When people learn that I am a digital marketing consultant, they often ask, “What kind of consulting do you do?” I sometimes surprise them with my answer: “I help companies make money from their marketing investments.” That’s usually not the answer that they are expecting, which is OK with me.
Too often, consultants answer that question by explaining what they know. And yes, I know search marketing, and website marketing, and social media marketing, and web analytics—and the list keeps growing as digital marketing keeps growing. But knowledge isn’t enough. What’s really important is the ability to analyze your organization and help you identify what’s missing.
For some companies, they know exactly what to do, but they don’t know how to get everyone in their large organization to do what’s needed. That’s a problem I’ve solved while working for IBM and with many other large clients. Other companies need technical advice in search, social, or their web usability. Still others need to integrate all of their digital marketing programs into a cohesive and measurable system that helps them continuously improve. Sometimes I take on these projects alone, but often, especially for large enterprises, I work with my teammates at Converseon.
My consulting centers on:
- Internet Marketing Training. Many companies have been very successful over the years, but struggle to excel on the web the same way they have previously. My experience training IBM employees and other clients has prepared me to handle your training needs.
- Creating a Listening Organization. Social media creates new opportunities for listening to customers at very low cost. Learn more about your customers than ever before.
- Attracting Traffic to Your Site. I “wrote the book” on search marketing and I help companies worldwide to draw visitors to their website through search, social media, and other techniques at the lowest possible cost.
- Maximizing Your Website’s Value. Most companies have no experience with direct marketing and can’t determine how to measure the value of their site, especially when your sales occur offline. They also don’t know what usability, testing, and other techniques to employ to improve that value (by increasing the persuasiveness of the site). My experience at IBM and with clients can be easily applied to any website.
- Applying Advanced Technology to Improve Websites. Many websites are unable to make use of web analytics data, unable to personalize their site, or suffer from poor results from their site search engine. They also find it difficult or impossible to update the site frequently or to determine the value of IT investments. By taking a business approach to these problems, I can help determine the ROI of such projects and advise on agile development techniques that keep projects short and costs low.
- Improving Large Websites. My experience with IBM taught me that big web sites are different. Larger organizations have different challenges to coordinate their resources with policies and other corporate governance to make sure that all employees execute the improvement plan. In addition, corporate cultures are critical in assessing the right steps to improve web performance.
For more information on me, check out my full bio. If you’re interested in talking to me about a consulting opportunity with your company, I’d love to hear from you, so please contact me.