You should see more revenue with less spend consistently over time.   
  8. Reduced expenses: As metrics like your return on ad spend (ROAS) and your conversion rate improves, you should see a decrease in costs (e.g., cost per lead, cost per action, customer acquisition costs). Your marketing automation consultant should monitor your returns and expenses, ensuring that both are moving in the right direction. 
  9. Data sharing between marketing channels: Your marketing automation stack should provide your team with the right data analysis tools. If you use analysis tools like Cyfe or Power BI, you’ll want to make sure that your team has access to data across marketing channels; your consultant should help you set this up, so your team has need-to-know access to data. Doing this will reduce operational silos, keeping everyone in your team on the same page; no more fights between sales and marketing for control. 
  10. Shorter sales cycles: Let’s say you’ve received two sets of leads. Set A has customers who are ready to buy now. They’ve done their homework, and they’ve decided your company is the best fit. Set B has interested customers; they won’t be ready to decide for another three to six months. Set A has a shorter sales cycle — your consultant helps you find and segment these customers as they come into your funnel.  

These benefits aren’t random one-offs; they’re outcomes your business needs to grow. The problem with growth is scaling. As you grow, it gets harder to manage all of this manually. 

How to Get Started With a Marketing Automation Consultant

Your marketing automation consultant should be a specialist with deep expertise in automation. They should also have experience across a broad range of marketing disciplines and channels, including:

  • Advertising (display, content,
  • Analytics
  • Branding
  • Content
  • Direct response
  • Email
  • Market research
  • Mobile 
  • Sales
  • Search (organic and paid)
  • Websites (e.g., conversion rate optimization, usability, etc.)

If you’re ready to get started with a marketing automation consultant, there are a few things you’ll need to prepare ahead of time. Upfront preparation makes it easier to get started; your consultant doesn’t have to waste a lot of time (and your money) getting you up to speed.

Both of you will be able to jump in right away. 

You’ll want to make sure that you have a list of:

  • Goals, KPIs, and objectives: For example, this could include a list of tools you’d like to integrate in your technology stack, as well as how you’d like these tools to perform. This could also provide your consultant with information on the specific outcomes you’d like to see due to automation (e.g., a 7 percent increase in productivity, shorter sales cycles, less double entry, improved utilization rates, etc.).
  • The tools and resources you’re using: You’ll want to make a list of the tools and resources you’re already using. Collect additional information on the number of users for each software, tool, or subscription. Make note of any API keys and special instructions. Also include a list of the software, tools, and resources you’d like to use.
  • Decision-makers and influencers: If you’re part of a team, you may find that some people aren’t all that excited to share their data. Others are interested in working with your consultant to automate essential marketing tasks. Sharing a list of decision-makers and influencers with your consultant makes their job easier. Right from the beginning, they know where everyone stands and who to talk to if they need help getting everyone on the same page.
  • Obstacles and challenges: You’ll want to outline the list of barriers and challenges that may prevent you from achieving the goals and objectives you’ve listed above. Maybe some of the services you use don’t offer an API or integrate with third-party services like Zapier. Maybe some of the tools in your list are outdated, or they’re unsupported legacy options (i.e., legacy software running on Windows XP).
  • Policies and procedures: If your company has specific policies, procedures, or guidelines for software purchases, you’ll want to share that with your consultant as well. You want to let your consultant know what’s allowed, required, forbidden, and unacceptable. You want to set your consultant up for success by giving them a clear set of guidelines to follow; this helps your company grow. 
  • Strengths and weaknesses: This step is uncomfortable but it’s also important; if your team, division, or company has problems in a specific area, spell that out for your consultant as clearly as possible. Does it take your company a long time to make important decisions? Is your organization good at finding great employees and contractors? Give your consultant a brief overview of your strengths and weaknesses. Getting people on board is easier when you know what you’re working with. 

Sharing this information upfront makes automation smooth and efficient.

If you’ve already answered these questions for your consultant, they’re able to focus their attention on helping you automate your marketing campaigns, projects, and tasks. 

Measuring the ROI of Marketing Automation Consulting Services

In general, consultants aren’t big on measuring ROI, but they should be. It’s reasonable to expect the same from your marketing automation consultant. If you’ve done the upfront work I’ve mentioned already, you should have everything you need to measure the ROI ahead of time. 

Remember the list of goals, KPIs, and objectives you wrote down earlier?

Your consultant should be able to help you refine your goals and objectives. If you haven’t already, you want to add some specificity to these goals. You’ll want to add specific numbers, facts. or figures to these goals. Use these figures as a general guide — you want to discuss these with your consultant making sure they’re realistic and achievable.

Here are a few examples you can use:

  • Increase productivity becomes — Increase our marketing team’s productivity by 16 percent
  • Improve lead quality becomes — Use lead scoring to achieve a 6 percent lift in marketing qualified lead volume
  • Identify top-performing marketing channels becomes — Identify top performing marketing channels by automating URL tagging for all current and future marketing campaigns
  • decrease customer acquisition costs becomes — Reduce customer acquisition costs on Google ads by a minimum of 11 percent

Measuring your ROI is pretty straightforward if you have a clear idea of your campaign goals and objectives. The easier it is for you to list a starting point, the easier it will be for your consultant to help you reach your goals and objectives.

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Marketing Automation Consultant

Choosing the right marketing automation consultant is simple if you’ve prepared ahead of time. From there, you can screen consultants the same way you would for any other consultant or professional. First, you outline your process, listing your goals and objectives, your current technology stack, decision-makers, influencers, etc. Second, you filter your providers through your process, ensuring each candidate meets the criteria you’ve set.

Here’s a shortlist of the criteria you can use to evaluate your consultants.

  1. They understand digital marketing. The best marketing automation consultants are marketers themselves. The ideal candidate is a marketing veteran who’s managed marketing campaigns from beginning to end throughout their career. You’re looking for someone who got their start as a marketer.
  2. They understand your business. Your marketing automation consultant should have an in-depth knowledge of your business — how it works, what you need, mistakes to avoid, etc. If you’re managing a retail or ecommerce company, your consultant should have experience managing marketing campaigns for retail or e-commerce companies. You’re looking for someone who has a native understanding of your business.
  3. They’re data-driven. Marketing automation requires a mix of art and science. You’ll need someone who loves to read through data but is skilled enough to explain it to the people on your team who aren’t data-driven. The ideal consultant can tell stories with data and helping your team make important decisions. 
  4. They’re proactive and knowledgeable. When it comes to automation, you shouldn’t be as knowledgeable as your consultant. They should be able to make recommendations and connections you weren’t even thinking of. They should be able to help you automate your campaigns in new ways; to increase your productivity by customizing your marketing stack.  

This checklist is pretty simple. 

A great marketing automation consultant should be able to handle everything we’ve covered so far comfortably. They should be able to break things down for you, showing you how to improve your plan, refine your goals and objectives, and add to your technology stack. 

They should be asking questions. 

If they’re good at what they do, they’ll have some questions and requirements of their own. 

Conclusion

While many organizations are switching to marketing automation, most don’t have a clear plan they can follow. Companies list a lack of know-how, strategy, or personnel as the reasons why they weren’t completely on board with marketing automation. 

That’s changing fast, though. 

More companies are investing in marketing automation. They’re taking the time to implement a strategy for their business. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing, especially as your company grows. 

With the right consultant and a clear strategy, you’ll have the people, process, and technology you need to grow your business quickly. 

The post Marketing Automation Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Analytics Consulting

Your analytics should tell you everything. 

Tools like Google Analytics are incredibly valuable for businesses. Once you’re setup, you’ll have everything you need to analyze your performance data properly. Instead, many companies have realized that their analytics tools have introduced a lot of unexpected problems. 

They’re not getting the kind of value they need. 

That’s the good news. Most companies think their data is clean; that they’re making good decisions with the data they have. Most of these companies are wrong; they just don’t know it yet. This is why companies need analytics consulting. They don’t know what they don’t know. 

Today, I’ll show you how to find the right analytics consultant for your business.  

4 Ways an Analytics Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

Many companies make the wrong assumptions. Using a tool like Google Analytics, clients think all they have to do is drop the tracking code into their web pages, log into their account, and begin analyzing their data. It sounds easy, but it often isn’t. 

