What Does a Virtual Content Marketing Consultant Do & How Do I Hire the Right One?

You’re aware that you require quality content for your website to remain competitive but you don’t have the resources, time or knowledge to get your site where it should be. If you choose to work with an agency that specializes in content marketing, you’ll be expected to have an entire team of strategists and production and at the helm of the entire process, you require a skilled Virtual Content Marketing Consultant.

Virtual Content Marketing Consultant One person or group of people who are appointed to offer professional advice regarding the creation of an educational strategy for your content that educates and enlists the participation of your targeted group of customers.

Why Turn to Virtual Content Marketing Consulting for Help?

SEMrush discovered the following: 77% of businesses had a strategy for content marketing in place, however only 9% of respondents would rate their approach as good. It’s true that companies that focus on growth do not have the time or the marketing tools required to execute and track their strategy.

This is the point where that’s where a Virtual Content Marketing Consultant comes into the picture. As a marketer they have a solid knowledge in the field and know how to make your brand stand out and create leads by using everything from infographics to white papers.

Your business must hire an experienced marketing consultant in the following situations:

• You don’t have the time to plan, implement tests and monitor an effective content marketing strategy or you don’t know how to leverage the tools of marketing automation to benefit you.
• You’re not getting the results you’d like using your current strategy or with your marketing.
• There isn’t enough money to pay full-time employees build the marketing team that you require to kick-start with your campaign(s).

A Day in the Life of a Virtual Content Marketing Consultant

A Virtual Content Marketing Consultant would begin by examining your business goals and evaluating your current content marketing presence. They may request access to your marketing materials and assets, such as buyer personas and project management software, and conduct their own data analysis using Google Analytics.

The consultant would need to understand your specific goals for their work, whether you aim to improve inbound marketing and guide customers towards the sales funnel, or focus on lead generation to attract high-value customers. Based on this information, the consultant can suggest strategies for achieving your objectives, including suggestions for optimizing your website, increasing the use of visual content, and email marketing.

If you choose to handle your marketing in-house, the consultant’s recommendations can serve as a guide for your internal team. Alternatively, the consultant can collaborate with their team of writers and content creators to execute the marketing plan and provide content for review prior to publication.

The consultant will also provide a baseline report at the end of the contract, so you can measure the impact of their content marketing efforts. They will track key metrics, such as organic leads and traffic, and adjust their strategies as necessary to achieve the best results over the course of the contract.

A Virtual Content Marketing Consultant can bring an objective perspective to your marketing strategy and provide expert advice on how to reach your ideal customers. Whether working with their own team or in collaboration with your internal team, they will help you implement effective marketing strategies to reach your goals.

10 Questions To Consider Before You Hire a Marketing Consultant:

What’s Their Team Like?

As a virtual content marketing consultant, it’s important to assess the experience and portfolio of the consulting team you are considering working with. Having a consultant with a broad range of clients can bring added benefits to your business, as they can draw on their experience to create effective marketing strategies.

During your initial discussions, ask about the consultant’s specialties and how they approach different aspects of content creation. Some consultants may handle all aspects of content creation, while others may have dedicated teams for different tasks such as influencer marketing, writing, or design. Consider whether you prefer having a single point of contact for all your marketing needs, or if you’d prefer a team of specialists working together.

It’s also important to understand how the team operates and integrates different elements of your marketing plan. Ask about the processes involved in creating social media posts, editorial content, and visual content. Make sure you have a clear understanding of who will be your main point of contact and how they work with other members of the team.

Do They Have Blog Posts You Can Check Out?

When considering a virtual content marketing consultant for advice on your content development, it’s crucial to assess their expertise and track record. You can gain insights into their knowledge, experience, and focus by asking for samples of their work and reviewing their branding.

To ensure the consultant has the skills you’re looking for, verify that they have a background in SEO and have optimized their own website for organic search results. If they market themselves as a strategist for social media, take a closer look at their social media presence, including their posts and engagement with followers. This can give you a better understanding of their ability to effectively implement their strategies.

Are They Staying Ahead of the Trends?

A company’s blog can also provide insight into their market position and whether they are staying up to date with the latest trends. Over 60% of chief marketing officers expect their spending to increase by 2020, which presents a great opportunity to incorporate the newest advancements in marketing to improve your business strategy.

A competent virtual content marketing consultant will be knowledgeable about the latest trends and help you decide where to invest your budget and resources in relation to the market and your company’s products or services. One of the recent major trends in marketing is the growth of marketing technology.

In addition to marketing automation, virtual content marketing consultants can leverage the power of artificial intelligence to support your customized SEO content and enhance your strategies. By partnering with a virtual marketing consultant, you are not only investing in personalized SEO content, but also receiving support from the latest tools and trends in the industry.

Do They Have Client Testimonials?

