Here are some critical parameters to consider that will help you make your choice a little less difficult.  

What Size and Types of Businesses Do The Consultants Serve?

When it comes to consultants with or without experience in your industry this can be a tricky point. While the principles of online advertising are similar for all businesses, there are differences, so it makes sense to hire a company that has experience dealing with businesses  like yours … but not exactly like yours.  

You see, too narrow a focus can be problematicas well. Be wary of companies that serve only a very narrow niche because their approach may be “run of the mill” and not let your business special qualities shine. 

Remember! You do NOT want to look just like all your competitors!

Too narrow of focus can also lead to being  removed from  broader marketing trends and this can lead to dated, sub-optimal approaches. 

PPC or SEO? 

Certainly there is more to online advertising than Pay-Per-Click  and SEO (organic search marketing)  but they are the twolargest, most well proven online advertising tactics  and consultants  typically specialize  in one or the other. 

While both can  deliver results when done correctly,there is an increasing body of evidence that local  customers are not paying attention to PPC advertisements (To Go Organic or Paid ) even while Pay-Per-Click costs are on the rise. Therefore you will served best by choosing  an advertising consultant who has expertise leveraging the more trusted organic side of search as the back bone of your online marketing and advertising strategy. 

Turnkey System or Another Hat to Wear?

You are likely already performing too many roles in your business. Right? So the last thing you need is an online advertising consultant that gives you even more to do! 

Yet unless you are careful you may get an additional role to play when you bring the wrong online marketing consultanton board. Here’s why. Many “consultants” are great at telling you “what to do” but not so great at actually “doing” what needs to get done.  

When interviewing your potential  consultants ask them how their team goes about creating content, how much workyou will be doing, how much of yourtime they will need and how much of the project they will do without you (or your staff) needing to be involved. 

You should only hire a consultant who has a process in place that keeps the amount oftime you need to be involved to an absolute minimum so that you can continue to focus on running your business and taking care of  clients. 

Depth of Experience 

Does the consultant you are considering have a broad level of experience and expertise or a narrow one? Look for a wide experience base in a number of industries, and company sizes and look for depth of experience as well. 

If the consultant only has experience in one industryor only one facet of advertising or marketing (e.g.graphic design, web programming, SEO ) then you should have a low confidence level that this person has the full experience range and resource levelnecessary to pull together a complete advertising and marketing solution. 

Conversely, if  the consultant has  experience in a variety of markets and related areas  such as  developing sales strategies, services marketing and even pricing then you can feel highly confident that the challenges unique to your business will be well within the consultant’s grasp and comfort level. It only makes sense that the consultant will understand how each piece of marketing or advertising fits into the larger strategy of  growing profits and getting more new customers. 

Campaigns or Complete Advertising Process? 

This last point is probably the most critical when choosing an online advertising consultant, so please pay close attention! 

A website, PPC advertising, Search Engine Optimization, article marketing, email marketing and social media marketing (the list could go on far longer!) aretactics NOT  Complete Marketing and Advertising systems. 

Cobbling a bunch of different tactics together is an easy way to give the appearance of progress while simultaneously burning invested dollars and not likely getting much in the way of results. 

I strongly encourage you to have the consultant you  are considering  demonstrate toyou exactly how their SYSTEM handles these  three  critical pieces  : 

• generating traffic  
• converting traffic to customers  
• creating nurturing conversations with research oriented potential customers.  

Do not settle for anything less than a complete marketing system or you will be putting your online advertising investment at risk and maybe the future growth of your business as well. 

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