There’s more to it than that. 

This is why you need an analytics consultant. With the right consultant, you’ll have the education you need to grow your business. You’ll be able to pull insights out of your data using a variety of methods. Each of these strategies is important because they have a cumulative effect on your business. 

Here are four ways analytics consulting can help you grow your business. 

1. Exclude spam traffic via bots, scrapers, and spiders

How much of your traffic comes from real visitors? How much of it comes from bots, scrapers, and spiders? According to Imperva, almost half of all internet traffic is non-human. In 2014, Google introduced an obscure setting that enables you to filter out bots and spiders listed in IAB’s Interactional Spiders and Bots list. This low-key setting is buried in Google Analytics, but it’s incredibly important; many small businesses still aren’t aware of this setting. 

You’ll also need help to filter out referral spam.

Referral spam is basically fake website hits; these bots, scrapers, and spiders land in your site. Site owners send their spam to your site. They hope you’ll see these referrals in your Google Analytics account, clickthrough, and visit their site. 

This junk traffic poisons your data. 

It gives you false readings based on inaccurate data. Your site may be more or less profitable, depending on your visits-to-spam ratio on your site. This isn’t something many businesses watch for in their analytics reports. 

A good analytics consultant will consistently filter the variations of spam traffic (e.g., direct spam traffic, referral spam traffic, etc.) out of your reports, so you get a clear picture of your marketing performance. 

2. Help you analyze your data properly

A lot of companies don’t know how to analyze their data properly. According to Forrester, between 60 and 73 percent of a company’s analytics data goes unused. Companies collect lots of data on customer activity, but they aren’t using it, why?

There are lots of reasons. 

  • Companies don’t know what they have 
  • Companies aren’t aware of the value of their data
  • They don’t know how to evaluate or analyze their data
  • Their data isn’t available to those who can use it 
  • There’s too much data to go through and not enough time to use it

Think about it. 

Right now, your company has valuable data about your customers. This is data you can use to attract more customers, lower expenses, grow faster, jump ahead of competitors, etc. 

If you’re unaware of the data, you can’t use it. 

A good analytics consultant will help you analyze your data properly, showing you what you have and how you can use it to grow your business. 

3. Identify the list of problems you’re trying to fix

Your data isn’t as valuable without context. 

If you know the problem you’re trying to solve, you have a pretty good idea of the answers you’re looking for in your data. 

That’s the problem though. 

A lot of companies treat their analytics tools as a technology issue. They focus their attention on the obvious issues like hardware or software. They rarely treat their analytics as a question and answer tool. That’s exactly what it is, though. 

Target had the right idea when they started their analysis with a problem/question. 

Remember the story?

“If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that?” It’s a creepy story that shows the power of questions and problems. A great analytics consultant will help you discover the issues you’re trying to solve and the questions that need answers. 

4. Focus your attention on the metrics that explain why

Analytics tells you what happened — what visitors did when they arrived on your site, the ads they responded to, what they read most often, etc. It doesn’t tell you why visitors do the things they do. Understanding what is important, but it’s more important to understand why something happens. 

Focusing on the right metrics is the answer. 

The right analytics consultant will help you answer the “what” — basically looking in the rearview mirror. But they’ll also help you look ahead; They’ll dig deeper, showing you the why behind visitor and customer behaviors. 

Your analytics consultant should provide you with the education and support you need to squeeze more value out of your data.

How to Get Started With an Analytics Consultant

Avinash Kaushik has a three-step framework he uses to help analytics consultants support their clients. He calls it Data Capture. Data Reporting. Data Analysis. The nice part about this framework is the fact that it’s easy for both clients and consultants. 

Consultants can use each of these buckets to analyze your goals, objectives, and the results they want to accomplish with each. 

You’re basically goal setting with this framework.

Here’s a closer look at each of these three buckets and the goals for each of these. 

  1. Data Capture: Work in this bucket is focused on audits or updating data capture methods (e.g., updating, editing, or customizing tags). This step is especially important because it determines the quality of what comes afterward. If you’ve done a good job with your data capture methods, you’ll have accurate data and reporting you can use for your analysis. 
  2. Data Reporting: Your consultant sets up the reports you need on the intervals required. Your consultants help you identify the reports you’ll need, and they provide you with the reports you need regularly. 
  3. Data Analysis: This is what Avinash calls an open-ended assignment, but it’s one you’ve provided to your consultant. You’re asking them to answer specific questions for you — your consultant should be able to show you what to measure, what your data is saying, what to do based on your data, and why you should do it. 

Here’s what this means for you. 

You’ll want to find an analytics consultant or agency that can handle all three steps in this framework. This also means you’ll need a clear idea of problems you’re dealing with ahead of time. 

Measuring the ROI of Analytics Consulting Services

Many companies don’t understand analytics.

If you don’t understand analytics, that’s okay; you just need to know whether you’re generating a return on your analytics investment. According to Nucleus Research, analytics returns $13.01 for every $1 invested. 

Your consultant should be able to calculate your return on analytics investment. 

This obviously much easier if your consultant is focused on the data analysis bucket. Suppose they’ve made several data-driven improvements to your site over three to six months. Their recommendations have lead to an increase in revenue, profit, or a return on investment for you. They should be able to verify your return on investment using the worksheet I’ve linked above. 

The good news is the fact that analytics, as a discipline, is data-driven.

Checklist For Finding the Right Analytics Consultant

Choosing the right analytics consultant requires a very different set of skills. If you’re working with an independent analytics consultant, you’ll need to approach this in one of two ways. 

  1. Choose a consultant with all of the skills needed to perform across all three buckets (data capture, reporting, analysis). 
  2. Choose an agency with analysts and implementation specialists needed to generate the results you need. 

Here’s a list of the skills needed for each of the three roles in your buckets. Avinash breaks these skills down in detail in his web analytics consulting framework post. 

Here’s a quick summary. 

  • For the data capture bucket, your consultant should have the skills of an implementation specialist. They’re experienced with tag managers; they understand data dimensioning and working knowledge of tracking variables. 
  • With the data reporting bucket, your consultant should be familiar with report creation in your analytics platform; they should also have a master list of the custom reports you’ll need for various options. It’s also ideal if your consultant has a working knowledge of his own set of customizations. 
  • For the data analysis bucket, your consultant should be a web analyst. Your consultant should be comfortable with advanced statistics and analytical techniques. They should be experienced in descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. 

If you’re working with an independent consultant, they should be an industry veteran with the skills I’ve listed above. If you’re working with an agency, they should have employees with the skills for each bucket. If you have implementation specialists, you can handle data capture and possibly reporting. 

Just make sure they’re a fit for that role. 

Conclusion

Many companies aren’t familiar with analytics consulting. They’re not entirely sure how analytics impacts their organization. That’s okay, as long as the ROI is there. 

Using a tool like Google Analytics, many companies assume that all they need to do is customize the tracking code, drop it onto their web pages, log into their account, and begin analyzing their data. It should be that easy, but it isn’t. 

There’s more to it than that. 

With most companies, their analytics data goes unused, they collect lots of data on customer activity, but they don’t know how to squeeze value out of their data. Analytics consulting can help you evaluate your performance data properly. Choose the right team,  and your data will tell you what you need to know. 

The post Analytics Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Adwords Consulting

Google AdWords can be both exciting and terrifying.

If you get it right, AdWords could totally transform your business by driving high traffic, generating more leads and revenue, and boosting sales.

But if you get it wrong, you‘ll end up spending thousands of dollars and get absolutely nothing in return.

Let’s consider the following statistics:

However, the tantalizing world of advertisements isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

You see, neither the promises nor problems that come with Google AdWords can fully describe the dynamic mechanism of a marketing platform and how it works.

Additionally, you may not have the time or may not be able to give the required attention to understand the intricacies related to it.

Have no doubt though – it is possible to make money on AdWords, but you need to have the right guidance. 

So if you want to use your Google ads account to its full potential, you should definitely consider hiring an AdWords consultant.

Our team at Neil Patel Digital will help you through the process of hiring a suitable consultant for your business that can help you grow and prosper, along with getting other benefits.

