5 Questions To Ask Before Hiring A Digital Marketing Expert

How to generate 2x revenue this year? What’s the best way to pitch the customers? Blah..blah…blah. Do you often find yourself answering these questions? If yes, then continue reading this article because I’m going to answer all of your questions.

I know launching a startup is easy, but making it successful is difficult. Startups are booming at a rapid speed. But only 2 out of 10 come out as a real business. And do you know the one reason why only 2 out 10?

I firmly believe it’s all about one decision. Yes, making the right decision to adopt a specific technology can make all the difference. With the advent of modernization and the growth of digital channels, things have changed dramatically. Today our world is driven by the internet, and this has significantly bought everything and everyone online. And the number is increasing day by day. It has altered how businesses market their brand.

Not only this the way we communicate today has also digitized from letters to text message to facebook status, and now to the Instagram and WhatsApp stories. It’ a new way of communicating directly with your target audience

This is the reason more and more businesses today are switching to digital marketing. This is the reason, that the advertising expenditure for digital marketing in the US is expected to be $110 billion by 2021. Hard to believe?

Let me throw light on some facts:

1. According to HubSpot “By 2021, global retail e-commerce sales will reach $4.5 trillion.”
2. The recent report published by Forbes stats that 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their content strategy. Other popular platforms include Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%), YouTube (74%) and Google+ (62%)
3. By 2020, business will spend $110 billion on digital advertising in the US.

The above-mentioned figures clearly show that digital marketing has undoubtedly changed the way businesses market their products. And if you are reading this means you are probably looking for digital marketing experts who will take your business to never-ending heights. But maybe you are underwater and need some help.

Don’t worry. I’m here to help you in managing your workload. In this article, we’ll discuss the 5 questions you must ask yourself before hiring a digital marketer?

Who is your target audience? This is the primary question you need to ask yourself. Here all you need to do is define who is your target audience into two levels, deeply analyze the demographics of your audience, i.e. age, location, profession and interest. In the next step categorize them into a potential prospect, consumer and the influencer. Now let’s suppose you own an educational institute then your primary target audience is students falling under the age group 18-25, and the education consultant here could be the influencer.  

Which digital marketing channel best suits you? Nowadays we have multiple online marketing channels. And no doubt each of the digital marketing channel has great potential. But ever wondered out of all the incredible digital marketing channels which one best suits your business? The answer to this question will largely depend on the type of business you have and from where the most your audience comes from. To make it simple answer these questions: Which platform is most used by my competitors? Where can I find the majority of my target audience? Which platform brings in the best results?

Answer the above questions, and you would know which platform best suits your business.

How much business does every channel bring in? Though this is a secondary but still an important question you must answer beforehand. Hiring a digital marketing expert and getting started with digital marketing is almost like an investment. Once you have evaluated which digital marketing channel best suits you then analyze how much business will this channel bring in. For example:

If your revenue last year was Rs. X so this year after hiring digital marketing expert will you generate Rs. 2X? If your answer is yes to the question, then you should surely go for hiring a digital marketing expert. But in case your answer is no then certainly it’s not worth the investment.

What KPIs should I measure? KPI aka Key Performance Indicators are the elements which help you to measure the results of your marketing campaign. They allow you to analyze whether your marketing strategy is bringing you desired results or not. KPI differs depending on the unique needs of the business. The top 5 KPI one should be measuring are:

1. Traffic – the number of people visiting your website daily
2. Conversion- the number of potential prospects landing to your website and becoming your customer.
3. Cost per lead – The amount spent to acquire a lead on each marketing channel.
4. Revenue per lead -the total amount of revenue brought in by each new lead

Is your audience searching you online? The very first step to advertising online is to determine how big the online market is. You need to figure out is your target audience really searching you online. But how to do so?

There are various free as well as paid tools which help you to find out what your audience is searching online like Google Keyword Tool, Buzzsumo etc. All you need to do is just type the keywords with some variations related to your business, and it will show you the total number of searches done every month.

Also consider, how they are searching for you online. This means, concentrating on the internet behind search terms, and not just focussing on keywords. Ask yourself the questions mentioned above and evaluate whether you need a digital marketing expert or not?