If you’re a business owner, an entrepreneur or marketing professional, you may be questioning why you would need to hire an inbound marketing consultant to drive your marketing and sales growth.
When it comes to inbound marketing, there are a lot of moving parts, which is why it’s important to have a consultant who knows the ins and outs of the process and can help your business succeed. But with so many consultants, how do you know which one is right for you? Check out our tips below!
What is Inbound Marketing?
Inbound marketing campaigns emphasize creating and sharing content that attracts customers to your company, rather than traditional outbound marketing techniques like cold calling or purchasing advertising. When the inbound marketing efforts of a company are successful, potential customers will find the company themselves through search engines, social media, content marketing or other online channels.
In inbound marketing consulting, a consultant works with a company to help them plan and execute an inbound marketing strategy. Just like a company’s sales and marketing teams need to be aligned. For inbound marketing to be successful, the company’s lead generation, sales processes and marketing efforts need to be integrated.
But unlike a digital marketing team, inbound marketing consultants are external experts that work with a company to help them create and implement an inbound marketing strategy. That’s why it’s important to choose the right consultant – someone who understands your company, industry, and customers.
Why Do You Need an Inbound Marketing Consultant?
Following are some of the benefits that you can reap by working with an inbound marketing consultant:
They Have the Necessary Expertise
Inbound marketing is a relatively new field, and finding someone on your marketing team with the necessary expertise can be hard. Hiring a consultant ensures that you have access to someone who knows the ins and outs of inbound marketing and can help you develop and execute a successful digital marketing strategy.
Working with an inbound marketing consultant gives your team access to an expert in the field on an ongoing basis to strategize new campaign ideas, including assets, amplification, distribution, tracking, and more. While you may have a marketing team in-house, it doesn’t mean they can do it all – that just isn’t feasible. An inbound marketing consultant can work with your team to ensure you maximize your campaigns to save time money and increase your ROI. When they first come on board, the inbound marketing consultants will quickly assess your content marketing program and make recommendations for improvement.
Provide an Objective Perspective
It can be difficult to be objective about your marketing efforts, but an objective perspective is crucial to ensure that your efforts are on track when it comes to sales enablement. An inbound marketing consultant can provide this perspective and help you develop strategies for course correcting if necessary.
Suppose your inbound marketing strategy is focused on generating leads through content marketing. However, you find that your website’s conversion rate is low. An inbound marketing consultant can help you analyze why this might be the case and develop a plan to improve lead generation.
Help you Create a Holistic Strategy
Content marketing is not a one-time effort – it’s an ongoing process that should be integrated into your overall marketing strategy. An inbound marketing consultant can help you create a holistic inbound marketing strategy that considers all the different elements of inbound marketing, from content creation to lead nurturing to conversion rate optimization.
During your inbound marketing consulting engagement, your consultant should help you create an inbound marketing strategy document that will serve as a roadmap for your inbound marketing efforts.
No matter how experienced you are with digital marketing, a consultant can help you create a comprehensive strategy that will take your business to the next level.
Do you need help finding the right inbound marketing consultant?
Contact Growth Hackers
Ensure your Website is Optimized for Inbound Marketing
Your website is the foundation of your inbound marketing efforts – it’s where your prospects will come to learn more about your company and your products or services.
For your website to be effective at generating leads, it needs to be optimized for content marketing. An inbound marketing consultant can help you audit your website and ensure that it’s designed to attract, engage, and convert your target audience.
In addition, your consultant can help you create optimized landing pages for conversion and ensure that your website’s call to actions are effective.
Create High-Quality Content
Content and lead generation are at the heart of inbound marketing strategies and is one of the most important elements of an effective inbound marketing strategy. To attract prospects to your website and convert them into leads, you need to create informative, relevant, and engaging content.
For an inbound marketing campaign to be effective, you need to be found. This is where your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy comes in.
An inbound marketing consultant can help you create a content strategy that will resonate with your target audience and lead them through the buyer’s journey. In addition, a good inbound marketing consultant will deeply understand SEO and how to optimize your content for search engines.
In your content marketing strategy, you should consider the content most effectively attracts your target audience and drives conversions.
Some examples of high-quality content include:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Videos
- Whitepapers
- Ebooks
They’re Up-to-Date on the Latest Trends
The inbound marketing landscape is constantly changing, and what worked last year may not work this year. There are so many marketing packages to choose from whether you want to work with a consultant, an agency or a freelancer. To stay ahead of the curve, you need to partner with an inbound marketing consultant who is always up-to-date on the latest trends and changes. Inbound marketing consultants provide a variety of consulting, advising and strategy services for different customers. Your inbound consultant works on your company’s behalf to provide objective, data-based recommendations and consultation.
An inbound consultant uses content marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, email marketing, PPC advertising (Bing and Google Ads), social media marketing and other digital marketing tactics to create valuable content that is uniquely tailored to help prospects with solutions to their problems at different stages of their consumer journey.
An up-to-date inbound marketing consultant can provide you with the most current information on trends, changes in the algorithm, and new best practices. In addition, an up-to-date inbound marketing consultant will have a network of contacts and resources that can be invaluable in your digital marketing efforts.
They Understand your Business Goals
An effective inbound marketing strategy is built on the foundation of your business goals. Inbound marketing consultants have a critical role serving as the liaison between your production, content, email marketing, lead generation, sales and marketing teams. The right consultant will want to understand what you hope to achieve so they can create a plan that will help you reach those goals.
Suppose your goal is to increase brand awareness. In that case, the consultant will create content and campaigns to get your company name in front of as many people as possible.