4 Ways an Adwords Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

45%.

That’s the number of small businesses that have already started using pay-per-click or PPC advertising to reach customers. 

So if you find your sales dwindling, you now know the reason why.

Incorporating Google AdWords into your marketing strategy is the only way you won’t fall behind. Instead, you can boost your brand awareness, get more leads, and increase sales – all at the same time!

However, without an AdWords consultant, the whole process can become time-consuming, costly, and of course, prone to errors.

Here are our top four reasons why you should take the plunge and get yourself a consultant.

Manage and Improve Quality Score

Google wants to connect searchers with organic content and advertisements that most closely align with what they’re looking for.

And let us tell you beforehand that things haven’t been easy. 

For years, Google had a problem with companies using and bidding on keywords that were unrelated to the actual keyboard they bid.

End results? Aggravated and confused users.

Precisely why the Quality Score system was created.

It’s a dynamic variable that looks at different aspects of your ad and campaign, with each keyword having its own score that affects your ad rank and cost per click. 

Hence, it becomes crucial to know whether or not a specific keyword or campaign can be profitable for your company.

Plus, if you have a higher Quality Score, you‘ll get a discounted price on each click. So a Quality Score of 10 provides a discount of 30% on every click – this gives you plenty of wiggle room for your advertising campaign.

A Google AdWords consultant can improve the Quality Score for any campaigns by doing the following:

  • Segmenting campaigns around smaller targeted ad groups to increase the relevance of ads.
  • Since ads that contain keywords of the search are more relevant than ads that don’t, a consultant optimizes AdWords ad copy to increase click-through rates of the ads.
  • Creating laser-targeted landing pages.
  • Decreasing website load times to provide better experiences to users.

Ultimately, improving your Quality Score can have a positive effect on your AdWords campaign’s profitability, allowing you to reach more customers and improve your ROI.

Staying Ahead in the Competition

If your competitors are already using PPC advertising, there is a higher possibility for you to fall behind.

But utilizing Google ads can level the playing field even if you have a limited advertising budget – just use the expertise of your ads specialist to get ahead.

A consultant can ensure you use the right ad tools and strategies without maximizing your budget. Plus, they think of intelligent tactics to make you closer to your end goals.

This will enable you to attract high-quality leads to your business without wasting money, while your competitors still dig through low-quality prospects.

Deliver Fast Results

Visitors who land on your website through Google ads are 50% more likely to purchase than organic visitors.

Hence, if you get your campaigns right – something that an experienced consultant can ascertain – you‘re assured faster and immediate results. 

In fact, you can have your campaigns up and running within days if you contact an experienced team who is well-versed in Google ads.

This is due to several factors.

Firstly, the consultant has access to expert Google ad tools, so you don’t have to waste money paying for these tools yourself. Moreover, they can develop a list of target keywords and provide key insights into your target audience and competitors.

All these efforts will help develop a stronger campaign for your company, ensuring better customer targeting.

The best part here is that unlike search engine optimization, AdWords work immediately. 

You won’t have to wait to see results. Instead, you can generate and start nurturing leads immediately.

Write Convincing Copy and Design Effective Landing Pages

Landing pages play a crucial role in the success of your campaign. 

While some consultants offer an in-house solution for landing page design, others might contract out to a designer or company to help them.

Either way, you need an excellent landing page since your campaign’s conversion rate and Quality Score are dependent on it.

Additionally, these specialists are well-versed in the art of copywriting, which helps convey your value and offer better to your audience. They can make the copy persuasive too by including the following key components:

  • An attention-grabbing headline
  • A compelling story
  • Social proof in the form of case studies, testimonials, and so on
  • Adding a personalized touch
  • Making customer-focused copy
  • Adding a call to action

How to Get Started With an Adwords Consultant

Hiring a consultant can be the first step to make your Google AdWords campaign a success, but you shouldn’t bring just anybody onboard – you need to do your homework.

Getting the Hiring Right

The first you should do is make sure your consultant is Google AdWords-certified. 

The individual should’ve passed exams, undergone quarterly training to refresh their skills and knowledge, and be familiar with the technical side of AdWords. 

Eventually, all this knowledge and expertise can help them realize profits from your website or blog.

It would be even better if they are a Google Ads partner. 

You see, Google Partners is a special certification from Google that shows a Google ad manager who has experience managing campaigns, along with a Google certification in at least one specialized area of Google ads.

Use this list of questions to find the right AdWords consultant:

  • How many years of experience do you have in PPC management?
  • What kinds of PPC campaigns have you managed? Who are your past clients?
  • Have you ever maintained internal lists of negative keywords?
  • Can you explain your campaign optimization process?
  • Do you offer search engine optimization services and paid search? Will you be willing to do social media advertising if I want to expand?

You can ask these questions whether you hire the freelancers on platforms, such as Reddit or Upwork, or opt for a team of seasoned consultants by filling out an inquiry form.

Holding Discovery Sessions for Efficient Goal-Setting

After choosing a consultant, you should hold frequent meetings to make sure everybody is on the same page and clear out any doubts about your business goals and budget.

Discovery sessions can be an excellent opportunity to communicate your expectations from the ad campaigns, whether it involves increasing brand awareness and reach, sales, leads, or website traffic. 

If you want to establish a loyal customer base and want your target audience to consider your company’s products and brands before your competitors, you’ll have to let the consultant know.

Review the Campaign Strategy

This stage is where your chosen consultant should shine. 

They should use their expertise and knowledge to chalk out a draft of the marketing campaign and help you develop SMART goals. 

These are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. In other words, goals that can help you grow your business in the longer run.

For instance, you may want to increase your sales of Product A by 25% before the end of the first quarter – the framework should reflect on how to achieve it.

Review the whole plan and suggest changes if needed. If you aren’t happy with anything, make sure you let the AdWords consultant know. 

Launch the Campaign

A learning curve is involved whenever you launch an ad campaign.

Setting unrealistic expectations will always leave you disappointed, so you need to have an open mind.

The first few weeks after your campaign goes live, your consultant will get an idea about the preferences of your target audience and the type of content that creates better engagement. They can then use these insights to come up with better strategies to boost Google ad’s appeal.

The main thing here is to get the ball rolling. After all, it’s the only way to get access to first-hand data to ensure future success.

Monitoring and Reporting

Most consultants will provide you monthly reports to keep you in the loop throughout the lifetime of your AdWords campaign.

Make sure the reports cover crucial data points as total ad spend, number of clicks, click-through rate, and number of conversions. You can also ask the consultant to calculate important KPIs like cost per acquisition, to determine the overall ROI.

Continued monitoring will help smoothen the whole process and allow you to make adjustments to improve campaign performance.

Measuring the ROI of Adwords Consulting Services

How do you measure and define success?

Along with having a vision for your campaigns, a consultant worth their salt should help you define the best metrics to gauge the success of every campaign. 

The best way to do so is to determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) are best to keep track of your campaigns and make sure that they are working as intended.

Accurate Conversion Tracking

Setting a conversion tracking should be given top priority.

Website clicks don’t always translate to sales. Hence, it’s crucial to track the click from the ad to the completion of the sale. 

This can be done through phone call leads, call tracking, or until the visitor sees the final “Thank You“ page.

Targeting the Right Search Terms

Another crucial aspect for measuring ROI for Google ads, you should ensure all your ads are targeting buying-intent keywords rather than research-intent keywords. 

In the end, ROI is determined by the overall sales resulting from ad clicks.

Distinguishing between keywords is the expert‘s job, so it’s better to leave that to your consultant. Moreover, the consultant should keep testing your keywords over time and measure the results to make smarter decisions about keyboard biddings.

Considering Bid Price

Your ROI will be positive when your sales revenue exceeds ad cost.

That’s the easy part.

However, understanding what bids to use for every keyword to generate the desired ROI is incredibly tricky.

To determine this, you need to first calculate earnings per click, which is the total amount of revenue you generate per click on your ads. This will always vary from keyword to keyword.

Let’s take an example to understand earnings per click better:

Suppose you generate $200 for conversion, and the conversion rate is 2%. In this case, your earnings per click will be $4, or in other words, you‘re generating $4 in revenue for every click. 

