Abby started her Marketing career 14 years ago. It all started with full-time positions in a variety of functions that gave her a broader vision of the marketing aspect of a company. As Client Relations, Business development coordinator, Communication coordinator, Administrative operations community, Abby developed different skills that will be the base for her career as a digital marketing consultant.
Abby started her Marketing career 14 years ago. It all started with full-time positions in a variety of functions that gave her a broader vision of the marketing aspect of a company.
Her diverse experience in marketing enabled Abby to develop different skills that will be the base for her career as a digital marketing consultant.
After 10 years of working on a full-time basis for different companies and getting positive feedback for her accomplishments, Abby felt she was ready to work as a freelance digital marketing consultant. Becoming a consultant gave her the opportunity to work with many different companies, meet people from all around the world, develop knowledge on different industries (law, HVAC, home décor, software, consulting and more) and sharpen her communications skills.
We interviewed Abby and asked her to share some tips that would help companies when hiring a digital marketing expert. Here are 4 tips to find the right digital marketing consultant:
1- FIND SOMEONE WILLING TO CHAMPION YOUR BRAND
According to Abby you should
“Choose someone who will champion your brand. It’s important to choose the person that has the ability and willingness to learn everything about your business, your goals, your objectives, your competitors – everything. Without this knowledge, you can’t really develop a strategy that is in favor of what you hope to achieve.”
Hiring a digital marketing consultant with an interest, background or passion for your product can lead to a more successful outcome.
2- ALL MARKETING ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE MEASURABLE
Abby stresses the importance of measuring results.
“It’s important to make all or as much of your marketing efforts measurable. Knowing how well an ad, social media or email campaign performed allows me to: a) demonstrate the value of my services and ROI to the client, and b: learn and improve on my strategies moving forward in order to achieve better results.”.
She also goes on to say that “the length of time it takes to see results depends on the task at hand. For Facebook ads, you can measure it on a week-to-week basis; whereas with gaining traffic to a website, it can take up to three months to see vast changes in numbers, as it takes time for Google Ads and searches to kick in all the SEO efforts you’ve put into a website”.
When choosing a digital marketing freelancer, discuss in advance how and when you should expect measurements together with a timeline to track goals.
3- YOU MIGHT NEED TO HIRE DIFFERENT FREELANCERS TO EXECUTE A MARKETING STRATEGY
Digital marketing freelancers are one of the most searched skills on freelance marketplaces (10% of the jobs on Workhoppers’ platform). They will help companies create a brand and promote it to specific audiences through different channels. Some consultants might have all the skills necessary to implement your strategy but most often than not, you might need to hire different individuals for the different activities that encompasses a marketing strategy. On freelancing platforms, you can find the different expertise such as content creation, paid advertising, SEO, Social media, UIX optimization, market research and more.
4- PAID BY PROJECT WHEN IT IS POSSIBLE TO CLEARLY DEFINE THE SCOPE
Freelancers are paid by word (copywriting and translation), per hour or a fixed amount. Freelancers, says Abby, like to be paid by hour for task-intensive projects and by project for those that have a clear idea of how long certain projects can take. Companies on the other hand, feel better knowing how much to dedicate towards marketing expenses or want to make sure that the expense is within their budget; so they prefer a fix amount. Any extra job can be then paid by the hour.
Read more here for additional help on deciding how to pay freelancers.
