How to Choose an Internet Marketing Consultant

If you are in the process of recruiting a new internet marketing consultant I have always found it tough to hire any particular consultant although I have broken down some ways to figure a good one from a bad one.

Practice what they preach - Whenever someone comes for an interview at Freestyle Media for say an account management position I always ask to see what their skills are like using the internet. If they cant use a computer very well nor browse through the internet, how in the world would they be able to help our clients market themselves better on the internet. I do the same with consultants. If I am hiring a PR consultancy I look at their PR and their online marketing, If I am hiring an accountant I would love to see their books (not always possible) or if I was hiring an internet marketing consultant I would look at their internet marketing.

I like how they Think - With lots of consultants I find that you can’t sample their work. It’s almost like you need to take a leap and just hope they know what they are doing and that they can deliver what they promise. I always look at consultant’s blogs and read some of their thoughts. I try and understand how they think and see if that fits in well with what I am doing.

Experience - I always like seeing what a consultant has done for someone else and then I always ask them, “What can you do for me?” I want to hear ideas. I want to hear comments and suggestions on what could be improved. I like hearing powerful questions that uncover the real issue. When I hear that I can tell this person gets to the heart of the problem and can diagnose the problem. It doesn’t mean they can fix it, that is another story. Although they have ticked the first box of knowing what is the problem. Personally, I never trust logos on peoples resumes or websites because its too easy to get a small job from some random person and say it was all your work.

Fred Schebesta’s Internet Marketing Consulting

I myself do a lot of internet marketing consulting to corporate companies like Qantas, Sanitarium, Thomson Education Direct and McDonalds. I prefer working in a workshop style for developing internet marketing strategies after I have provided a lot of research and insights from my internet marketing research.