This also means if you bid and pay more than $4, you’ll end up making a loss, and your ROI will be negative.

The next step here is to measure the cost per click or CPC. Now that you know your earnings per click, you can calculate your bid price to generate your desired ROI.

Let’s continue with the above example.

If your desired ROI is 50% and your earnings per click are $4. then your target CPC will be $4 / (ROI + 1), which is $2.67.

Other KPIs

In addition to the above, you can consider the following KPIs for improving your campaigns:

  • Impressions
  • Impression rate
  • Click-through rates
  • Clicks
  • Quality Score

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right AdWords Consultant

The following is a quick checklist to hire the best AdWords consultant for your brand who can successfully deliver results and understands the required know-how:

Expertise to Deliver What You Want

You’ve used the help of an AdWords consultant and have finally launched a campaign, but is it successful?

The only way that the campaign will be deemed successful if the outcome is aligned with your marketing goals. Whether it’s getting more leads, boosting sales, establishing a loyal buyer base – whatever you want.

Once you figure out your objectives, make sure that you clearly communicate it with the prospects.

The candidate should assure you they have the necessary expertise to get the job done. 

They should be able to create excellent landing pages, write attention-grabbing and persuasive copy, and employ expert tools for better performances and get insights about your target audience.

Team Makeup

Find out whether the consultancy is a one-man show or is really a proper agency.

It’s better to opt for a company that comprises several experienced and expert team members. This will give you access to lots of experience, lots of resources, and of course, more man power.

Ask yourself: Would you want your AdWords account to be neglected just because your lone consultant has come down with the flu?

Having a full-fledged team facilitates better strategic decisions and a higher profitability possibility as well.

Now, we aren’t saying you won’t find solo experts who know AdWords inside and out despite not having any staff to support them. They are mostly exceptions, though, and limited in number.

An Exemplary Portfolio of Clients

Experience is important.

The consultant should be able to show you tangible proof about past clients and not just hear-say. Make sure they have previous experience in your industry and can work with your budget.

Familiarity with your industry will give them a better idea of the kind of keywords to start targeting, and having worked with budgets similar to yours will help them effectively manage money every month.

So it’ll be a win-win situation for you either way.

Ability to Create a Winning AdWords Strategy 

Whether you opt for a full-fledged company or a freelancer, AdWords consultancy will have unique processes depending on who you choose?

Regardless of the process, your main priority should be to make every campaign as exclusive and appealing as possible. The consultant must have an innovative thought process backed by technical know-how and a persuasive style of doing things.

Wrapping Up

Choosing an AdWords consultant should give you a higher ROI, either in the long-run or short run.

They should know the right search terms to target, choose the best bid price, and measure the overall revenue correctly to determine the level of success of every campaign.

At Neil Patel Digital, we have a superb team with years of experience and knowledge. We’re well-versed in the best AdWords practices, and also offer additional programs like SEO and content creation to maximize performance and results. 

Get the ball rolling by contacting us here.

The post Adwords Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

PPC Consulting

You have developed a killer website and drafted an effective marketing strategy to generate leads and drive sales.

So what next?

Considering paid advertising offers a 200% ROI, it’s a no-brainer that your marketing strategy should incorporate the same.

“But I have no idea where to start with Google ads – in fact, I don’t know where to begin at all!”

Well, even if that’s the case, you still have nothing to worry about.

You can hire a PPC consultant who can enhance your paid advertising campaigns by offering a unique set of skills coupled with experience and expertise.

Choosing the right consultant, however, can be challenging if you don’t know what to look for in a PPC expert, which is where we come in.

Our team at Neil Patel Digital has created this handy guide to help you find the best PPC consultant for your business – one that can manage your campaigns, keep up with continuous algorithm updates, and deliver results.

Let’s start with how a PPC consultant can help you grow your business.

5 Ways a PPC Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

What is the primary reason that people hire PPC consultants? Maximizing business performance.

People who run an online business question the need for launching pay-per-click campaigns, and whether it’s the right thing to do.

We have to clear one thing out before we talk about the benefits of hiring expert help – it IS worth it!

That said, let’s take a look at what a good PPC consultant can do to help you grow your business. 

Thorough Market Research and Plan of Action

A PPC consultant can be your go-to when you‘re unable to do market research, execute the right type of strategies, or launch successful marketing campaigns that help you achieve your business objectives. 

Additionally, you can also make critical mistakes when you work without experience – something that can cost you significant money or achieve zero results.

On the other hand, there are other solid reasons why you should hire a professional. 

A PPC consultant will prioritize your marketing campaigns and think of the intelligent implementation of paid marketing tactics that can enhance campaigns. You’ll also get better and more relevant marketing strategies to drive your online sales.

In the end, you‘ll have better pay-per-click management that will give you more exposure in search engines.

Precise Targeting for Higher Conversion Rates

A savvy PPC manager can be doubly beneficial for your business.

With their help, you‘re assured of wiser PPC decision-making that can cause a decrease in expenses and increase conversion rates. 

Plus, PPC experts can analyze your data and make required adjustments that can lower your cost per lead for a higher ROI.

As for conversion rates, they can use their experience and expertise to implement tactics, such as using precise keywords and put your sales team in contact with quality leads. All the efforts are targeted towards a specific audience in your niche that can be niched down according to location, gender, age, interests, and of course, keywords.

Audience targeting should always be strategic and carefully executed. It’s the only way to avoid wasting your money on paid campaigns – something that a PPC expert can help you with.

The best part is all this requires minimal effort on your part, and even the PPC consultant’s due to their specialized knowledge.

Compelling Ads That Actually Convert

Make no mistake, writing an attention-grabbing ad copy is an easy task – but only at the surface. In fact, knowing how to create a PPC ad can have a massive impact on the ads click-through rate.

You need expert help to create a truly artistic strategy to attain ad campaign success. A PPC consultant is well versed in the know-how to create an effective ad copy that appeals to your target customer and can relate to their interests. They can also use the necessary keywords for optimization to rank higher in search engines.

So with the help of a professional, not only will your ad get more exposure, but you’ll also experience an increase in your conversions.

Years of Experience

You may already be aware of how experience often translates to expertise.

Reputable PPC professionals have years of experience working with a diverse clientele, which helps them contribute to their profit-making campaigns. 

These experts have the backing of innovative skills and knowledge to keep your ads updated and in sync with the latest web trends that can be the driving factor of your paid campaigns.

You shouldn’t worry about the money you might pay for a consultant. Instead, it’s the time wasted when trying to learn Google or Amazon that should be a worrying factor. Unsatisfactory results are another disadvantage when you take on PPC without prior knowledge.

Moreover, a professional will dedicate their whole time to your projects and make sure you set the right bid amount according to the order value, ACoS goals, and conversion thanks to their greater understanding of bid management.

Time-Saving

Pay-per-click marketing can be equal parts challenging and time-consuming, especially for those who aren’t experts.

A PPC professional can help you launch and monitor all your ad campaigns, along with making minor adjustments that could potentially boost your sales. Also, when you turn the work over to these consultants, you’ll be able to focus on other aspects of your online business.

How to Get Started With a PPC Consultant

If you haven’t worked with a PPC company before, it’s hard to know what to expect.

Right from hiring the right PPC consultant to holding meetings right till the final launch – you need to draft a roadmap that explicitly illustrates your end goal as well as milestones to stay on the right track.

Below, we have streamlined the details of every phase to help you understand what to expect when working with a PPC consultant.

Hiring the best PPC consultant for your business

The first step here is to find the right PPC consultant to get started in your paid marketing journey. And the best way to go about this? Research and look at the credentials of respective candidates.

There are two ways to go about this. You can use online hiring platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, and Reddit, where you’ll post a detailed project description, along with the requirements. You can then choose a freelancer profile from the applied candidates.

If you plan on recruiting seasoned consultants – something which we highly recommend – you’ll have to fill up an inquiry form and then schedule a discovery call.

Whatever be your marketplace of choice, determining the abilities of the prospective candidate remains the same. Ask the prospect the following questions to understand whether they are the right fit or not:

  • Are you Google-certified?
  • Do you offer a free assessment?
  • Who will own the account?
  • Will you provide ongoing management of the account or solely look after the setup?
  • How do you measure success, and what are the deliverables?
  • Are you familiar with Google Analytics?