Explore the websites of Virtual Content Marketing Consultants for customer reviews and success stories to observe their consulting work and the results they have delivered to past clients. If possible, reach out to these companies and ask about their clients’ experiences. A quick phone call can save you from months of stress and uncertainty!

Do they collaborate with businesses similar to yours?

When conducting research on a Virtual Content Marketing Consultant, you can ask for examples of work they’ve completed for businesses similar to yours. This will give you an idea of their ability to work with your company and the type of marketing strategies you can expect from them.

It’s especially important to consider the compatibility of their content if your business operates in a specialized or technical field. For instance, if you’re in the banking industry, review the work they’ve done for similar companies and assess their knowledge of the financial market. Additionally, examine the terminology and sources they use in their work to determine if it aligns with your requirements.

When finalizing your contract, take note of any elements or styles from their past work that you appreciate or want to avoid in your own content.

Will They Provide Content?

Different consultants offer varying services. While some may provide exceptional strategies, it ultimately falls on your company to put these plans into action. Some virtual content marketing consultants offer advice and even have teams that can create blog content, videos, and provide web design services.

It’s important to assess your own internal capabilities when considering working with a consultant. If your company is capable of producing its own content and has the necessary support for success, then utilizing a virtual content marketing consultant may not be necessary. However, if your marketing team is overwhelmed, having a team of experts to handle the content creation can alleviate the workload and allow your team to focus on other important tasks.

What Services Are Included in a Standard Contract?

Ask if you are able to talk to your consultant if there are questions or concerns or if there’s an hourly cost for the time you spend studying strategies and getting answers. Some companies offer free rounds of editing, while other teams may charge further changes after the initial draft is submitted. Knowing how the contract operates can help you figure out the process like , and whether you’ll have to include additional funds for budget.

What Questions Are They Asking You Upfront?

Virtual Content Marketing Consultants are trained to gather information about your company and its marketing goals. They will ask questions to understand your target audience and the objectives you wish to achieve through your marketing efforts. They will also want to know about the channels and materials you have been using for marketing and their effectiveness.

The consultant may involve writers in the initial meeting to gain a better understanding of your brand voice and the message that should be conveyed in your content. If you have any previous experience with social media, SEO, or email marketing, sharing your work and results with the consultant can help them to improve their strategies by determining what can be improved.

Will They Do the Reporting and Analysis?

About forty percent of all marketers claim that they are unable to prove their ROI for the marketing they do is the most difficult thing they face. It is important to work with a professional who is will make your task easier by providing you with reports that are intuitive and offer clear guidelines regarding how you can improve your marketing strategy.

If you’re unfamiliar with the type of the reports they provide You may be unable to comprehend the kind of return on investment you’re receiving and how it’s benefiting your company.

Based on the channels that you use in your campaign the metrics you use to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign could vary. For example, the ROI of a social media marketing campaign will be measured by the extent to which content is shared and how the brand’s engagement with customers to drive more visitors to the site.

If you have made the investment in SEO and would like to know how your newly optimized landing pages are doing A consultant will employ tools such as Google Analytics to view the conversion rate and determine how many visitors did the things you intended to direct users down through the funnel of sales.

For companies just starting to invest in Content Marketing, it could be easy to get distracted by numbers that aren’t important in the long run. Although the increase in social media’s likes pages, pageviews and site visitors can be a good sign, they are often referred to as vanity metrics and do not necessarily correspond to an improvement in revenues.

What consultants and content creators want to see is more qualified marketing leads, higher conversion rates, and a higher lifetime worth from their efforts. Do not hesitate to request for your Virtual Content Marketing Consultant to show you your results in an alternative manner. You’ll be able to decide if the investment you made on their services is worth it or determine if a different strategy is required to get the results you desire.

Is It a Cultural Fit?

It is important to consider having a consultant on the same page with you. Do they appear to be the kind of people you’d like to collaborate with? Visit their blog to get a feel of their character and values to ensure that they’ll be able to provide the kind of service you’d expect from consultants.

Incorporating space in your budget for outsourcing the most important marketing tasks isn’t a requirement to eliminate your internal team of marketers. Actually your marketing team could help consultants understand your marketing objectives and what’s already been accomplished. As the consultant works to improve your content , or inbound leads, your own team can also continue with other complementary marketing initiatives.

The hiring of a virtual Content Marketing Consultant is the ideal way to kick-start your campaign and create content which are designed to provide outcomes. In this way, your company can target marketing efforts on the channels that yield the greatest impact on your financial results.

Conclusion

A virtual content marketing consultant starts by evaluating a company’s goals and existing marketing presence. They will review materials, analyze data with Google Analytics, and ask questions to understand the company’s objectives and current marketing strategy. The consultant then provides recommendations to improve the marketing and content, potentially collaborating with their own team of writers and content producers to execute the plan.

They also monitor progress and adjust their strategy as needed to achieve the desired results. The end goal is to increase organic leads and traffic, and to provide a baseline report at the end of the contract to measure the success of their content marketing efforts.