Seek And Thee Shall Find.
Contents
Finding a decent Digital Marketing Consultant is a challenge.
Sure, you can go the expensive route and find an agency in Hong Kong, but in many cases, all you need is a freelancer to fix your website or launch a mini-campaign or other.
Of course, the easy and obvious approach is to hit up LinkedIn and search using keywords: “digital marketing expert” and you’ll likely get a couple of dozen replies. The issue will be that most of the LinkedIn suggested professionals will be in full-time employment.
What To Look For?
The short answer is to ask for evidence.
It’s simple to label yourself as an “expert” but how true is that?
Indeed, how do you even define an “expertise?” – is it because of a patent or a unique approach to the subject matter? Of course, it’s difficult to answer that but what’s more important is that the Internet Marketer has genuine “hands-on” experience.
Hong Kong lags behind with genuine digital marketing experts.
Sure, there’s a ton of people out there that can point towards genuine skills and “know-how” but you’ve got to have examples.
The Internet Does Not Lie
The beauty of this profession and getting clients is that you’re able to prove your previous work using examples that are still online. If you are unable to demonstrate examples (including sales funnels, automation, lead generation et al) then what basis can a hire decision be based upon?
An effective and successful Internet Marketing campaign can be shown and shared and explained to a potential client.
So, when looking to hire a Digital Marketing Expert the first thing to ask for is evidence to past campaigns that the prospect is able to explain.
What Question To Ask?
Ask how they’d conduct keyword research in Hong Kong?
From their answer, and the tools that they use, you’ll be able to get an understanding of what they’re all about.
Ask how much budget they’ve had to work with before.
A real Growth Hacker (read as ‘Hustler’) will know how to make HKD$1,000 go a long way. Again, there are a bunch of tools that a genuine experience Growth Hacker will use to generate results and their answer into this subject matter will be telling and will help you make a decision on whether you want to work with them.
Ask for an overview of how they propose to grow your brand.
No one is asking for a thesis or a Ph.D. in your industry or similar, but a solid Digital Marketing Consultant working either as a freelancer or for a Consultancy will be able to outline a bunch of battle-tested and battle-hardened growth hacks or digital marketing strategies that can be relied upon. If they resonate and sound like they could work for your brand then you might have found yourself a winner.
Ask how they will quantify their work?
ROI. That’s what it’s all about. If the marketing consultant is unable to give you an overview of how ROI can be demonstrated then an alarm bell ought to be going off. For example, when I secure a new client I set out a clear framework that can demonstrate the results that I have achieved over a set (and agree) period of time.
In Summary
Hiring a Digital Marketer in Hong Kong is tricky but it’s possible. Ask around, hit up LinkedIn, try Facebook, post a message on your site, attend meetup events or organize an event! There is a dime a dozen ways but when you do meet an interesting candidate it’s vital that you ask, in my opinion, the questions as listed above.
Good luck with your search and should you need assistance with Digital Marketing and Lead Generation here in Hong Kong then please be sure to contact me for further information.