So you’re looking to hire a marketing consultant or a marketing freelancer and you want to know the best conversations to have to make the meeting as effective as possible?
If so, you’re in the right place.
Here is a the top 10 list of questions to ask your marketing consultant to ensure you’re testing their knowledge as well as making the most from the meeting.
Number 1: What is the latest case study you have with a client? Please tell me about it.
This will provide you with information as to whether the marketing consultant has current clients and will show you how long ago they had successes. If they present a case study from years ago, you’ll know they haven’t seen results recently.
Number 2: Please show me a case study relating to SEO / PPC / Social Ads, now can you tell me what you did differently from the previous agency they hired?
This will help you to really learn how they do things differently on a practical level. They should be able to say how they improved the campaigns from the agency / consultant that they took over from.
Number 3: It’s good to see the percentage increase in your case studies, but please can you tell me the actual figures of what the number was before you took over the account and the actual figures you improved the account by.
The actual figures give you a much better understanding of the impact the consultant had on the business. A percentage figure looks great if the business started with nothing, so what were the actual figures. It’s often the case that the official figures cannot be shared in the case study and it might not always be possible to get this information.
Number 4: How long have you been in business and how many clients have you worked with during the whole period? What percentage of income did your clients bring in, did you have 1 big client and only a few small clients?
The length of business will show you whether they are an established company or not. The number of clients will show strength or lack of. This % of revenue per client will show whether they have an equal client share and not just 1 big company.
Number 5: What website have you managed to land backlinks on?
This will help you to understand how detailed and sophisticated their link building strategies are. If the websites they’ve recently landed links on are poor, they are likely to build poor links for your website.
Number 6: How many clients do you currently have? Will you have time to manage my account at the moment? And what will happen if you gain more clients what happens then?
This will provide you with an understanding of capacity and to see whether the quality of service provided on your account is likely to go up or down. The answer to the important question of what happens if you win more clients how will things work will provide you with an understanding and set the expectations.
Number 7: Do you outsource your work to external people? If so, who are they and where are they based? Is English their first language?
This is an important one – who will actually be completing the work on your account. For security reasons you’ll want to know who has access to your digital assets to keep yourself protected as possible. For anything relating to content, be it blog writing or pay-per-click ads management you’ll want to know if English is the first language of people completing that work and their level of English.
Number 8: Will we have a strategy and tasks which will be completed each month? Will tasks roll over?
This is important to help to manage you expectations. Do you wish to follow a strategy step by step or are you happy for the work schedule to move around and be reactive to the most important tasks that month.
Number 9: Who will manage the ad spend? Will you invoice me or I will have to pay for the account directly?
The ad spend can be a real responsibility depending on its size. You’ll want to know from day one whose will have responsibility and who will pay the bill – nobody wants a nasty surprise of ad spent that they didn’t expect to pay.
Number 10: What happens if our relationship breaks down? Will I be entitled to the documents which were created for our company?
This is an important question because you’ll want to know where all of that hard work has gone. Will you have access to the documents and research that have been created or will it all be lost.
Number 11: Who will own the Google Ads and Bing Ads account? Will I set them up and provide you management access or will the account be owned by you?
The paid advertising accounts are a digital asset that you spend money on and the data is valuable. If you setup the account, you can invite the marketing consultant to manage the account whilst you maintain full ownership of the campaigns created and the valuable data accrued.
Number 12: What happens if you’re sick, who will complete my digital marketing work?
This is an important question. Working with a marketing consultant means if that person is no longer available then they hold the keys to your whole marketing strategy and plan should be setup in the event of this happening.
Number 13: How often can I expect to speak to you? Will we speak each week, or each week?
This will set expectations and help the consultant to understand when you should be communicating. This will help both parties a lot.
Number 14: Will I be charged for Video Calls and Meetings?
This time can often be measured of consulting time and occur a higher fee, it’s worth finding first so you know if you’re paying each time you’re on the phone.
Number 15: What do you consider to be Account Management and what is the hourly rate it’s charged at?
Account management time is usually charged. This can include things like: video calls, phone calls, in-person meeting and general admin.
Number 16: Why should I work with you over your local competitors?
This will provide a platform for you marketing consultant to explain why they do things different and better than their competition.
Number 17: Why should I work with you over a marketing agency?
Understanding why you want to work with a marketing consultant over a marketing agency is important. An agency has more people to support and input on your account but often are less likely to have time to provide individual support regularly.