How to become a Digital Marketing consultant

Being a digital marketing consultant is an excellent career option. It is a profession that is in high demand with the advantage of being a job that you can do remotely, even from the comfort of your home.

They can work with their own clients or doing work for agencies that need help from an experienced professional.

I have worked in digital marketing for over 10 years and in this guide I will help you understand what it takes to be a successful consultant.

In this article, I'll show you what a digital marketing consultant is expected to do, what knowledge they need, how to get it, how to find clients, and how much money you can make.

What does a digital marketing consultant do?

A digital marketing consultant is an experienced professional who is responsible for promoting or marketing the products or services of companies, using all existing digital marketing channels.

Their job is to design and monitor the execution of the digital marketing strategy based on a goal of brand recognition, traffic and sales.

What is the difference between a consultant and a digital marketing specialist?

The differences between a consultant and any other marketing professional can be listed in the following:

• A consultant is an independent professional and not the employee of a company.
• The main role of a marketing consultant is to design the digital strategy and supervise the work of the other marketing professionals working on implementing said strategy.
• Digital marketing consultants usually receive their fees by the hour or by project and do not have a fixed salary.
• A digital marketer works as part of a marketing team.
• A digital marketing manager leads teams of specialists in an agency or organization.
• A freelance digital marketing worker is a freelancer and offers marketing services to agencies or businesses.

How to become a successful digital marketing consultant

Here are some steps for you to become a consultant:

1. Get the necessary knowledge or tools.
2. Define a market or segment.
3. Create a personal brand
4. Assemble a work team.
5. Define your pricing structure
6. Choose the tools you are going to work with.
7. Build a network of relationships. 
8. Continue educating yourself and your team.

1. Get the necessary knowledge or tools

These are some of the main tools that I recommend that you know to start your path to being a consultant:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Having a great knowledge about SEO is necessary if you want to have a successful career in digital marketing. This area of expertise will give you a very broad understanding of what any business needs to achieve its business goals.

Knowing how to use SEO to improve the visibility of a website in the different search engines is a very important step for any marketing campaign.

As a consultant, your job is to lead your team of SEO specialists to build campaigns that can generate results, and then measure them. In the world of marketing this translates into well-positioned pages and higher organic traffic.

If you consider that your skills in this area are not good enough, I recommend that you study and practice a lot.

• Paid Ads and Marketing

A large portion of the online business marketing budget is spent on paid advertising. As a marketing consultant, you will be responsible for maximizing the return on investment of every dollar you spend on ads.

To complete this task correctly you will need a good knowledge of the different PPC platforms, especially Google Ads, Facebook Ads and in some cases Bing Ads.

These are the main ad platforms, however you need to keep your eyes open and know how Pinterest Ads, Twitter Ads and others like TikTok or LinkedIn work.

A great way to become a PPC expert is to work for companies that have large budget budgets. This is because there are great differences between managing a budget of $ 10,000 to one of $ 100,000 per month, so you must develop the knowledge to perform comfortably in this task.

Keep in mind that it is difficult for a company to entrust you with a very large budget if you do not have case studies or success stories in your portfolio. That is why the best way to get the experience you need is to work as part of a team at a large agency or company.

Doing this will allow you to build your portfolio and gain the confidence to handle campaigns with large budgets, which means better profits for your business.

• Social media marketing

A good digital marketing consultant must know how to use social media as sales channels.

In the past, platforms like Facebook were considered less important to get conversions, but over the years the results have shown otherwise.

You must know how to design campaigns to derive traffic from social platforms and take advantage of different segments and communities, based on brand recognition actions that will help you improve your audience's interactions.

• Content marketing

In addition to knowing how to use your budget, a large portion of your time should be dedicated to creating content.

This content can be that of your website, (blog posts, case studies, etc.), content written in the form of copies for social networks or content to be published on other pages as a guest or sponsor.

To properly handle all content needs, you must have the experience to design a well-planned content strategy, which will be the guide of any marketing campaign. 

• Email marketing

Building an email list is something that many companies do not do well, so if you can provide this service to your customers it will be of great benefit to you and them.

To use email marketing as a sales channel, you must have a good understanding of the sales funnels of this channel and how to use message automation to make this job more efficient.

Learning about this tactic is very important, so I recommend that you learn this skill so that you can quickly add it to your portfolio.

