I was operationally active in online marketing for around ten years, and since March 2020 I have been earning my living mainly from individual consultations, lectures and workshops. Time to reflect on my own consulting work.
Before I go into what makes a good consultancy, I would like to briefly describe what makes a good online marketing consultant. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is to maintain an overview. Because online marketing is now a big term. And it continues to expand. It has long included website creation and relaunches, search engine marketing (SEO and SEA), display advertising, email marketing, social media marketing and affiliate marketing. Influencer marketing, on the other hand, is a comparatively recent phenomenon. You could easily differentiate the instruments even further and add content marketing, reputation marketing or messenger marketing to the list. For an online marketing consultant, this means first and foremost that they need to continuously develop their skills.
Critically question your own expert status
It should be clear that an online marketing consultant cannot have maximum depth in all areas. However, as the word generalist has negative connotations (“can do everything and nothing”), many online marketing consultants are more likely to see themselves as versatilists or as people with a T-, M- or Y-shape qualification. It seems more important to me than such a schematic classification to honestly assess one’s own knowledge and skills and to reflect critically on oneself. This also means turning down jobs when in doubt. For example, I have to admit that I don’t know much about affiliate marketing or display advertising. And my SEA skills are sufficient to advise small and medium-sized companies, but not for a large corporation or an e-commerce company with its own SEA managers. Therefore: Know your limits!
See the forest and then the trees
It’s a shame that you can’t be an expert in all areas of online marketing, but the good thing is that it’s often not necessary. On a day-to-day basis, I often receive inquiries along the lines of “Mr. Kopp, I’ve read that loading time is an important SEO factor. How can we improve it?”. And then I look at the website and think, “Yes, hhhmmm… the website is from the noughties, it’s not responsive and there’s no text at all for business-relevant keywords. The loading time is probably the least of the problems”. What I’m trying to say is that customers often can’t see the wood for the trees and have difficulty assessing the relevance of individual measures. This is neither funny nor bad, but normal. Just as I lack expertise in tiling or curating exhibitions, my clients lack it in online marketing. For this reason, I always look at the forest first and then the trees. This also means that – to stay with the example – I make it clear to the customer that I don’t think it makes much sense to invest time and money in load time optimization in their case.
As a consultant, you have to become a customer yourself
Consultants are often accused of “talking easy”. And yes, when I was still working as a social media manager myself and listening to presentations by experts, I often thought that. In general, far too little attention is paid to financial and human resources, and instead promises of salvation are often made that are far removed from reality. It is certainly important to differentiate between individual advice and a lecture, which in the worst case is aimed at a very heterogeneous group. Nevertheless, I think that the reservations about (online marketing) consultants cannot be dismissed out of hand. The overriding principle for me is therefore to put myself in the customer’s shoes and – and this brings us back to the previous section – to look at the big picture. For holistic online marketing consulting, you naturally also need an insight into internal processes and structures, the company’s economic situation and future plans.
You have to understand the customer and the company
“Speaking the customer’s language” is an old-fashioned phrase, but in practice, unfortunately, communication often means miscommunication. To be able to put myself in a customer’s shoes, I first have to understand them. As a consultant, it is therefore important that you first ask the right questions and then listen, listen and listen again. Ideally, you should then summarize what the customer has said in your own words (“Did I understand correctly that…?”), as this is the only way to ensure that the relevant information has been received correctly. The same is recommended the other way round.
The smaller the company, the more it depends on individual people. It is therefore important to include their personality and skills in the consultation: Can the person write flawlessly and in a stylistically appealing way? How social media savvy are they? Do they enjoy being in front of the camera? How willing are they to learn? … Questions like these make the difference between success and failure, especially for small companies (and even more so for solo freelancers).
Honesty pays off (hopefully)
As already mentioned, there are sometimes customer requests that are absurd from an expert’s point of view. Some online marketing consultants shy away from the conflict at this point and say, “Ok, if the customer wants it, he’ll get it, after all, he’s king”. In my view, this is short-sighted. Although the customer will be happy at first, in the long term he will feel that he has been badly advised – and word gets around.
A little anecdote about this: I once gave a presentation on social media marketing for international university offices. I knew in advance that some of the participants were keen to open an Instagram account themselves. However, as I thought this was a bad idea (and still do), I explained in the presentation why I wouldn’t recommend it and instead showed alternatives. The result: there was critical feedback (“lecturer demotivated”). And yes, the client will probably not book me again. That’s a shame, of course, but I don’t see it as my job to tell the client what they want to hear, but what I think is best for them and their business. In the short term, this may have a negative impact on my own business, but I am convinced that this honesty pays off in the long term.
There is a smooth transition between consulting and implementation
Before I got into the consulting business myself, it was actually clear to me that a consultant advises. And does nothing else. Period. When I read how much hundreds of millions some companies spend on SAP consultants(see Lidl), I sometimes just thought “WTF?”. This is simply because laypeople imagine a consultant to be someone who sits in a chair and gives great advice. In practice, this is far too short-sighted. As a consultant, you accompany the customer right through to operational implementation. This is just as true for an SAP consultant as it is for an online marketing consultant. When optimizing Google Ads campaigns, for example, you first have to analyze in detail what has worked so far and how, and then develop optimization measures based on this that can be implemented 1:1 by the customer – or even do it yourself. Employee training and strategic or conceptual developments can also be part of a consultation.
How do you recognize a good online marketing consultant?
References are not only valuable for consultants. However, they are sometimes difficult to obtain, as clients often wish to remain anonymous. In my case, the fact that I do most of my consulting work as an employee of the Cologne Chamber of Crafts makes things even more difficult. It would be an absolute no-go to report on these on my website. Simply mentioning customers says little about the quality (“Did the consultation have the desired effects?”). Reviews and ratings are worth more. Since every online marketing consultant also has to market themselves, it’s worth taking a look at their website and social media channels. And yes, I know that I still have room for improvement. 🙂
