Optimize Your Online Marketing Skills With a Consultant

Whether you're starting out or have been in business for a few years, your company needs to have an Internet presence nowadays. However, just because you build a fabulous Web site doesn't mean customers will come. And given the ever-changing technology, getting a handle on how best to market your site may seem like another job. Hence, the growth of online marketing consultants and companies. But before shelling out your hard-earned dollars, here's what the experts say to expect of the industry:

Demand Results

These days, the success of an online marketing campaign is measurable down to an individual order. Marketers can "encode special markers in every single text ad, banner ad, article, email or most other online advertising means and use those markers to track return on investment," says Joel Elad, co-author of Starting an Online Business All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies.

That means you can learn which key words spur surfers to buy, the click-through rate of your Web site and how best to spend your limited advertising budget. These stats can then help you fine-tune your campaign, your message, even your site.

And since these stats are usually available weekly, don't hesitate to change your campaign to get better results. Elad recommends that you try five different versions of your campaign and send each to 200 people to gather results on each design's return on investment.

"You can, within a matter of days, update the marketing material based on initial comments and send out the best-performing design to your entire email list," says Elad.

But Be Realistic

An online marketing campaign is a partnership between you and the marketing strategist. You need to clearly spell out what you hope to achieve but also recognize the size of your market and competition.

"Say you're a dentist and you expect 100 leads a month," says Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle.com, which specializes in marketing for local service-oriented businesses.