8 Tips for Hiring the Right Inbound Marketing Consultant
You want to maximize all the key growth levers across your marketing and sales funnel and build a fully optimized growth engine You want to grow organic traffic that will deliver you qualified leads and sales
Now that you know the basics of digital marketing, it’s time to start thinking about finding an inbound marketing consultant who can help take your business to the next level. But with so many consultants, how do you know which one is right for you? Here are eight tips to help you hire the right content marketing consultant.
1. Do your Research
Before looking for a consultant, you must do your homework and understand what inbound marketing is. This will help you weed out consultants who aren’t a good fit for your business and ensure you’re on the same page from the start.
A dedicated consultant will be able to quickly understand your business goals and objectives and develop a customized inbound marketing plan to help you achieve them. Suppose you need search engine optimization (SEO). In that case, the consultant should have a strong understanding of how SEO works, keyword research, local SEO, technical SEO, link building and content creation and be able to offer tailored advice on how to improve your website’s ranking.
2. Look for Experience
When it comes to inbound marketing campaigns, experience is key. You want to hire a consultant with a proven track record of helping businesses achieve their marketing goals. Be sure to ask for examples of past projects and results achieved.
Have at least two years experience working as a project manager or account manager in an agency environment. Have performance-based digital marketing experience (specifically focused on traffic and lead generation). Have experience using project management software to keep projects on track. In addition to this, they need experience with content marketing, search engine marketing, lead generation, social media management, email marketing and PPC advertising (e.g. Google ads).
A good consultant can provide specific case studies demonstrating their expertise in building a proven inbound strategy. In a project management context, it is especially important to consider the value that an online marketing consultant can provide in terms of project management best practices.
3. Don’t Forget About Soft Skills
While hiring a digital marketing consultant with the right technical skills is important, don’t forget about soft skills. After all, you’ll work closely with this person, so you must get along and feel comfortable communicating with them. Look for someone patient, articulate, and an active listener.
These qualities will go a long way in ensuring your inbound marketing project is successful. A marketing automation platform like Pardot can greatly help execute and measure results for your inbound marketing strategy – but only if used correctly.
4. Check for Cultural Fit
Usually, a small business will bring on a marketing consultant, only to find out later that they’re not a good fit for the company’s culture. To avoid this, it’s important to gauge whether the consultant would be a good cultural fit for your organization. This can be difficult to do during the interview process, but there are some tell-tale signs you can watch out for.
For example, does the consultant seem like someone who would fit your company’s values well? Do they have similar work styles to your team? If the answer to these questions is yes, then there’s a good chance the consultant will be a good cultural fit for your organization. When your overall marketing strategy includes digital marketing, it’s important to ensure everyone is on the same page – from your team to your consultants.
5. Determine if They’re a Good Fit for your Team
It’s also important to ensure the consultant you hire is a good fit for your team. After all, they’ll be working closely with your team throughout the project, so it’s crucial that everyone gets along and works well together.
Try understanding their communication style and personality to determine if the consultant is a good fit for your team. Do they seem like someone who would mesh well with your team? Are they easy to communicate with? If the answer to these questions is yes, then there’s a good chance the consultant will be a good fit for your team.
Reap the benefits of hiring the right inbound marketing consultant today!
6. Make Sure they Understand your Goals
Before hiring a consultant, you must ensure they understand your goals. In other words, you need to make sure they’re on the same page as you are. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to achieve the results you’re looking for.
To determine if the consultant understands your goals, try asking them specific questions about your project. For example, what are your goals for this project? What are some of the challenges you’re facing? How do you plan on solving those challenges? If the digital marketing consultant can answer these questions without hesitation, they will likely understand your goals.
7. See if They Have a Proven Track Record
When purchasing inbound marketing services, it’s important to see if they have a proven track record. After all, you want to ensure they know what they’re doing and have a history of success. The best way to determine if the consultant has a proven track record is to ask for references.
Once you have the references, follow up and ask specific questions about the projects they worked on. For example, did they meet the goals that were set? Were there any challenges that arose during the project? How did they handle those challenges? If the consultant can provide positive answers to these questions, they will likely have a proven track record.
8. Weigh your Budget
Last but not least, you need to weigh your budget. In other words, you need to make sure you can afford the consultant you’re thinking of hiring. To do this, you’ll need to clearly understand your budget and what you’re willing to spend. Once you have a better idea of your budget, you can start looking for consultants that fit within that range.
When it comes to inbound marketing strategies, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. By following these tips, you can be sure you’re hiring the right person for the job and setting yourself up for success.
Final Words on Hiring the Right Inbound Marketing Consultant for Your Business
Inbound marketing aims to attract customers through relevant and helpful content. It’s a long-term strategy that builds trust and credibility with your audience.
It’s different from outbound marketing, which interrupts potential customers with messages they don’t want. Inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be.
If you’re looking for help with your inbound marketing strategy, hiring the right inbound marketing consultant is important. By following these tips, you can be sure you’re hiring the right person for the job and setting yourself up for success.
What tips would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!
Growth Hackers is a leading inbound marketing agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We go beyond mere consulting services or inbound services. Our one-stop shop digital marketing agency helps entrepreneurs and business owners work with the right inbound marketing services, increase their productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales. Our digital marketing services go further than brand awareness and exposure. From content marketing to paid advertising, email marketing and sales funnels, we’ve got you covered. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. Let us help you develop an inbound strategy that saves money, maximizes your ROI, and takes your lead generation to the next level! You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
