I was thinking about starting a new business about giving clients online marketing consultations (how to go about promoting their business, what they need to do, etc). How much is the standard (average) rate for consultations per hour? Thanks.
Depends on how good you are. Do you have a formal degree (if so, what degree and from what school)? Do you have experience (if so, how long and where)? Can you provide case studies and/or references? Are you a member of any professional marketing associations?
I'm working on learning about this I can offer basic knowledge to those who know absolutely nothing about the internet. I'm actually in the physical sciences program in University so I cannot take any marketing courses in the commerce program.. My main focus is on online marketing (which is never taught that well in school I'm assuming because of different trends changing from time to time). Is there a course I can take that's not related to University or College? Or no?
The perfect course is the net itself, nothing like "hands on" learning. Some of the best "Marketing gurus" or "consultants" have very little to no schooling let alone a degree. Several things play as factors, who you know and how well you've branded yourself online. It all comes down to brand awareness. Mile Filsame or Mark Joyner could easily ask any price they wanted for "marketing consulting" and wouldn't once be asked to flash credentials. My advice for you. Invest in yourself and learn how to make people aware of who you are and have them searching you out, not the other way around. Then you can talk turkey and the prices can be what you need them to be.
True, true. INVEST in yourself. I was thinking of the same thing too (of setting an internet marketing consultancy) mainly because it is just too troublesome to create my own domain or blog or selling things online. hehehehe... And I did invest on myself to boost up my knowledge. But investment is one thing, doing it hands-on is another. You should try first all those tips you got before you tell others to do it. This way you can create trust in them and of course credibility (i.e.: the main thing to be your measuring stick). Good luck! PM me for links to internet marketing e-books (I cannot put up link yet here. Hehehhe... too new to this forum)
John Guanzon, thinktankertwo I agree with your responses. Hands on is a huge factor. I was thinking.. if I went to school for this a few years ago, they wouldn't have taught us about digg or other similar trends that occured over the year to help promote sites.. Also, branding is a major thing when it comes to these type of business (we are trying to brand other people's businesses for them, so we have to brand ourselves as wlel!). I hope this project/idea of mine goes well!
I have a degree in Marketing and I covered Marketing as a whole, including Internet Marketing. I think the theory I learnt in my degree was vital to my success online and that is why I am constantly coming up with new ideas. You have to be passionate about this. You could start by setting up a website, perhaps put a capture page or an opt-in form, and use Adwords to advertise.
How would you go about creating a portfolio for marketing? Just samples of projects you've designed & marketed? What is vital to have in a site like this?
I would personally create reports and informational products and market them and if they sell well you can use that as your portfolio. Google Adwords <---An excellent way to use, as not only you can help a business get traffic with the right keywords but you will also have the added advantage of being in control. I wouldnt worry about a portfolio if you are new. Although I do know that businesses can actually pay you for good leads...
I'm just worried about the portfolio because to gain some clients, I need proof that I can market products/sites online.. BTW: Adwords does sound like a good idea.
Well you might want to offer consultation to DP members first then expand from there? For example, in BUY/TRADE section offer to market someones product for a small fee and if that person starts getting results use that as 'bait'. It could work wonders for you
You'll definitely need experience, education, or some combination thereof to be a consultant in any field. There are already a lot of marketing consultants online, and those who can prove their worth will get the clients. Despite what some people say about hands-on, there's no substitute for learning the theory behind it. Digg won't always be the hot thing, so it doesn't matter if you know how to use it well. The theory never changes, and it applies to every single marketing tactic / vehicle out there. A degree just proves that you understand it, whereas with self-learning, you'd better find another way to prove it. To learn on your own, go to Amazon and pick up a used marketing textbook or two. Read the guerrilla marketing series and other books (after a textbook to give you basic theory). Then do some brushing up online on more recent developments and fad marketing tactics. If you have no portfolio pieces (if you offer more than consulting, include things like brochures, marketing copy, etc, and if not, then include stats on campaigns you've helped develop, and what those results were - basically case studies), you can do as someone said and offer really cheap consulting to DP members first, or you could contact a nonprofit or two and volunteer to do it (can look better in a portfolio than a no-name site, if you work with a branch of a larger nonprofit org).
Also, that's a great idea! I'm going to pick up some marketing books to read and study. Since I'm in university maybe I can target some students here?
Pick up some Internet Marketing books although most of them will have theory unrelated to some of the things you are after Good luck though!
Does anyone recommend online marketing books (which is what I'm going for). Do you suggest reading e-books? Most of them seem sketchy..
You know, I have been a vice president in the sales/marketing business (mostly B2B, by the way) for over twenty years. I have interviewed and hired and trained scores of people straight out of college for sales and/or marketing positions. I always find it amusing to hear some of them speaking about coming out of school and becoming a consultant to businesses on a particular subject. What business owner or manager would hire someone with zero to slim experience and/or results as a consultant for any topic? Quite frankly, most of the businesspeople that I know (and having been on many boards of directors of companies, I know quite a few top decisionmakers at many companies) would laugh out loud at a 'consultant' with less than 10-15 years direct experience in the industry and subject matter that is being discussed. Most would prefer more experience than that. And it better have been measurable, successful experience, by the way. Reading a few books or taking a few courses is not the way to become a consultant. Why wouldn't the businessperson just do the same thing and save himself or herself a hefty consulting fee? My advice for you is to get a job in the area that you think that you would like to some day become a consultant in and see if you can grow your resume and references to the point where such a job would be possible.
jrbiz, I went into PR / marketing consulting only 2 years after college, and have been quite successful at it, so yes, it can be done. I took my time in college and afterwards to deal with some high profile work, and had the provable results to back me up from the start (and yes, that really is key - in my case, that was from projects ranging from a major international nonprofit to one of the largest retailers in the US). I was able to do it by saying enough is enough with the politics in the nonprofit world, and choosing a very narrow niche of music publicity consulting at first (where I already had an impressive network of contacts - again, a key in being able to make it early). That allowed me to expand my firm to working with other independent and creative professionals (like webmasters and authors), and I'm making significantly more now than I'd be making even in a large firm after 5 years in the field (when I graduated). You just have to know what you're doing, build your network, and back up your claims. While I agree that books alone won't cut it to becoming a successful, and highly paid, consultant, if their main target group is webmasters, they might be targeting a group who simply wouldn't pay for those 10-15 years of experience in the first place. So there is definitely room... they just have to be able to market themselves first and foremost, and come up with their usp to be able to compete against the more experienced IM consultants out there. IM in and of itself is a reasonably new field, and you won't find people with 15 or so years of experience most of the time... even if you did, you'd have to get verification that they not only know what they're doing in marketing, but that they're not dinosaurs who aren't up to date on all of the latest vehicles (like Digg, Myspace, social bookmarking, squidoo, etc.) which change constantly. There has to be a balance, even if the fundamentals are key in understanding the rest.
Better you offer a low charge for your service for the first, two or three customers... actually, you are trying to get their testimonials... then, you can increase the charge a little bit, a little bit and a little bit until they know that you are providing a professional service... then, there you go!
Yes, this is more for "fun" and experience than earning big money (I know you need years of experience to earn a good income with this and you must be better than the best). I just wanted to give it a shot since I really wanted to do this as a career.. but it's too late to switch out of my program in University, I'm stuck with sciences as my primary career