It’s best to look for consultants who possess the Google AdWords Certified Partner designation since they are likely to understand the latest trends, techniques, and technology relevant in the world of PPC advertising. 

A thorough understanding of account setup and management, analytics and reporting, and optimization in areas such as video, search, and mobile advertising, are also crucial.

Remember, it’s your money, and the prospective PPC consultant should respect that and be willing to clear any doubts.

Have a Discovery Session

It’s the job of the PPC consultant to do everything they can to learn more about your business objectives and what you’re looking for, which is precisely why discovery and onboarding are a crucial part of any new PPC project.

Here are a few key points that your meeting should cover:

  • Your budget, which includes monthly ad spent
  • Goals you wish to achieve through your PPC campaign
  • What are the USPs of your business when compared to your competitors
  • Landing page optimization tactics to increase conversions
  • Detailed observation of your target audience that includes platforms to use, shopping trends, and location

Take this chance to share everything you have with your PPC consultant – even if it doesn’t feel relevant. The consultant must be aware of your expectations and budget.

Planning and Testing

After understanding your business, target audience, and marketing goals, the next step is to plan the upcoming campaign. In addition to this, defining critical metrics and KPIs are essential as well.

The consultant may run a small, inexpensive pilot campaign to test different aspects, such as audience segments, copy, and execution. This can give you key insights about the preferences of your target audience and a deeper understanding in general of how to proceed forward.

The Final Execution 

Finally, at this stage, you launch the full campaign.

The full-scale execution of the campaign can be short-term, long-term, or ongoing, depending on your needs. You can expect consistent feedback and thorough reporting from the consultant that outlines everything about the campaign, and the final results once it’s over.

Remember, monitoring results and adjusting the budget are all a part of the campaign. The consultant should use the insights collected, along with your feedback, to improve the ad strategy for better results.

In case the consultant doesn’t offer management services, they will only set up the account.

Measuring the ROI of PPC Consulting Services

What’s the point of launching a PPC campaign if you cannot measure the return on your investment?

Is your campaign strategy correct? Are the ads effective in generating leads and sales for your business? Is it profitable? – these are important questions that you need answers to.

The only way to determine the success of a campaign is to measure the ROI.

That said, there are various KPIs, which is why you need to have an efficient tactic in place to choose the relevant ones. For this purpose, you need to figure out the following:

  • Understand the goals of your campaign – whether you want more click-throughs, more leads, or higher sales. The ultimate goal, of course, is to increase conversions and reduce CPA. But there are other things you should consider as well, such as monitoring impression share and the effectiveness of your ads in generating clicks (CPR).
  • You can even consider setting SMART goals to measure the overall progress and success of your goal.
  • Figure out about what success means to you and then define it to your consultant.
  • Monitor the KPIs closely and then reevaluate if there is still any discrepancy.

The following are the most crucial PPC KPIs that you should consider:

  • The average click-through rate
  • The quality score of your ad content
  • The impression share that tells you how many people has have seen your ad
  • The average cost-per-click (CPC)
  • The conversion rate
  • The cost for action/cost per conversion
  • The average position of your ad

Tracking ROI is a dynamic process with no uniform rules to follow. Make sure you choose your KPIs after setting realistic goals for your business, which, in turn, can help you achieve your goals.

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right PPC Consultant

If you’re still wondering how you can hire the best PPC consultant for your company who has the necessary understanding and expertise to deliver results, here’s a quick checklist to make things easier for you.

Experience in Driving Results

You’ll find several PPC consultants claiming to be the best and how they can help you achieve your goals.

But do they really have the expertise and experience to back their claims?

Figure out whether the consultant has previously worked with clients in your niche and is aware of how your business ecosystem, your competition, and your audience work. The idea here is to fast-track your campaign strategy, creation, and management processes.

Knowledge About PPC Best Practises and Tools

PPC can be a very complicated process, which is why you need a consultant that has the knowledge to keep up with the latest practices.

Having access to the right PPC tools is also important. Essential aspects like analytics and reporting and intent-driven keyword selection, along with first-party data sources and strategic partnerships, work together to enhance the efficiency of campaigns.

Find out the tools that the consultant uses, whether it’s Google Analytics, Certified Knowledge, Excel, and Adalysis.

Diverse Client Portfolio

Examine the companies on the prospective consultant’s portfolio. You‘ll be surprised at how useful this can be to detect whether they are the right fit for your business or not.

You see, a good PPC consultant should always demonstrate hands-on experience and have a diverse clientele. This equips them with a better understanding to create effective paid campaigns that appeal to your target audience, irrespective of their thought process and ideologies.

Testimonials From Past Clients

Testimonials help gain a sense of the caliber of the businesses that have trusted them in the past.

By going through what past customers have said about their services will give you an idea about their professionalism and whether they are capable of providing a comfortable and satisfactory working experience.

Wrapping Up

The world of PPC marketing isn’t simple.

You need experienced consultants to create and execute well-thought-out campaigns that can help you achieve your business objectives and keep any losses at the minimum.

Hiring a consultant can be your first step to ensure positive returns on your investment and establish a loyal customer base.

Want somebody seasoned and enjoys a stellar reputation when it comes to delivering results? Get in touch with experts from Neil Patel Digital here.

The post PPC Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Digital Marketing Consulting

66% of Americans check their phone 160 times a day. That’s a lot.

When we’re not on our phones, we might be browsing the web on a laptop, playing a multiplayer game online, watching Netflix on a Smart TV and so on… The point is, we’re bound to a digital world which means that every business needs some form of online presence these days. 

The trouble is digital marketing trends change all the time. How are you supposed to keep up?

Furthermore, you can give digital marketing your best attempt but who’s to say that your competitors won’t one-up you? Because people are always coming up with new, more effective marketing tactics.

But, don’t fret. A digital marketing consultant can help you upgrade your online strategy.

5 Ways a Digital Marketing Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

A digital marketing consultant will help you grow your business through strategy and planning. This is important as marketers who make the effort to plan campaigns and projects are 356% more likely to report success.

Here’s what a digital marketing consultant can do for you:

1. Develop an Effective Digital Marketing Strategy

A consultant can put together a detailed, actionable digital marketing strategy based on your business objectives. They’ll do this by conducting in-depth analyses of your current position and target audience.

This will likely begin with a SWOT analysis which assesses Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It will provide great insight into how you run your business, the efficacy of your marketing, your position in the competitive market and more.

Audience research will likely result in creating buyer personas. The consultant will figure out how best to reach your audience through digital marketing, including their preferred marketing channels.

With all of this information a consultant can determine the best overarching strategies, platforms to target and define a set list of tasks that will help you grow your business.

2. Create a High-Converting Sales Strategy

Want to increase sales or generate more leads? A digital marketing consultant can also help you with your advertising strategy.

Paid ads drive traffic and increase sales. For every $1 spent on Google ads you get $2 in revenue.

Google isn’t the only advertising channel available to you, however. A consultant will determine which advertising channel will get you the best ROI, whether that’s Google, native advertising, paid social media ads, video ads or other placements.

They will also determine the other aspects that contribute to a successful campaign, such as audience segmentation, keywords, duration and budget.

A consultant can plan impactful ad campaigns for you from start to finish.

3. Establish Useful KPIs

You may already have an idea of what your marketing goals are. But how will you know if you’re making progress towards those goals?

A digital marketing consultant will guide you on which key performance indicators and metrics you should track according to your specific objectives and strategies.

They’ll help you create a system by which you can measure and report on the performance of your projects. They can also direct you to the right analytics tools and software.

This will help you keep track of business growth and make changes where necessary.

4. Suggest Innovative Ideas

Another awesome thing about working with a digital marketing consultant is that they have a fresh, unbiased perspective on your strategy.

As experts in the field of digital marketing, they’re up-to-date on the latest trends. So, they’re able to come up with cutting-edge ideas that’ll drive growth for your business.

For example, some of the latest digital marketing trends are:

  • The rise of programmatic advertising
  • The introduction of visual search
  • The shift towards interactive content

If you’re looking to do something unique as in the above examples to gain a competitive edge then a digital marketing consultant could be a massive help.

