As a digital marketing consultant (DMC) at ACTIVE Network, I often get asked, “What does a digital marketing consultant do?” by people inside and out of the company. So I wanted to share a glimpse of my day-to-day to show what a digital marketing consultant actually does and why what I do is important for both ACTIVE and outside clients.
How does my day start? It starts with coffee. Strong coffee. To get from zero to work-mode in less than 10 minutes, a double espresso is needed. In the glamorous world of digital marketing, coffee is our lifeblood and caffeine is our muse.
After my espresso, I open my inbox to sort through any emails from clients or colleagues that need immediate attention, as well as those that just need a quick read-through. At any given moment, I have five to 10 clients on my radar that need services ranging from simply adding a Facebook pixel to their ACTIVE registration pages to performing a full troubleshoot of their Google accounts. Attention to detail is key.
Plus, because I work with a lot of domestic and international clients in Europe, Asia and all around the world, I try to be aware of different policies that may affect different regions. There are different data protection laws for different countries, so I am in contact with our internal analytics teams to ensure we keep everyone’s privacy in mind.
At this point you’re probably asking, “What does this guy do other than drink coffee and read emails?” A lot of things, actually, but it’s divided into three main components: digital analytics and tagging for clients, working within ACTIVE’s Digital Marketing Agency and SEO/quarterly benchmarking.
Let’s break that down and start with one simple question: What are analytics?
If a website makes up the engine and body of a car, the analytics are the gauges on the dashboard. Analytics is the data that provides up-to-date metrics that shows how visitors interact with a website, how many purchases were made (if you’re using e-commerce) and even how long people stay on a specific page on your domain. I set up analytics for clients to let them see how people are interacting with their websites to give them a glimpse of how to improve their user experiences.
But it doesn’t stop there.
On the digital marketing agency side, I aid the digital marketing services (DMS) team by creating Facebook pixels for our ad campaigns, placing them on needed ACTIVE or client website pages and troubleshooting to make sure they actually work. I’m also responsible for any issues that arise in the in-between.
But wait… There’s more!
Another main task of mine is performing a search engine optimization (SEO) audit for clients, as well as making quarterly benchmarking reports for their website’s performance, registration performance and suggestions on how to improve it all.
Each quarter, for those clients who need these services, I take the specially curated data that I have been monitoring for the last 6 to 12 months and build a dashboard for them to review their internal metrics (remember the car’s dashboard?). I then present it to them in an hour-long phone call every three months.
An SEO audit involves creating a custom campaign for a client that tracks their SERP ranking, keyword research, Page Speed and more. What does all that mean? SERP stands for search engine results page, i.e. Google, and a ranking is where the client’s website appears on the results page. Keyword research simply leads to what keywords brought organic searchers to the site while PageSpeed means how the user experience’s a website’s performance. After our meetings, clients understand how their website is performing regarding traffic, conversions, SERP ranking and other KPIs. They can then use this information to improve their website and hopefully increase revenue.
Back at it again with the car dashboard!
It’s true. I do love dashboards and data analytics. And coffee. Don’t forget the coffee. But I also love doing all these amazing tasks for clients because it’s SUPER important to know how your website is running. I often ask clients, “Do you know how many people visit your website? Do you know what experience they want? Do you know how long they stay once they visit?” And follow up with, “If not, I can help!”
Every day I get to help ACTIVE customers—from camps and races to parks and YMCAs—answer these questions. This is what a digital marketing consultant does between coffee runs. We make the lives of our ACTIVE clients easier by informing them, delivering curated suggestions and following through with any help we can provide. In the end, you should ultimately be asking, “What doesn’t a digital marketing consultant do?”