• Conversion and optimization

Conversion optimization is the only factor that can generate more profit for a company without increasing traffic to your site.

By becoming an expert in this area, you can achieve immediate benefits for your clients, which translates into better results for you and your business.

In addition to the skills mentioned above, you will also likely need to have basic knowledge of:

• Development (HTML, CSS)
• Website Marketing
• Marketing of digital businesses.
• Analytics and reporting
• Business Administration

2. Define a market segment

The next step in the process of becoming a digital marketing consultant is determining which segment you can specialize in. This means two things. Define your area of expertise and your target audience.

• Define your main area of expertise

As a consultant you should know a little about all digital marketing channels, however you must choose an area in which you can stand out. Here it is very important to bring out your experience and your success stories.

For example, if you have a good SEO case to share, you can use it to get more clients in need of SEO. It's easier to convince a new customer if you have success stories to share with them. Once you start working with your client you can gradually offer him other services.

• Define your target market

Rather than simply looking for any type of client from any industry, it is better to specialize in one area. Thanks to the specialization you will be able to standardize processes, build better success stories and eventually be known as an expert in that area.

The best way to establish yourself as an expert for a particular segment is by blogging and posting research specific to this segment in which you specialize.

Depending on the size of your structure, you may or may not have to work with clients that do not compete with each other, to maintain professional ethics. However, if your customers are in different locations or are simply not your competition, you can blog about specific industries in order to connect with that segment of your choice.

3. Establish your personal brand

Establishing your brand is a great way to get better customers for your business. This is because a personal brand is much more powerful than a corporate brand and that people seeking consulting services want to know the experience of who will eventually manage their marketing strategy.

This is how your potential clients are looking for a personalized treatment with you and not with a large agency and an account executive. In fact, in many cases the companies that seek consultancy are not so interested in the name of the agency, but rather they seek to know who the professional or professionals who will support them in their strategies are.

Here are two ways to promote your personal brand:

• Create a blog

This step is essential if you want to build a career in the digital world. Your blog is your most important asset and it is the vehicle that will bring you new clients.

Start a site where you talk about digital marketing and if you have already defined your target audience, you should mainly speak to this segment of potential customers.

• Publish your work on recognized websites in your industry

In addition to building a portfolio of content on your blog, you will need to demonstrate that you are an authority on a topic through posts on recognized websites.

Depending on the pages that publish your content, you can:

• Drive more traffic to your website
• Get more customers.
• Get more recognition in certain industries
• generate backlinks to and from your website.

It is not easy for your publications to reach a recognized website, however it is not impossible either.

• Work on your blog first

When you apply to contribute content to other websites, the first thing they ask you for is examples of your work and to have an active blog with many quality articles.

Publish your content on several sites before presenting yourself on a recognized site, this will make it easier for you to enter other quality sites because others have trusted you.

4. Build a work team

As a consultant you will have to handle two scenarios when working with your clients. In the first, you will be hired to provide advisory services and the implementation of your work will be done within the client's company. In the second scenario you will have to do the job from start to finish and it is not possible that you will achieve it if you work only on your own.

To achieve this you will need an SEO expert, a web developer, a PPC expert, one or two copywriters, and a social media specialist. The decision to hire full-time or part-time profiles will depend on the duration of the project you have. If you are not sure of the continuity of a project, you may want to work with freelancers.

5. Define your pricing structure

One of the first questions that you will have to answer to your potential clients is how much to charge for your services. This is a logical question since cost is a very important factor in a business deal.

For this you can have any of the following billing structures:

• Per hour
• Per month
• By project

The first two methods are easy to define. Per hour you will determine a price range of your hourly value and depending on each client, you can configure the amount that you will charge.

When you charge by the month, you must configure a set of services that you are going to deliver and determine a price. You can also agree with your client a maximum of hours for their project per month and based on this rate calculate the cost per month.

When you work by project you must carefully calculate the requirements, calculate your costs, add a profit margin and offer your client a price that ensures the completion of the work.

The amount you can charge your client will depend on their location, their budget, their type of business, how much they are willing to pay, and many other factors. During the negotiation you can agree on an amount that leaves both parties satisfied.

Do not forget that the price of your service should be strongly related to the ability to obtain economic results. So before determining a price, think about what the actual monetary benefit will be for your client as a result of your work.

6. Choose the tools you are going to work with

To diligently carry out your task, you must handle a set of tools that will help you offer a standard service to your clients.