5. Drive Growth on Multiple Channels

An omnichannel approach to digital marketing is necessary these days. One reason is that people come into contact with your brand at multiple touchpoints before making a purchase. Furthermore, you can reach more people that prefer or use different channels.

The best digital marketing consultants are experienced in a range of platforms and marketing activities from SEO to email marketing to social media. 

Therefore, they can help you create consistent campaigns that get results across multiple marketing channels, with particular emphasis on the channels that make most sense for your target audience.

How to Get Started with Digital Marketing Consulting

If you want to get the most value from working with a digital marketing consultant, there are a couple of things you need to do to prepare:

1. Set Clear Expectations

Any digital marketing consultant worth their salt will do their best to make you happy. But, that can only happen if you set clear expectations from the beginning.

After an initial consultation, you’ll work with a consultant over one or more sessions per month or order their time by the hour. Discuss what you expect to achieve and in what number of sessions. Then the consultant can do their best to make that happen. 

To give you an example, you might say that by session six you hope to have increased blog traffic by 10%. If you need it, a consultant can help you set realistic expectations.

Other expectations you may want to share:

  • Which tasks you want them to prioritize
  • Your preferred method of communication
  • How often you wish to receive updates

2. Share Access

There are certain assets and accounts a digital marketing consultant will need access to in order to do their job. This is why it’s important to work with a consultant that you can trust.

Firstly, they’ll want to view any existing reports and data. You’ll need to provide access to your Google Analytics, social media accounts (to view social analytics) and other relevant accounts. 

Furthermore, you’ll need to share relevant documentation related to your business. For example, this might be existing audience research, market analysis, branding guidelines, your mission statement and the like.

Naturally, you should only divulge what you’re comfortable with and what you feel is relevant. The purpose of sharing these things is simply so that the consultant can learn as much about your operations as possible to make informed, strategic decisions.

Measuring the ROI of Digital Marketing Consulting Services

ROI refers to the profit you gain in relation to the cost of your investment. To calculate ROI, you might use a formula, such as this one from HubSpot:

Let’s break down what each of these terms means:

  • Number of leads – how many leads did the campaign produce?
  • Lead-to-customer rate – how many of those leads became customers?
  • Average sales price – what is the average product price?
  • Cost or ad spend – what were your costs? This includes ad spend or the cost of creating content, as well as the digital marketing consultant fee.

When calculating ROI, bear in mind that there are variables to consider. Let’s say for example that a campaign generates a lot of leads, but an ineffective sales team or lead nurturing strategy could fail to turn those leads into customers. This will, of course, impact ROI. There may even be other, wider variables, such as the state of the economy.

Furthermore, what you gain from digital marketing campaigns depends on your objectives. In some cases, it’s better to think of what you’ve gained or achieved in relation to your goals rather than placing the emphasis on monetary values.

Sometimes, you should measure the ROI of digital marketing consulting services according to key performance indicators. Have they helped you succeed in generating brand awareness, increasing rankings, improving click-through-rates of emails etc?

All in all, just remember that ROI doesn’t necessarily mean dollar amounts. You may make huge gains in other areas of your business that will result in sales later, help you retain customers, gain authority for your brand and so on.

5 Point Checklist for Finding the Right Digital Marketing Consultant

Hiring a digital marketing consultant is an investment in the future of your business. This one act has the potential to skyrocket your marketing performance.

Thus, it’s vital you find the right one. Here are the qualities you need to look out for:

1. The Right Expertise

Choose a digital marketing consultant with the expertise that matches your needs. If you’re looking for something specific e.g. content marketing make sure it’s one of their main specialities.

It’d also be beneficial to find a consultant with experience and expertise in your industry. Research what kind of clients they’ve worked with in the past. Let’s say you run an e-commerce store, you’ll need to look for consultants with a great track record of driving growth for online stores.

Also, check out the size and type of business they usually work with. It’s another indicator as to whether they can help you specifically.

2. Able to Deliver

Do their strategies get results? Are they able to deliver on your KPIs and help you reach your milestones?

There are a few ways you can work this out. You can look for case studies when researching a consultancy online. Or ask for relevant examples of successful campaigns when you interview a consultant.

You can also look at their ability to market themselves as a consultant or firm. If they have a strong online presence and a great client roster, then they’re able to produce the same results for your biz.

3. Credible

Did you know that I’m an excellent figure skater…

Just kidding.

The point I’m making here is that anybody can make any claim they like. You have to find proof that a digital marketing consultant is actually credible.

Can anybody vouch for them? Find reviews, testimonials and write-ups from trustworthy third parties online.

Accreditations also prove that a consultant is capable of doing what they say they can. Examples include Google and HubSpot certifications.

4. Knowledgeable

One key responsibility of a digital marketing consultant is to educate and prepare you for continued success. Furthermore, they need to be able to answer your questions and give you solid advice while you work together.

This means they need an in-depth knowledge of digital marketing best practices. So, it pays to work with a consultant that has lots of hands-on experience.

Furthermore, they need to be up-to-date on the latest trends and be confident in their knowledge of where digital marketing is headed in the years to come. That’s why I set up Neil Patel Digital with a group of highly-knowledgeable industry thought leaders:

5. On Your Wavelength

Do you  and the digital marketing consultant share the same vision when it comes to growing your business?

When researching consultants try to gain an understanding of their values and their approach. Get to know them and ask the right questions, such as:

  • How have you helped clients like me in the past?
  • How familiar are you with my industry?
  • Do you have any preliminary ideas for my strategy?
  • How much will you involve us in the process?
  • What happens when a strategy doesn’t work?

Their answers should help you assess whether they’re the right choice for you.

Conclusion

There are many reasons you may want to hire a digital marketing consultant. For instance, if you struggle to keep up with advancements in digital marketing. Or you just can’t seem to edge past your competitors.

A digital marketing expert can help you come up with marketing and sales strategies that drive growth. They’ll bring fresh ideas and help you dominate multiple channels. 

As long as you find a good one that is. 

When it comes to choosing a consultant to work with, find somebody that’s a good fit for you specifically, i.e. they get what you’re trying to do and have the relevant experience and expertise to meet your needs.

The post Digital Marketing Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

Reputation Management Consulting

How would you feel if your conversion rate grew by 120 percent? 

Research from Uberall shows that companies that move their aggregate review rating from 3.5 to 3.7 stars experience a 120 percent growth in conversions. If your review rating increases by 0.1, you can experience a conversion rate boost of 25 percent! 

If you’re familiar with reputation management, you understand the impact it can have on your business. If you’re like most business owners, you’re unsure how to build, protect, and use your reputation effectively. 

Reputation management solves that problem. 

Reputation management consulting gives you an actionable plan showing you how to build, protect, and amplify your reputation. 

7 Ways a Reputation Management Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business

When most people think of reputation management, consulting isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Most businesses automatically assume that they have the skills and training they need to manage their company’s reputation on their own. 

Many people think it’s just about getting reviews. 

Ask your customers to write reviews for you on Yelp or Google Reviews, and your reputation grows automatically. It’s fast, simple, and easy, and to a certain extent, it works. 

But it’s also not enough. 

This is why you need reputation management consulting. With the right support, you’ll: 

  1. Understand the different types of reputation: Consultants will help you identify whether your reputation is positive, mediocre, negative, or positive and negative. They’ll show you what the impact of each will be and how each will impact your business. 
  2. Understand where your reputation is strong or weak: Your reputation management campaigns should start with benchmarks. You’ll need to know where you’re doing well and the areas that need improvement. Your consultant should be able to prioritize the areas in your business that require your attention first. Do you need to improve product quality? Or should you focus on improving customer service first? Which review platforms will have the biggest impact on revenue? They should be able to answer these questions and provide you with a plan you can follow. 
  3. Know how to build your reputation: You build your reputation in several ways — product and service quality, customer service, awards and accolades, financial performance, results achieved for customers, etc. They’ll point out obvious but missed details; if your reviews are positive but your customer service is poor, it’ll eventually catch up with you. 
  4. Identify the tools, resources, and people you’ll need to build your reputation. Will you need third-party review management tools? Will each of these tools need login credentials? They should provide you with a list of the items you’ll need to run a reputation management campaign successfully. 
  5. How to use and amplify your reputation to grow your business: Most companies that understand the value of reputation management focus their attention on getting reviews. They’re not sure what to do with the reviews once they have them. Your consultant will show you how to use your reviews to attract more customers and lower advertising costs. They should also provide you with a plan that uses your reputation to increase your conversion rates and revenue. 
  6. Have what you need to protect your reputation: Your company can make all of the right moves and still end up with a poor reputation. Bad review blackmail, competitor fraud, bad customer behaviors, social or political missteps, and general crises are all issues that need to be addressed and prepared for. 
  7. Know how to repair your reputation: Your consultant will provide you with a crisis management plan that deals with any major or minor problems, and provides you with a recovery plan to bring your company back from any reputational disasters. Your consultant will provide you with a realistic timeframe. 

