Starting a career as a Digital Marketing Consultant is a great career choice. Asides from the increase in demand for the position, the job also offers career growth. It is an exciting career and pays above the average minimum wage of most occupations.
Carving out a career in this field can be tricky as it entails many niches or roles. Before we go into that, let us discuss the job description of a digital marketing consultant.
Who is a Digital Marketing Consultant?
A digital marketing consultant is a person who develops and identifies strategies for advertising or marketing an organization’s products or services using digital technologies. Furthermore, companies consult them on ways to improve existing techniques and strategies to increase customer engagement. They may also assist companies to generate revenues from their digital platforms.
A digital marketing consultant help client evaluates marketing budget and spending allocations on various marketing needs. Additionally, they assist clients to launch new websites and apps and perform audits and analytics on them.
While some digital marketing consultants will handle specific marketing campaigns, others oversee an entire marketing strategy from start to finish. However, digital marketing consultants can work as part of a marketing agency or as freelance consultants.
How to Become a Digital Marketing Consultant
There are several digital marketing trends, and identifying your niche is the first start for a career as a consultant. These niches are:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
- Content Marketing Strategy
- Paid Marketing (Google Adwords, FB, Twitter, Linkedin)
- Branding & Reputation management
- Youtube & Video Marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Local & International Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Digital Display Marketing (Ad Ops)
- Web Analytics and Reporting
- Mobile Marketing (App store optimization)
Find your Niche
All 12 niches are broad. As a digital marketing consultant, you can have more than one area of expertise, but you cannot list everything as your expertise while starting out.
A person trying to scale up as a consultant into any of the trends is assumed to be an expert or at least conversant with some or all of these trends. This is because the role of a digital marketing consultant isn’t entry-level; such a person is expected to have adequate years of experience. They are also expected to have a high level of on-the-job experience with reputable companies.
Get all the Necessary Qualification
Although a bachelor’s degree and familiarity with standard digital marketing techniques are required for a profession as a digital marketing consultant; you should obtain certification in skills such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and digital content strategy. Pursuing certifications might also allow you to broaden your abilities and advance in a competitive industry. You can obtain these certificates on Google Learning, Coursera, LinkedIn, and Udemy.
Creating your Portfolio
The first step to becoming a consultant is creating a portfolio of all your achievement and experiences. Clients want to see you are capable of doing the job and that you have expert knowledge of the services they require from you. Start by highlighting some of your achievements as a digital marketer.
The portfolio is a platform to sell yourself. Be sure to highlight all your strong points. Additionally, including the metrics and conversion, you can get for a project will keep your portfolio in the competitive spotlight. Let your portfolio SHOW and not just TELL.
You can create your portfolio on websites such as Behance, portfoliobox, dribble and Portfolio. You can also build your website portfolio to highlight some of your works.
Networking
Creating a network is the best way to spread the word about your consulting services. The wider your network, the greater your chances of landing a job. There are various strategies to expand your professional network.
Furthermore, connecting with past corporate networks and being suggested by individuals or clients is one example. You can also contact previous supervisors, coworkers, instructors, or prospects.
If you are new, giving free services to potential clients with extensive contacts in your field in exchange for a testimonial can help you build a large client base.
Attend Startup, Marketing & Tech Events
Attending startup, marketing, and technology events is a great way to build your online and offline visibility, as well as your network as a consultant. You can attend these events as a guest or as a speaker. However, joining such events as a speaker will likely give you more visibility than joining as a guest. You will get to poach and connect in real-time with big business brands and startup business owners.
Get Active on Social Media/Become an Influencer
According to current data, social media users rose to 3.2 billion. As a result, social media is a fantastic platform for advertising services and communicating with new and existing customers.
Using social media to promote your Digital Marketing services and client insights can benefit you. Being active on social media may also assist you in running targeted advertising with real-time results and learning what your competitors are doing.
Influence your social media presence well enough to become a social media influencer. Most business requires the help of social media influencers for their digital marketing. This is because they believe influencers are closer to home and customers than many name endorsers and celebrities.
Build an Online Presence
Create an outstanding profile on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to help develop a strong presence. Maintain an active and continuous presence on these networks by publishing posts and videos and sharing helpful material regularly. To begin, you may discuss significant events in your life/career, including beneficial digital marketing experience and practical ideas.
Take on a Freelance Projects
In conclusion, while waiting for that big project, you can take on freelance projects on freelance platforms to build up your portfolio. It is ideally wrong to leave your portfolio inactive. You can find freelance digital marketing work from popular freelance and remote working platforms such as UpWork, Fiverr and Freelancer.
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