Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

This ought to bring tons of responses and people asking to be contacted offline!

Marketing consultants are a great way to go, but ROI is always the issue. If you hire one, and let someone go from your department what if the consultant doesn't deliver measurable results?

With a vast expanse of marketing knowledge, can your small firm afford what that person will demand? Again, deliverables are what you need to focus on.

For a consultant, shoot for someone who would be willing to work on a pay-for-performance contract. Some will, most won't.

Michael

Even though part of me could write a very long reply here, I couldn't see hiring a full-time person for this just yet, especially if it means losing another full-time person who might be very valuable.

I'm actually thinking that if you have someone in mind who is that dispensable, you probably need to lose him or her anyway.

So, having said that, and knowing nothing about your situation, I'd lose the dispensable marketing person and then outsource some tasks. I wouldn't look for a "consultant," per se. You should look for an outsourced provider who will help you set things up so that you might run the program on your own down the road, or whose pricing structure is such that is just makes sense to keep the relationship in place.

Also, don't be shy about using this forum as a resource to get specific questions answered. You'll find there are ton of people here who are willing to share really great ideas and information for nothing more than the cost of a few keystrokes.

I think if you were able to share more specifics about your business and how it could be marketed online, you'll get more specific answers that will help you noodle this through.

Good luck,

Paul

Hi Erika,

Your dilemma is not unusual and I will explain to you an option that will allow you to engage the services of a highly qualified e-marketing expert, continue your e-marketing growth, preserve all jobs (unless you really want/need to clean house a little), build your knowledge, and not spend a lot of money.

How? I agree with Paul, you don't need a consultant, you need a PARTNER, strategic partner, strategic alliance, by whatever name you need somebody like this who is going to help you grow your e-marketing part of the business by taking care of your customer and prospect wants and needs NOW.

At the same time they will be passing along their knowledge and mentoring you and whomever else is kept.

They will also be sharing the risk as the success of the projects will be dependent on their performance.

You can work out an equitable agreement on how the fees will be shared and they can work with you and your clients or behind the scenes, whatever it takes to execute the projects and keep the client happy.

If you are interested please contact me offline for more specifics. I would love the opportunity to look into this further as these business relationships can be win/win/win.

Before you consider letting marketing go or hiring a consultant decide what you want out of the emarketing campaign. As the others said much of this you can do yourself if you learn the rights and wrongs about email marketing. The better run campaigns typically are permission based. If you send your prospects what they want over time, establish value in their minds, then in theory the campaign can be successful.

I'm doing a ton of writing about this for a client. Feel free to email me. I don't claim to be an expert but would be happy to brainstorm a bit with you.

I think PepperBlue has the right idea. You want and need a "consultant" but you also want a mentor and someone who will really get involved in the business. That sounds like a partner to me.

The problem will be finding a way to entice and attract the right kind of person without overspending. Even if you offer some version of equity, it can get expensive.

I think the real solution is to come up with a consulting arrangement that has a combination of a base fee and a "kicker" that will motivate the consultant to go beyond the call of duty. It's not easy.

Maybe you can start by setting up a very limited consulting project so you and the consultant can get to know each other. Your risk will be very limited, and the consultant should be eager to overdeliver if he/she wants to keep the relationship alive beyond that initial assignment.

Finally, you might want to take a look at Rasputin For Hire : An inside look at management consulting between jobs or as a second career. It's really a how-to manual for new and wanna-be consultants, but a few people have said it's also been a valuable resource for people who are considering hiring a consultant.

You can take a look at the introduction, chapter 1, and the table of contents at www.rasputinforhire.com . Your situation isn't exactly what the book addresses, but it might give you some ideas.