These are areas that you’ll need a consultant to help you with. 

How to Get Started With a Reputation Management Consultant

The consultant you choose can help you get started with the items you need ahead of time. But it’s better if you come into the relationship prepared and ready to work. Here’s a list of the items you’ll want to prepare ahead of time. 

  • Set goals, objectives, and KPIs for your campaigns: These will most likely change once you bring your consultant on, but you’ll want to have an idea of the goals you’re looking for ahead of time. Focus your attention on both internal and external goals. For example, an internal goal would be improved customer service ratings from customers who contact you via phone, live chat, or email. An external goal would be more four and five-star reviews on Yelp or Google reviews. 
  • Choose a point-of-contact and team that’s responsible for review management. Typically marketing, customer service, or sales receive the responsibility for review management. You’ll want to choose a single department and team, give them the decision-making authority and autonomy they need to manage your reputation. 
  • Create a governance policy: You’ll want to determine the specific people who will work with your consultant to implement the changes they recommend. You’ll also need to set legal guidelines that specify what your team should respond to, when they should respond, and how to do it. It can be as simple as deciding that you’ll respond to all reviews. This is also likely to change a bit once you have your consultant on board. 
  • Create and claim all of your review profiles: Make a list of the review sites in your industry; create an account for the mainstream, niche, industry-specific, and specialty sites. If you need to create an account specifically for your consultant, get that ready ahead of time. 
  • Share credentials and access: Your consultant may ask for access to third-party tools (i.e., Google Analytics). If you’re using third-party review management tools, they may request access for those as well. Depending on the consultant you choose, they may also need access to content management or web development tools. 
  • Set reporting requirements: You’ll want to set guidelines on your campaign reporting. How often do you want your consultant to provide you with campaign updates and reporting? Who should receive these reports? Owners and management, in addition to the team that’s responsible for reputation management? 

Your reputation management consultant will tell you what they need to get started, but it’s always best if you’re prepared ahead of time.

Measuring the ROI of Reputation Management Consulting Services

Measuring ROI is one of the biggest hurdles in consulting. Research from Consulting.us points to ROI as a problem. They found that 27 percent of the companies surveyed refused to hire consultants because it’s too hard to measure ROI. 

This doesn’t have to become a problem that keeps you from hiring a reputation management consultant. In fact, you already have the information you need to measure the ROI of reputation management. If you’ve done the upfront work of setting goals and KPIs for your campaigns, you already have what you need to measure your ROI. 

Work with your consultant to calibrate your goals upfront. 

You’ll want to get your consultant’s help with the goals, objectives, and KPIs you’ve set with your team. Your consultant should be able to tell you, at the beginning of your campaigns, whether your goals, objectives, and KPIs are realistic and in line with reality. 

If your goals aren’t realistic, your consultant should be able to explain why. 

If they are realistic, and both of you come to an agreement with the goals that you’ve set, measuring your ROI is easy. Just refer to the goals you set at the beginning of the relationship, then verify that your consultant has helped you to reach those goals. 

It’s a simple and easy way to make sure you’re getting the ROI you need to be profitable. 

4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Reputation Management Consultant

Choosing the right reputation management consultant doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult. You can approach the vetting process the same way you would for any other consultant or professional. You outline your values, expectations, and requirements ahead of time; then you find the providers that meet your criteria. 

Here’s a shortlist of the criteria you can use. 

1. A Stellar Reputation

Your reputation management consultant should have a stellar reputation in the industry. There shouldn’t be any questions about their legitimacy or doubts about their integrity. If a consultant has lots of negative reviews, poor feedback, or concerns about their standards, they’re not a good fit for your business. 

Look for customer feedback on public sites, forums, or social media. There should be a 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative feedback about their business. Ideally, you’re looking for a large mix of reviews, positive feedback, and buzz around their business online.  

2. A Proven Track Record

Your consultant should be able to provide you with case studies, testimonials, or references. You’ll want to hear from clients directly. You’re looking for evidence that shows you: 

  • How they work
  • The problems they solved
  • The results achieved
  • The way they served their clients

These details provide you with lots of materials you can work with. Some reputation management companies may write case studies where they conceal their client information, ignore those. Ask your consultant to provide you with one or two examples from clients who’ve decided to share their story. This makes it easier to do some basic fact-checking if something doesn’t sound right. 

3. Their Plan For Your Campaign

A great consultant will be able to give you a high-level overview of the strategies and tactics they’ll use to improve your reputation. They should lay their plans out in detail, covering important details like: 

  • The content they’ll create for you
  • How they plan to improve your reputation (with specifics)
  • Who they’ll ask to write about your business
  • How they’ll get others to talk about your business
  • How they respond to reviews and feedback
  • Their approach to SEO
  • Whether they’ll share content with you before posting it online

They should be open and completely transparent with you about your campaign. Anything less than that is a serious red flag. If your consultant is doing anything on your behalf, they must be transparent with you about their work. 

4. They Answer Your Questions 

You should be able to ask your consultant important questions about your campaign. They should provide you with clear answers to each of your questions and concerns. Here are some questions you may want to ask your consultants ahead of time. 

  • Will you see the content they post before it’s posted?
  • Do you have experience helping other clients in my industry? 
  • How would you respond to a legitimately angry customer? 
  • How do they plan on improving your reputation? 
  • How will an improved reputation accomplish your goals?

If the consultants you’re considering refuse to answer your questions or they’re evasive, it’s probably a good idea that you choose a different consultant. 

Feel free to expand on these criteria and add the details you’re looking for on an as-needed basis. 

Conclusion

Reputation management has a huge impact on your business. If you’re looking for a consultant to help you with your campaigns, you probably already know that. 

When most people think of reputation management, consulting isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Many companies aren’t interested in hiring consultants because they don’t know how to measure ROI.  It’s common for businesses to assume that they have the skills and training they need to manage their company’s reputation on their own. 

Use this guide to find the reputation management consultants you need.  Choose your values, expectations, and requirements first; then create a list of consultants who fit that list. The consultants you find will be able to help you meet your goals. 

The post Reputation Management Consulting appeared first on Neil Patel.

SEO Consulting

Do you want to outrank all of your competitors on Google?

Of course, you do. After all more traffic equals more followers.

And more followers leads to more new customers buying your products and services.

But outranking your competitors with well-optimized SEO pages is not that easy.

You need to use a proven strategy that’s going to work for your specific business.

Search Engine Optimization is a long term commitment.

If you’re going to get into it, you’d better ensure results through well-thought-out SEO strategies customized for your specific website.

Luckily, there are two things you can do to maximize your SEO results.

  1. Hire an SEO marketing agency with a proven track record like NP Digital
  2. Hire an SEO Consultant who can build your entire SEO strategy.

Today we’re going to focus on the second option — How to choose the best SEO Consulting Services for your business.

So if you’re searching for the best way to guarantee your website ranking spot, you’re going to find the answer further down this post.

The Top 3 Options For SEO Consulting:

  1. Neil Patel Digital for the best Blog and Website SEO Consulting
  2. Louder.Online for dedicated Sales Funnel SEO Consulting
  3. Ecommerce Guide for dedicated Ecommerce SEO Consulting

How to Choose The Best SEO Consulting For You

You need to look at a couple of important factors if you want to find the SEO Consulting Services that are going to help rank your website optimally. 

