One of the steps in business maturity is a recognition that outside help, such as a internet marketing consultant could help accelerate growth and profitability. Most consulting engagements are a huge success, but some do fail. Having seen things from both sides over a 25 year period, I have written this guide to getting things off to a good start with your internet marketing consultant.

Businesses need to hire a internet marketing consultant for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they face a situation where they need some advice that they don't have internally to grow. They may need advice from a key advisor in a specialist field such as data analysis. In cases like this, you should look for the consultant with the best, blue-chip experience that you can find. People in larger organizations are highly trained and they are exposed to extensive specialist techniques and knowledge. In other cases, there may be several marketing alternatives facing a business, and no clear agreement about which route is best. If this is your issue, then a consultant can take an objective view of the alternatives and then come up with a rational recommendation about which choice will deliver the best results. Make sure that the internet marketing consultant that you choose has enough consulting experience to do this type of work as it requires a lot of human skills as well as technical knowledge. The third main type of internet marketing consultancy engagement is where the business is facing a large project and does not have enough resource to manage and drive the project to completion. Your primary consideration in this type of project is to find advisors who have a strong track record in delivering projects like yours. This will usually equate to them being willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved at every stage.

An internet marketing consultant needs to have an unusual balance of skills. As well as the typical marketing flair, you should look for someone with a thorough technical understanding of web technology. If someone says they are not a 'techie', explore if this really means that they have no knowledge or just that they consider things from a business perspective. On the other hand you should beware of a technician with a little business knowledge. These people are usually focussed on finding the ideal technical solution, rather than something that works and gets results. They often operate by proposing a favorite solution and then finding a problem, rather than the other way around. If you are in doubt, look for someone else.

No matter what your reason for hiring a internet marketing consultant, there are some things that you should always look for:

1 The agency should be able to quickly understand your internet marketing problem and to begin to talk in terms of solutions.

2 Ask for practical examples of where they have solved similar issues.

3 Ask for a proposal and expect it to be delivered in 2-3 days.

4 In the proposal, how long does it take for the consultant to get working, and are you paying for this warm-up time?

5 Will you be working with the agency that you have been talking to or will a junior team take over?

6 Is the work broken into stages, with breaks at each stage? If you are not sure whether to proceed or not, ask for preliminary stage with an early review. That way, you can sample the work of your internet marketing advisors, and make sure that you are happy before you proceed to a full commitment.

You must stay in control of the engagement, so you will need regular reporting meetings with your key contact. Operate these meetings around a project plan to make sure that things stay on track and do not go over budget. Make sure that everyone is clear what you want at the end of the project and you will get your deliverables.

At the end of the day you also need to consider the working environment in your business as well. Are you and your staff working too hard and feeling the pressure? If this is the case then you need to design the internet marketing consultancy engagement so that this pressure becomes more bearable. After all there is no point in loosing a key member of staff just as you have found your ultimate internet marketing consultant.