Did you know that 81% of all shoppers do online research before making purchases? This means that when people consider purchasing your photography services or artistic work they will likely jump online first and google your brand name. This is true regardless of whether they have received a word of mouth recommendation or not. Because of this, you need to be highly visible online. In addition, you need your online content to convince a person who investigates your name that you are worth working with. This means having a stunning website, helpful content, and an impressive, up-to-date portfolio, all readily visible. You need to publish all of this in a way that makes it readily accessible to the public.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Luckily there are digital marketing consultants who do this work for you. You might think that hiring a consultant is a luxury that you can afford, but I would argue otherwise. I think that working with a digital marketing specialist is a necessity for your business. Here’s why.
1. The Numbers Justify The Expense
As a business owner, you are very careful about managing your expenses to income ratio, so that you make a profit. You might try to do as many tasks as possible on your own. Because you “can” do your own marketing, you do. However, consider the fact that when you work with a marketing consultant, you can allow the numbers to justify the expense to you. Marketing consultants can say this confidently because if they are doing their job correctly the numbers will work in their favor.
2. Wise Business Owners Delegate
We saw that you can justify the expense of a marketing expert simply by examining your numbers objectively. This leads to the second reason for hiring a consultant, which is that if you try to do everything on your own, as a business owner, you will be working inefficiently. James Altucher, a successful entrepreneur, puts it this way: “I find that many entrepreneurs are trying to do everything when it would be cheaper and more time-efficient to delegate, even if there are monetary costs associated with that”.
The key to this statement, and why it is so helpful, is the word “cheaper”. You need to determine whether it is cost-effective to hire a marketing consultant, and in doing so you need to allow for the fact that it will cost money on one side of the equation (hiring the help) and will also lead to money on the other side (increased number of leads, sales, and clients). This equation as a whole is essential to understand, yet many people get hung up on the first side: the cost of hiring the help.
3. Marketing Strategies Have Changed Exponentially
Technology has advanced considerably over the last year. Those who don’t take advantage of available tech will fall behind at a much faster rate than years past, when the new tech was appearing at a slower rate. The Facebook advertising platform, for example, has seen significant changes in the second half of 2017. A savvy marketer can now target potential clients with extreme precision.
If you don’t know the techniques, some other photographer will be mining for the exact potential clients that you would like to be working for. Don’t let your competition get ahead while you stick with old strategies and tactics. A digital media consultant is an asset to your team because they know the tricks that will allow you to get to the potential clients faster and with a stronger message than your competitors.
4. Low-Risk High Reward
As a business owner, you must balance risk and reward. If you pay a consultant $1,000 a month to manage your marketing platform, you can watch your revenue carefully for the next three to six months. Within three months, you should evidence of your revenue going up. This increase should cover the cost of the consultant. It will also bring in revenue beyond the cost of the service so that your net profit jumps up.
If you don’t see those trends, you can stop working with the consultant. Some consultants even offer to help you meet certain benchmarks, and if you don’t, they won’t charge you for the consulting. Determine the risk by considering what you are putting on the line.
It is important to stay up to date with your marketing strategy. As a wise business owner, you must justify your expenses, and wisely manage your risk to reward ratios. Working with a consultant is a justifiable expense that makes sense from a risk-to-reward standpoint. But possibly the most important reason for hiring a consultant for your photography business is that when you do, you can spend more time doing what you love. When you do tasks you enjoy and are good at you can feel joyful, excited, passionate, and stress-free. In the end, that is worth even more than money in the business bank account.