When we talk about tools, there is a wide variety of options, however I recommend using the least amount possible. Being an expert on a few platforms with a large set of applications is more effective than using many. For that I present the following:

• Google G-suite: Special for emails, online documents, meetings, presentations and reports.
• Google Data Studio: It is Google's free reporting tool that integrates with Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
• Mailchimp: It is one of the easiest tools to use when it comes to performing email marketing tasks.
• Optionmonster: It is a great SAAS platform to manage popups, increase the number of subscribers to an email list and provide conversion rates for landing pages.
• SEMRush: This “all-in-one” marketing platform is an excellent tool for anyone who wants to be a great digital marketing consultant.

7. Build a network of relationships

There are two ways to build a network of relationships to improve your reputation and at the same time create a new source of potential clients for your consulting business.

• Connect with other consultants in your segment

Although building relationships with other consultants is not the best way to get new clients, they are very good at establishing your brand. For this, I recommend connecting via LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. In that order.

Having a good number of renowned followers in your area will help improve your reputation and that of your brand.

• Connect with your clients and their friends

Word of mouth is a great way to get new leads, so a great way to do this is by connecting with your clients' friends through LinkedIn. Similarly, connect with your employees, suppliers, and business partners. This improves the chances that your contacts get to know you and hire your services, since they have a point of reference for your work. 

8. Continue educating yourself and your work team

Learning in digital marketing never ends. You can never say that you know everything there is to know about this great little world, which changes all the time.

There are countless digital marketing courses that you can use to help your team improve their skills and thus be more efficient in their work. You can also motivate them to obtain certifications and use that as an additional selling point when presenting a proposal to your prospects.

• How to find clients looking for digital marketing services

The main challenge of being a digital marketing consultant is finding the right kind of clients. For starters, advertising your services on Google or Facebook is not the way to get new customers. The costs of posting are soaring and the chances of convincing a great company that they never heard from you are minimal.

If you want to build a career as a digital marketing consultant, you need to put yourself in a position where customers come to you and not the other way around. It is how the industry works in general and what almost any consultant will answer you.

• So how do you get your customers to approach you?

Writing on your blog about topics of interest to the public who would seek your service. For example, people looking to optimize their landing pages probably don't expect a consultant to give them that answer. Rather they will be looking for an article on how to solve this situation.

On the other hand, if someone is looking for digital marketing services in the segment in which you specialize, they will most likely consider obtaining your services if they are convinced that you are the ideal person to help them.

In your publications you can talk about the topics that interest your audience, especially those related to marketing strategy, planning, monitoring and avoid talking about topics that others could write about.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of online stores, business owners. Talk about your needs and provide answers to the most complex questions you may have regarding your strategy.

Make your posts comprehensive and explain why they need to follow a particular strategy and what would be the benefits your readers would get from following your recommendations. Try to keep your post informative with your own case studies and research data.

• How Much Money Can a Marketing Consultant Make?

In the United States, the average hour for a consultant ranges from $ 140 to $ 160.

The graph above shows that more than 40% of consultants earn less than $ 100 an hour. Estimating how much money you can make will depend on the number of hours you can work per month, minus your expenses. Freelancers costs, hosting, tools, etc. 

Keep in mind that if you are going to charge your first client $ 140, you will have to show that you deserve that payment, backed by your ability to deliver measurable results. 

So that you have as a point of reference, in the United States, a specialist in Digital Marketing earns between 65 thousand and 90 thousand dollars a year depending on their experience. 

Conclusions.

Being a digital marketing consultant is a great job. You can be your own boss, work remotely or even from home, with a good salary.

To become a consultant you need more than a set of basic digital marketing tools. You need to be an expert in all areas of marketing and have years of experience in the industry.

Being a consultant is different from being a specialist or a digital marketing manager. The consultant is an independent professional or is the owner of an agency that offers its services to other agencies, teams or companies.

To make more money as a consultant, instead of working as a specialist or part of a team, you need to prove your experience by having a series of success stories in your portfolio. This is the only way to get new clients with big budgets to hire you and your team.

The best way to find new clients who need the help of a consultant is to keep an active blog and write on topics related to strategic planning, focused on those people who would make the decision to hire you.

I hope this manual gives you a light on becoming a digital marketing consultant. Remember that it is a job in which you must invest a lot of time and study, but that also generates a lot of satisfaction. Successes!