Many SEO Agencies and SEO Consultants offer multiple ways to improve your ranking. And there’s nothing wrong with that…

You just have to find which are the most profitable ones for you.

So if you don’t want to get lost in ideas and actually implement the best practices in the world, here’s what we specifically look for when searching for SEO Consulting Services:

#1 Detailed SEO Strategy Development

Before you hire an SEO consultant/agency, you need to make an introduction call.

Your goal for the call is to see if the person speaking with you is an actual expert.

How do you do that if you don’t understand SEO?

Simple!

See if the consultant on the other side is focused on helping you understand the process.

Even the toughest methodology can be explained through simple and result-oriented language.

If you feel like you’re speaking to a robot that just knows to recite his script, then he’s not the expert for you.

But if the consultant actually develops the SEO Strategy and explains it well on the call, then you know you’re talking with a real professional.

Then you move on to the next step:

#2 Monthly Content Calendar and Scheduling

Having a Content Calendar is the only way to not get lost in the tons of articles, blog posts, and pages you’re about to optimize.

The first step is to agree upon an optimal strategy with your consultant.

Then you need to make sure everything’s going according to plan at all times.

That factor shines when you’re trying to scale BIG.

We’re talking about 10-20 articles per week. One mistake in this process can delay months of results.

Dozens of different software will help with this. If you’re currently using one, just continue with it.

If you’re new to this, just ask your consultant for the one they use. 

Typically, the tools are pretty self-explainable and intuitive, especially if a professional consultant manages the process for you.

#3 Clear Expectations for both sides

You can’t expect to get your posts ranked for competitive keywords in the first week.

Sometimes it takes several months to even get close to the results you might be envisioning right now.

So making a detailed Keyword Research is crucial to get the hottest traffic with the least amount of posts.

Ranking for buying keywords is the best way to get sales if that’s your initial goal for the project.

But of course, they’re targeted by everyone, so you can’t rely simply on them.

The more posts you rank, the better your domain rating gets. The better domain ranking the easier it gets to rank your future posts.

So let your consultant make thorough keyword research and analysis of your market and niche.

Then ask them for what you can expect.

For which keywords can you get ranked immediately?

On average how much time do you need to wait to rank for the more competitive keywords?

There shouldn’t be any vague answers here, you should feel like the consultant really knows what they’re doing.

Then if you like what you hear, begin a long-term contract that would be beneficial to both sides.

#4 SEO Software

SEO Software is an SEO consultant’s right hand.

You have to make sure your consultant uses the most up to date software in the industry.

Here’s a detailed list of the best SEO tools you should be using to rank your posts on the first page of Google.

If your consultant doesn’t use tools, then he is not the right consultant for you.

At the very least he should be using Ubersuggest for his keyword research, simply because it’s the best SEO tool on the market.

Give it a shot yourself if you want to manage that part of the project:

The Different Types of SEO Consulting

Now after you know what to look for when searching for professional SEO Consulting Services… 

You need to know the different ways an SEO Consultant can help YOU rank your content.

Search Engine Optimization is not just writing text and using keywords.

There are countless factors when it comes to your ranking on Google.

So before you begin, you need to clarify what exactly you need help with.

An easy way to find that out is to ask yourself — Which part of my business brings the most sales?

You’ve got the answer? Good!

Here’re a couple of ways an SEO Consulting Services can help your business.

Choose the one that fits your needs:

#1 Company Website SEO Optimization

If your website is responsible for most of your sales and market positioning, then there’s a high chance that it’s the best place to drive traffic to.

Is that the case with you? 

Then you need to start writing more and more posts on subjects relevant to your products and services.

Here’s a couple of examples you can start with:

  • Product Reviews (in you niche — link your products) 
  • Step-by-Step guides that genuinely help the reader
  • Tutorials and Walk-throughs for people that are just getting started
  • TOP 3-5-7-10 lists (products, services, software, companies)

All of these are going to get you a lot of relevant traffic that you can redirect to your products and services.

#2 Ecommerce Store SEO Optimization

Are you in the Ecommerce space? Then you need to start optimizing these so valuable to your business product descriptions.

Of course, a consultant can help you optimize pages like your Home Page, About Us Page, Products/Services Page…

But without effectively ranked products you can forget about getting consistent sales from SEO.

That’s why you need to follow a proven SEO Product Description Strategy that can be easily implemented for all your current and future products.

#3 Sales Funnel SEO Optimization

More and more businesses nowadays move from websites to funnels.

That means you have singular pages that are interconnected through multiple buttons and links.

Typically people running sales funnels rely solely on paid ads to get as much targeted traffic as possible.

As that’s a good strategy on its own… It is NOT the best way to approach your long-term scaling.

If you begin with ranking your sales funnel pages and then move on to the paid ads, you’ll be able to run multiple split tests and ad campaigns until something clicks with the market.

That can take from 1 month to 2 years — just like SEO ranking. 

And the moment you achieve the best version of your funnel, you’ll already have consistent SEO traffic on top of the ads you’re running.

So if you’re using lots of sales funnels in your business, you should look at SEO Consulting Services as your best way to scale optimally.

Now to get into the fun part…

I’ll list the 3 SEO Agencies with the best Consulting Services in the business.

Why agencies and not individual consultants?

The best consultants in the TOP agencies have access to countless results, stats, and strategies that work right now.

So it’s in your best interest to have a call with someone of that caliber.

Just visit the agency that fits your needs and schedule a quick call with a professional who can make a detailed step-by-step SEO Strategy specifically for your business growth.

#1 – Neil Patel Digital — The Best For Website and Blog SEO Consulting

Given that you’re reading this article, you can see why Neil Patel has the SEO knowledge that’s going to scale your blog to the next level.

After all this exact blog you’re reading is ranked for every marketing term you can think of.

And NP Digital focuses uses the same exact strategies that got this blog to the TOP of Google.

It’s the best marketing agency when it comes to optimal Search Engine Optimization together with Website Conversion Rate Optimization.

That’s a proven system to have your readers come back for more content while also converting a high percentage of them for your products and services.

It’s simply the best way to grow your blog.

So if you’re looking to outgrow all of your competitors through well-thought-out SEO Strategies that are proven to bring consistent results…

Book a call with a professional now and prepare yourself for the best:

#2 – Louder.Online — Specialized Sales Funnel SEO Consulting

Are you more into Sales Funnels?

Do you want to optimize your Sales Pages for SEO while also maintaining high conversion rates?

Then you should speak with a leading consultant in an agency that specializes in bringing consistent, trackable results for Sales Funnels.

In our experience Louder.Online has been an atomic weapon.

Meaning their consultants are people that have years of experience and more importantly results.

So if you’re looking to optimize your sales pages, you should check out what Louder.Online has to offer.

Book a call with a consultant and they will show you the clear path to your funnel success: 

#3 – Ecommerce Guide — Specialized Ecommerce SEO Consulting

As we covered earlier, Ecommerce Stores MUST optimize their website if they want to be in business for a long time.

You should be optimizing all of your pages and product descriptions so you get all the traffic you can get your hands on.

The SEO strategy development here is far from simple. 

To make things easier for you, here’s a detailed step-by-step guide on how to optimize your Ecoomerce Store’s SEO.

On the other hand, if you’re searching for the agency that’s going to do it for you…

Ecommerce Guide is one of the most known marketing agencies that helps Ecommerce Stores optimize their SEO Strategy.

Contact them and get a full SEO audit that will help your exact store situation.

And to summarise…

No matter where you’re right now, investing in SEO Consulting is a must if you want to scale your business efficiently.

Especially with the Corona Situation right now, you need to think about investments that are going to bring multiple X returns after the virus is gone.

And remember that this could take months and maybe even years.

That’s more reason to look into SEO Strategies and how they can help you get consistent long-term traffic.

I shared with you how to choose the right SEO Consulting Services for your business.

Now it’s time to go and get them.

Reading articles curiously is not going to get your desired results.

You MUST take action!

The faster you do it the better the results you’ll get.

The more you delay it the more you’re going to struggle to start…

And most likely you’re going to come up with an excuse to miss out on these results your business desperately needs.


So go schedule some calls and don’t step back!

Have you ever paid for SEO Consulting Services before? Were the results what you expected and why?

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