Spending wisely and making the most of your Consultant

So now you're thrilled about doing some site analytics and improving your marketing online. You want to get the best tools and the best capabilities to make it work best for your business. Great! That will put you ahead of the game, but it will also cost you, financially. It all comes down to wise resource management. Say if you have a dedicated person or team, depending on the size of the company, who will be working on this, then what you need to do is minimize on the licences and upgrades, initially picking the minimum required or custom package to meet your needs and spend some on the technical support. Have your people learn as much as they can on their own in order to best utilize the consultants. Consultants could be a great source of information, but only if you use them wisely. So the bottom line is get your people as excited about site marketing as you are, have them go out there and read and learn as much about the background material as they can, then get them the licences to get their hands dirty, and then get them some tech support to make the most of that tool. Don't jump into buying the best top end suite of licences on the market, start with the more affordable one that will meet your needs and make the most of it. You will get more for your buck that way!

This brings me to maximizing your consultants. They have a lot on their schedule, they probably service a number of projects simultaneously, so the less you ask the happier they are. So what you need to do is ask, and ask a lot! But don't just throw questions at them, you'll annoy them. Go do that background research and learn to speak their language, guess who they'll be spending more time on now - you, rather than your competitiors.

So basically to sum this up. Get a good overview and feel of the product you're buying. Don't get carried away with the sales pitch and get the minimum for your needs to maximize your spending (you can always upgrade as you expand and select those upgrades intelligently with all of the acquired knowledge from using a cheapter tool). Then invest the money that you save on the basic necessities on your people to train them up to make the most of that tool, so that you will not be constantly relying on outside consultants. Knowledge is power, so make sure you do your background reading before working with a consultant to make the most of them and pick their brain more than the competition. And then enjoy the fuits of your labor.

If you can't have a dedicated person or team to do the site marketing for you. Then make sure you catch up on the topic to interview your consultant wisely. Learn their world and help them understand your company to make their time and your money most productive. Remember the more you ask the more you learn, but asking the right question is key, so do your homework.

Changing Careers?

If you're thinking about changing careers - good for you! There is only one life to live and lots of things out there to try. Well, of course if you believe in reincarnation, that's a whole different story, worrying about who you might come back as, but for me knowing I only have so much time, I have to make the most of it.

Changing careers is a challenging thing though, not for faint hearted, but an exciting experience. You go in, diving right into the deep, feeling like you've got the ground pulled from beneath you, no specific knowledge, experience or expertise to back you up or to make you a name. Once a go-to-person, now just a new person on the block. Humbling experience for sure. Starting out from a blank canvas, but with your mind and those soft and transferable skills with you. Those are essential and extremely valuable, since that's what's going to make you successfull in the new role. And that's probably what got you that job in the new field in the first place.

So here I am five and a half months into my brand new job and a brand new career, feel pretty settled in, humbling stage has passed, now filled with a certain sense of accomplishment, and still excited to learn. So my new job has to do the workings of the internet, site marketing, analytics, website optimization, and all the wonderful things that the online world has to offer to a savvy businessman or woman. Lots of things to learn, lots to talk about. I might be a career changer diving into this, but I'm along for the ride with people who are switching from traditional marketing to the new marketing...I wonder which switch is harder. I vote for the latter, since I'm luckily riding on those transferable skills, lots of analytics, technology, and data experience on my side.